Joseph Cox

Viral 'Quittr' Porn Addiction App Exposed the Masturbation Habits of Hundreds of Thousands of Users A couple of 20-year-old developers make $500,000 a month promising to help men to stop watching porn, but exposed their private porn watching habits.

A couple of young, viral developers are making $500,000 a month with ‘Quittr’; an app to help people with porn addiction. Insane money, living in a mansion, etc. We found they exposed the masturbation habits of 100,000s of users, then lied about fixing it www.404media.co/viral-quittr...

Viral 'Quittr' Porn Addiction App Exposed the Masturbation Habits of Hundreds of Thousands of Users A couple of 20-year-old developers make $500,000 a month promising to help men to stop watching porn, but exposed their private porn watching habits.

these kids are making Ferrari money telling people to use their app in order to stop watching porn, but they exposed their most intimate data and then lied to me about it www.404media.co/viral-quittr...

Palantir ad in Palm Springs airport

Understanding Roblox’s Grooming Problem YouTube video by 404 Media

This is a fascinating conversation with the reporter who knows the most about Roblox, an often misunderstood platform that is so much more significant than many think

Watch, subscribe here for conversations like this every week: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP6h...

I Visited the ‘Freedom Truck’ to Meet PragerU’s AI Slop Founders The 'Freedom Trucks' will haul AI slop George Washington on a tour across 48 American states.

good morning. I got an early preview of the AI slop founding fathers PragerU is taking on tour across the country

How to Talk to Someone Experiencing 'AI Psychosis' Mental health experts say identifying when someone is in need of help is the first step — and approaching them with careful compassion is the hardest, most essential part that follows.

What do you say to someone who believes their chatbot has unlocked the keys to the universe? I talked to mental health experts who are following the 'AI psychosis' issue closely to find out: www.404media.co/ai-psychosis...

How to Talk to Someone Experiencing 'AI Psychosis' Mental health experts say identifying when someone is in need of help is the first step — and approaching them with careful compassion is the hardest, most essential part that follows.

There’s no handbook or program for how to talk to a friend or family member who is falling into AI psychosis. So after many people contacted us clearly suffering from these delusions, we spoke to mental health experts. Here’s what they suggest: www.404media.co/ai-psychosis...

Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous ‘Stop Cop City’ Protestor A court record reviewed by 404 Media shows privacy-focused email provider Proton Mail handed over payment data related to a Stop Cop City email account to the Swiss government, which handed it to the ...

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...

ICE Phishing: Scammers Are Sending 'Support ICE' Emails to Steal Credentials "As part of our commitment to supporting ICE, we will be adding a ‘Support ICE’ donation button to the footer of every email sent through our platform."

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 Pulls Bet on Nuclear Detonation in 2026 ‘How ghoulish.’ The depravity economy moves into the nuclear war business.

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

X Will Stop Paying People for Sharing Unlabeled AI-Generated War Footage Fake war footage is a problem as old as social media. AI has just supercharged it.

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?

The FBI Is Using AI to Hack Targets AI is a “game changer” for what the FBI calls remote access operations, an FBI official said in response to a 404 Media question on Tuesday.

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...

CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples’ Movements 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. ICE has bought access to similar t...

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...

CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples’ Movements 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. ICE has bought access to similar t...

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 on Fire After Iranian Missile Strikes on Dubai Some AWS services are down in the Middle East. Recovery is unclear as it requires 'careful assessment to ensure the safety of our operators,' according to Amazon.

Amazon data centers are on fire after Iranian missile strikes on Dubai

www.404media.co/amazon-data-...

How to Detect Phone Spying Tech (with Cooper Quintin) YouTube video by 404 Media

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...

Lawmakers Demand DHS Define ‘Domestic Terrorist’ As It Uses Vast Array of Surveillance Tools Rep. Bennie G. Thompson and a host of other Democrats made the demand in a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. “Your actions are abhorrent, blatantly unconstitutional, and corrosive to the functionin...

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...

Company Helps Men Scrub Negative Posts About Them from Tea App “We just want to take down posts about people who are being defamed," the company's founder said. “And when I say defamed, it means like, ‘this guy has a small penis,’ or ‘this guy smells.’"

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...

The Islamic State Is Using AI to Resurrect Dead Leaders and Platforms Are Failing to Moderate It The group is talking about Epstein and filming propaganda videos in Roblox as a form of 'digital Jihad,' researchers say.

Love to log onto Minecraft or Roblox and find ISIS there (literally) www.404media.co/the-islamic-...

The Islamic State Is Using AI to Resurrect Dead Leaders and Platforms Are Failing to Moderate It The group is talking about Epstein and filming propaganda videos in Roblox as a form of 'digital Jihad,' researchers say.

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

The Government Just Made it Harder to See What Spy Tech it Buys 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.

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