Notices by Jason Koebler (jasonkoebler@mastodon.social), page 4

Scoop: I obtained the contract Samsung requires independent shops to sign to buy phone repair parts from them.

It requires:

- "Daily" dumps of customer data
- The "immediate destruction" of any phones a shop comes across that has third-party parts

https://www.404media.co/samsung-requires-independent-repair-shops-to-share-customer-data-snitch-on-people-who-use-aftermarket-parts-leaked-contract-shows/

An extremely bogus DMCA threat from cops against a shop selling a 'FUCK THE LAPD' shirt has helped the company's entire store sell out of almost everything they make. "Streisand effect in effect."

https://www.404media.co/fuck-the-lapd-shirt-makers-entire-shop-sold-out-after-cops-threaten-him/

This, from a John Deere dealer, is wild. They warn that affected tractors operated during this time will likely have made maps that are wrong, which will be wrong throughout the growing system, and which are wrong in an inconsistent way

One farmer called it a "shitshow." Another: "All the tractors are sitting at the ends of the field right now shut down because of the solar storm." Another said their systems that are normally centimeter-accurate were off by 3-6 feet and tractor kept "wandering off" and had to be constantly corrected.

This is a reminder of how much modern tractors rely on satellite and internet connections. Many farmers can't or won't plant right now bc tractors have been highly automated to increase yield. Rows are planted so tightly together that humans can't navigate them w/o killing crops

Scoop: Solar storm is causing farmers' tractor GPS systems to go haywire. Many have shut down planting altogether during a critical period. A Deere dealer said accuracy is "extremely compromised"

https://www.404media.co/solar-storm-knocks-out-tractor-gps-systems-during-peak-planting-season/

New: OpenAI—a company that has indiscriminately scraped vast amounts of human knowledge to build a company valued at roughly $80 billion—has made a copyright complaint against the ChatGPT subreddit because it used OpenAI’s logo.

https://www.404media.co/openai-files-copyright-claim-against-chatgpt-subreddit/

@eb I mostly agree with you but I do think Reddit is currently more resilient to this than the other platforms because it uses ethically dubious but definitely more effective volunteer content moderators, who have enough power that, in a well-moderated community, the incentives of moderators and Reddit the company aren't aligned, and the moderators actually win out. Their automod tools are also pretty decent

@eb Like I said I think you're mostly right but I think it still feels possible for an individual user to curate a not-entirely-shitty experience on Reddit. It is definitely the most useful platform I regularly use, for me. But I have aggressively unsubscribed from most large subs. That experience is impossible on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook/Threads/TikTok. Is still possible here.

@eb I think Power Moderators is actually an aspect of Reddit that is extremely under-discussed. A few people who mostly suck and have huge egos have a disproportionate impact on what people see.

@eb but yes there is obviously a lot of manipulation, spam, etc on there and it's getting worse

The NYPD produced a dramatically edited propaganda video about Columbia University arrests within 24 hours. I am still waiting on basic FOIA responses from them and Mayor Adams' office years after I've filed them

https://www.404media.co/there-is-no-transparency-in-new-york-city-nypd-arrests-columbia/

The publisher of a small imprint of roleplaying games magazines/speculative fiction shuts down after 22 years because their submissions have been flooded with AI to the extent they cannot wade through them:

“The problem with AI is the people who use AI. These are people who think their ‘ideas’ are more important than the actual craft of writing, so they churn out all these ‘ideas’ and enter their idea prompts and think the output is a story.”

https://www.404media.co/bards-and-sages-closing-ai-generated-writing/

I am on the hunt for more examples of Meta AI pretending it is a person in groups. If you see anything please hit me up: jason@404media.co or signal: jason.404

"Fuck you, Wayne": Amazon drivers have named all of their bad bosses nationwide "Wayne" as a way to vent about their terrible work conditions safely without being identified:

https://www.404media.co/bad-amazon-bosses-wayne/

The Cass report, an incredibly influential document used to limit gender affirming care in the UK, uses AI-generated stock images of children from a series in which every nonbinary teen has pink hair and the same haircut

https://www.404media.co/uk-gender-affirming-care-ai-generated-children/

The chicken shop that outsourced its cashier job to a woman on Zoom in the Philippines has the Zoom meeting ID and password taped to a computer on the front desk, facing everyone:

https://www.404media.co/sansan-chicken-zoom-cashier/

Bullying in open source software is a massive security risk, as shown by the Xz backdoor, a near-miss at F-Droid, and as repeatedly pointed out by @Mer__edith, @eighthave, and so many others over the years:

https://www.404media.co/xz-backdoor-bullying-in-open-source-software-is-a-massive-security-vulnerability/

IEEE has banned images of Lena in journals it owns:

https://www.404media.co/lena-test-image-ieee-policy/

The well-funded and Samsung-backed AI image generator Leonardo is being used to make deepfakes of celebrities by the same people who spammed Taylor Swift deepfakes on X. Not responding to media requests etc. good stuff

https://www.404media.co/samsung-backed-ai-image-generator-produces-nonconsensual-porn/