Good Monday, friends of privacy!

This week, we explore AI safety and its real-world harms, predictive policing, Android VPN leaks, cypherpunk resistance, Zcash governance and stronger wallet security.

Tool of the Week: Tor VPN Beta — an Android privacy app that routes selected apps through separate Tor circuits, helping hide your IP address and bypass censorship.

Tool of the week

• Check out Tor VPN Beta

Insights

• Tor VPN Beta: What we've learned building our own VPN for Android from scratch
• Mullvad warns of a new Android VPN leak as GrapheneOS develops a fix
• US political leaders resist calls for urgent AI regulation despite mounting safety warnings
• Secretive DHS unit uses Americans’ financial habits to identify people for police stops
• A Cypherpunk Guide for the Age of Lying Flat by Mashbean
• ChatGPT reinforced a user’s delusions after he disclosed concerns about his mental state

Knowledge

• Max Desalle shares his perspective on the future of Zcash development and funding
• Josh Swihart responds to Max Desalle’s arguments about Zcash
• Timnit Gebru argues that AI extinction narratives distract from harms happening today
• Asterisk considers what human relationships could become in a world after work
• Ledger introduces passphrases as an advanced layer of wallet security

Inspiration: Going On(Line) an offering of media from the web

• Get the book The Politics of Privacy: Autonomy and Power in the Digital Age
• Barnabe Monnot from EthLabs and Apriori on Ethereum & the case for Fast Slots
• Check the State of Decentralised Privacy report
• The Digital Independence They Don't Want You To Have by Naomi Brockwell
• Web3 Privacy Now courses in our Academy

Inspiration: Going Off(Line) an offering of IRL events

(new/changes in bold)

• Sep 13–15 - ETHTaipei - Taipei, Taiwan
• Sep 15–16 - European Blockchain Convention - Barcelona, Spain
• Sep 18 - Web3Privacy Now Meetup - Tokyo - Tokyo, Japan
• Sep 19–27 - ETHTokyo - Tokyo, Japan
• Oct 27 - Web3Privacy Now x MozFest Meetup - Barcelona - Barcelona, Spain
• Oxt 28-30 - MozFest - Mozilla Festival - Barcelona, Spain
• Nov 2 - Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress #3 - Mumbai, India
• Nov 3-6 - Devcon Mumbai - Mumbai, India