You're tuned in to Tech Beat. Here's what's moving in technology today.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has been quietly subscribing to a global flight database containing more than a billion airline tickets, using it to monitor traveler activity — likely without obtaining a warrant. It raises serious questions about how financial regulators are expanding their surveillance reach well beyond traditional market oversight, and whether that crosses constitutional lines.
Shifting to a story about children's safety online, security researchers from Wired demonstrated how they could track and eavesdrop on a reporter using vulnerabilities hidden inside a GPS-enabled smartwatch marketed to kids. The device looked harmless — pink plastic, cheerful design — but it was a window into a much deeper problem with the insecure supply chain behind connected gadgets aimed at families.
And finally, a diplomatic quirk with a tech twist: Tokyo has formally asked Washington to stop using Mario, Pokémon, and Naruto in government social media posts without permission. It turns out meme-heavy statecraft and Japan's strict intellectual property norms are a genuinely uncomfortable pairing, and the tension is now official enough to require a diplomatic conversation.
Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
