Inside Higher Ed reports: In September, Emory University removed a dozen license plate-reading cameras from its campus in Atlanta and declined to renew its contract with Flock Safety, the company that sells and operates the automatic license plate readers and other mass-surveillance technology. For the coalition of Emory students and employees who had spent months pushing the university to "de-Flock," this was a victory... "We made it very clear that these cameras were unneeded surveillance considering we already have regular security cameras," [said Tony Torres, a sophomore biology major]... Through campus protests, petitions, meetings and teach-ins during the spring and summer, DeFlock Emory broadcast their concerns about the devices: Opaque data-sharing agreements could leave undocumented students vulnerable, the cameras could be hacked, institutions could use them to retaliate against student protesters and they could make students who fear being surveilled less likely go to class, see their friends or seek medical attention when they need it. Such concerns aren't unique to DeFlock Emory. College students across the country — including at Indiana University Bloomington, the University of Florida and the University of North Georgia — are mobilizing to de-Flock their campuses. And like Emory, other institutions are nixing their contracts. Cornell University announced last week it had not renewed its contract with Flock Safety and would be removing the cameras. Pennsylvania State University officials also announced earlier this month plans to end their contract with Flock. An Emory spokesperson told Inside Higher Edthat eliminating Flock's cameras "retains institutional control over our safety infrastructure." But the article also includes a quote from media/technology studies professor Torin Monahan at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He's spoken with campus police officers about how they're using Flock's cameras, and learned police departments have upgraded surveillance efforts in recent years. "They have an elaborate arsenal in place of high-tech surveillance equipment that really seems overpowered for what their day-to-day needs are, and also incredibly expensive."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Get caught up on the latest technology and startup news from the past week. Here are the most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Oct. 25, 2026.

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Most popular stories on GeekWire

Microsoft makes new ‘voluntary exit’ offer to about a quarter of its workforce, including some execs

Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and India, with no age or tenure requirement. The package is equivalent to the company’s standard severance, and Microsoft expects a much smaller share of employees to accept than took its spring retirement program. Read More … Read More

Washington governor rips Microsoft over TV ad in leaked audio

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson criticized Microsoft for funding a PAC whose TV ad, aired during Seahawks games, says “Olympia is broken.” Microsoft has given the group, Washington Needs to Compete, more than $5 million of the $13.8 million it has raised. Read More … Read More

Former GitHub CEO launches rival platform built for AI coding agents

Entire, the startup led by former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke, launched a platform for hosting and reviewing code that it’s pitching as an alternative to GitHub. The company says its Trails feature, which replaces the pull request, uses AI agents to score each code change so developers can merge without reading every line. Read More … Read More

Tech Moves: Former Amazon execs depart Warner Bros. Discovery; Amazon leader returns to Microsoft

Two former Amazon executives who helped build Discovery’s direct-to-consumer operation in Bellevue, Wash., are stepping down; an Amazon leader is returning to Microsoft to join its CoreAI effort; VertueLab names ED; and more personnel moves. Read More … Read More

Zillow agrees to pay $212.5M to settle investor lawsuit over failed home-flipping business

Zillow Group will pay $212.5 million to settle a shareholder class action alleging it misled investors about Zillow Offers, the home-flipping business it shut down in 2021. The deal, which needs court approval, comes three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Zillow’s challenge to the case’s class status. Read More … Read More

Tech Moves: Xbox COO’s sudden departure; SeekOut leadership shakeup; Fred Hutch names VP

Xbox COO Helen Chiang has suddenly left Microsoft after 21 years and just months in the new role; SeekOut has shaken up its leadership; Fred Hutch has named a vice president and other personnel moves. Read More … Read More

Amazon earnings preview: AWS is booked up, and Wall Street wants to know what comes next

Amazon reports third-quarter earnings Thursday with more demand for its AWS cloud services than it can supply, after CEO Andy Jassy said capacity is booked for this year and most of next. Analysts expect revenue of about $202 billion, up 12%, as investors look for signals about the company’s spending plans for 2027. Read More … Read More

Blue Origin leases former Bartell Drugs warehouse south of Seattle for new manufacturing site

The Jeff Bezos-founded space company’s Des Moines, Wash., facility could employ hundreds, joining Shield AI, which plans 4,000 regional jobs, in the small city’s growing aerospace scene. Read More … Read More

Nuclear power at sea: Seattle startup targets Norway for ships and floating power plants

Seattle startup Emerald Nuclear is leading a Norwegian project backed by a $2.1 million award to develop nuclear power for ships and offshore uses. The team is starting with a non-nuclear prototype, with its first commercial deployment targeted for 2031 and financing, fuel supplies and regulatory approvals still ahead. Read More … Read More

T-Mobile’s new ‘T-Mix’ plans let customers trade phone deals for Netflix, ESPN and other perks

T-Mobile’s new T-Mix plans give customers a set number of “Picks” to spend on perks such as Netflix, ESPN and Xbox Game Pass, or on a new phone, starting at $55 a month for one line. Customers can swap their perks every 90 days, but phones and extras draw from the same allowance. Read More … Read More

A research prototype turns GitHub requests into individual tasks, progressing through code changes and pull request creation. It manages request authorization and work history while executing under the operator's OS user privileges.

Key points

• What happened: DeepSeek's development team released a research prototype that takes GitHub requests through code changes and pull request creation.
• Authorization: It manages request allowlists and task scope, while inferred work defaults to observation and logging rather than automatic execution.

Read the full article on Joho no Todai · Japanese original

David and Stephen unpack Apple’s latest Macs and iPad mini, then compare the iPhone Duo’s everyday benefits and tradeoffs. Stephen buys a Mac mini live as they weigh cameras, apps, accessories, and getting real work done on a folding phone.

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Wispr Flow

Download audio: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/e/613/clrtpod.com/m/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/relaympu/mpu873.mp3

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Hector Serrano runs one of the most innovative and successful paid growth programs in Silicon Valley. As Head of Content at Wispr Flow, a leading AI voice-to-text tool, he built a roster of 50 creators who drive 500 to 600 paid user-generated content (UGC) ads every month. The creators are paid a cut of ad spend, and the best of them earn over $13,000 a month. It’s a playbook the best DTC brands have used for years, now adapted for SaaS. Hector joined Wispr Flow at 19, before the product had PMF, and over the past year, Wispr Flow has grown revenue 30x and raised at a $2 billion valuation.

We discuss:

1. Why paid UGC is one of the biggest untapped growth levers right now

2. The step-by-step playbook for building a successful paid-UGC program

3. Why the best marketers are “allergic to AI”

4. What makes a great modern marketing hire

5. Why YouTube is the most underrated growth lever in SaaS

—

Brought to you by:

WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more

DX—Engineering intelligence for the AI era

—

Where to find Hector Serrano:

• X: https://x.com/hectorserrranoo

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/hector-serrano-martin

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hectorchats

—

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

—

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Teaser

(01:17) What Hector does at Wispr Flow

(03:10) The number-one growth lever: product-market fit

(04:25) When to start investing in paid ads

(08:27) The paid-UGC strategy and how it developed

(13:44) How creator compensation works: percent of ad spend vs. GMV

(20:07) The profile of a great modern marketing hire

(25:03) The importance of young talent

(28:22) Hector’s journey from D1 soccer to Wispr Flow

(31:03) Step-by-step: How to build a paid-UGC group from zero

(43:03) Reaching out to creators

(45:37) Building culture inside your creator group

(48:31) The role of the media buyer alongside the creative lead

(50:05) Team size and structure

(53:44) Why UGC works even in technical and enterprise SaaS

(56:15) Advice for people embarking on the creator path

(59:50) Common mistakes to avoid

(01:02:21) The sports approach to hiring

(01:03:52) Why the best marketers are allergic to AI output

(01:08:07) Founder-led content

(01:16:01) Why YouTube packaging matters more than production quality

(01:20:06) Lightning round and final thoughts

—

Referenced:

• Wispr Flow: https://wisprflow.ai

• Tanay Kothari on X: https://x.com/tankots

• Matt Swulinski on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattswulinski

• Viktor: https://viktor.com

• Tobin Tang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobinwtang

• Polymarket: https://polymarket.us

• Trybe: https://jointrybe.com

• Lukas Pakter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukas-pakter-402117204

• SquidHaus: https://gohaus.com

• Daniel McCallum on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmccallum

• “Everyone wants a great head of content but you won’t find one” on X: https://x.com/hectorserrranoo/status/2109703739754037530

• Eric Zaworski on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-zaworski

• Jimmy Farley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-farley-349215296

• Physician’s Choice: https://physicianschoice.com

• Hector’s paid-UGC playbook on X: https://x.com/hectorserrranoo/status/2108260769603486100

• “The most successful founders, investors, or creators I’ve met...” on X: https://x.com/hectorserrranoo/status/2113109670491783661

• “Startups should recruit more like sports teams” on X: https://x.com/hectorserrranoo/status/2113676414973259782

• Real Madrid La Liga: https://www.laliga.com/en-GB/clubs/real-madrid

• “The best marketers are allergic to AI” on X: https://x.com/hectorserrranoo/status/2110432634451169699

• Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/netflix-cpto-on-ai-and-the-future

• Naval Ravikant on X: https://x.com/naval

• You Can See Everything: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt45368240

• Miso: https://miso.com

• Steve Jobs quote: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/steve_jobs_416875

—

Recommended books:

• The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1544514212

• Ego Is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1781257019

—

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

—

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com



Download audio: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/api.substack.com/feed/podcast/222540764/d0dc1ed1a4c542dd0d1b2678411ac202.mp3