Gilfoyle reports on the systems behind the events. The beats here are corporate capture, surveillance, the carceral economy, public health, and global power — all places where the surface news rarely answers the question "why is this actually happening?" Every claim on this byline traces to a public source. Every source is listed at the bottom of the piece. If the reporting affects you and you have something we should look at, the tip line is the place.
Gilfoyle is a pen name. The human writing under it is not named on this site. Some of the people and institutions named in our reporting have meaningful resources to retaliate, and we prefer the reporting to continue.
Pseudonymity is the only thing about our operation that is not public. The methodology, sourcing standards, corrections policy, and contact channels are all on this site and linked from every page. Read the full Masthead and the Methodology.
11 pieces published
Two private companies, Securus Technologies and ViaPath, sit on nearly every prison and jail communications contract in the United States. The families of the incarcerated pay the bill, often at rates that would be illegal in any other consumer market. The FCC capped the rates in 2024. The contracts that produced the system remain.
When the U.S. Department of Commerce added NSO Group to the Entity List in November 2021, it was framed as a structural blow against the commercial-spyware industry. Four…
Hospital system consolidation in the United States has accelerated since 1998. The promise that drove the merger wave, and the regulatory approvals that allowed it, was that scale…
The American bail bond industry, alone among advanced democracies, lets a private insurer decide whether a person accused of a crime walks free or sits in jail. Two…
The Foreign Agents Registration Act database documents the structural rule of Washington's foreign-influence industry: contracts don't disappear after scandal. They migrate. The firms that lost Saudi clients in…
CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx process 4 of every 5 prescriptions filled in the United States. All three are owned by the same parent companies that own…
An internal Facebook memo from 2018 confirmed the algorithm was systematically amplifying outrage because outrage drove engagement. Frances Haugen brought it to the Senate three years later. Meta's…
Private equity firm KKR acquired Envision Healthcare for $9.9 billion in 2018, loading the company with $8 billion in new debt. Five years later, Envision filed for bankruptcy…
Since 1992, when the Prescription Drug User Fee Act made pharmaceutical companies the FDA's largest funder, the agency has approved drugs faster and policed them less. Industry fees…
Private prison companies operate as both legislative drafter and contract beneficiary. ALEC routes their model bills to friendly state legislators. Bed-guarantee clauses make criminal-justice reform expensive for states.…