@josephcox
Hacking/crime/privacy journalist. Author of DARK WIRE, buy here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/joseph-cox/dark-wire/9781541702691/#preorder Co-founder of 404 Media. Signal: joseph.404 Email: joseph@404media.co
New from 404 Media: Proton Mail, the privacy-focused email service, gave authorities data that let the FBI unmask an anonymous 'Stop Cop City' protester. It was payment data linked to the anonymous email account. From that, FBI ID'd them, then tracked their movements www.404media.co/proton-mail-...
Another $5.6 million from ICE to Palantir, in part for its continued work on ELITE (Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement), which we revealed in January to be the Palantir tool ICE uses to find neighborhoods to raid
www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...
Scammers are trying to capitalize on people’s revulsion to ICE by coming up with strategies that would cause users to quickly log into their accounts. In reality, clients would be revealing their username and password to hackers.
www.404media.co/ice-phishing...
The financialization of everything is all that is left. Which is why we end up with the totally insane situation that people are betting on whether world leaders are going to get killed, or that a nuke will drop this year
Watch, subscribe here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=paHM...
Polymarket has pulled the bet on a nuclear detonation happening in 2026. There were obv concerns that a platform being used by insider traders would not mix well with a bet encouraging the detonation of a nuke. Polymarket didn't respond to request for comment
www.404media.co/polymarket-p...
Updated this piece—FBI press office says the official was speaking hypothetically. I think it’s clear the quotes were presented in the context of actual ops. Here is what the FBI said
AI-generated war footage is becoming a problem, X is taking a stand against it by *checks notes* demonetizing bluechecks for 90 days when they share it without a label?
New from 404 Media: the FBI is using AI to hack targets. FBI official was talking about "remote access operations," FBI's term for hacking. FBI said it's a "game changer". The comments were unusually candid about FBI's very secretive hacking operations. www.404media.co/the-fbi-is-u...
A DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations. ICE has bought access to similar tools. @evystadium.bsky.social reports.
Story by @josephcox.bsky.social: www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-i...
This sort of surveillance can happen through all sorts of innocuous seeming apps, such as video games, news apps, weather trackers, and dating apps. 404 Media has previously linked RTB-based surveillance to games like Candy Crush and Subway Surfers; dating apps Tinder and Grindr; the social network Tumblr, and the popular fitness app MyFitnessPal. In many cases, the app developers themselves are likely unaware they are acting as a conduit for government surveillance because the data collection is not based on any code the app creators have included themselves. The end result is tools that can potentially track hundreds of millions of phones, often without a warrant.
We've previously linked this sort of surveillance to apps such as Candy Crush, Subway Surfers, Tinder, Grindr, Tumblr, and more. App developers likely don't even know because it's not code they inserted; it's a problem baked into the advertising ecosystem www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-i...
SCOOP: An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations.
This surveillance can happen through all sorts of apps, such as video games, news apps, weather trackers, and dating apps.
This surveillance works through real-time bidding or RTB. Whenever an ad is loaded in app you're using, there is a near instantaneous bidding process between companies to deliver their ads. At same time, contractors siphon peoples' location data, goes to government www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-i...
On Tuesday, Wyden, Rep. Adriano Espaillat, and a group of 70 other lawmakers sent a letter to the DHS OIG urging it to once again investigate DHS’s purchase of location data. “Public reports indicate that ICE has resumed its location data purchases, even though DHS has yet to adopt all of the recommendations from your prior review,” the letter, shared with 404 Media by Wyden’s office, reads. “Your 2023 report noted that there was no DHS-wide policy governing component use of commercial location data. DHS created a commercial data working group in 2022, but as of April 2023, the DHS commercial data working group had yet to issue a policy. Your office recently confirmed that this recommendation remains open.” The letter says that ICE is “stonewalling” Wyden’s efforts to investigate the Webloc purchase. Wyden’s office requested a briefing on the purchase after 404 Media first revealed it, with that briefing scheduled for February 10. “One day before that briefing was to take place, ICE cancelled it with no explanation and without any offer to reschedule,” the letter reads.
Today a group of ~70 lawmakers are urging the oversight body of DHS to investigate ICE's location data purchase we recently revealed. DHS previously ICE, CBP, Secret Service all used the data illegally. Letter says ICE is stonewalling congressional oversight www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-i...
New from 404 Media: CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples' movements, according to an internal DHS document. Shows for the first time DHS tracked phones via process for putting ads in ordinary apps—video games, fitness apps, many more www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-i...
Amazon data centers are on fire after Iranian missile strikes on Dubai
www.404media.co/amazon-data-...
Want to know how to detect fake cell phone towers that intercept your calls, texts, and get your location? How often do cops really use this tech? Fascinating stuff here
Watch/subscribe www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEFP...
A group of more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers are demanding DHS hand over its definition of "domestic terrorist", after the agency repeatedly used the term against Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and has deployed a vast array of surveillance tech against critics www.404media.co/lawmakers-de...
On Wednesday, the government stopped supporting FPDS.gov, an indispensable resource for finding what ICE, the FBI, and every other agency is buying. Its replacement site completely sucks. @evystadium.bsky.social has more.
Story by @josephcox.bsky.social: www.404media.co/the-governme...
You can pay this company to scrub negative posts about you on the Tea app. The guy behind the company told me his employees, all men, have tea accounts, which is allegedly for women only www.404media.co/company-help...
Love to log onto Minecraft or Roblox and find ISIS there (literally) www.404media.co/the-islamic-...
the Islamic State is still around and is mostly interested in posting. It's using AI to kirkify dead leaders, trying to recruit in Roblox, and talking about Epstein to build clout
so ... Daesh is just like everyone else online
New: the government just made it harder to see what spy tech it buys. This includes ICE, the FBI, essentially any agency. Why? Because they decided to retire the perfectly good system for searching contracts and replaced it with one that fucking sucks
www.404media.co/the-governme...
Some Graykey (iPhone and Android unlocking tech) pricing and licensing I haven't seen before. From emails with LAPD that bought the tech
A planned change to Amazon means that if people buy items on your wishlist, it could expose your address. Definitely a threat to people who have public wishlists.
www.404media.co/amazon-wishl...
No, turning over activities designed for your learning to a bot does not free you.
Undermining online learning hurts access to learning, especially for the not-wealthy.
Had a great discussion with @mjgault.bsky.social of @404media.co about Einstein and other online course autocomplete systems.
New: the FBI got Grok to hand over the prompts a suspect used to generate nonconsensual porn. Connected to a harassment case. Pretty rare to see a Grok search warrant like this
www.404media.co/fbi-subpoena...
sometimes the founder of a company says something that simply stops you in your tracks and haunts you. There's one those in here from the creator of Einstein, an edtech AI that will go to school for you
We revealed that Ring's Search Party feature, which turns Ring cameras into an active surveillance network scanning for particular things, is only starting with finding lost dogs
More here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEq8...
NEW: A hobbyist has created Nearby Glasses, an app that warns you if someone close by is wearing smart glasses. 404 Media spoke to the creator who said he was inspired by our coverage that uncovers how men are wearing Meta's Ray-Bans to covertly film massage parlor workers.
New: this app warns you if someone is wearing smart glasses nearby.
Meta plans to add facial recognition to its Ray-Ban smart glasses. A 404 Media reader made this app after we showed men filming people w/o their consent, and DHS officials were wearing the glasses www.404media.co/this-app-war...
