Saturday, June 7, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Too much free speech on X – Major Swedish newspaper DN leaves platform

Published 19 November 2024
– By Editorial Staff
Peter Wolodarski and the iconic "DN skyscraper" in Stockholm.
2 minute read

Under Elon Musk’s ownership, censorship on X (formerly Twitter) has been greatly reduced and the entrepreneur himself states that freedom of expression is very important to him.

Not everyone is happy about this development, however, and Peter Wolodarski, editor-in-chief of the Bonnier-owned newspaper DN (Dagens Nyheter), has announced that DN is boycotting the platform.

– Since Elon Musk took over, the platform has increasingly merged with his own and Donald Trump’s political ambitions, while the climate on X has become more harsh and extreme. Therefore, for the time being, we will not publish anything there from our official accounts, he told his own magazine.

While arbitrary censorship for political reasons used to be commonplace on Twitter, users are now relatively free to write what they really think about the often biased reporting of DN and other establishment media without much risk of banning or suspension – and this is not at all popular with media executives.

I think X is a lost platform, says Aftonbladet’s editorial director Karin Schmidt, explaining that they left X already in 2023.

Unlike X, I think it is so important that we are on Tiktok, where we can be a counterflow to fake news, she continues.

“Musk – a free speech fundamentalist”

The editor-in-chief of Swedish online magazine Kvartal, Jörgen Huitfeldt, agrees that there is sometimes a “rude and unpleasant” climate of conversation on X, but he has no plans to leave the platform.

– After all, many people are there, not least those who share journalistic content. It’s a way for us to reach out really, it’s that simple.

– Musk is a free speech fundamentalist, and I find it hard to believe that he will start censoring people in the same way he did under the Jack Dorsey regime, he continues.

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Opt-in childhood

What we signed them up for before they could object.

Published today 7:48
– By Naomi Brockwell
6 minute read

A few weeks ago, we published an article about oversharing on social media, and how posting photos, milestones, and personal details can quietly build a digital footprint for your child that follows them for life.

But social media isn’t the only culprit.

Today, I want to talk about the devices we give our kids: the toys that talk, the tablets that teach, the monitors that watch while they sleep.

These aren’t just tools of convenience or connection. Often, they’re Trojan horses, collecting and transmitting data in ways most parents never realize.

We think we’re protecting our kids.
But in many cases, we’re signing them up for surveillance systems they can’t understand, and wouldn’t consent to if they could.

How much do you know about the toys your child is playing with?

What data are they collecting?
With whom are they sharing it?
How safely are they storing it to protect against hackers?

Take VTech, for example — a hugely popular toy company, marketed as safe, educational, and kid-friendly.

In 2015, VTech was hacked. The breach wasn’t small:

  • 6.3 million children’s profiles were exposed, along with nearly 5 million parent accounts
  • The stolen data included birthdays, home addresses, chat logs, voice recordings… even photos children had taken on their tablets

Terms no child can understand—but every parent accepts

It’s not just hackers we should be mindful of — often, these companies are allowed to do almost anything they want with the data they collect, including selling it to third parties.

When you hand your child a toy that connects to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, you might be agreeing to terms that say:

  • Their speech can be used for targeted advertising
  • Their conversations may be retained indefinitely
  • The company can change the terms at any time, without notice

And most parents will never know.

“Safe” Devices With Open Doors

What about things like baby monitors and nanny cams?

Years ago, we did a deep dive into home cameras, and almost all popular models were built without end-to-end encryption. That means the companies that make them can access your video feed.
How much do you know about that company?
How well do you trust every employee who might be able to access that feed?

But it’s not just insiders you should worry about.
Many of these kiddy cams are notoriously easy to hack. The internet is full of real-world examples of strangers breaking into monitors, watching, and even speaking to infants.

There are even publicly available tools that scan the internet and map thousands of unsecured camera feeds, sortable by country, type, and brand.
If your monitor isn’t properly secured, it’s not just vulnerable — it’s visible.

Mozilla, through its Privacy Not Included campaign, audited dozens of smart home devices and baby monitors. They assessed whether products had basic security features like encryption, secure logins, and clear data-use policies. The verdict? Even many top-selling monitors had zero safeguards in place.

These are the products we’re told are protecting our kids.

Apps that glitch, and let you track other people’s kids

A T-Mobile child-tracking app recently glitched.
A mother refreshed the screen—expecting to see her kids’ location.
Instead, she saw a stranger’s child. Then another. Then another.

Each refresh revealed a new kid in real time.

The app was broken, but the consequences weren’t abstract.
That’s dozens of children’s locations broadcast to the wrong person.
The feature that was supposed to provide control did the opposite.

Schools are part of the problem, too

Your child’s school likely collects and stores sensitive data—without strong protections or meaningful consent.

  • In Virginia, thousands of student records were accidentally made public
  • In Seattle, a mental health survey led to deeply personal data being stored in unsecured systems

And it’s not just accidents.

A 2015 study investigated “K–12 data broker” marketplaces that trade in everything from ethnicity and affluence to personality traits and reproductive health status.
Some companies offer data on children as young as two.
Others admit they’ve sold lists of 14- and 15-year-old girls for “family planning services.”

Surveillance disguised as protection

Let’s be clear: the internet is a minefield, filled with ways children can be tracked, profiled, or preyed upon. Protecting them is more important than ever.

One category of tools that’s exploded in popularity is the parental control app—software that lets you see everything happening on your child’s device:
The messages they send. The photos they take. The websites they visit.

The intention might be good. But the execution is often disastrous.

Most of these apps are not end-to-end encrypted, meaning:

  • Faceless companies gain full access to your child’s messages, photos, and GPS
  • They operate in stealth mode, functionally indistinguishable from spyware
  • And they rarely protect that data with strong security

Again, how much do you know about these companies?
And even if you trust them, how well are they protecting this data from everyone else?

The “KidSecurity” app left 300 million records exposed, including real-time child locations and fragments of parent credit cards.
The “mSpy” app leaked private messages and movement histories in multiple breaches.

When you install one of these apps, you’re not just gaining access to your child’s world.
So is the company that built it… and everyone they fail to protect it from.

What these breaches really teach us

Here’s the takeaway from all these hacks and security failures:

Tech fails.

We don’t expect it to be perfect.
But when the stakes are this high — when we’re talking about the private lives of our children — we should be mindful of a few things:

1) Maybe companies shouldn’t be collecting so much information if they can’t properly protect it.
2) Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to hand that information over in the first place.

When the data involves our kids, the margin for error disappears.

Your old phone might still be spying

Finally, let’s talk about hand-me-downs.

When kids get their first phone, it’s often filled with tracking, sharing, and background data collection from years of use. What you’re really passing on may be a lifetime of surveillance baked into the settings.

  • App permissions often remain intact
  • Advertising IDs stay tied to previous behavior
  • Pre-installed tracking software may still be active

The moment it connects to Wi-Fi, that “starter phone” might begin broadcasting location data and device identifiers — linked to both your past and your child’s present.

Don’t opt them in by default: 8 ways to push back

So how do we protect children in the digital age?

You don’t need to abandon technology. But you do need to understand what it’s doing, and make conscious choices about how much of your child’s life you expose.

Here are 8 tips:

1: Stop oversharing
Data brokers don’t wait for your kid to grow up. They’re already building the file.
Reconsider publicly posting their photos, location, and milestones. You’re building a permanent, searchable, biometric record of your child—without their consent.
If you want to share with friends or family, do it privately through tools like Signal stories or Ente photo sharing.

2: Avoid spyware
Sometimes the best way to protect your child is to foster a relationship of trust, and educate them about the dangers.
If monitoring is essential, use self-hosted tools. Don’t give third parties backend access to your child’s life.

3: Teach consent
Make digital consent a part of your parenting. Help your child understand their identity—and that it belongs to them.

4: Use aliases and VoIP numbers
Don’t link their real identity across platforms. Compartmentalization is protection.

5: Audit tech
Reset hand-me-down devices. Remove unnecessary apps. Disable default permissions.

6: Limit permissions
If an app asks for mic or camera access and doesn’t need it—deny it. Always audit.

7: Set boundaries with family
Ask relatives not to post about your child. You’re not overreacting—you’re defending someone who can’t yet opt in or out.

8: Ask hard questions
Ask your school how data is collected, stored, and shared. Push back on invasive platforms. Speak up when things don’t feel right.

Let Them Write Their Own Story

We’re not saying throw out your devices.
We’re saying understand what they really do.

This isn’t about fear. It’s about safety. It’s about giving your child the freedom to grow up and explore ideas without every version of themselves being permanently archived, and without being boxed in by a digital record they never chose to create.

Our job is to protect that freedom.
To give them the chance to write their own story.

Privacy is protection.
It’s autonomy.
It’s dignity.

And in a world where data compounds, links, and lives forever, every choice you make today shapes the freedom your child has tomorrow.

 

Yours in privacy,
Naomi

Naomi Brockwell is a privacy advocacy and professional speaker, MC, interviewer, producer, podcaster, specialising in blockchain, cryptocurrency and economics. She runs the NBTV channel on Youtube.

Strängnäs poised to become Northern Europe’s AI capital

The future of AI

Published yesterday 13:29
– By Editorial Staff
The cathedral in Strängnäs will soon have competition from a giant AI center.
3 minute read

Strängnäs, a municipality in Sweden, is preparing for one of the largest investments in its history. Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) plans to build one of Europe’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the city.

The data center, which will be built on an area of approximately 350,000 square meters, will have a capacity of 750 megawatts – more than twice as large as previously planned. The project is expected to create over 1,000 permanent jobs and approximately 2,000 jobs during the construction phase.

The investment amounts to approximately SEK 95 billion (€8.7 billion) and is expected to take 10–15 years.

Strängnäs has all the conditions to become the location of Northern Europe’s first AI center. We can offer an excellent geographical location, we have a high level of education and good cooperation with the municipalities in the Mälardalen region, says Jacob Högfeldt (M), chairman of the municipal council in Strängnäs, to Datacenter-Forum.

Brookfield‘s European CEO, Sikander Rashid, highlights the importance of investing in AI infrastructure on a large scale.

– To be competitive in AI development and realize its economic productivity, it is important to invest at scale in the infrastructure that underpins this technology. This extends beyond data centers and into data transmission, chip storage and energy production.

Strängnäs part of a broader strategy

The investment in Strängnäs is part of Brookfield’s broader strategy to invest around €20 billion in AI infrastructure in Europe, which also includes plans for large data centers in France and other countries.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has expressed his support for the investment on social media, emphasizing Sweden’s long tradition of strong companies.

Translation of above tweet: “Sweden has a long tradition of innovation and strong companies. AI is an incredible force that will enable Sweden to remain at the forefront. That is why the government is now developing a comprehensive AI strategy – and why we appointed the AI Commission. We are now seeing results.

I welcome the announcement today by the Canadian company Brookfield that it plans to invest up to SEK 95 billion in a new AI center in Strängnäs. It will be one of the largest data centers of its kind in Europe. It is also one of the largest investments in AI infrastructure to date in our country. I am particularly pleased that it is in my hometown.

We have a fantastic tech scene, and the latest investments from companies such as Brookfield, Nvidia, and Microsoft are clear proof of that.”

Sweden has competitive advantages that make the country attractive for large data center investments, including a relatively stable energy supply, high digital maturity, and proximity to academic hubs such as KTH and Uppsala University.

In addition, EU data protection regulations require sensitive data to be stored within the Union’s borders, which increases demand for local data centers.

The investment in the AI center could make Strängnäs a central node in Europe’s AI ecosystem and help strengthen Sweden’s role in the global AI race.

Swedish prisoners may soon be sent to Estonia

organized crime

Published 5 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Sweden will pay €8,500 per prison place per month - around €3,000 less than the cost of a Swedish place.
2 minute read

The Swedish government has reached an agreement with Estonia to rent prison places in the city of Tartu, with the aim of relieving pressure on the heavily burdened Swedish prison system.

– The entire prison will be placed at Sweden’s disposal, confirmed Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) during a press conference.

The prison in question has capacity for 600 inmates and is expected to be operational in spring 2026, provided that the Riksdag approves the agreement and the necessary legislative changes are implemented. The agreement is scheduled to be signed this summer.

The prison in Tartu has 400 rooms, corresponds to a Swedish security class 2 facility, and is intended for male inmates over the age of 18 who are not considered to pose a high security risk.

The Prison and Probation Service will make individual assessments in each case to determine which inmates are suitable to serve their sentences in Estonia.

– The intention is that the Prison and Probation Service will assess the suitability of each individual case for serving their prison sentence in Estonia, Strömmer continues.

Swedish conditions will apply

For the agreement to enter into force, it must be approved by a three-quarters majority in the Riksdag. The government wants broad political support on this issue.

– We will invite all parties in the Riksdag to a briefing and discussion on the agreement, said the Minister of Justice.

Although Estonian law applies on site, Sweden and Estonia have agreed on exceptions to ensure that the conditions for inmates correspond as closely as possible to those in Sweden. This applies, for example, to rules on contact with the outside world, where legislation differs between the two countries.

– An overall conclusion is that there are very many similarities. This also reflects the fact that we basically have a common view on how the prison and probation service should be run, says Gunnar Strömmer.

8,500 euros per month

Henrik Vinge (SD), chair of the Committee on Justice, emphasizes that it will not make any significant difference to criminals whether they are imprisoned in Sweden or Estonia.

– The rooms will be of a similar standard and have similar equipment to living quarters in Swedish prisons.

Swedish prison staff will also be on site in Tartu to ensure that the agreement is implemented as intended.

The cost per inmate is €8,500 per month, which is significantly lower than the average cost in Sweden, which is around €11,500. However, this price does not include the cost of leave, which will be carried out in Sweden.

Swedish prime minister linked to adoptions of kidnapped children

Published 4 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Ulf Kristersson is accused of ignoring - or silencing - alerts about human trafficking and widespread corruption linked to international adoptions.
3 minute read

International adoptions have long been marred by scandal. A government inquiry has confirmed serious abuse and legal uncertainty, and several left-wing activists are accusing Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of personal responsibility for ignoring warnings about child trafficking and corruption.

The Nordic TImes recently reported that government investigator Anna Singer is proposing a total ban on international adoptions to Sweden. The proposal comes after a government inquiry found that the practice has been marred by widespread abuses for a long time.

Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson Grönvall has also acknowledged that it is clear that “children and parents have suffered and been harmed for decades within the framework of international adoption”. The conclusion is that the system has neither been able to protect children nor functioned in a legally secure manner.

Kristersson is also being criticized for his role in a system that allowed the adoption of children from Asia – children who in many cases are suspected of having been kidnapped from their families before being brought to the West. This has been highlighted by Fria Tider, among others.

Adoptions from China doubled

Ulf Kristersson was chairman of Adoptionscentrum (AC) between 2003 and 2005 – a period when the number of adoptions from China to Sweden doubled. Almost all children adopted from China came from similar backgrounds: they were reported to have been found abandoned on the street, with no known names or identities.

More than 20 years ago, Dagens Nyheter reported that Chinese children were being bought from hospitals and then sold on, including to Swedish adoptive families. According to DN’s investigation, this was happening on an organized scale.

The Adoptionscentrum’s then information officer, Margret Josefsson, has stated that this information was also passed on to Kristersson – without any action being taken.

Accusations of a cover-up

Adopted Korean race activist and Expo founder Tobias Hübinette writes in DN Debatt that Kristersson was warned on several occasions about suspected human trafficking from China and Chile – but chose to silence the information.

Adoptionscentrum assured adoptive parents who had already adopted Chinese children, as well as prospective parents who were in the process of adopting from China, that the adoptions were above board”.

During Kristersson’s chairmanship, international adoption peaked worldwide with around 40,000 adoptions to some 20 Western countries per year, mainly due to adoptions from China. However, as early as the 2000s, journalists and authorities in China revealed that international adoptions had degenerated into child trafficking, and Kristersson was aware of this, but nevertheless chose to allow AC (Adoptionscentrum) to double the number of adoptions from China to Sweden, and he himself has adopted three children from China”, he previously wrote on his blog.

Kristersson has also been accused of obstructing a government investigation into corruption in international adoptions. Among other things, the investigation wanted to limit aid and private “gifts” which, according to reports, were used as bribes in the countries of origin.

“Will he be held accountable?”

Left-wing activist and former Expo editor Lisa Bjurwald has also criticized Kristersson. In an editorial in VLT, she writes:

Despite the alarms about stolen children, Ulf Kristersson allowed the trafficking of foreign children to not only continue but increase to its highest levels ever“.

What exactly did he know – and will he be held accountable?” she asks.

Bjurwald points out that it is difficult to determine exactly how much Kristersson knew about the suspected human trafficking and illegal adoptions. However, she believes it is clear that the adoptions during this period were not always carried out in an ethically defensible manner, and that it was not ensured that each child was actually in need of a new family.

It is not only the adopted men and women who need answers, but the entire Swedish people. Every dirty aspect of international adoptions must be brought to light”, she concludes.

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