Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Big Questions of Consciousness
This week, we discuss a wild message, a new anthology, and a visit to a museum.
cheating
People Are Selling Kills of Marathon’s Hardest Boss on eBay
The Compiler takes a serious amount of time, skill, and luck to get to. Someone on eBay is selling an easy fix.
DHS
DHS Plans to Buy More Predator-Style Drones
CBP is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on more high-powered surveillance drones, and other components of DHS may start their own fleet of MQ-9 drones as well.
Impact
Apple Fixes Bug That Let FBI Extract Deleted Signal Messages After 404 Media Coverage
The move comes directly in response to 404 Media’s coverage about how the FBI was able to recover incoming Signal messages from an iPhone because the messages were saved in the device’s notification storage.
Podcast
Government Hacking Tools Are Now in Criminals' Hands (with Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai)
Here's what happened when powerful hacking tools from one of the most trusted vendors ended up in the wrong hands.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Jazz and Journalism
This week, we discuss the Madonna-whore algorithm, reader tips, and jazz.
Impact
Thomson Reuters Shareholders Demand Investigation into ICE Contracts
The shareholders explicitly cited multiple 404 Media investigations, including one that showed Thomson Reuters' CLEAR is integrated with a tool ICE uses to find neighborhoods to target.
FOIA
Emails Reveal Space Force’s Hardest Mission Is Writing a Song
Internal Space Force emails obtained by 404 Media show the work it takes to have a government agency make a new theme song. A general even wanted to start the whole thing over again.
Podcast
Podcast: How the FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages
How a phone's notification database can store messages deleted elsewhere; the continued data center pushback; and Marathon, Marathon, Marathon.
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.