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This Just In

An illustration in green, blue and white tones that depicts a medical appointment webpage with fill-out boxes, including a "enviar" button, surrounded by several pixels.

How TikTok and Google ended up with information about doctor’s appointments around the world

Doctoralia sent information about specialists and appointment dates to social media companies.

Protect yourself: This is how you stop data trackers from sucking up your health data

X-ray a website: Blacklight

Defense tech has unleashed a new weapons boom in Southern California

An analysis of defense contracts charts the rise of defense spending — often in heavily Democratic districts

A group of students lying in the grass near a sidewalk, looking at a cellphone while a man runs past them.

California is leading on kids’ data privacy in the U.S. but still lags internationally.

A close-up view of a person holding a white cell phone with both their hands. A ray of light softly illuminates the person's left hand.

Background checks to curb dating app violence advance in California legislature

Bill addresses an issue investigated by The Markup last year.

Original Investigation: Dating App Cover-Up: How Tinder, Hinge, and Their Corporate Owner Keep Rape Under Wraps

Following Markup investigation, Congress finds data brokers cost consumers tens of billions of dollars

A congressional investigation estimates broker breaches have cost consumers $20 billion in identity theft. Major brokers now promise to make it easier to opt out of their databases.

A person in a dark coat and light blue tie speaks at a wooden podium outdoors, smiling slightly as a microphone stands in front of them, with the pale yellow facade and white railing of a government building blurred in the background.

Mamdani to kill the NYC AI chatbot we caught telling businesses to break the law

New York mayor says terminating the ‘unusable’ bot will help close a budget gap

Original Investigation: NYC’s AI Chatbot Tells Businesses to Break the Law

A roadside device mounted on a small trailer sits on the shoulder beside a two-lane road as a blurred van drives past, with utility poles, trees, and rocky hills in the background under a clear sky.

He saw an abandoned trailer. Then, he uncovered a surveillance network on California's border

Southern California residents are noticing new license plate readers that appear to be operated by the Border Patrol. Some have had confusing encounters with agents.

A dancing group poses in sync, their arms arched, standing in formation on a stage in a dark dance studio. In the background is a black backdrop with LED lights hanging on metal railing rigs.

Generative AI is eating culture. See how close it’s getting to disrupting dance

Dancers say their craft can’t be duplicated by AI. Our tests show they’re right — for now.

Show your work: How we tested and evaluated AI-generated dance videos

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Pink-tinted photograph of a dancing group posing in sync, their arms arched, standing in formation on a stage in a dark dance studio; the background is a black backdrop with LED lights hanging on metal railing rigs

How we tested and evaluated AI-generated dance videos

None of the videos produced by the leading AI platforms showed the actual dances we requested.

Illustration of a woman on her laptop, set against a background of a browser window; the image is heavily manipulated to be pixelated in a bitmap style

This is how you stop data trackers from sucking up your health data

The Markup and CalMatters found multiple ways consumers can block the trackers quietly sending your data to tech companies, including those used on state-run health exchange websites.