Caroline Haskins

How Big Tech Is Powering Trump’s Immigration Crackdown A WIRED analysis shows that ICE and CBP have collectively spent at least $515 million on products from Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Palantir in the last few years alone.

NEW: Since Jan 2023, ICE + CBP together have spent at least $515 million on products from Palantir, Microsoft, Amazon, & Google.

But where is the money actually going, & what specifically is it powering? Here, I break down everything we know about both of these things:
www.wired.com/story/how-bi...

I know this happens sometimes when a journalist puts their contact info in a story about a company, and then some AI search tool gets confused and tells someone it’s the company’s customer service line. But this person seemingly did not use Google? Which I think is usually how this happens

Lol so I just got 2 calls from a number that’s exactly 1 digit off from mine, so I assumed someone was trying to use their laptop to find their cellphone but dialed the number wrong

I pick up…… ends up it was a person (who self-described as elderly) trying to contact Amazon customer service 😭

I love when people are like “not surprised….who is surprised by this….” like ok! wasn’t telling you that you had to be surprised! but the fact that this is a news story means that it is new information!!!!

maybe now that all the attention is on SAM, it'll have a huge glow-up and I'll never complain about it again. but for now, I think I and all the other stans of FPDS (there are dozens of us!!!!) deserve the right to mourn/complain lol

also, FPDS displayed much more info on search result pages compared to SAM, where you have to zoom out a ton just to get more than 1 search result. and this is just my opinion, but imo there's a directness to FPDS's interface that makes applying filters more intuitive compared to SAM

FPDS now redirects to sam.gov, which I love for data about federal contract *opportunities* (pre-solicitations, information requests, etc.) but as @josephcox.bsky.social pointed out, FPDS would display data about newly-signed contracts earlier than it'd appear on SAM
www.404media.co/behind-the-b...

for those who may not know.... fpds.gov was just decommissioned :( it's been a retro-looking but extremely reliable tool for surfacing + sorting through data about federal contracts. im mostly irritated at the whole thing, but tbh I'm also a little sad lol

Kalshi Suspended a California Politician and a YouTuber for Insider Trading Leading prediction market Kalshi has revealed details of two recent insider trading cases it flagged to authorities, giving a rare look at how the platform enforces its policies.

NEW: Kalshi announces details into two insider trading investigations. WIRED confirms that one suspended account belongs to California congressional candidate Kyle Langford: www.wired.com/story/kalshi...

1) "nice to e-meet you" sounds like a fun little joke someone made, and this person was well-liked : ) so their friends started borrowing it and so on
2) nothing is preventing anyone from saying "nice to meet you!" in an email..... no context is lost!!! we all know where we are!!!!

pre-covid I remember seeing a few tweets a year that would be like "I hate the phrase "nice to e-meet you!!!! it's annoying and means nothing/makes no sense!!!!" then someone would argue like, "well what do you say then!!!!"....never understood what was going on there!

‘Pew Pew’: The Chinese Companies Marketing Anti-Drone Weapons on TikTok On TikTok, Chinese manufacturers are advertising signal-blocking weapons with the breezy cadence of consumer lifestyle advertising.

just had my debut Made in China guest appearance!! : ) got to collab with @lmatsakis.bsky.social on this piece about the Chinese companies selling anti-drone tech on TikTok, featuring the opening line "PEW, PEW, PEW!"
www.wired.com/story/pew-pe...

How to Organize Safely in the Age of Surveillance From threat modeling to encrypted collaboration apps, we’ve collected experts’ tips and tools for safely and effectively building a group—even while being targeted and tracked by the powerful.

I don’t think I’ve ever had so many people writing to me to ask about encrypted/secure/private tools for comms, collaboration, and organizing. So @lhn.bsky.social and I talked to experts and assembled this: the Wired guide to organizing in an age of surveillance. www.wired.com/story/how-to...

it's come to my attention that I've been misspelling "frutiger aero" as "fruitiger aero"for the entire time I've been aware of the term

#yaga

in hindsight like lol but at the time I was so high-stress that I honestly did not recover til like week 2 lmao

Just remembered my 1st day at BuzzFeed News (rip) in 2019 when I was so excited to share my new work email! Then I tweeted in a rush, accidentally shared my old Vice email instead, didn’t realize for about an hour, & in that time every single person I had ever met replied to correct me❤️❤️❤️❤️ lol

A Wave of Unexplained Bot Traffic Is Sweeping the Web From small publishers to US federal agencies, websites are reporting unusual spikes in automated traffic linked to IP addresses in Lanzhou, China.

Here's your mystery of the week:

A blog about a small island off the coast of Canada, personal portfolio websites, weather forecast platforms, Shopify sites, and the US federal gov—a wide range of websites have reported being hit by a massive influx of bots tied to China and Singapore since 2025.

Even in Siminoff’s absence, Ring had always, explicitly been intended to assist law enforcement. In a series of investigations we did back at VICE (mostly written by Caroline Haskins, who is still covering surveillance at WIRED), we uncovered thousands of pages of documents, emails, and chats via public records requests and leaks that highlighted Ring’s surveillance ambitions. The company threw parties for police, employees wore “FUCK CRIME” shirts to internal parties, and helped police facilitate the retrieval of footage from its customers’ cameras if they initially refused to cooperate. It helped police set up elaborate, completely useless package “sting” operations designed to catch criminals but that did not result in any arrests. Ring gave cops devices that they could raffle off to people in their towns, gave police “heat maps” of where its customers lived, used its social media accounts to post footage of supposed suspicious people, and incentivized customers to create “Digital Neighborhood Watch” groups that could earn them swag if they used their Ring cameras to report suspicious activity to police.

For a while, Ring tried to rebrand as the "watch the delivery driver dance" gadget, but its founder is obsessed with crime, threw parties for cops, and its employees wore "FUCK CRIME" shirts to parties

ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next ICE plans to lease offices throughout the US as part of a secret, months-long expansion campaign. WIRED is publishing dozens of these locations.

NEW: ICE is leasing offices throughout the US as part of a secret, months-long expansion campaign. WIRED is publishing dozens of these locations.

nice

appreciate finally getting to learn why jason was looking for a listener specifically from the town of Ottumwa, Iowa on the 404 pod the other week lmao

Loved coming on for this episode!! :) despite the subject matter lol

Ring: Your Doorbell Is Watching | What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future The Shark Tank reject now partners with more than 600 police departments around the country.

Here is a show I made in 2019 (!) with @carolinehaskins.bsky.social on Ring’s budding surveillance empire shows.acast.com/whatnext-tbd...

How Ring Transmits Fear to American Suburbs Why do we surveil ourselves?

Back in 2019, @carolinehaskins.bsky.social wrote a killer series on Ring. Worth revisiting. www.vice.com/en/article/h...

HHS Is Using AI Tools From Palantir to Target ‘DEI’ and ‘Gender Ideology’ in Grants Since March of 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services has been using tools from Palantir and the startup Credal AI to weed out perceived alignment with “DEI” or “gender ideology.”

SCOOP: Palantir's AI has been deployed at HHS since last March to audit grants, grant applications, & job descriptions for anything related to "DEI" or "gender ideology"

The goal was to ensure compliance with 2 of Trump's executive orders:
www.wired.com/story/hhs-is...

The Tech Elites in the Epstein Files The Department of Justice has released more than 3 million documents and photos related to Jeffrey Epstein. Here’s who shows up from Big Tech the most often—and what the files reveal.

I have read entirely too many Epstein files at this point, but here is what's in there about the tech billionaires (and how often each of them shows up):

I Escaped Chinese Mafia Crypto Slavery | Hacklab | WIRED YouTube video by WIRED

For months, an Indian computer engineer trapped in a pig-butchering scam compound in Laos was secretly messaging @agreenberg.bsky.social and leaking him materials. This mini documentary is the incredible story of how he exposed the Chinese organized crime groups and, more importantly, escaped.

Epstein Files Reveal Peter Thiel's Elaborate Dietary Restrictions The latest batch of Jeffrey Epstein files shed light on the convicted sex offender’s ties to Silicon Valley—and Peter Thiel’s exacting approach to food.

wanna see the elaborate list of dietary restrictions Peter Thiel’s assistant sent to Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant ahead of a scheduled meeting in 2016?

we have u covered:
www.wired.com/story/epstei...