Privacy: AI, ransomware, sasaeng risk

U.S. privacy and cyber agencies are treating ransomware, identity theft and stalking-style tracking as linked harms, with more enforcement and more ways for victims to report abuse. (ftc.gov) Ransomware is malicious software that locks files or systems until a payment is made, and the Department of Health and Human Services said in 2025 that it remained a primary threat to electronic health information. Its Office for Civil Rights said a September 2025 settlement was its 12th ransomware enforcement action and its eighth under a broader risk-analysis initiative. (hhs.gov) The Federal Trade Commission said in its February 2026 report to Congress that it uses its unfair-or-deceptive-practices authority, data-security cases and consumer-protection work against ransomware and related cyberattacks. The agency’s legal library says those cases can include privacy violations, identity theft and fraud. (ftc.gov 1) (ftc.gov 2) Federal agencies are also pushing monitoring and reporting, not only punishment after the fact. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s StopRansomware program publishes current alerts and a response checklist, while the Federal Trade Commission routes identity-theft victims to IdentityTheft.gov for reports, recovery steps and sample letters. (cisa.gov 1) (cisa.gov 2) (ftc.gov) That same enforcement logic reaches offline harms created by online data collection. The Federal Trade Commission’s September 19, 2024 staff report said major social media and video-streaming companies engaged in “vast surveillance” of users, including teens, through broad collection and sharing of personal data. (ftc.gov) In fan culture, “sasaeng” usually refers to obsessive stalking or invasive tracking of celebrities, often using location leaks, travel details or other personal information. The Justice Department’s anti-stalking report to Congress said stalking increasingly uses digital tools, and SPARC says stalking is a crime in every U.S. jurisdiction. (justice.gov) (stalkingawareness.org) The complaint side matters because agencies rely on incoming reports to spot patterns. The Federal Trade Commission says its Consumer Sentinel Network draws on millions of reports, and its data portal lets the public track fraud, identity-theft and scam trends. (ftc.gov) The practical message is less abstract than “privacy” often sounds: secure systems before an attack, limit how much personal data gets collected and shared, and give victims a clear place to complain when tracking, theft or extortion starts. Federal agencies have already built those pathways; the pressure now is on companies and institutions to use them before harm spreads. (cisa.gov) (identitytheft.gov)