Notices by Jason Koebler (jasonkoebler@mastodon.social)

A new privacy-focused cell network is doing very interesting things but I do not think anyone will ever convince @josephcox to get a phone

https://www.404media.co/i-dont-own-a-cellphone-can-this-privacy-focused-network-change-that/

New: One of the first leaks ever about Graykey, the iPhone hacking tool used by cops to break into people's phones. Granular detail about what info it can get and from what phones and which operating systems. A reminder to always always update your OS immediately:

https://www.404media.co/leaked-documents-show-what-phones-secretive-tech-graykey-can-unlock-2/

Pokemon Go players have been unwittingly mapping the entire world to train a geospatial AI model whose most obvious use cases are for robotic navigation and possibly the military

https://www.404media.co/pokemon-go-players-have-unwittingly-trained-ai-to-navigate-the-world/

New: HarperCollins confirms that it has a deal in place to sell authors' work to an AI company. Won't say which. Will be opt-in

https://www.404media.co/harpercollins-ai-deal/

One of the most popular types content on Facebook is "Elon Musk will fix America with this absurd invention" AI content that have millions of views and endless people commenting about how he and Donald Trump will save America thinking it's real

https://www.404media.co/absurd-ai-slop-about-how-elon-musk-will-fix-america-is-megaviral-on-facebook/

New: An open-source project called DeFlock has mapped thousands of license plate reader surveillance cameras all over the world. See if they're in your city. They also need help mapping more

https://www.404media.co/the-open-source-project-deflock-is-mapping-license-plate-surveillance-cameras-all-over-the-world/

Wild: iPhones cops confiscated as evidence are suddenly rebooting en masse, making them *much* harder for police to hack. Cops theorize Apple pushed an update where iPhones communicate w/ each other and tells them to reboot if not connected to a network

https://www.404media.co/police-freak-out-at-iphones-mysteriously-rebooting-themselves-locking-cops-out/

Over the last four years (longer actually), GOP has built tools & orgs to not just challenge voter eligibility and purge people from voter rolls, but also built websites that publish the addresses and vote history of people that plugs into that apparatus

https://www.404media.co/voted-in-america-this-site-doxed-you/

Years after Microsoft said it was killing its "gender detection" facial recognition AI, which has been shown over and over again to be inaccurate and weaponized against trans people, it turns out that, actually, it was still available and being used:

https://www.404media.co/microsoft-provided-gender-detection-ai-on-accident/

An Elon Musk-funded PAC is microtargeting Muslim people in Michigan and Jewish people in Pennsylvania with opposite messaging about Kamala Harris using ZIP code targeting, according to data I pulled from Snapchat. Few things from this investigation:

https://www.404media.co/this-is-exactly-how-an-elon-musk-funded-pac-is-microtargeting-muslims-and-jews-with-opposing-messages/

1: AI is hallucinating events, historical figures, entire concepts on Wikipedia

2: a task force of Wikipedia editors is detecting and deleting this stuff

https://www.404media.co/the-editors-protecting-wikipedia-from-ai-hoaxes/

PayPal has opted people into data sharing so stores can market you stuff based on your purchase history

https://www.404media.co/paypal-personalized-shopping-opt-out/

A man was applying for a job and got an interview, hopped on the call, and was interviewed by an AI avatar and AI voice: https://www.404media.co/ai-avatars-are-doing-job-interviews-now/

DIY, pirated medicine is becoming increasingly accessible and easier to make due to automation, new tech, and new software developed and released by Four Thieves Vinegar Collective:

https://www.404media.co/right-to-repair-for-your-body-the-rise-of-diy-pirated-medicine/

The military is dealing with the same problems consumers do. Their problems are more absurd. They do not know how to repair a combat warship because the company that makes it says repair info is proprietary and have to fly in repair pros who work for the company itself

What do "Power Tool Institute," the “Irrigation Association,” the “Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers” & tractor companies have in common? They’re lobbying against military right to repair legislation

https://www.404media.co/appliance-and-tractor-companies-lobby-against-giving-the-military-the-right-to-repair/

A year ago today we launched 404 Media.

Thanks to the overwhelming support of our subscribers, we're very proud and humbled to say that our business and company is sustainable and stable, and more scoops, investigations, stunts, etc are coming in year 2

https://www.404media.co/what-we-learned-in-our-first-year-of-404-media/

SCOOP from @samleecole: Leaked Slacks and documents show the incredible scale of NVidia's AI scraping: 80 years — "a human lifetime" of videos every day. Had approval from highest levels of company despite staff legal/ethical concerns:

https://www.404media.co/nvidia-ai-scraping-foundational-model-cosmos-project/

if you're not following: 

- Rabbit got hacked, claimed it did not get hacked, then admitted it got hacked
- did an investigation and found an employee leaked source code that contained API keys, which were exploited
- argued that this did not constitute a security breach
- blamed "hacktivists" and journalists for reporting on this
- said that they were in the process of fixing the issue anyway
- commissioned a pentest to show that everything is fine, actually

put this comms/security strategy in a museum

https://www.404media.co/rabbit-says-breach-not-caused-by-a-breach-is-fault-of-malicious-employee-hacktivists-journalists/