Ring
With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet
Ring's 'Search Party' is dystopian surveillance accelerationism.
Podcast
Podcast: Creators Worry Porn Platform Is Falling Into ‘AI Psychosis’
What happens when a platform operator changes their tune; the continuing mystery of deleted (or lost, who knows) DHS footage; and what police are being told to do about Flock.
News
App for Quitting Porn Leaked Users' Masturbation Habits
Hundreds of thousands of users told the app intimate details about their sexual urges, which are now exposed.
ICE
DHS Says Critical ICE Surveillance Footage From Abuse Case Was Actually Never Recorded, Doesn't Matter
Court records reveal the incredibly sad state of ICE's evidence retention systems.
age verification
Many UK Users Soon Won't Be Able to Access Pornhub
Starting February 2, many people connecting from the UK will not be able to access the porn site and many others.
Flock
Police Told to Be ‘as Vague as Permissible’ About Why They Use Flock
The documents show law enforcement sees themselves as being consistently and universally under threat from the people it is supposed to protect.
The Abstract
Dozens of CDC Health Databases Have Gone Dark Under Trump: ‘The Consequences Will Be Dire’
Nearly half of routinely-updated CDC databases have experienced delays or shutdowns in 2025, with vaccination-related systems disproportionately affected, according to a new study.
News
Two Heads, Three Boobs: The AI Babe Meta Is Getting Surreal
The algorithm is driving AI-generated influencers to increasingly weird niches.
Podcast
Podcast: Unmasking Deepfakes Kingpins (with Kolina Koltai)
Bellingcat's Kolina Koltai talks about OSINT investigations into synthetic abuse imagery sites, and seeing them go down because of her work.
News
I Replaced My Friends With AI Because They Won't Play Tarkov With Me
What began as a joke got a little too real. So I shut it down for good.
memes
How Right Wing Influencers Used AI Slop to Turn Renee Good Into a Meme
A look at “necromemetics” and the meme economy in the aftermath of violence.
The Abstract
Scientists Discovered a Cow That Uses Tools Like a Chimpanzee
Veronika, a brown cow in Austria, uses sticks and brushes as multipurpose tools to scratch hard-to-reach spots
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Signs of the Times
This week, we discuss stances on AI, a conference about money laundering, and signs about slavery coming down.