CIRCLE WITH A DOT

New from 404 Media: Thomson Reuters shareholders demand investigation into the company's ICE contracts. The shareholders demand explicitly cites multiple 404 Media investigations, including one that shows Thomson Reuters' CLEAR is integrated with a Palantir ICE tool https://www.404media.co/thomson-reuters-shareholders-demand-investigation-into-ice-contracts/

What does it take for the Space Force to write a song? Meetings. Lawyers. More meetings. A general suggesting they scrap the whole thing and start over. Emails show the painful bureaucracy behind Space Force's official song: https://www.404media.co/emails-reveal-space-forces-hardest-mission-is-writing-a-song/

A new independent audit says that Google, Meta, Microsoft are all still tracking users even after they opt out. 55 percent of the sites it checked set ad cookies in a user’s browser even if they opted out of tracking.

The company's all disputed it

Google, Microsoft, Meta All Tracking You Even When You Opt Out, According to an Independent Audit

“This is the Strait of Hormuz in the data economy. If you want to make a change, this is where you cut it off. Anything short of that is theatrical political posture.”

404 Media (www.404media.co)

New from 404 Media: WebinarTV is a company secretly scraping peoples' Zoom meetings and posting them online for others to watch. We've now found those include anonymous recovery programs, substance abuse meetings, etc. Supposed to be anonymous but show names and faces https://www.404media.co/webinartv-secretly-scraped-zoom-meetings-of-anonymous-recovery-programs/

Here's how Wikipedia made something like a task force to deal with AI generated articles, which are a big risk to the platform's integrity.

Watch, subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrHYwCb5aM8

New from 404 Media: the FBI was able to extract incoming Signal messages from a phone even though the app was deleted. Why? Because parts of messages were stored in the iPhone's internal notification database. Shows how secure chat data can come from unexpected places https://www.404media.co/fbi-extracts-suspects-deleted-signal-messages-saved-in-iphone-notification-database-2/

New from 404 Media: Microsoft has terminated an account associated with VeraCrypt, the popular and long-running piece of encryption software. This means can no longer receive updates on Windows, the developer told me. Little explanation given by Microsoft https://www.404media.co/microsoft-abruptly-terminates-veracrypt-account-halting-windows-updates/

Here is a video demonstrating how truly awful the encryption implementation is in TeleGuard, a 'secure' messaging app with more than 1 million downloads. App uploads users private keys to company server; this shows the company is able to decrypt messages. Details: https://www.404media.co/a-secure-chat-apps-encryption-is-so-bad-it-is-meaningless/

This is insane: TeleGuard, a 'secure' chat app downloaded more than a million times, uploads users' private keys, meaning the company can decrypt messages. And anyone can get anyone else's private key by just sending the user ID to the API. Possibly worst ever https://www.404media.co/a-secure-chat-apps-encryption-is-so-bad-it-is-meaningless/

Thomson Reuters, known for the Reuters news agency but is a data broker, powers ICE tools. Includes a system Palantir made for ICE, according to former Palantir employee. DHS sources also believe Thomson Reuters data in ELITE, the ICE tool for targeting neighborhoods https://www.404media.co/how-thomson-reuters-powers-ice-and-palantir/

In something you don't see everyday, Apple gave the FBI the real name and email address of one of its customers using Apple's 'Hide My Email' feature. This lets you generate random email addresses to protect your privacy https://www.404media.co/apple-gives-fbi-a-users-real-name-hidden-behind-hide-my-email-feature/

New: Wikipedia has officially banned AI-generated content. After months of heated debate and previous attempts to restrict the use of LLMs, volunteer editors accepted a new policy that prohibits using them to create articles for the online encyclopedia

Wikipedia Bans AI-Generated Content

“In recent months, more and more administrative reports centered on LLM-related issues, and editors were being overwhelmed.”

404 Media (www.404media.co)

A company is secretly entering Zoom meetings, scraping the call, and then turning those meetings into AI-generated, public podcasts. A really wild business when many people are having sensitive conversations, including about ICE

Watch more here and subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79SIwINKY0E

Some people are actually pretty sad Meta is killing the metaverse https://www.404media.co/the-people-left-behind-by-the-metaverse/

This is wild: a company is secretly scanning the internet for Zoom meeting links and turning them into AI-generated podcasts for $$$. Some meeting participants only found out after we told them. Included meeting on protecting kids from ICE, was supposed to be private https://www.404media.co/this-company-is-secretly-turning-your-zoom-calls-into-ai-podcasts/

Now, there’s a new way to discourage friends, family, and even complete strangers from turning to chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT: by using a tool called “Slow LLM” to make them really, reaaaaalllyyy slowwwww. Or at least, making them look that way. https://www.404media.co/this-web-tool-sabotages-ai-chatbots-by-making-them-really-really-slow/

Marty Tibbitts made millions as a successful CEO. He had everything: money, a wife, a museum full of planes he flew. So why then did he also try to become an international drug lord?

Here's an attempt at answering that, inc interviews with his drug trafficker partner https://www.404media.co/an-adrenaline-junkie-billionaires-quest-to-become-a-cocaine-kingpin-marty-tibbitts-ylli-didani/

North Oaks is the only city in the U.S. not on Google Street View. Because homeowners own the roads too, Google can't map them. So Chris Parr flew a drone through the city, got it on Street View. Interesting experiment in who gets or affords privacy vs those who don't https://www.404media.co/mapping-googles-unmappable-city/