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.
News
'House of Dynamite' Is About the Zoom Call that Ends the World
The general who advised Netflix’s nuclear Armageddon movie doesn’t believe in abolishing nuclear weapons.
ICE
Con Edison Refuses to Say How ICE Gets Its Customers’ Data
Court records show Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a part of ICE, and the FBI obtained Con Edison user data. The utility provider refuses to say whether law enforcement needs a warrant to access its data.
News
Zenni’s Anti-Facial Recognition Glasses are Eyewear for Our Paranoid Age
These anti-facial recognition glasses technically work, but won’t save you from our surveillance dystopia.
The Abstract
What Really Doomed Napoleon’s Army? Scientists Find New Clues in DNA
DNA from the teeth of French soldiers that died in the disastrous 1812 retreat from Moscow revealed previously unidentified pathogens.
News
AI Dataset for Detecting Nudity Contained Child Sexual Abuse Images
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection found more than 120 images of identified or known victims of CSAM in the dataset.
News
a16z-Backed Startup Sells Thousands of ‘Synthetic Influencers’ to Manipulate Social Media as a Service
Andreessen Horowitz is funding a company that clearly violates the inauthentic behavior policies of every major social media platform.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Making Things for Humans
This week, we discuss Pavlovian Chartbeat response, when to say "cum," and the wave of making things for humans, by humans.
ICE
DHS Tries To Unmask Ice Spotting Instagram Account by Claiming It Imports Merchandise
There is no evidence the Instagram and Facebook account, called Montcowatch, sells anything. Lawyers from the ACLU say the move is "wildly outside the scope" of DHS' authority.
The Abstract
Breathing Through Our Butts Declared Safe After First Human Trial
The first application of enteral ventilation—aka breathing through the bum—to humans proved the technique is safe.
Deepfakes
New Research Shows Deepfake Harassment Tools Spread on Social Media and Search Engines
An analysis of how tools to make non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes spread online, from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, shows X and search engines surface these sites easily.
Privacy
A $60 Mod to Meta’s Ray-Bans Disables Its Privacy-Protecting Recording Light
Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses usually include an LED that lights up when the user is recording other people. One hobbyist is charging a small fee to disable that light, and has a growing list of customers around the country.
tea
Apple Removes Women Dating Safety App from the App Store
The app, which went viral before facing multiple data breaches, is currently unavailable on the Apple App Store.