Staying private, secure and free online: the tools, tactics and threats that actually matter.
'Chat Control,' the EU push to scan private messages for child-abuse material, comes in two versions. A voluntary one survived a July vote; a far-reaching mandatory one now returns for a decisive autumn negotiation. At its heart is a question with no easy answer: can you scan everyone's messages without breaking the encryption that protects them? Here is the honest state of play.
Flock Safety's license-plate readers scan billions of cars a month into one searchable database used by thousands of police departments. In 2026 it emerged that federal immigration agents were tapping it without a contract or, critics say, a warrant. Here is how the network works, and why cities are now revolting against it.
From 3 August 2026, Google began using the IP addresses of users in the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland to identify their devices for ad targeting and measurement. It is a quiet but significant reversal: the same company once said this kind of tracking was wrong precisely because, unlike a cookie, you cannot clear it. Here is what changed and what you can do.
Roughly half of US states and the UK now demand you prove your age, often with a government ID or a face scan, to reach legal content. Sign-ups for VPNs that sidestep the checks have surged. Here is what changed, why privacy experts are alarmed, and whether any of it actually works.
For a year and a half the British government has been trying to force its way into end-to-end-encrypted iCloud data. Apple is now challenging a second, quieter version of that order, and UK users have already lost their strongest protection in the process. Here is the honest state of the most important encryption fight in the world.
We ran the major providers as our only connection for six weeks and measured what actually matters: sustained speed, leak safety, and whether the no-log audits hold up. NordVPN won; Proton VPN is the value and privacy pick.
The single most useful security tool you can install costs nothing, and the best one is open-source. Here are the free password managers worth trusting, the paid ones you can skip, and the big name to avoid outright.
A VPN does two genuinely useful things and gets sold as if it does ten. Here is the honest version: what it really hides, why it does not make you anonymous, and the tracking it cannot touch.
We ran the major VPNs against Netflix, Disney+ and BBC iPlayer to see which actually unblock, hold 4K without buffering, and keep working when the streaming services fight back. NordVPN won overall; ExpressVPN is the most consistent unblocker.