hatemail tech newsletter 2023-12-11
Deepfake nudes proliferate; Meta posturing for AI alliances; Adversarial Fashion; and more in the week's ethical tech news


Palestinian groups accuse Meta of unfairly moderating speech amid Israel-Hamas conflict
Several Palestinian advocacy groups are calling on Meta to address long-standing content moderation issues they allege have unfairly restricted them. [The Hill]
Introducing the AI Alliance
Meta forms an “AI Alliance” with several universities and companies as it pushes open source and community approaches. [Meta]

a16z Funded AI Platform Generated Images That “Could Be Categorized as Child Pornography,” Leaked Documents Show
OctoML, the engine that powers a16z funded Civitai, thought the images could qualify as “child pornography,” but ultimately decided to keep working with the company anyway, internal Slack chats and other material shows. [404Media]
AI influencers are getting filthy rich... let's build one
AI influencers are making real money selling content on websites like OnlyFans.This video shows how easy (and scary) it can be. [Fireship on YouTube]
Apps That Use AI to Undress Women in Photos Soaring in Use
Apps and websites that use artificial intelligence to undress women in photos are soaring in popularity, according to researchers. [Bloomberg]
'Nudify' apps that use AI to undress women in photos are soaring in popularity, prompting worries about non-consensual porn
TikTok has blocked the keyword “undress,” a popular search term associated with the services. [Fortune]
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Hackers stole ancestry data of 6.9 million users, 23andMe finally confirmed
Majority of impacted users are now being notified, 23andMe confirmed. [Ars Technica]
Clandestine online operations now require sign-off by senior officials
The military’s information operations are getting ‘new levels of oversight,’ the Pentagon tells us. [Washington Post]
China’s Hackers Are Expanding Their Strategic Objectives
China-based hackers are accessing U.S. infrastructure and developing methods to disrupt it in the event of conflict. [Lawfare]
A Decade of Have I Been Pwned
“A decade ago to the day, I published a tweet launching what would surely become yet another pet project that scratched an itch, was kinda useful to a few people but other than that, would shortly fade away into the same obscurity as all the other ones I'd launched over” [Troy Hunt’s blog]
Just about every Windows and Linux device vulnerable to new LogoFAIL firmware attack
UEFIs booting Windows and Linux devices can be hacked by malicious logo images. [Ars Technica]
Inside Job: How a Hacker Helped Cocaine Traffickers Infiltrate Europe’s Biggest Ports - OCCRP
OCCRP exposes the work of a Dutch hacker, who was hired by drug traffickers to penetrate port IT networks. [OCCRP]

Former US ambassador arrested in Florida, accused of serving as an agent of Cuba, AP source says
A former American diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested in a long-running FBI counterintelligence investigation [AP]
Another journalist goes missing in China
Veteran Hong Kong journalist Minnie Chan, who covers Chinese defense & diplomacy for the South China Morning Post, vanished while on assignment in Beijing. Friends suspect the government is holding her. [Will Ripley on Twitter]
Russia’s largest hacking conference: Biggest hits from Positive Hack Days 2023
Russia’s largest hacking conference, Positive Hack Days, recently took place in Moscow from Friday, May 19 to Saturday, May 20. The event was held at Gorky Park, a large park and cultural complex in Moscow, and split into an area freely open to the public and a village area. [Margin Research]
Russian information operation uses US celebrity Cameos to attack Zelensky
Kremlin propagandists tricked a half dozen celebrities into recording videos urging Ukraine's president to seek treatment for substance abuse. [Cyberscoop] [Microsoft]

Oxford’s 2023 Word of the Year Is … ‘Rizz’
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/arts/rizz-oxford-word-year.html
Sorry, Swifties. The Gen Z slang term — derived from “charisma” — went viral this year after the actor Tom Holland claimed to have none.
Sharif Kouddous on Twitter
“If I must die” — this is the poem Refaat has pinned at the top of his profile. The Israeli military killed him today in Gaza. [Sharif Kouddous on Twitter]
Building end-to-end security for Messenger
Meta publishes new whitepapers on a new end-to-end encryption scheme intended for Messenger apps. [Meta]
Your 2023 WebMD Wrapped
A satirical look into what your WebMD data might have said about you this year. [McSweeneys]
Adversarial Fashion
Clothing and tutorials for confounding and triggering computer vision-based surveillance systems with fashion and accessories. [Adversarial Fashion]
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