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Green Bay Packers slot corner Javon Bullard could be poised for a breakout 2026 season.

Retailers have always been secretive about the security measures used in stores, because if you tell the bad guys how you’re fighting them, they can plan to evade those measures. “Retailers commit an incredible amount of resources to keep stores safe for employees and customers. But combating the growing problem of organized retail crime has been tremendously challenging, particularly as criminals become more brazen and sophisticated in their operations and exploit online marketplaces to sell stolen goods,” Retail Communities Foundation Lisa LaBruno told the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA).Retail theft is real, and it’s something stores have struggled with. Still, preventing theft in your store is entirely different than handing data to law enforcement that leads to people getting arrested for crimes not committed there.What are Lowe’s and Home Depot doing?Both Home Depot and Lowe’s have been using something called Flock Safety at select stores.”Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader system captures vehicle data at retailers in Ohio and shares it with law enforcement for various purposes, including theft investigations and immigration enforcement. Flock’s AI-powered cameras scan and log license plate numbers, vehicle make, model, color, and physical markers, creating a searchable database accessible to law enforcement agencies,” according to Gadget Review.Home Depot and Lowe’s share data from hundreds of Flock cameras with police, according to 404 Media’s investigation.More Retail:60-year-old retailer closes over 240 locations across 35 statesRetail giant exits U.S. fashion after multi-million-dollar scandal79-year-old fast-fashion retailer closes 128 storesCivil rights groups have expressed deep concerns over the technology.”Our biggest concerns lie with government use, but we are also deeply worried about unregulated and unfettered access by government and law enforcement to data first obtained via non-government sources,” the ACLU of Ohio’s legislative director told The American Prospect.Flock has pushed backFlock itself does not sell data. That, however, is kind of a technicality because its customers can.“One hundred per cent of data, which is the photo of the public license plate, is owned by our customers,” Flock’s Public Relations Manager Kerry McCormack told The Guardian. “So, you own that data. It is never sold. We don’t have that in our model. It is written into your contract. We do not sell data.”Much of the controversy has been around data being shared with ICE to aid immigration enforcement.“We’re not limiting their access essentially to searches… associated [with] their case,” replied Patrick Krieg of the Dunwoody, Georgia, police. “Say that the agency has a representative who is assigned to a unit that is associated with said ICE, would they be able to search our database? Most likely.”In a website post in January, Flock said it did not work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or any other sub-agency of the Department of Homeland Security, noting that it had concluded pilot programs with federal agencies in August.

Lowe’s and Home Depot parking lots have become part of the political debate over immigration enforcement. Shutterstock

Flock’s technology has been used in controversial waysNot every use of Flock’s technology has been controversial because it relates to the politically hot-button topic of immigration. As of April, police officers had used Flock and other ALPR cameras in 16 instances to “keep tabs on their [own] romantic interests, including current partners, exes, and even strangers who unwittingly caught their eye in public,” the Institute for Justice reported. Last year, Texas cops used Flock to search 83,000 cameras nationwide, including in states where abortion is legal, hunting for a woman they said had performed a self-administered abortion, 404 Media reported.In another instance, the same news outlet found that Flock’s sales workers ran a pitch by accessing the company’s cameras in an Atlanta suburb, including “in a children’s gymnastics room, a playground, a school, a Jewish community center, and a pool.”The concern is not limited to law enforcement. Privacy advocates generally argue that any organization that collects large amounts of location or surveillance data — whether a retailer, a technology company, or a government agency — creates the possibility that someone with authorized access could use that information in ways that were never intended.I’ve seen a version of that dynamic play out before. In the late 1990s, a technology employee at a company where I worked improperly used internal access to learn that his girlfriend was cheating on him. He was fired, but the incident underscored a broader point: When people have access to sensitive information, misuse is always a risk.Home Depot and Lowe’s have downplayed concernsHome Depot shareholders voted down a shareholder proposal to produce a report on Flock’s use, after board members recommended voting against it, according to Biz Journals.Lowe’s has also faced pressure over using the technology.”In an April 1 letter addressed to CEO Marvin Ellison and other Lowe’s executives, which was viewed by Fast Company, 38 organizations including Fight for the Future, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Federation of Teachers, and more, demanded the company drop its contract with Flock,” Fast Company reported.The letter states that the country is “at a serious inflection point” where “repercussions of mass surveillance have life-altering consequences for the life and liberty of everyday people.” It continued, “Time and again, we’ve seen how automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras have exposed individuals to danger and persecution, whether they be protesters, legal observers, those seeking reproductive and gender-affirming care, or communities of color who are frequently profiled and harassed.”The groups assert that Lowe’s has a responsibility to act in the best interest of the greater public, and that the partnership with Flock aligns the company with “brutal immigration” policies and “authoritarian rule.”Lowe’s, at the time of the Fast Company article’s publication, had not responded.Related: Costco quietly makes a key credit card change

Migrations to Chainlink CCIP so far include Kelp and Lombard, both of which brought over $1 billion, as well as Solv Protocol, Virtuals, Re and Kraken’s tokenized assets.

Two companies announced on Thursday that the heart disease drug they had been developing failed its Phase III trial.

Nordstrom, which is celebrating its 125th year in business, is planning bold moves with this year’s iconic Nordstrom Anniversary sale.

Katy Perry’s new single “Watch It Burn” misses many important Billboard charts, but it does earn the singer a new Adult Pop Airplay list win.

A stable job and a nice home have become less accessible to young Americans. Many are taking new paths to pursue their dreams.

If you have ever caught yourself doom scrolling on Instagram or Facebook for hours on end and felt bad, don’t; the technology is working exactly how it was intended to. Everything from the length and style of the Reels to the algorithms’ encyclopedic knowledge of your likes and dislikes is designed to keep you on the social media platforms.The addictive features of social media have been the topic of intense study for years. In 2019, scientists published a study, showing that the addictive nature of smartphones and the apps on them has numerous detrimental mental effects, with links to anxiety disorder and depression.Those issues have been found to be even more acute in children and teenagers. While most might assume that personal responsibility is the only way to break the cycle and reclaim one’s mental health, at least four states are suing Meta Platforms (META), claiming that the company is making its number one product addictive on purpose, to the detriment of public health. Four states sue Meta for a combined $1.4 trillionMeta Platforms, the parent company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is facing penalties of up to $1.4 trillion stemming from lawsuits brought by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey on behalf of their citizens. This week, Meta submitted a court filing responding to the state attorneys general’s filings on how penalties should be calculated should the states win the trial. “A sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement,” Meta said in the filing, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, in a statement to Reuters, Meta says that “the plaintiffs’ outlandish calculations have no basis in fact or law.”Meta’s entire market capitalization is about $1.4 trillion. While the state’s filings are sealed ahead of an August trial date in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the attorneys general have said that they are calculating penalties by multiplying the number of violations by fine amounts set by state law.Last month, the court fully denied an attempt by Meta to obtain a summary judgment that would have terminated the lawsuit, which alleges that Meta “designed and deployed harmful features on its platforms that addict children and teens to their severe mental and physical detriment, all while misleading the public regarding the existence and severity of these risks.”Meta has also been sued by another 29 states, with most of them alleging that the company violated the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting data from children without proper parental consent. The August trial will address all claims brought under that law, plus the four states alleging that the company violated their state laws as well, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Meta has denied the allegations and says that the states have no evidence that it misled consumers about its platforms’ alleged addictiveness because “social media addiction” is not an established psychiatric condition.

Oscar Wong / Getty Images

Meta isn’t the only social media company being suedSince the pandemic, TikTok has surpassed Instagram and Facebook in popularity among young people, and that platform is seemingly just as addictive as Meta’s. Recently, TikTok settled with a Florida teen who sued the company over the social media platform’s addictive nature, which he claimed harmed his mental health. The 15-year-old boy accused TikTok, along with Meta, YouTube and Snapchat of designing their platforms to be addictive through features like infinite scroll and autoplay. “He’s still a kid. He is still in high school and evaluating the impact that social media has had on his very young life,” Emily Jeffcott, his attorney, told NBC News. “I think that should really be a lens that’s worth paying attention to.”YouTube also settled with him, leaving Meta and Snap as the only two defendants left to face the jury in a trial expected to start July 27 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Related: Meta just picked a fight with Amazon’s cash cow

Your day-ahead look for July 9, 2026

HSBC, UBS, Wells Fargo and Citi are among the 17 banks now preparing to pilot live transactions using tokenized digital assets on Swift’s new blockchain payments platform.