ICE
Thomson Reuters Fired Worker For Speaking Out About ICE, Former Employee Says
“When I saw evidence that our products were being used to harm people and undermine the law, I did what anyone should do—I raised the alarm. Thomson Reuters’ response was to fire me.”
AI
Airbnb Hosts Don't Want to Talk to Guests Anymore, Are Outsourcing Messages to AI
An entire industry of companies offers Airbnb hosts AI to speak to guests on their behalf. 404 Media poked around the industry after one AI tool offered a guest a recipe for French toast.
Hacking
Hacker Compromises a16z-Backed Phone Farm, Tries to Post Memes Calling a16z the ‘Antichrist’
Doublespeed uses a phone farm to flood social media with AI-generated influencers. A hacker managed to get into a backend system of the company.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Smoking the Whole Carton
This week, we discuss gun violence and chatbots and acceptance of depravity.
Privacy
FBI Extracts Suspect’s Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database
The case was the first time authorities charged people for alleged “Antifa” activities after President Trump designated the umbrella term a terrorist organization.
Podcast
Podcast: Wildlife Cops Are Searching AI Cameras for ICE
How Florida conservation police are tapping into Flock for ICE; Wikipedia's AI ban; and how the app TeleGuard uploads users' private keys.
encryption
Microsoft Abruptly Terminates VeraCrypt Account, Halting Windows Updates
Updates to VeraCrypt, a popular and long-running piece of encryption, are now thrown into doubt because of a seemingly unexplained Microsoft decision.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Systems As Designed
This week, we discuss crypto, journalists using AI, and a cool photo of Earth.
Privacy
A Secure Chat App’s Encryption Is So Bad It Is ‘Meaningless’
TeleGuard is an app downloaded more a million times that markets itself as a secure way to chat. The app uploads users’ private keys to the company’s server, and makes decryption of messages trivial.
Podcast
Podcast: Inside the AI Slop Propaganda Wars
Iran's AI and LEGO-focused propaganda; drama in the world of baseball; and perhaps one of the worst sex apps ever.
ICE
How Thomson Reuters Powers ICE and Palantir
Thomson Reuters’ data, which can include peoples’ addresses and details on their ethnicity, is linked to tools used by ICE.
Podcast
The Journalist Who Tracked Epstein Island Visitors’ Phones (with Dhruv Mehrotra)
This week Joseph talks to journalist and technologist Dhruv Mehrotra. Among many other things, Mehrotra tracked visitors to Epstein's island through location data.