China
A Student Said He Was a Hobby Plane Spotter. He Was Allegedly Taking Photos for the Chinese Government
Weiheng Zeng originally said he took photos of planes for an aviation fan website. Later he admitted a suspected Chinese government official had given him specific locations in the U.S. to go photograph.
Flock
Flock’s CEO Is Lying to Cops About 404 Media's Reporting on Abortion Case
Garrett Langley, Flock’s CEO, told cops that a 404 Media story about cops using Flock to track someone who self-administered an abortion was "entirely false." He's lying.
Podcast
Podcast: Cops Are Making Fake Flock Cameras and Amazon Packages
Cops making fake Flock cameras to catch people, Darth Vader unmasked, and our three year anniversary.
ICE
ICE Wants the Country’s Voter Data
Voting data is public by design, but ICE is looking for a federal contractor to help it handle voter registration and history files to find what it describes as fraud.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Early Birthday Reflections
This week, we discuss our party and panel coming up, and do some light reminiscing.
Podcast
Podcast: Amazon is Destroying Rare Books to Train AI
Amazon buying and destroying rare books to train AI; a bunch of wild AI use in the courts; and Meta's new patent for its AI smart glasses.
Flock
The National Park Service Is Using Flock. Rangers Are Pissed
“I fear for the day when a visitor's National Park experience is interrupted by being pulled over and held at gunpoint because a license plate reader misread their plate.”
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Endless Scam Parade
This week, we discuss the mainstreaming of Flock, media appearances, and Spotify's AI move.
Privacy
Meta Patents AI Glasses to Use Facial Recognition to Identify People, Make Highlight Reels of Your Dinner Party
A new Meta patent published Thursday says a system, like its AI glasses, would use facial recognition to identify people, create a series of video clips, then provide you with a highlight reel of your night.
ICE
Here's the Manual for ICE's Electric Shock Gloves
ICE plans to spends tens of millions of dollars on the gloves, which are supposed to incapacitate people. A manual 404 Media found says the gloves may even contribute to “sudden death.”
Podcast
Podcast: Mark Zuckerberg’s 'Superintelligent' AI Future That No One Wants
Zuckerberg's anti-social future; a company offering human writing that is actually just AI; and the big switch from Flock to Axon.
Privacy
This Tool Unmasks the Shadowy World of Ads that Track Your Location
It's usually very difficult to investigate the advertising industry. A new tool called DecryptAds aims to make it much easier with a massive dataset anyone can query.