The IRS has announced it will soon require people to use facial recognition technology to access parts of the agency’s website, and taxpayers are getting serious jitters.

Ngô Minh Hiếu was once a fearsome hacker who spent 7 1/2 years incarcerated in the U.S. for running an online store that sold the personal information of about 200 million Americans. Since leaving prison, Hiếu has become a so-called white hat hacker, attempting to protect the world from the sorts of cybercriminals he once was.

Addictive “brain hijacking” methods used by social media giants to keep users on their platforms have harmful effects, particularly on children, according to industry insider Rex Lee, who says the companies may be violating child protection laws and consumer protection laws by employing such techniques.

Lee, who has over 35 years of experience in the tech and telecom industry, recently testified before Congress, speaking to members about some of the deceptive practices used by social media networks—in particular, “brain hijacking.”

Facebook is not just any corporation. It reached trillion-dollar status in a single decade by applying the logic of what I call surveillance capitalism — an economic system built on the secret extraction and manipulation of human data — to its vision of connecting the entire world. Facebook and other leading surveillance capitalist corporations now control information flows and communication infrastructures across the world.

After lobbying to kill consumer privacy rules at the federal level, big telecom is now taking aim at individual state efforts to protect your privacy online.

Last June, Maine passed a new law intended to protect broadband user privacy. The law demands ISPs clearly disclose what data is collected and who it’s sold to, requiring that users opt in to the sale of sensitive location or financial data. The law also bans ISPs from charging you extra if you want your privacy protected, a practice AT&T engaged in for years.