News
FTC Bans Location Data Company That Powers the Surveillance Ecosystem
Venntel is a primary provider of location data to the government or other companies that sell to U.S. agencies. The FTC is banning Venntel from selling data related to health clinics, refugee shelters, and much more.
News
Suspected Snowflake Hacker Arrested in Canada
For more than a week Judische, the hacker linked to the AT&T, Ticketmaster and other breaches, has not been responding to messages. That's because he's been arrested.
Internet Mysteries
'The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet' Has Finally Been Identified
The mystery, which dates back to the 1980s, has finally been solved. The song is Fex—Subways of Your Mind.
News
Perplexity AI Offers to Help New York Times With Tech Union Strike
New York Times tech workers are on strike for fairer pay and just cause job protections. In steps the CEO of Perplexity, an AI company that has repeatedly ripped-off the work of human journalists.
News
Netflix Bullish on Gen AI for Games After Laying Off Human Game Developers
Netflix exec says Generative AI is a ‘once in a generation’ inflection point for video game development.
Announcements
404 Media Is Partnering With Wired
Wired is going to co-publish two of our articles a month.
Features
Inside the Massive Crime Industry That is Hacking Billion Dollar Companies
When you download that piece of pirated software, you might be also getting a piece of infostealer malware, and entering a highly complex hacking ecosystem that is fueling some of the biggest breaches on the planet.
News
Here Come the Giant Crime Sniffing Rats
Lessons about echolocation topography, tadpole gigantism, rat police, and an iconoclastic star.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Posting Nipples and Digging Data
This week, we talk about deciding what images to publish, digging through Meta and Snap data, and finding the Secret Service talking about you.
Meta
Zuckerberg: The AI Slop Will Continue Until Morale Improves
"I think we’re going to add a whole new category of content, which is AI generated."
News
Microsoft Provided Gender Detection AI on Accident
Microsoft said it would retire its AI-powered gender classifier in 2022. Now it says some users still had access to it because of an error.
News
When Does Instagram Decide a Nipple Becomes Female?
By documenting her transition every week on Instagram this artist shows the absurdity in how Instagram and AI classify gender and the human body.
The Billionaire Is the Threat, Not the Solution
Jeff Bezos is not the answer at The Washington Post. And billionaire funding is not the answer for journalism.