# Privacy Awards 2025: Best News — Longlist

*The Best News category highlights the developments that shaped privacy across technology, law, surveillance, cryptography, infrastructure, and public discourse over the past year.*

By [Week in Privacy](https://paragraph.com/@web3privacy) · 2026-02-23

privacy, web3, tornadocash, romanstorm, ethereum

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From courtroom battles and sanctions reversals to ZK breakthroughs and global regulatory pressure, 2025 made one thing clear:

Privacy is no longer peripheral. It is central.

Below is the alphabetically ordered longlist of all nominated news items.

Keep in mind, this is just alphabetical ranking. Winners will be announced soon.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/4ecd93a7c534abd210933acda1b655d5062b306cca96218db6635a47f0826393.png)

Out of 38 longlisted developments:

*   8 relate to government regulation and anti-privacy legislation
    
*   7 reflect ecosystem privacy innovation
    
*   6 center on legal battles and the criminalization of privacy tools
    
*   5 expose surveillance infrastructure and institutional monitoring
    
*   5 involve major data breaches or infrastructure failures
    
*   4 highlight zero-knowledge research and cryptographic advances
    
*   2 mark a broader cultural and narrative shift toward privacy
    
*   1 focuses on digital identity expansion
    

The story of 2025 is not just about leaks or hacks.

It is about courts, sanctions, legislation, identity systems, and the normalization of privacy as foundational infrastructure.I. Legal Battles & Criminalization of Privacy Tools

Best News of 2025
-----------------

I. Legal Battles & Criminalization of Privacy Tools
===================================================

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/4ac1dd1039c9448a763fdb4ae7b8ef613c7d60b7918bc7ec0e2e584be215e95d.png)

### [Roman Storm trial & split verdict developments](https://www.therage.co/roman-storm-trial-split-verdict-tornado-cash/)

### [Tornado Cash trial & legal case developments](https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/08/the-tornado-cash-trials-mixed-verdict-implications-for-developer-liability)

### [Tornado Cash sanctions lifted / removed from OFAC](https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0057)

### [Samourai Wallet developers arrested and jailed](https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/04/24/samourai-wallet-founders-arrested-and-charged-with-money-laundering)

### [Convictions of Samourai Wallet developers](https://www.theblock.co/post/377937/samourai-wallet-keonne-rodriguez-sentenced-maximum-five-year-term-crypto-mixing-service)

### [Legal attacks on privacy developers](https://www.wired.com/story/tornado-cash-developer-roman-storm-guilty-on-one-count-in-federal-crypto-case/)

II. Government Regulation & Anti-Privacy Legislation
====================================================

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/e8e431fe4dd81ea9cb3f457d4dda13a6b32d6d4ecc0f616af3b8f8ea2e507b70.png)

### [Chat Control: EU proposals requiring mandatory scanning of private communications](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/after-years-controversy-eus-chat-control-nears-its-final-hurdle-what-know)

### [Fight over EU Chat Control](https://fightchatcontrol.eu/)

### [Dark Enlightenment Acts & Regulations (UK Online Safety, EU Chat Control and more)](https://www.comparitech.com/news/uk-online-safety-act-censorship/)

### [US state age verification & digital ID laws (LA, UT, TX, MO)](https://le.utah.gov/~2025/bills/static/SB0260.html)

### [Utah Digital Identity Act Passed](https://le.utah.gov/~2025/bills/static/SB0260.html)

### [EU Central Bank announces CBDC developments](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/digital_euro/html/index.en.html)

### [SEC announcing “Project Crypto”](https://www.sec.gov/about/sec-launches-project-crypto)

### [GENIUS Act enabling compliant private stablecoins](https://www.jamsadr.com/insight/2025/how-the-genius-act-is-reshaping-stablecoin-regulation-and-emerging)

* * *

III. Surveillance Infrastructure & Institutional Monitoring
===========================================================

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/58c069c1a77d9e0b0c918394ff74a4c30d2f04a754cf474e0ee9ffdd06e2e9c5.png)

### [Flock cameras made accessible via FOI requests](https://www.404media.co/judge-rules-flock-surveillance-images-are-public-records-that-can-be-requested-by-anyone/)

### [CWA “Workers First Initiative on AI” targeting surveillance harms](https://aflcio.org/reports/workers-first-ai)

### [Teamsters secure anti-surveillance clause in UPS contract](https://jacobin.com/2023/08/teamsters-ups-contract-part-time-pay-tier-system-strike-organizing)

### [Telegram quietly updates terms to share data with authorities](https://thehackernews.com/2024/09/telegram-agrees-to-share-user-data-with.html)

### [Kohler’s Smart Toilet camera not actually end-to-end encrypted](https://www.404media.co/kohlers-smart-toilet-camera-not-actually-end-to-end-encrypted/)

* * *

IV. Major Data Breaches & Infrastructure Failures
=================================================

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/eb8d6a1923c8a976c59e8df08464114ec4d0e97ce2d36a21973ab43afa7190e7.png)

### [Chinese surveillance database leak exposing 4 billion records](https://cybernews.com/security/chinese-data-leak-billiones-records-exposed/)

### [23andMe filing for bankruptcy](https://www.npr.org/2025/03/24/nx-s1-5338622/23andme-bankruptcy-genetic-data-privacy)

### [Bybit hack caused by compromised centralized multisig UI](https://www.nccgroup.com/research-blog/in-depth-technical-analysis-of-the-bybit-hack/)

### [Cloudflare and AWS outages expose fragility of dApp infrastructure](https://dev.to/codedetech/the-hidden-failure-pattern-behind-the-aws-azure-and-cloudflare-outages-of-2025-462n)

### [TEE security guarantees of Intel & AMD broken cheaply](https://gbhackers.com/new-tee-fail-exploit/)

* * *

V. Zero-Knowledge Research & Cryptographic Advances
===================================================

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/fcc243b78e2869b9925f72c8901eff0fa4718318d63db5abe861fe2c479291cb.png)

### [Proximity gaps conjecture disproven & research progress](https://blog.zksecurity.xyz/posts/proximity-conjecture/)

### [Google using Ligero for ZKPs](https://www.theblock.co/post/352865/google-wallet-integrates-zk-proofs-a-tech-incubated-by-crypto-industry)

### [Progress in Ethereum’s Institutional Privacy Task Force](https://iptf.ethereum.org/)

### [ZKPs integrated into Google Wallet](https://blog.google/products/google-pay/google-wallet-age-identity-verifications/)

* * *

VI. Ecosystem Privacy Innovation
================================

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/87a9a1b87ebed2c21e53f3fa7bf174b5b61de58f5f9bd5323a72531881792eb0.png)

### [Aztec launches Ignition chain](https://x.com/aztecnetwork/status/1991214517594759652)

### [Privacy Pools launch](https://www.tradingview.com/news/cointelegraph:8174321c5094b:0-privacy-pools-launch-on-ethereum-with-vitalik-demoing-the-feature/)

### [Kohaku wallet announcement](https://x.com/web3privacy/status/1998714725111062606)

### [Veil Cash announcement](https://x.com/Veildotcash/status/1875323616600175035)

### [Solana launching Confidential Balances](https://blog.quicknode.com/confidential-balance-token-extensions-on-solana/)

### [Circle X Aleo collaboration](https://aleo.org/post/aleo-circle-launch-of-usdcx/)

### [Ethereum Fusaka Upgrade](https://x.com/ethereum/status/2000596273620189560)

* * *

VII. Narrative & Cultural Shift Toward Privacy
==============================================

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/6ba73fa14bde4a8a03285b9a3eee67f0f1d2f041971314cc93e1257b62cfc2dd.png)

Vitalik Buterin & Roger Dingledine/Tor @ Ethereum Privacy Stack event

### [Vitalik “Privacy Pivot” moment](https://x.com/web3privacy/status/1998714725111062606)

### [Ethereum Foundation prioritizes privacy](https://x.com/web3privacy/status/1998714725111062606)

* * *

VIII. Digital Identity Expansion
================================

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/d34773922acf9019b671b80756534a202f773ba6b73fb415cca38b759ec62559.png)

### [Bhutan Digital ID System integrates Ethereum](https://www.bhutanndi.com/article/bhutan-adopts-ethereum-for-national-identity-a-new-chapter-in-digital-sovereignty_2d0c7ec2-5605-4c42-b258-bd9361ae8878)

What Happens Next
-----------------

This longlist reflects the community’s view of the most significant privacy-related news of 2025.

From sanctions reversals to courtroom battles, from digital ID mandates to cryptographic breakthroughs, this was a year where privacy moved decisively into the center of global debate.

Stay tuned for winners announcement.  
  
Meanwhile, check other longlists:  
[**Best Privacy Project**](https://paragraph.com/@web3privacy/web3privacy-awards-2025-projects-category-longlist)  
[**Best Privacy Event of 2025**](https://paragraph.com/@web3privacy/privacy-awards-2025-event-of-the-year)  
[**Biggest Doxxer of 2025**](https://paragraph.com/@web3privacy/privacy-awards-2025-doxxer-of-the-year-%E2%80%94-longlist)

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*Originally published on [Week in Privacy](https://paragraph.com/@web3privacy/privacy-awards-2025-best-news-—-longlist)*
