"Age and wisdom don’t necessarily go together. Some people just become stupid with more authority."
- Sir Terry PratchettOnline Age Verification, the Trojan Horse for Digital Identity, Hits Resistance in France
Across the world countries are adopting policies that threaten to radically transform the Internet.
How many federal datasets have been terminated since January 2025?
Former federal data officials answer the question. “Since the 2025 change in presidential administrations, disappearing federal datasets have drawn widespread attention, generating both concern and confusion about what has actually been terminated. Different media outlets, academics, and nonprofits are reporting data losses ranging up to the thousands. Professional organizations are documenting cuts to federal staff, contracts, and advisory committees and raising concerns about the politicization of federal data.
Adding to the confusion, some datasets are being pulled down only to return later. Today, dataindex.us, the nation’s leading resource for monitoring changes to federal data, published the Federal Data Terminations Tracker—the most policy-relevant, verified source of federal datasets terminated since January 2025. Having evolved from the crowdsourced Dearly Departed Datasets published in October 2025, the tracker combines community reporting with expert identification and review to provide a regularly updated record of terminations.
“Data are the central nervous system of modern government,” said Denice Ross, former U.S. Chief Data Scientist, co-founder of dataindex.us, and Director of the Data Policy Institute at the Federation of American Scientists. “The termination of federal data – whether related to food security, drug abuse, or hate crimes – has far reaching impacts. Many of these terminations occurred behind closed doors and without opportunity for public input, so we’re bringing visibility to what’s been lost through a rigorous tracking process.”
The team identified dozens of federal datasets and hundreds of data elements that have been terminated – significantly fewer than other reports, but more tailored to informing effective public engagement and future data policies needed to run a modern society. These are data that have long underpinned policymaking, journalism, advocacy, and research that improve American lives and livelihoods.
“Disruptions to federal data are hard to monitor, yet they affect our nation’s ability to address issues ranging from climate risks, to maternal and infant health, to immigration enforcement,” said Christopher Dick, former Chief of Population Evaluation at the U.S. Census Bureau, former statistician at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and co-founder of dataindex.us. “We’re committed to publicly documenting what has changed and why it matters.”
- View the tracker at dataindex.us/terminations-tracker, and read more about the methodology and why quantifying data terminations is so challenging here.
Ordinary WiFi can now identify you with near-perfect accuracy
“Everyday WiFi networks could potentially identify and track people without cameras or special equipment, using signals already being transmitted by nearby devices. Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT):
“Ordinary WiFi networks could quietly become powerful surveillance tools, allowing people to be identified without cameras, special sensors, or even carrying a connected device. Researchers showed that unencrypted signals routinely exchanged between WiFi devices and routers can be used to create radio-based images of people and recognize them within seconds.
In tests involving 197 participants, the system identified individuals with nearly 100% accuracy, even from different angles and regardless of how they walked…The researchers say the findings reveal a potentially serious privacy risk because WiFi networks are already widespread in homes, offices, restaurants, and public spaces.
This technology turns every router into a potential means for surveillance,” warns Julian Todt from KASTEL. “If you regularly pass by a café that operates a WiFi network, you could be identified there without noticing it and be recognized later — for example by public authorities or companies.”…