A leaked document shows the spread of surveillance and investigative capabilities that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have access to agency wide, from location data harvested from smartphones, to facial recognition apps that can reveal someone’s identity, to tools that let the agency stay anonymous online and approach people ...
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The Rise of Anti-Flock Influencers Who Make Things Up for CloutThe Rise of Anti-Flock Influencers Who Make Things Up for Clout
A little over a month ago, the former American Idol contestant, country musician, and Instagram influencer Noah Orion appears to have learned about the surveillance company Flock. “Cities are now covering Flock cameras with trash bags,” Orion narrated over an Instagram post aggregating a 404 Media report. “It’s also pretty ...
Patreon Lays Off 20 Percent of Its WorkforcePatreon Lays Off 20 Percent of Its Workforce
Patreon laid off 93 employees, totaling 20 percent of its workforce on Thursday morning, according to an email to creators and staff from CEO Jack Conte. In a message sent to everyone on the platform signed up as a creator, and posted to the site, with the subject line “A ...
Our New FOIA Forum! 7/30, 1PM ETOur New FOIA Forum! 7/30, 1PM ET
It’s that time again! We’re planning our latest FOIA Forum, a live, hour-long or more interactive session where Joseph and Jason will teach you how to pry records from government agencies through public records requests. We’re planning this for Thursday, July 30th at 1PM ET. That’s in just one week ...
What Happened When Flock Came to My TownWhat Happened When Flock Came to My Town
On Tuesday night, the city council of my small town of Irmo, South Carolina, voted to install 22 new Flock cameras. That’ll bring the total up to 33. With a population of only 12,000 or so, it means there’ll be one Flock camera for every 300 residents. That means there ...
Flock ‘Objects to Our Removing Their Equipment’: Emails Reveal Why a Town Put Bags Over Its Flock CamerasFlock ‘Objects to Our Removing Their Equipment’: Emails Reveal Why a Town Put Bags Over Its Flock Cameras
🎉 YOU’RE INVITED! 404 Media is turning three, and we’re throwing TWO separate events in NYC to celebrate: A live taping of the podcast with a special night of talks on Sept. 3, and an open-bar bash on Sept. 4. Subscribers at the Supporter level get free and discounted access ...
You Opened a Credit Card. ICE Now Knows Where You LiveYou Opened a Credit Card. ICE Now Knows Where You Live
When you open a new credit card, you necessarily give the credit card company your address. You probably expect that information to remain with your bank. But when you open a new credit card or change your address on file, your address leaves your credit card provider, travels through a web ...
Podcast: Flock is Tracking People, Not Just CarsPodcast: Flock is Tracking People, Not Just Cars
We start this week with Joseph’s story on how cops are using Flock to track actual people, not just cars, with searches like “male with tattoos.” After the break, Emanuel tells us all about the company that is explicitly selling mountains of books to AI companies and promising to keep ...
AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They’re Free of AI SlopAI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They’re Free of AI Slop
As AI companies search for more training data to improve their models, one company is offering old, printed books as an ideal source because they are guaranteed to be free of the very AI slop AI companies are producing. “The world’s best AI training data is sitting on a shelf,” ...
Apple Fixes Hide My Email Vulnerability After 404 Media CoverageApple Fixes Hide My Email Vulnerability After 404 Media Coverage
Apple says it has fixed a vulnerability in its Hide My Email feature which let essentially anyone figure out a user’s real email address which was supposed to be protected by the feature. Apple only fixed the vulnerability after 404 Media wrote about it at the start of July, despite ...