The Wire - July 28, 2025

//The Wire//2300Z July 28, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: DATA PRIVACY PRACTICES REMAIN GLOBAL CONCERN. PROTESTS CONTINUE IN U.K. AMID CRACKDOWN ON SPEECH.//

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-International Events-

United Kingdom: Concerns regarding internet censorship have grown following the rollout of the Online Safety Act a few days ago. This Act went into law, and in less than 24 hours was followed up by the creation of a new government Task Force who's sole mission is to police dissent on social media regarding immigration issues. The National Internet Intelligence Investigations division within the National Police Coordination Centre has been tasked with identifying anti-immigrant sentiment throughout Britain.

This law has also been used to directly censor footage of demonstrations outside migrant centers, which took place in Leeds, Bournemouth, and Norwich over the weekend.

-HomeFront-

Nevada: This afternoon a shooting was reported at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno. Local authorities state that the assailant shot several people in the valet area of the casino. Two people were killed and several others were wounded as a result of the shooting, and the assailant is in custody. No further details regarding the attacker have been released by authorities.

Michigan: A mass stabbing was reported at a Walmart in Traverse City, which resulted in 11x people being wounded during the attack. Bradford James Gille was arrested on terrorism charges after attacking random shoppers at the store, before being taken down by bystanders.

Analyst Comment: So far there isn't a clear motive for this attack, though locals claim that the assailant had a history of mental illness.

USA: Delta Airlines is facing backlash following the implementation of a new AI-driven dynamic pricing model. This model will take into account all of the data processed by data brokers regarding a person's life, and determine what price a person will pay for a plane ticket.

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Analyst Comments: Delta's new AI pricing model is more or less Delta's attempt to apply their Dynamic Pricing Models to individual users...not just everyone who needs to buy a ticket at the last minute. Airlines have become infamous for utilizing dynamic pricing models over the years (even using AI to drive these models), however the sharp change here is that Delta is looking to apply these models to individual users based on their digital advertising ID.

This AI pricing model will allegedly scan not just the internet, but a person's entire digital fingerprint (which is sold by almost all vendors and companies). The example touted by many critical of this plan regarding how this pricing model might work is for a person's digital advertising fingerprint to be analyzed by Delta's data brokers, to figure out that a family member has passed away in a far-away state, and that this person needs to fly to the funeral. The AI model will use this data to charge that person more for their ticket, since it's a pressing family emergency. Other examples include people who need to fly for medical treatment, who are identified by their health insurance company selling their personal data. This is because a person who needs to travel for an emergency reason is likely to pay a higher price for a "right now" plane ticket, than someone just shopping around and making vacation plans.

This idea is not new by any means; Various companies (not just airlines) have played around with this idea for a few years; Amazon drew flak over trying to do something similar a few years ago, and the Walmart and Kroger grocery store chains have faced backlash over doing the same thing (with facial recognition cameras) in their stores earlier this year. As such, data security remains a critical vulnerability that continues to grow more serious with each passing month, as the goalposts of privacy expectations continue to be moved inch by inch.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
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