TWiT 1071: Image Pickles - Are Social Platforms Addictive or Just Too Good?

45 snips

Feb 16, 2026

Guest

Thomas Germain

Thomas Germain, BBC technology correspondent, brings a UK media lens. Wesley Faulkner, founder focused on workplace/community projects, brings product and policy perspective. Stacey Higginbotham, tech journalist and consumer‑tech policy fellow, adds privacy expertise. They debate whether social platforms are engineered to be irresistible, dig into tracking and facial‑recognition risks, and unpack surveillance, regulation, and IoT security.

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INSIGHT

Tech Times Releases For Quiet Moments

Companies time controversial launches when public attention is elsewhere to minimize scrutiny.
Thomas calls Meta's memo about political tumult 'one of the most cynical things' he's seen.

INSIGHT

Doorbells Feed A Surveillance Marketplace

Doorbell and neighborhood camera tech create a surveillance marketplace that aggregates location and identity data.
That marketplace incentivizes deeper collection and resale of personal movement data.

ADVICE

Prefer Local Cameras And Limited Views

Prefer local-hosted cameras and limit field-of-view to your property to reduce cloud exposure.
If your camera streams only to a local server, you avoid many cloud-privacy risks.

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Is social media addictive by design or just irresistible entertainment? The panel tackles the lawsuit that's dragging tech giants onto the witness stand and how surveillance tech is quietly expanding while lawmakers and users scramble to catch up.

Jury told that Meta, Google 'engineered addiction' at landmark US trial
Instagram Chief Says Social Media Is Not 'Clinically Addictive' in Landmark Trial
Section 230 turns 30 as it faces its biggest tests yet
Meta apparently thinks we're too distracted to care about facial recognition and Ray-Bans
Amazon Ring's Super Bowl ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance
Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash
TikTok is tracking you, even if you don't use the app.
Discord backtracks on controversial age verification rollout...kind of
Discord/Twitch/Snapchat age verification bypass
The DJI Romo robovac had security so poor that this man remotely accessed thousands of them
HP's laptop subscriptions are a great deal — for HP
FTC Ratchets Up Microsoft Probe, Queries Rivals on Cloud, AI
T-Mobile announces its network is now full of AI by rolling out real-time translation
Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags
SpaceX Prioritizes Lunar 'Self-Growing City' Over Mars Project, Musk Says
Elon Musk declares victory with Medicaid data release
Waymo Is Getting DoorDashers to Close Doors on Self Driving Cars
Backblaze Drive Stats for 2025
$1.8 million MST3K Kickstarter brings in (almost) everyone from the old show
OpenAI Is Nuking Its 4o Model. China's ChatGPT Fans Aren't OK
Hideki Sato, designer of all Sega's consoles, has died
Byte magazine artist Robert Tinney, who illustrated the birth of PCs, dies at 78
Launching The Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Wesley Faulkner, Stacey Higginbotham, and Thomas Germain

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