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.
ICE
ICE Plans to Spend $180 Million on Bounty Hunters to Stalk Immigrants
Newly released documents provide more details about ICE's plan to use bounty hunters and private investigators to find the location of undocumented immigrants.
News
OpenAI Can’t Fix Sora’s Copyright Infringement Problem Because It Was Built With Stolen Content
OpenAI’s guardrails against copyright infringement are falling for the oldest trick in the book.
porn
Major Porn Studios Join Forces to Establish Industry ‘Code of Conduct’
The newly-formed, first of its kind Adult Studio Alliance is founded by major porn companies including Aylo, Dorcel, ERIKALUST, Gamma Entertainment, Mile High Media and Ricky’s Room, and establishes a code of conduct for studios.
Flock
Judge Rules Flock Surveillance Images Are Public Records That Can Be Requested By Anyone
A Washington judge said images taken by Flock cameras are "not exempt from disclosure" in public record requests.
Podcast
Podcast: Inside a Small Town's Fight Against a $1.2 Billion AI Datacenter
A fight against a massive AI data center; how people are 3D-printing whistles to fight ICE; and AI's war on knowledge.
The Abstract
Remnants of Lost Continents Are Everywhere. Now, We Finally Know Why.
Waves within Earth’s mantle can carry traces of past continents across hundreds of miles, explaining why their chemical fingerprints appear in unlikely places.
archives
Visualize All 23 Years of BYTE Magazine in All Its Glory, All at Once
Software engineer Hector Dearman built a zoomable map of every issue of BYTE magazine.
FOIA
DHS Is Deploying a Powerful Surveillance Tool at College Football Games
Public records show DHS is deploying the "Homeland Security Information Network" at college protests and football games.
ICE
The Latest Defense Against ICE: 3D-Printed Whistles
Chicagoans are making, sharing, and printing designs for whistles that can warn people when ICE is in the area. The goal is to “prevent as many people from being kidnapped as possible.”
Danish Redditor Charged for Posting Nude Scenes from Films
A man running a Danish copycat of the r/WatchItForThePlot subreddit was assured of posting no less than 347 nude scenes from films, and downloading over 25 terabytes of data from copyrighted works.
FOIA
Our New FOIA Forum! 11/19, 1PM ET
Come learn how researchers and others learned what cops were using Flock's nationwide network of cameras for, including searches for ICE.
Podcast
Podcast: A Massive Archiving Effort at National Parks (with Jenny McBurney and Lynda Kellam)
This week we have a conversation between Sam and two of the leaders of the independent volunteer archiving project Save Our Signs, an effort to archive national park signs and monument placards.