Week in the Privacy News 11/2026

Good Monday, friends of privacy!

In the recent wave of people trying to change the tools and apps they are using to opt for more privacy-focused options, we think it is good to help and navigate a bit where to look. Lots of people are now cancelling their ChatGPT subscriptions and are on the lookout for alternative, so we think it's good time to take a look at Qwen.

Open-source LLM where you don't need to create an account. So take a look!

Tool of the week

• Qwen - open-source LLM as an alternative to ChatGPT

Insights

• Qwen 3.5 Series GPTQ-Int4 updates
• The new EF Public Grant Explorer is live
• Instagram quietly drops end-to-end encrypted chats
• Signal and WhatsApp accounts of govt. officials targeted by Russian hackers
• Ethereum Foundation board has released an EF Mandate

Knowledge

• Take a look at EFF's Five inspirational women in Tech
• Why giving credit is important by Privacy Guides
• Hacker broke into FBI and compromised Epstein files
• The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back
• Moltbook has been aquired by Meta

Inspiration: Going On(Line) an offering of media from the web

• Take a look at winners of Privacy Awards 2025
• Naomi Brockwell video on Surveillance
• Check out the W3PN Academy Shorts
• Take our new Academy Course - ZK for not tech, done in collaboration with Oskarth
• Web3 Privacy Now courses in our Academy

Inspiration: Going Off(Line) an offering of IRL events

*(new/changes in **bold**)*

• Mar 30 - Apr 10 - Farcaster Agentic Bootcamp
• Apr 15–16 - Paris Blockchain Week - Paris, France
• May 5-8 - RightsCon Zambia
• May 8-10 - ETHPrague Prague, Czech Republic
• May 13-14 - ETHCluj Cluj-Napoca, Romania
• Jun 16-17 - Dapcon 26 Berlin, Germany
• Jun 18-19 - Web3 Summit Berlin, Germany
• Jul 8-12 - DWebCamp Berlin, Germany
• Nov 2 - Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress #3 Mumbai, India