This week’s Surveillance Report has a genuinely rare headline: Apple’s security actually worked. The FBI tried to crack a journalist’s iPhone 13 and hit a wall because Lockdown Mode was enabled. That’s the whole point of Lockdown Mode—reduce attack surface by disabling certain features and convenience perks, specifically for people facing “extremely rare and highly sophisticated” threats. I don’t think everyone needs it (it’s often overkill), but it’s ridiculously easy to test: Settings → Privacy & Security → Lockdown Mode, soft reboot, and you’re done. If something you rely on breaks, you can turn it off just as fast—nothing permanent. The same case also shows the limits of security when biometrics enter the picture. The journalist’s MacBook was unlocked with a fingerprint, and once it was opened, investigators could access data (including Signal messages). That’s why I keep reminding people: in many places, you can be compelled to unlock with Face ID/Touch ID, which doesn’t get the same legal protections as a passcode. I also cover Apple’s new “Limit Precise Location” cellular feature (promising, but currently absurdly restricted), plus the accelerating age-verification wave in Austria, Spain, and Greece, the messy Chat Control 1.0 extension fight, and Microsoft finally backing away from Recall as AI fatigue hits a breaking point.