Trump uses correspondents’ dinner to push controversial spy powers

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

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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 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.