Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories from the intersection of technology and politics.

Trump seeks to renew snooping powers after correspondents’ dinner incident

In an interview with Fox News, President Donald Trump on Sunday used the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ dinner to call yet again for a renewal of a controversial surveillance program that permits the government to spy on foreigners without a warrant — and potentially to collect private information about Americans, as well. 

Trump has sparked bipartisan backlash in recent weeks with a push to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. And he used the WHCD incident to argue in favor of sweeping surveillance powers. 

Watch a clip below:

Trump’s media company taps new CEO

Trump Media and Technology Group, the company in which the president remains a major stakeholder, replaced CEO Devin Nunes with a business associate tied to the president’s sons. 

Read my blog on new CEO Kevin McGurn here. 

Google employees send open letter

Hundreds of Google employees sent an open letter to CEO Sundar Pichai urging him to refuse to make the company’s artificial intelligence tools available to the Department of Defense for use in classified settings. 

Read more at CBS News. 

Maryland moves against surveillance pricing 

Gov. Wes Moore signed a law making Maryland the first state to ban surveillance prices for groceries, a corporate tactic that uses consumer data to determine how much to charge specific customers for a product. But some consumer advocates are worried the new law contains loopholes.

Read more in Common Dreams. 

Betting on Maduro

A U.S. special forces soldier who was involved in the raid to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro pleaded not guilty to allegations of using classified information to bet online on Maduro’s ouster.

Read more on CNN. 

CISA nominee steps back

Sean Plankey, whose nomination to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has been languishing in the Senate over the last year, pulled his nomination last week. 

Read more at CyberScoop. 

Trump’s crypto schmoozing

On Saturday, Trump took time to address a ritzy gala for top investors in his eponymous — and faltering — meme coin. 

Read my blog on the gala and the president’s cryptocurrency grift here.  

Taylor Swift moves to mark her voice

Taylor Swift filed trademark applications seeking legal protections for her voice in an apparent bid to thwart AI deepfakes. 

Read more at The Independent.

SCOTUS geofence case

The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case involving the constitutionality of geofence warrants, which allow authorities to retrieve data from cellphone providers to find out who was in a certain vicinity at a certain time. My colleague Jordan Rubin covered it for the “Deadline: Legal” blog.

Read his post on MS NOW.

The post Trump uses correspondents’ dinner to push controversial spy powers appeared first on MS NOW.