News
Cocaine in Private Jets and Sex Toys: What the FBI Found on its Secretly Backdoored Chat App
New leaked documents show how the FBI convinced a judge to let its partners collect a mass of encrypted messages from thousands of phones around the world.
Flock
Police Said They Surveilled Woman Who Had an Abortion for Her 'Safety.' Court Records Show They Considered Charging Her With a Crime
Court records show that the narrative Flock and a Texas Sheriff's Office has told the public isn't the whole story, and that police were conducting a 'death investigation' into the abortion.
News
Google Calls ICE Agents a Vulnerable Group, Removes ICE-Spotting App ‘Red Dot’
The move comes as Apple removed ICEBlock after direct pressure from U.S. Department of Justice officials and signals a broader crackdown on ICE-spotting apps.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Open-Source Drama and Saudi-Approved Humor
This week, we discuss characters in open source, that Saudi comedy festival, and asking ourselves if we're haters.
News
ICEBlock Owner After Apple Removes App: ‘We Are Determined to Fight This’
Apple removed ICEBlock reportedly after direct pressure from Department of Justice officials. “I am incredibly disappointed by Apple's actions today. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move,” the developer said.
Announcements
404 Media and Freedom of the Press Foundation Sue DHS
Both organizations are seeking a copy of a data sharing agreement that is giving the personal data of nearly 80 million Medicaid patients to ICE.
Podcast
Podcast: Landlords Demand Your Workplace Logins to Scrape Paystubs
How companies working for landlords are scraping data inside corporate environments; lawyers explain why they used AI (after getting caught); and all the Ruby drama.
News
ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day
Documents show that ICE has gone back on its decision to not use location data remotely harvested from peoples' phones. The database is updated every day with billions of pieces of location data.
News
Landlords Demand Tenants’ Workplace Logins to Scrape Their Paystubs
Screenshots shared with 404 Media show tenant screening services ApproveShield and Argyle taking much more data than they need. “Opt-out means no housing.”
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Behind 404 Media's ICE Lawsuit
This week, we discuss being journalism dorks, our new lawsuit against ICE, and working on bullshit.
News
How Surveillance Firms Use ‘Democracy’ As a Cover for Serving ICE and Trump
Multiple Palantir and Flock sources say the companies are spinning a commitment to "democracy" to absolve them of responsibility. "In my eyes, it is the classic double speak," one said.
Podcast
Podcast: We're Suing ICE. Here's Why
Our lawsuit against ICE; the rise of AI 'workslop'; Steam's malicious game problem; and Silk Song.