California's fire protection agency made an AI chatbot. It can’t answer one crucial question
The bot fails at some basic questions about fires. Cal Fire says it is working on fixes.
The Markup challenges technology to serve the public good.
Our journalism is actionable and drives real-world impact. Explore our investigations, tools, and blueprints to see how.
This Just In
Kids are making deepfakes of each other, and laws aren’t keeping up
Schools and lawmakers are grappling with how to address a new form of peer-on-peer image-based sexual abuse that disproportionately targets girls.
California colleges spend millions to catch plagiarism and AI. Is the faulty tech worth it?
Colleges and universities renew Turnitin subscriptions year after year even though its flawed detectors are expensive and require students to let the company keep their papers forever.
Investigations
Our investigations use data-driven journalism and our own engineering expertise to reveal the hidden impacts of how tech is used.
California police are illegally sharing license plate data with ICE and Border Patrol
LAPD and the counties of San Diego, Orange, and Riverside have repeatedly shared automated license plate reader data to federal agencies
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The NYC Algorithm Deciding Which Families Are Under Watch for Child Abuse
How a family’s neighborhood, age, and mental health might get their case a deeper look
Blueprints
We publish our datasets, methodologies, story recipes, and processes so communities, journalists, and researchers can check our work and build on our reporting.
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.
Related links:
Related: How California sent residents’ personal health data to LinkedIn
Related: We caught 4 more states sharing personal health data with Big Tech
How Do I Prepare My Phone for a Protest? (Updated 2024)
Simple steps to take before hitting the streets
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Related: Car Tracking Can Enable Domestic Abuse. Turning It Off Is Easier Said Than Done
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Impact
Our journalism has driven real-world change—from changes in government policy to the removal of tracking technology.
House lawmakers demand answers from California health exchange on sending data to LinkedIn
The lawmakers cite a Markup and CalMatters investigation that first revealed Covered California’s data practices in April.
Related links:
Original investigation: How California sent residents’ personal health data to LinkedIn
We followed up: We caught 4 more states sharing personal health data with Big Tech
House bill targets loopholes that let car insurance companies charge more in Black neighborhoods
Bill reintroduction follows investigation by The Markup and Outlier Media that found insurers target Black neighborhoods for high rates
Related links:
Original Investigation: Michigan’s “Fair and Reasonable” Reforms Allowed Car Insurers to Charge More in Black Neighborhoods
After Markup investigation, LinkedIn and Google face lawsuit alleging improper access to health data
The suit accuses the companies of receiving personal information through California’s state health insurance exchange.
Related links:
Original Investigation: How California sent residents’ personal health data to LinkedIn
Tools
Our tools hold institutions accountable for the way they use technology, pulling back the curtain so readers can see for themselves how technology affects them.
Here’s Every Local Police Agency Enforcing for ICE
Partnerships more than doubled during the first months of Trump's current term under a program known as 287(g)
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Launching Blacklight Query, a Tool to Scan Websites for Privacy at Scale
Inspect batches of websites for user-tracking tech with our new open-source command-line tool
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Related: Announcing Three New Features for the Blacklight Privacy Inspector
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