New: A judge in Washington has ruled images from Flock surveillance cameras are public records and that anyone can request them. Highlights the pervasiveness of this tech and just how much surveillance is being done. Very notable ruling
404 Media
Judge Rules Flock Surveillance Images Are Public Records That Can Be Requested By Anyone
A Washington judge said images taken by Flock cameras are "not exempt from disclosure" in public record requests.
New: The FBI filed a subpoena trying to unmask the person or people behind archive.is/archive.today, which have been running anonymously for 13 yrs. Site was widely used by GamerGate, and then to bypass paywalls but has become kind of core archiving infrastructure
404 Media
FBI Tries to Unmask Owner of Infamous Archive.is Site
The FBI has subpoenaed the domain registrar of archive.today, demanding information about the owner.
The end of Windows 10 support is going to be an environmental and security disaster, an egregious example of planned obsolescence that doesn't have to be this way:
404 Media
The End of Windows 10 Support Is an E-Waste Disaster in the Making
In an example of egregious planned obsolescence, as many as 400 million computers will soon hit the waste stream.
Some exciting news: 404 Media just won a grant via Muckrock to investigate book bans and educational censorship in the U.S. The plan is to file hundreds of public records requests around the country and to report on and archive all the documents for public use:
404 Media
Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America
404 Media has gotten a grant to unearth public records about systematic censorship of books, schools, and libraries in the U.S.
The much-hyped SIM farm the Secret Service seized uses readily available off the shelf tech that, very interestingly, has also become critical to ticket scalping. I, like others, am extremely not buying the idea that this was intended to take down the cell network
404 Media
The SIM Farm Hardware Seized by the Secret Service Is Also Popular With Ticket Scalpers
The tech the Secret Service claims can be used to "disable cell phone towers" is very commonly used by ticket scalpers to game Ticketmaster.
Buying anything from overseas is about to get more expensive, more logistically complicated, slower, and overall more annoying. Film photography community, retro games community, people into skincare already seeing chaos on eBay. eBay sellers locking US buyers out.
404 Media
Trump Tariffs Cause Chaos on Ebay as Every Hobby Becomes Logistical Minefield
Buying cameras, retro games, board games, skincare, flashlights, sex toys, watches, and anything else from overseas just became far more complicate...
Today is the two year anniversary of 404 Media, which is hard to fathom. We wrote about how it's going, what we've done, what we're going to do, and what we've learned. We cannot do this without the support of our subscribers and for that we are endlessly thankful:
404 Media
404 Media at Two Years: How We've Grown, and What's Next
We're reflecting on the impact our journalism had in year two, how we've grown with your support, and what we aspire to accomplish in year three.
All American trains have a vulnerability where a hacker can remotely trigger the brakes over radio frequency. A single researcher has been warning about this for 13 years and the government has FINALLY acknowledged it’s real and is making train companies fix it:
404 Media
Hackers Can Remotely Trigger the Brakes on American Trains and the Problem Has Been Ignored for Years
β€œAll of the knowledge to generate the exploit already exists on the internet. AI could even build it for you,” the researcher told 404 Media.
Media outlets can't pivot to AI to save themselves. It's not a business strategy and it's not going to work. The only path forward is for journalists to lean into their humanity, to do things AI can't, and to make clear they are writing for people, not algorithms:
404 Media
The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work
AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.
In 15 mins we're doing a FOIA FORUM about how we reported a story about cops using AI-powered sockpuppet bots on social media. This is for subscribers only, we'll be taking questions about FOIA, showing examples of our requests, etc. Come hang out!
404 Media
Our New FOIA Forum! 6/18, 1PM ET
Come learn how we got records all about an AI company working with cops.