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It’s more obvious than ever why recording encounters with federal agents matters: without bystander videos, it would be much harder to disprove the governments Orwellian lies about how Alex Pretti was killed last Saturday. But there are also risks when you pull out your phone to take a video at a protest or if you see an ICE agent abducting, say, a 5-year-old child. Heres what to know about how to protect your technology and yourself. The First Amendment gives you a right to record It’s really important to start with the fact that individuals have a First Amendment right to record police officers and law enforcement, says Maria Villegas Bravo, counsel at the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center. If you’re lawfully allowed to be somewhere, you are legally allowed to record law enforcement in the course of their duty. Some ICE agents seem to have missed that in their training. A recent video from Maine shows an agent telling a legal observer that now she’s considered a “domestic terrorist” for filming him. Then he took a photo of her license plate and told her that she would be added to a database. Federal agents have targeted people taking photos at protests, including a professional photographer who was tackled and pepper-sprayed and tossed his camera to another photographer to save it. Everyone has to judge the risks for themselves, but the more people who record, the harder it is for authorities to erase what actually happened. Minneapolis, January 11, 2026. [Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images] Consider leaving your phone at home Your phone is obviously filled with data about younot just all of your photos and messages and apps, but location data for everywhere you’ve been. Google, for example, “can track you really granularly,” says Villegas Bravo. “Their location tracking can get you within three meters and it can also pinpoint what floor of a building that you’re on.” If you’re arrested and your phone is confiscated, law enforcement needs a warrant before it can legally look at the contents. But after there’s a warrant, forensic extraction technology can make a complete copy of your phone’s contents, Villegas Bravo says. Then agents can search through it, either manually or with AI. If you’re going to a protest, consider leaving your phone at home (leave your smartwatch and other digital devices at home, too). “You can’t have data extracted from a phone that you don’t have on you,” says Bill Budington, a senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Bringing a secondary device, one that can capture footage in high quality, for instance, is a good suggestion.” Consider bringing a burner phone to take video. An old-school digital camera with no internet connection could also be an option. (In theory, you could quickly pop an SD card out of a camera if you think the camera’s about to be taken away.) There are trade-offs with different choices: a camera doesn’t give you the option to upload a video after taking it, and the videos and photos can’t be encrypted like they could be on a phone. Burner phones can also have trade-offs, since you probably won’t have a new model with the best security and updates. “There’s an arms race of forensic extraction devices versus the Apples and device manufacturers in the world that are trying to protect against [extraction],” Budington says, and the newest phones have the most protection. But you should have little data on a burner to steal. To avoid being targeted for filming, some observers are using less obvious technology, like smart glasses or very tiny cameras. One downside: they’re often expensive. The data isn’t always secure; small cameras may have an SD card and lack encryption. Some smart glasses and cameras can stream to a phone in your pocket, so the video will be as secure as the phone is. Make your phone more secure Of course, you might not have the chance to plan in advance if you suddenly need to document something happening in your neighborhood. Or you may decide to take the risk of bringing it to a demonstration. In either case, it’s possible to take steps to make your phone more secure. First, change your settings so that your phone can’t be unlocked with biometrics like your fingerprint or facial recognition. Right now, courts have said that law enforcement can force you to unlock your phone this way. Traditional passcodes have more protection. Keep your phone locked. You can access your camera without unlocking the phone; on an iPhone, for example, just swipe left from the home screen. You can also temporarily change the settings on your phone so it’s only possible to access one app. (On an iPhone, this is called guided access; on Android devices, you can turn on “app pinning” in your settings.) Make sure that your phone is encrypted. On an iPhone, check under the settings for Face ID and password to make sure that it says data protection is enabled. On Android phones, look under security settings for encryption and encrypt your phone. Android phones also have the option to add the Graphene operating system, which is designed to make the devices more secure. To stop your phone from tracking you, turn off location services and keep it in airplane mode. And when you text friends about anything sensitive, it’s better to use an app like Signal with end-to-end encryption. Minneapolis, January 13, 2026. [Photo: Octavio Jones/AFP/Getty Images] Sharing videos When you share videos, consider the privacy of others. Immigration nonprofits don’t recommend livestreaming immigrants’ encounters with ICE. If you upload a video after a protest, the best practice is to blur out the faces of fellow protesters. Law enforcement agencies sometimes use facial recognition on images to arrest protesters after the fact. The ACLU previously offered an app called Mobile Justice that automatically uploaded videos of encounters with law enforcement in real time, but took the app down last year, citing that it wanted to “ensure compliance with a growing number of consumer privacy laws and the ACLUs own privacy policies.” While it’s possible to upload a video to store it in the cloud yourself while you’re at an eventas a backup in case your phone is confiscated or damaged in a scuffleit may be difficult if there’s a crowd and limited bandwidth. The best option may be to make your phone as secure as possible. Despite the challenges, it’s critical to get the footage. “This is a really dangerous time,” says Villegas Bravo. “And I think it’s really important to continue recording law enforcement and creating this chain of evidence to keep the government transparent and accountable.”
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E-Commerce
French lawmakers approved a bill banning social media for children under 15, paving the way for the measure to enter into force at the start of the next school year in September, as the idea of setting a minimum age for use of the platforms gains momentum across Europe.The bill, which also bans the use of mobile phones in high schools, was adopted by a 130-21 vote late Monday. French President Emmanuel Macron has requested that the legislation be fast-tracked and it will now be discussed by the Senate in the coming weeks.“Banning social media for those under 15: this is what scientists recommend, and this is what the French people are overwhelmingly calling for,” Macron said after the vote. “Because our children’s brains are not for sale neither to American platforms nor to Chinese networks. Because their dreams must not be dictated by algorithms.”The issue is one of the very few in a divided National Assembly to attract such broad support, despite critics from the hard left denouncing provisions of the bill as infringement on civil liberties. Weakened domestically since his decision to dissolve parliament plunged France into a prolonged political crisis, Macron has strongly supported the ban, which could become one of the final major measures adopted under his leadership before he leaves office next year.The French government had previously passed a law banning phone use in all primary and middle schools.The vote in the assembly came just days after the British government said it will consider banning young teenagers from social media as it tightens laws designed to protect children from harmful content and excessive screen time.The French bill has been devised to be compliant with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which imposes a set of strict requirements designed to keep internet users safe online. In November, European lawmakers called for action at EU level to protect minors online, including a bloc-wide minimum age of 16 and bans on the most harmful practices.According to France’s health watchdog, one in two teenagers spends between two and five hours a day on a smartphone. In a report published in December, it said that some 90% of children aged between 12 and 17 use smartphones daily to access the internet, with 58% of them using their devices for social networks.The report highlighted a range of harmful effects stemming from the use of social networks, including reduced self-esteem and increased exposure to content associated with risky behaviors such as self-harm, drug use and suicide. Several families in France have sued TikTok over teen suicides they say are linked to harmful content.The French ban won’t cover online encyclopedias, educational or scientific directories, or platforms for the development and sharing of open-source software.In Australia, social media companies have revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children since the country banned use of the platforms by those under 16, officials said. The law provoked fraught debates in Australia about technology use, privacy, child safety and mental health and has prompted other countries to consider similar measures. Samuel Petrequin, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Nike isnt the only household corporate name to announce significant layoffs this week. Just a day after the sporting goods giant announced layoffs, citing a further embrace of automation, social media giant Pinterest has announced it will cut jobs. The driving factor here? Artificial intelligence. Heres what you need to know about the Pinterest layoffs. Whats happened? On Tuesday, the image-sharing social media platform Pinterest announced it plans to lay off around 15% of its workforce. The company made the announcement in a Form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In that filing, Pinterest said that its board of directors had approved a global restructuring plan for the company. As part of that plan, Pinterest will pare its workforce back by less than 15%. In addition, the company will also reduce its office space. When reached for comment, Pinterest told Fast Company that it had around 5,200 employees as of December 2025. A 15% reduction then would result in approximately 780 jobs being lost. The company says the restructuring charges resulting from its plans will cost the company between $35 million and $45 million. Pinterest said that its restructuring plan is expected to be completed by the end of its third quarter, which finishes on September 30. It is unknown whether the layoffs will take place immediately or be spread over the period from now until September. Why is Pinterest cutting jobs? When reached for comment, a Pinterest spokesperson told Fast Company that it was making organizational changes to further deliver on our AI-forward strategy, which includes hiring AI-proficient talent. As a result, weve made the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our team members. In its Form 8-K, the company elaborated on the AI shift that is occurring with the layoffs, stating that it plans to reallocate resources to AI-focused roles and teams that drive AI adoption and execution while prioritizing AIpowered products and capabilities. While Pinterest boasts 600 million monthly active users, that number is well below the billions its main competitor, Meta, has across Facebook and Instagram, as well as TikTok. Users now use all four platforms for shopping to some degree, making them all attractive to advertisers. However, while Facebook and TikTok wasted no time embracing AI to improve their user experience and the tools and technologies powering their ad business, Pinterest has been slower to adopt AI. Yet that began to change significantly last year with the rollout of its AI chatbot, Pinterest Assistant, which lets users get personalized style and shopping recommendations. With todays announcements, Pinterest is clearly signaling that it plans to accelerate its AI adoption going forward. How has Pinterests stock price reacted? Pinterest, Inc. shares (NYSE: PINS) are currently down heavily in early-morning trading. As of the time of this writing, PINS shares have fallen over 8.5% since the market opened, to $23.68. Todays fall means PINS stock is now negative around 8.2% for the year so far. Over the past 12 months, Pinterest shares have fallen by over 29%. In its Q3 2025 earnings report in November, Pinterest reported 17% year-over-year earnings growth of just over $1 billion.
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E-Commerce
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