hatemail tech newsletter 2023-09-18
The fashion of being offline; adtech fueling mass surveillance; and more in the week's ethical tech…


At New York Fashion Week, being offline is the ultimate luxury
If you’re following New York Fashion Week through TikTok, you’re witnessing an alternative reality. [Washington Post]
Palantir Among First Tech Firms to Promise White House They Won't Use AI for Evil
Adobe, Nvidia, Salesforce, Stability, and others also claim they will steward ‘trustworthy’ AI, if you can ever trust the companies themselves. [Gizmodo]
“This Is a Disaster:” Game Developers Scramble to Deal With Unity’s New Fees
The enshittification of the popular game engine got much worse today, with some developers saying they are already looking at open source alternatives. [404media]

Revealed: Israeli cyber firms developed an 'insane' new spyware tool. No defense exists
A Haaretz investigation reveals that Israeli cyber companies developed technology that exploits the advertising system at the heart of the online economy to monitor civilians, hack into their phones and computers, and spy on them. This terrifying capability, against which no defense currently exists, has already been sold to a nondemocratic country. [Haaretz] [non-paywalled archive]
Pegasus Infection of Galina Timchenko, exiled Russian Journalist and Publisher
In an investigative collaboration with Access Now, the Citizen Lab has analyzed forensic artifacts from the iPhone of award-winning exiled Russian investigative journalist Galina Timchenko and found with high confidence that on or around February 10th, 2023 it was infected with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. [CitizenLab]
Caesars Entertainment Paid Millions in Ransom in Recent Attack
Caesars Entertainment Inc. paid tens of millions of dollars to hackers who broke into the company’s systems in recent weeks and threatened to release the company’s data, according to two people familiar with the matter. [Bloomberg]
Tracking the Worlds Dumbest Cyber Mercenaries - Cooper Quintin
“In this talk we will discuss the story of Dark Caracal, the mistakes they have made, and how they have managed to remain effective despite quite possibly being the dumbest APT to ever exist.” [DEFCON on YouTube]
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‘It’s slavery for modern times’: how children of 12 toil in Colorado’s fields
Some states are pushing to relax child labour laws but even in the farms of San Luis valley, where most are Hispanic/Latino, youngsters can work an unlimited number of hours. [Guardian]
Amazon Illegally Silenced Drone Staff, Labor Board Alleges
US Labor Board prosecutors accused Amazon.com Inc. of imposing illegal secrecy rules on its staff, which could ultimately force the company to change its confidentiality rules. [Bloomberg]

Revealed: The Country that Secretly Wiretapped the World for the FBI
For years the FBI ran its own encrypted phone company to intercept messages from thousands of people around the globe. One country was critical to that operation, whose identity was unknown to the public. [404Media]
Telegram & Discord Security Best Practices
Greetings! In this note I'll give you some simple tips and you'll sleep better at night when using Telegram & Discord for life & work in crypto! [OfficerCIA on Mirror]

Stripe Forbids Sex Work, But Profits From Non-Consensual Porn
Stripe is processing payments for sites that produce nonconsensual AI porn while denying service to actual sex workers and people in the adult entertainment industry. [404Media]
Site for Generating Non-Consensual AI Porn Restricts Content Following 404 Media Investigation
“Time to try a new hobby,” one Mage user said in response to the new restrictions. [404Media]
Private Until Presumed Guilty - Allison Young, Diane Akerman
“In this talk, we will show you examples of information that can easily be extracted from many phones to surveil personal reproductive decisions. We will also show you how the government obtains your not-so-private thoughts using forensic extraction and reporting tools, with a focus on health and lifestyle apps. [DEFCON on YouTube]
Ashton Kutcher Resigns From Nonprofit Over Danny Masterson Letter
Kutcher resigned from the board of Thorn, the organization he co-founded to combat child sexual abuse, after backlash against his support of a more lenient sentence for Masterson, who was convicted of rape. [NYTimes]

Hate Parties: Sharing Links on Fringe Platforms Drives Antisemitic Comments on YouTube
Hate parties occur when links shared to fringe platforms lead users to YouTube comment sections to revel in hate, challenging content moderation strategies. [ADL]
India demands action after Seattle police officer laughs at death of student
‘India has reacted strongly to shocking bodycam footage of a Seattle police officer laughing over the death of a 23-year-old Indian student and demanded the US take action on the matter. [The Independent]
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