Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Feeling Smart Along the Way
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss cheating in job interviews, "scary good" surveillance tech, and prudes in payment processing.
News
ICE Plans Central Database of Health, Labor, Housing Agency Data to Find Targets
A document viewed by 404 Media describes ICE's plans to incorporate data from the Department of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) into a tool called ATrac.
The Abstract
Behold, a Genuinely Promising Sign of Alien Life
One of the most compelling cases for extraterrestrial life has been found on K2-18b, a planet 124 light years from Earth.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Chat, Are We Cooked?
This week, we discuss Palantir scoops, coping mechanisms, and feeling God in this Samsung television.
podcasts
AI Slop Is Breaking the Internet as We Know It (404 Media Live at SXSW)
Here's our live panel and podcast from SXSW!
News
Judge Rules Blanket Search of Cell Tower Data Unconstitutional
Judge says tower dumps violate the 4th amendment, but will let the cops do it this one time, as a treat.
News
Leaked: Palantir’s Plan to Help ICE Deport People
Internal Palantir Slack chats and message boards obtained by 404 Media show the contracting giant is helping find the location of people flagged for deportation, that Palantir is now a “more mature partner to ICE,” and how Palantir is addressing employee concerns with discussion groups on ethics.
FOIA
This ‘College Protester’ Isn’t Real. It’s an AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops
Massive Blue is helping cops deploy AI-powered social media bots to talk to people they suspect are anything from violent sex criminals all the way to vaguely defined “protesters.”
LAPD
LAPD Publishes Crime Footage It Got From a Waymo Driverless Car
Police are starting to realize they can demand footage from driverless cars.
wordpress
Following Layoffs, Automattic Employees Discover Leak-Catching Watermarks
The watermarks, which could identify people leaking screenshots to the press, are in the background of internal communications platform P2.
News
ICE Just Paid Palantir Tens of Millions for ‘Complete Target Analysis of Known Populations’
The records show that Palantir is actively working on the technical infrastructure underpinning the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts which could soon impact U.S. citizens.
Podcast
Podcast: Inside the ICE Deportation Tool
The powerful database and tool ICE has access to; the AI service that will call your parents for you; and the apparent hack of 4chan.
influencers
I Went to See ‘God’s Influencer,’ the Millennial Saint Carlo Acutis
Carlo loved Halo and programming, but he loved God more. I went to see him, lying under glass in his Nikes for eternity, at a church in Assisi.