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Three People Indicted In $400 Million FTX Crypto Hack Conspiracy

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - So, 2024-02-03 00:40
When FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, the defunct cryptocurrency exchange suffered a hack that resulted in more than $380 million in crypto stolen from FTX's virtual wallets. It turns out that FTX was hit with a SIM-swapping scam orchestrated by ringleader Robert Powell. Powell, along with Carter Rohn and Emily Hernandez, have been indicted and are due to appear in Chicago federal court later Friday for a detention hearing. CNBC reports: The three defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud, in a scheme that ran from March 2021 to last April, and involved the co-conspirators traveling to cellphone retail stores in more than 15 states. The indictment says the trio shared the personal identifying information of more than 50 victims, created fake identification documents in the victims' names, impersonated them and then accessed their victims' "online, financial and social media accounts for the purpose of stealing money and data." The scheme relied on duping phone companies into swapping the Subscriber Identity Module of cell phone subscribers into a cellphone controlled by members of the conspiracy, the indictment said. That in turn allowed the conspirators to defeat the multifactor authentication protection on the victims' accounts, giving them access to the money in those accounts. The indictment does not identify FTX by name as the main victim of the conspiracy, but the details of the hack described in that charging document align with the details publicly known about the theft from FTX, which was collapsing at the time of the attack.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Three+People+Indicted+In+%24400+Million+FTX+Crypto+Hack+Conspiracy%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F02%2F02%2F2011213%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F02%2F02%2F2011213%2Fthree-people-indicted-in-400-million-ftx-crypto-hack-conspiracy%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/02/02/2011213/three-people-indicted-in-400-million-ftx-crypto-hack-conspiracy?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

Ex-CIA Software Engineer Sentenced To 40 Years For Giving Secrets To WikiLeaks

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Pt, 2024-02-02 09:00
Joshua Schulte, a former CIA software engineer, was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Thursday for carrying out the largest theft of classified information in the agency's history and possessing child pornography. The Guardian reports: The 40-year sentence by US district judge Jesse Furman was for "crimes of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI, and child pornography," federal prosecutors said in a statement. The judge did not impose a life sentence as sought by prosecutors. Joshua Schulte was convicted in July 2022 on four counts each of espionage and computer hacking and one count of lying to FBI agents, after giving classified materials to the whistleblowing agency WikiLeaks in the so-called Vault 7 leak. Last August, a judge mostly upheld the conviction. WikiLeaks in March 2017 began publishing the materials, which concerned how the CIA surveilled foreign governments, alleged extremists and others by compromising their electronics and computer networks. Prosecutors characterized Schulte's actions as "the largest data breach in the history of the CIA, and his transmission of that stolen information to WikiLeaks is one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information" in US history. Prosecutors also said Schulte received thousands of images and videos of child sexual abuse, and that they found the material in Schulte's New York apartment, in an encrypted container beneath three layers of password protection, during the CIA leaks investigation.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Ex-CIA+Software+Engineer+Sentenced+To+40+Years+For+Giving+Secrets+To+WikiLeaks%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F02%2F02%2F0136233%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F02%2F02%2F0136233%2Fex-cia-software-engineer-sentenced-to-40-years-for-giving-secrets-to-wikileaks%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/02/02/0136233/ex-cia-software-engineer-sentenced-to-40-years-for-giving-secrets-to-wikileaks?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

FBI Director Warns Chinese Hackers Aim To 'Wreak Havoc' On US Critical Infrastructure

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Cz, 2024-02-01 03:25
"China's hackers are positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities, if or when China decides the time has come to strike," said FBI Director Christopher Wray in a prepared testimony before the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. NBC News reports: Wray also argued that "there has been far too little public focus" that Chinese hackers are targeting critical infrastructure in the U.S. such as water treatment plants, electrical grids, oil and natural gas pipelines, and transportation systems, according to the prepared remarks. "And the risk that poses to every American requires our attention -- now," his prepared testimony said. As Wray testified, the Justice Department and FBI announced they had disabled a Chinese hacking operation that had infected hundreds of small office and home routers with botnet malware that targeted critical infrastructure. The DOJ said the hackers, known to the private sector as "Volt Typhoon," used privately owned small routers that were infected with "KV botnet" malware to conceal further Chinese hacking activities against U.S. and foreign victims. Wray addressed the malware in his testimony, emphasizing that it targets critical infrastructure in the U.S. [...] At Wednesday's hearing, the director of the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Jen Easterly, testified that Americans should expect efforts by China to wage influence campaigns online relating to the 2024 election. However, Easterly added that she was confident that voting systems and other election infrastructure are well-defended. "To be very clear, Americans should have confidence in the integrity of our election infrastructure because of the enormous amount of work that's been done by state and local election officials, by the federal government, by vendors, by the private sector since 2016," Easterly said in her testimony. Wray emphasized in the remarks that the "cyber onslaught" of Chinese hackers "goes way beyond prepositioning for future conflict," saying in the prepared remarks that every day the hackers are "actively attacking" U.S. economic security, engaging in "wholesale theft of our innovation, and our personal and corporate data." "And they don't just hit our security and economy. They target our freedoms, reaching inside our borders, across America, to silence, coerce, and threaten our citizens and residents," the excerpts said.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=FBI+Director+Warns+Chinese+Hackers+Aim+To+'Wreak+Havoc'+On+US+Critical+Infrastructure%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F31%2F227237%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F31%2F227237%2Ffbi-director-warns-chinese-hackers-aim-to-wreak-havoc-on-us-critical-infrastructure%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/01/31/227237/fbi-director-warns-chinese-hackers-aim-to-wreak-havoc-on-us-critical-infrastructure?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

OpenAI's ChatGPT Breaches Privacy Rules, Says Italian Watchdog

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Śr, 2024-01-31 15:00
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Italy's data protection authority has told OpenAI that its artificial intelligence chatbot application ChatGPT breaches data protection rules, the watchdog said on Monday, as it presses ahead with an investigation started last year. The authority, known as Garante, is one of the European Union's most proactive in assessing AI platform compliance with the bloc's data privacy regime. Last year, it banned ChatGPT over alleged breaches of European Union (EU) privacy rules. The service was reactivated after OpenAI addressed issues concerning, amongst other things, the right of users to decline to consent to the use of personal data to train algorithms. At the time, the regulator said it would continue its investigations. It has since concluded that elements indicate one or more potential data privacy violations, it said in a statement without providing further detail. The Garante on Monday said Microsoft-backed OpenAI has 30 days to present defense arguments, adding that its investigation would take into account work done by a European task force comprising national privacy watchdogs.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=OpenAI's+ChatGPT+Breaches+Privacy+Rules%2C+Says+Italian+Watchdog%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F31%2F0659218%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F31%2F0659218%2Fopenais-chatgpt-breaches-privacy-rules-says-italian-watchdog%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/01/31/0659218/openais-chatgpt-breaches-privacy-rules-says-italian-watchdog?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

German Police Secure $2 Billion In Bitcoin From Pirate Site Operators

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Śr, 2024-01-31 02:10
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: With help from the FBI, German police managed to secure nearly 50,000 bitcoin (USD $2 billion) from the operators of the defunct movie streaming portal, Movie2k. [...] Movie2K was another pirate site that showed an early interest in bitcoin. In its heyday, the site was the dominant pirate streaming portal in German-speaking countries. It generated a healthy revenue stream, part of it held in bitcoin. The operator of the site never got to spend most of it though. The site surprisingly shut down in the spring of 2013. Many suspected that legal troubles had plagued the site, something confirmed years later when Dresden police announced several arrests. It was rare to see new activity in an already-dated dossier, but the biggest surprise followed later when the police announced that $29.7m in bitcoin had been secured from the site's operators. This 'seizure' was one of the largest of its kind but the authorities estimated that the operators had more bitcoin stashed away, much more. Today, new information released by Dresden police shows that the assumption was correct. Following an investigation carried out by the Dresden General Prosecutor's Office, the Saxony State Criminal Police, and the local tax authority (INES), nearly 50,000 bitcoin were 'provisionally' secured earlier this month. The haul is worth more than $2 billion at today's exchange rate. Never before has this much bitcoin been secured by German authorities; it's also one of the largest crypto hauls worldwide. "The Bitcoins were seized after the accused voluntarily transferred them to official wallets provided by the [Federal Criminal Police Office]. This means that a final decision has not yet been made about the utilization of the Bitcoins," police write.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=German+Police+Secure+%242+Billion+In+Bitcoin+From+Pirate+Site+Operators%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F30%2F2318257%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F30%2F2318257%2Fgerman-police-secure-2-billion-in-bitcoin-from-pirate-site-operators%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/01/30/2318257/german-police-secure-2-billion-in-bitcoin-from-pirate-site-operators?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

ChatGPT is Leaking Passwords From Private Conversations of Its Users - Report

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Wt, 2024-01-30 20:00
Dan Goodin, reporting for ArsTechnica: ChatGPT is leaking private conversations that include login credentials and other personal details of unrelated users, screenshots submitted by an Ars reader on Monday indicated. Two of the seven screenshots the reader submitted stood out in particular. Both contained multiple pairs of usernames and passwords that appeared to be connected to a support system used by employees of a pharmacy prescription drug portal. An employee using the AI chatbot seemed to be troubleshooting problems they encountered while using the portal. "THIS is so f-ing insane, horrible, horrible, horrible, i cannot believe how poorly this was built in the first place, and the obstruction that is being put in front of me that prevents it from getting better," the user wrote. "I would fire [redacted name of software] just for this absurdity if it was my choice. This is wrong." Besides the candid language and the credentials, the leaked conversation includes the name of the app the employee is troubleshooting and the store number where the problem occurred. The entire conversation goes well beyond what's shown in the redacted screenshot above. A link Ars reader Chase Whiteside included showed the chat conversation in its entirety. The URL disclosed additional credential pairs. The results appeared Monday morning shortly after reader Whiteside had used ChatGPT for an unrelated query.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=ChatGPT+is+Leaking+Passwords+From+Private+Conversations+of+Its+Users+-+Report%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fit.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F30%2F1757231%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fit.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F30%2F1757231%2Fchatgpt-is-leaking-passwords-from-private-conversations-of-its-users---report%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/01/30/1757231/chatgpt-is-leaking-passwords-from-private-conversations-of-its-users---report?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

UK To Ban Disposable Vapes

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Wt, 2024-01-30 04:02
In an announcement earlier today, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said single-use vapes will be banned in Britain, with certain flavors restricted and regulations put in place around their packaging and displays. The New York Times reports: Mr. Sunak said that the ban, which is part of legislation that still has to be approved by Parliament, was intended to halt "one of the most worrying trends at the moment," before it becomes "endemic." "The long-term impacts of vaping are unknown and the nicotine within them can be highly addictive, so while vaping can be a useful tool to help smokers quit, marketing vapes to children is not acceptable," he said in a statement. Andrea Leadsom, Britain's health minister, said the measures were intended to make sure that vapes were aimed at adults who were quitting smoking, rather than children. "Nicotine is highly addictive -- and so it is completely unacceptable that children are getting their hands on these products, many of which are undeniably designed to appeal to young people," she said in a statement. [...] While it is not illegal for people under 18 to smoke or vape in Britain, it is illegal for those products to be sold to them. By banning disposable vapes, and restricting the flavors and packaging of refillable vapes, the government hopes to make it far less likely that young people will experiment with e-cigarettes.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=UK+To+Ban+Disposable+Vapes%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F2325232%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F2325232%2Fuk-to-ban-disposable-vapes%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/01/29/2325232/uk-to-ban-disposable-vapes?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

NYC Wants To Create a First-of-Its Kind Department To Regulate App Based Delivery

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Wt, 2024-01-30 02:45
With the increasing adoption of e-bikes and drones for efficient, eco-friendly delivery services, New York is proposing the Department of Sustainable Delivery to regulate these services, focusing on safety, data sharing, and operational permits to ease congested lanes. Fast Company reports: The first step of the new department will be a task force made up of tech, transportation, labor, and government representatives. There are currently some city regulations around delivery operations, but they're fragmented; the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, for example, has addressed delivery worker rights (and recently announced a new minimum pay rate for app-based food delivery workers), while the Department of Transportation focuses on commercial delivery, and has taken steps to address delivery cargo bikes. "We don't have a place where every company that wants to dispatch in volume and move freight [and goods] around in the city on a micro level comes through and has to show that they're going to meet certain requirements," [New York City Deputy Mayor of Operations Meera Joshi] says. Managers of truck delivery fleets often track their driver's performance and behavior with tools like GPS; through the new department, micromobility app companies may be required to share their GPS delivery data with the city. That data might reveal more about how long delivery riders are working, or how heavy cargo bikes' loads are, which could lead to new regulations. Joshi also points to e-bike fires and rising e-bike rider deaths as red flags that signal the need for more oversight and legislation, which could prevent future tragedies. More information about where and when these deliveries are happening could also help the city adapt its infrastructure to this growing market. "As more and more of the city is feeling the effects of the commercialization of bike lanes, we certainly do have to rethink how wide our bike lanes are, what they are there to accommodate, does there need to be some separation between motorized and nonmotorized [bikes]?" Joshi says. "But these things need to be informed." The city is already making some such updates. Last summer, it upgraded a stretch of 10th Avenue to include a 10-foot-wide bike lane, to better allow regular cyclists and delivery e-bikes to coexist Tech advancements often move faster than the government, resulting in a game of legislative catch up for cities. Joshi says New York City is thinking about micromobility in this way because "we've seen this movie before," referring to tech disruption, "and we'd like a different ending." While Joshi knows that companies may bristle at the increased oversight, she says being proactive about these issues and taking steps to address them will likely help the firms and their public perception long-term. And not addressing micromobility challenges now could also impede larger climate progress. "If we are not able to show that we have a comprehensive framework, show that we're able to manage what we have today and prepare for the unknown, we could have people, saying 'it was better when [delivery] was in trucks,'" Joshi says, "and that would actually be probably the worst thing for the environment."pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=NYC+Wants+To+Create+a+First-of-Its+Kind+Department+To+Regulate+App+Based+Delivery%3A+https%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F2239211%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F2239211%2Fnyc-wants-to-create-a-first-of-its-kind-department-to-regulate-app-based-delivery%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/01/29/2239211/nyc-wants-to-create-a-first-of-its-kind-department-to-regulate-app-based-delivery?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

Japan Will No Longer Require Floppy Disks For Submitting Some Official Documents

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Wt, 2024-01-30 00:40
Japan is aiming to phase out floppy disks and CD-ROMs, which until now were forms of physical media required for submitting some official documents to the government. Engadget reports: Back in 2022, Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono urged various branches of the government to stop requiring businesses to submit information on outdated forms of physical media. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is one of the first to make the switch. "Under the current law, there are many provisions stipulating the use of specific recording media such as floppy disks regarding application and notification methods," METI said last week, according to The Register. After this calendar year, METI will no longer require businesses to submit data on floppy disks under 34 ordinances. The same goes for CD-ROMs when it comes to an unspecified number of procedures. There's still quite some way to go before businesses can stop using either format entirely, however. Kono's staff identified some 1,900 protocols across several government departments that still require the likes of floppy disks, CD-ROMs and even MiniDiscs. The physical media requirements even applied to key industries such as utility suppliers, mining operations and aircraft and weapons manufacturers. There are a couple of main reasons why there's a push to stop using floppy disks, as SoraNews24 points out. One major factor is that floppy disks can be hard to come by. Sony, the last major manufacturer, stopped selling them in 2011. Another is that some data types just won't fit on a floppy disk. A single photo can easily be larger than the format's 1.4MB storage capacity.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Japan+Will+No+Longer+Require+Floppy+Disks+For+Submitting+Some+Official+Documents%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F227211%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F227211%2Fjapan-will-no-longer-require-floppy-disks-for-submitting-some-official-documents%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/01/29/227211/japan-will-no-longer-require-floppy-disks-for-submitting-some-official-documents?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

Mistakenly Published Password Exposes Mercedes-Benz Source Code

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Wt, 2024-01-30 00:02
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Mercedes-Benz accidentally exposed a trove of internal data after leaving a private key online that gave "unrestricted access" to the company's source code, according to the security research firm that discovered it. Shubham Mittal, co-founder and chief technology officer of RedHunt Labs, alerted TechCrunch to the exposure and asked for help in disclosing to the car maker. The London-based cybersecurity company said it discovered a Mercedes employee's authentication token in a public GitHub repository during a routine internet scan in January. According to Mittal, this token -- an alternative to using a password for authenticating to GitHub -- could grant anyone full access to Mercedes's GitHub Enterprise Server, thus allowing the download of the company's private source code repositories. "The GitHub token gave 'unrestricted' and 'unmonitored' access to the entire source code hosted at the internal GitHub Enterprise Server," Mittal explained in a report shared by TechCrunch. "The repositories include a large amount of intellectual property connection strings, cloud access keys, blueprints, design documents, [single sign-on] passwords, API Keys, and other critical internal information." Mittal provided TechCrunch with evidence that the exposed repositories contained Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) keys, a Postgres database, and Mercedes source code. It's not known if any customer data was contained within the repositories. It's not known if anyone else besides Mittal discovered the exposed key, which was published in late-September 2023. A Mercedes spokesperson confirmed that the company "revoked the respective API token and removed the public repository immediately." "We can confirm that internal source code was published on a public GitHub repository by human error. The security of our organization, products, and services is one of our top priorities. We will continue to analyze this case according to our normal processes. Depending on this, we implement remedial measures."pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Mistakenly+Published+Password+Exposes+Mercedes-Benz+Source+Code%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fit.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F218231%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fit.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F218231%2Fmistakenly-published-password-exposes-mercedes-benz-source-code%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/01/29/218231/mistakenly-published-password-exposes-mercedes-benz-source-code?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

Tattoo Artist Kat Von D Wins Copyright Lawsuit Over Miles Davis Photo

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Pn, 2024-01-29 21:22
UnknowingFool writes: Jurors on Friday, January 26, 2024 ruled in favor of celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D (real name Katherine von Drachenberg) in a copyright lawsuit regarding a photo of Miles Davis in that her use of the photo was not copyright infringement. The photographer of the photo, Jeffrey Sedlik, sued Von D in February 2021 after she used the photo as the basis for a tattoo she inked on a friend. Kat Von D, who gained fame in the reality shows about tattoo artists "LA Ink" and "Miami Ink", put the tattoo on her friend's arm in 2017 as a gift. The jury found that the tattoo was not "substantially similar" to the photo and were also persuaded that the non-commercial nature of the work meant her use of the photo would be fair use. The plaintiff Sedilk said he is planning to appeal the ruling arguing it contradicts the Supreme Court ruling in Warhol Foundation vs Goldsmith (PDF) where the artist Andy Warhol made a silkscreen print of Lynn Goldsmith's photo of Prince. The main difference pointed out by Von D's lawyers is that Warhol charged $10,000 for his print whereas Von D did not charge her friend for the tattoo and that is was closer to "fan art".pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Tattoo+Artist+Kat+Von+D+Wins+Copyright+Lawsuit+Over+Miles+Davis+Photo%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F1811224%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F1811224%2Ftattoo-artist-kat-von-d-wins-copyright-lawsuit-over-miles-davis-photo%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/01/29/1811224/tattoo-artist-kat-von-d-wins-copyright-lawsuit-over-miles-davis-photo?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

Following Lawsuit, Rep Admits 'AI' George Carlin Was Human-Written

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Pn, 2024-01-29 16:45
An anonymous reader shares a report: The estate of George Carlin has filed a federal lawsuit against the comedy podcast Dudesy for an hour-long comedy special sold as an AI-generated impression of the late comedian. But a representative for one of the podcast hosts behind the special now admits that it was actually written by a human. In the lawsuit, filed by Carlin manager Jerold Hamza in a California district court, the Carlin estate points out that the special, "George Carlin: I'm Glad I'm Dead," (which was set to "private" on YouTube shortly after the lawsuit was filed) presents itself as being created by an AI trained on decades worth of Carlin's material. That training would, by definition, involve making "unauthorized copies" of "Carlin's original, copyrighted routines" without permission in order "to fabricate a semblance of Carlin's voice and generate a Carlin stand-up comedy routine," according to the lawsuit. Despite the presentation as an AI creation, there was a good deal of evidence that the Dudesy podcast and the special itself were not actually written by an AI, as Ars laid out in detail this week. And in the wake of this lawsuit, a representative for Dudesy host Will Sasso admitted as much to The New York Times. "It's a fictional podcast character created by two human beings, Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen," spokeswoman Danielle Del told the newspaper. "The YouTube video 'I'm Glad I'm Dead' was completely written by Chad Kultgen." Regardless of that admission, Carlin estate lawyer Josh Schiller told the Times that the lawsuit would move forward. "We don't know what they're saying to be true," he said. "What we will know is that they will be deposed. They will produce documents, and there will be evidence that shows one way or another how the show was created."pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Following+Lawsuit%2C+Rep+Admits+'AI'+George+Carlin+Was+Human-Written%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F1444249%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F1444249%2Ffollowing-lawsuit-rep-admits-ai-george-carlin-was-human-written%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/01/29/1444249/following-lawsuit-rep-admits-ai-george-carlin-was-human-written?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

California Bill Wants To Mandate Electronic 'Speed Limiters' in Cars

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Pn, 2024-01-29 05:59
"Someday in the not too distant future, it might no longer be possible to drive a brand-new car faster than 80 mph in California," writes Car and Driver: That's because state senator Scott Wiener earlier this week proposed a new bill that aims to prevent certain new vehicles from going more than 10 mph over the speed limit. In California, the maximum posted speed limit is 70 mph, meaning anything north of 80 mph would be off limits. The Speeding and Fatality Emergency Reduction on California Streets mdash; or SAFER California Streets, for short mdash; is a package of bills that includes SB 961 that was published Tuesday, which essentially calls for speed governors on new cars and trucks built or sold in California starting with the 2027 model year. These vehicles would be required to have an "intelligent speed limiter system" that electronically prevents the driver from speeding above the aforementioned threshold. The speed-limiter tech wouldn't apply to emergency vehicles. There's also language in the bill that the passive device would have the ability to be temporarily disabled by the driver, however, it's unclear in what situations that might apply. The bill also states that automakers would be able to fully disable the speed-limiter, but presumably only for authorized emergency vehicles. The commissioner of the California Highway Patrol could authorize disabling the speed-limiter too at their discretion... The proposed legislation is said to be an attempt to address rising traffic fatalities, which in California have reportedly increased by 22 perecent from 2019 to 2022.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=California+Bill+Wants+To+Mandate+Electronic+'Speed+Limiters'+in+Cars%3A+https%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F0356203%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F29%2F0356203%2Fcalifornia-bill-wants-to-mandate-electronic-speed-limiters-in-cars%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/01/29/0356203/california-bill-wants-to-mandate-electronic-speed-limiters-in-cars?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

America's Car Industry Seeks to Crush AM Radio. Will Congress Rescue It?

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - N, 2024-01-28 22:51
The Wall Street Journal reports that "a motley crew of AM radio advocates," including conservative talk show hosts and federal emergency officials, are lobbying Congress to stop carmakers from dropping AM radio from new vehicles: Lawmakers say most car companies are noncommittal about the future of AM tuners in vehicles, so they want to require them by law to keep making cars with free AM radio. Supporters argue it is a critical piece of the emergency communication network, while the automakers say Americans have plenty of other ways, including their phones, to receive alerts and information. The legislation has united lawmakers who ordinarily want nothing to do with one another. Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Ed Markey (D., Mass.) are leading the Senate effort, and on the House side, Speaker Mike Johnson mdash; himself a former conservative talk radio host in Louisiana mdash; and progressive "squad" member Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are among about 200 co-sponsors... A spring 2023 Nielsen survey, the most recent one available, showed that AM radio reaches about 78 million Americans every month. That is down from nearly 107 million in the spring of 2016, one of the earliest periods for which Nielsen has data... Automakers say the rise of electric vehicles is driving the shift away from AM, because onboard electronics create interference with AM radio signals mdash; a phenomenon that "makes the already fuzzy analog AM radio frequency basically unlistenable," according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a car-industry trade group. Shielding cables and components to reduce interference would cost carmakers $3.8 billion over seven years, the group estimates. Markey and other lawmakers say they want to preserve AM radio because of its role in emergency communications. The Federal Emergency Management Agency says that more than 75 radio stations, most of which operate on the AM band and cover at least 90% of the U.S. population, are equipped with backup communications equipment and generators that allow them to continue broadcasting information to the public during and after an emergency. Seven former FEMA administrators urged Congress in a letter last year to seek assurances from automakers that they would keep broadcast radio available. The companies' noncommittal response spurred legislation, lawmakers said. Automakers increasingly want to put radio and other car features "behind a paywall," Markey said in an interview. "They see this as another profit center for them when the American driving public has seen it as a safety resource for them and their families...." He compared the auto industry's resistance to the bill to previous opposition to government mandates like seat belts and air bags. "Leaving safety decisions to the auto industry is very dangerous," Markey said. Lawmakers have heard from over 400,000 AM radio supporters, according to the president of the National Association of Broadcasters. But the article also cites an executive at the Consumer Technology Association, who says automakers and tech advocacy groups have told lawmakers that requiring AM radio "would be "inconsistent with the principles of a free market.... It's strange that Congress is focused on a 100-year-old technology."pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=America's+Car+Industry+Seeks+to+Crush+AM+Radio.+Will+Congress+Rescue+It%3F%3A+https%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F28%2F2049208%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F28%2F2049208%2Famericas-car-industry-seeks-to-crush-am-radio-will-congress-rescue-it%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/01/28/2049208/americas-car-industry-seeks-to-crush-am-radio-will-congress-rescue-it?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

London Accused of Wrongly Fining Hundreds of Thousands of EU Drivers

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - N, 2024-01-28 19:34
The Guardian reports that "Hundreds of thousands of EU citizens were wrongly fined for driving in London's Ulez clean air zone, according to European governments..." The Guardian can reveal Transport for London (TfL) has been accused by five EU countries of illegally obtaining the names and addresses of their citizens in order to issue the fines, with more than 320,000 penalties, some totalling thousands of euros, sent out since 2021... Since Brexit, the UK has been banned from automatic access to personal details of EU residents. Transport authorities in Belgium, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands have confirmed to the Guardian that driver data cannot be shared with the UK for enforcement of London's ultra-low emission zone (Ulez), and claim registered keeper details were obtained illegally by agents acting for TfL's contractor Euro Parking Collection. In France, more than 100 drivers have launched a lawsuit claiming their details were obtained fraudulently, while Dutch lorry drivers are taking legal action against TfL over pound;6.5m of fines they claim were issued unlawfully. According to the Belgian MP Michael Freilich, who has investigated the issue on behalf of his constituents, TfL is treating European drivers as a "cash cow" by using data obtained illegitimately to issue unjustifiable fines. Freilich describes the situation as "possibly one of the largest privacy and data breaches in EU history," according to the article. Some drivers have even received penalties of up to five-figure sums mdash; for compliant vehicles which had simply not yet been registered. And "some low-emission cars have been misclassed as heavy goods diesel vehicles and fined under the separate low-emission zone scheme, which incurs penalties of up to pound;2,000 a day." Thanks to Slashdot reader Bruce66423 for sharing the article.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=London+Accused+of+Wrongly+Fining+Hundreds+of+Thousands+of+EU+Drivers%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F28%2F0547210%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F28%2F0547210%2Flondon-accused-of-wrongly-fining-hundreds-of-thousands-of-eu-drivers%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/01/28/0547210/london-accused-of-wrongly-fining-hundreds-of-thousands-of-eu-drivers?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

The Great Freight-Train Heists of the 21st Century

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - So, 2024-01-27 04:30
Cargo theft from freight trains in the Los Angeles area has surged, with detectives estimating over 90 containers being opened daily and that theft on their freight trains in the Union Pacific area was up some 160 percent from the previous year. Nationally, cargo theft neared $1 billion in losses last year. Companies decline comment but California's governor publicly questioned the widespread railroad theft. Most arrested were not organized; many were homeless people nearby opportunistically taking fallen boxes off tracks. Theft stems largely from e-commerce boom that reshaped freight shipping to meet consumer demand, opening vulnerabilities. Railroad police forces and online retailers aim to combat this but concede difficulty tracking stolen goods resold anonymously online. Some products stolen from containers even get resold back on Amazon. The New York Times Magazine: Sometimes products stolen out of Amazon containers are resold by third-party sellers back on Amazon in a kind of strange ouroboros, in which the snakehead of capitalism hungrily swallows its piracy tail. Last June, California's attorney general created what was touted as a first-of-its-kind agreement among online retailers that committed them to doing a better job tracking, reporting and preventing stolen items from being resold on their platforms. While declining to comment on specific cases, a spokesperson for Amazon told me that the company is working to improve the process of vetting sellers: The number of "bad actor attempts" to create new selling accounts on Amazon decreased to 800,000 in 2022 from six million in 2020.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=The+Great+Freight-Train+Heists+of+the+21st+Century%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F27%2F0010210%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F27%2F0010210%2Fthe-great-freight-train-heists-of-the-21st-century%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/01/27/0010210/the-great-freight-train-heists-of-the-21st-century?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

NSA Buys Americans' Internet Data Without Warrants, Letter Says

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Pt, 2024-01-26 14:00
The National Security Agency buys certain logs related to Americans' domestic internet activities from commercial data brokers, according to an unclassified letter by the agency. The New York Times: The letter [PDF], addressed to a Democratic senator and obtained by The New York Times, offered few details about the nature of the data other than to stress that it did not include the content of internet communications. Still, the revelation is the latest disclosure to bring to the fore a legal gray zone: Intelligence and law enforcement agencies sometimes purchase potentially sensitive and revealing domestic data from brokers that would require a court order to acquire directly. It comes as the Federal Trade Commission has started cracking down on companies that trade in personal location data that was gathered from smartphone apps and sold without people's knowledge and consent about where it would end up and for what purpose it would be used. In a letter to the director of national intelligence dated Thursday, the senator, Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, argued that "internet metadata" -- logs showing when two computers have communicated, but not the content of any message -- "can be equally sensitive" as the location data the F.T.C. is targeting. He urged intelligence agencies to stop buying internet data about Americans if it was not collected under the standard the F.T.C. has laid out for location records. "The U.S. government should not be funding and legitimizing a shady industry whose flagrant violations of Americans' privacy are not just unethical, but illegal," Mr. Wyden wrote.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=NSA+Buys+Americans'+Internet+Data+Without+Warrants%2C+Letter+Says%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F26%2F0630255%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F26%2F0630255%2Fnsa-buys-americans-internet-data-without-warrants-letter-says%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/01/26/0630255/nsa-buys-americans-internet-data-without-warrants-letter-says?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

Streaming Pirates Are Hollywood's New Villains

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Cz, 2024-01-25 16:01
Illegal subscription services that steal films or TV shows bring in $2 billion a year in ads and subscriber fees (non-paywalled link). From a report: Ever since taking on Netflix at its own game, old Hollywood has struggled to turn a profit in streaming, with the likes of Disney+, Peacock and Paramount+ losing billions of dollars each year, sparking concerns on Wall Street that the services will never be as profitable as cable once was. But the age of streaming has been a boon for some unintended winners: pirates that use software to rip a film or television show in seconds from legitimate online video platforms and host the titles on their own, illegitimate services, which rake in about $2 billion annually from ads and subscriptions. With no video production costs, illicit streaming sites such as myflixer and projectfreetv have achieved profit margins approaching 90%, according to the Motion Picture Association, a trade group representing Hollywood studios that's working to crack down on the thousands of illegal platforms that have cropped up in recent years. Initially the rise of legitimate online businesses such as Netflix actually helped curb digital piracy, which had largely been based on file uploads. But now piracy involving illegal streaming services as well as file-sharing costs the US economy about $30 billion in lost revenue a year and some 250,000 jobs, estimates the US Chamber of Commerce's Global Innovation Policy Center. The global impact is about $71 billion annually. In the US, which counts almost 130 subscription piracy sites, the MPA estimates that the top three combined have about 2 million users paying $5 to $10 per month for films, TV shows and live sports. Analysts say the user number could soar as the cost of subscriptions from legitimate companies such as Walt Disney approach $20 per month as they seek to bolster the finances of their streaming platforms. "Some of these pirate websites have gotten more daily visits than some of the top 10 legitimate sites," says Karyn Temple, the MPA's general counsel. "That really shows how prolific they are."pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Streaming+Pirates+Are+Hollywood's+New+Villains%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F25%2F141206%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F25%2F141206%2Fstreaming-pirates-are-hollywoods-new-villains%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/01/25/141206/streaming-pirates-are-hollywoods-new-villains?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

Inside a Global Phone Spy Tool Monitoring Billions

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Cz, 2024-01-25 15:06
A wide-spanning investigation by 404 Media reveals more details about a secretive spy tool that can tracks billions of phone profiles through the advertising industry called Patternz. From the report: Hundreds of thousands of ordinary apps, including popular ones such as 9gag, Kik, and a series of caller ID apps, are part of a global surveillance capability that starts with ads inside each app, and ends with the apps' users being swept up into a powerful mass monitoring tool advertised to national security agencies that can track the physical location, hobbies, and family members of people to build billions of profiles, according to a 404 Media investigation. 404 Media's investigation, based on now deleted marketing materials and videos, technical forensic analysis, and research from privacy activists, provides one of the clearest examinations yet of how advertisements in ordinary mobile apps can ultimately lead to surveillance by spy firms and their government clients through the real time bidding data supply chain. The pipeline involves smaller, obscure advertising firms and advertising industry giants like Google. In response to queries from 404 Media, Google and PubMatic, another ad firm, have already cut-off a company linked to the surveillance firm.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Inside+a+Global+Phone+Spy+Tool+Monitoring+Billions%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F25%2F136210%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F25%2F136210%2Finside-a-global-phone-spy-tool-monitoring-billions%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/01/25/136210/inside-a-global-phone-spy-tool-monitoring-billions?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p

Amazon's Ring To Stop Letting Police Request Doorbell Video From Users

Slashdot - Your Rights Online - Śr, 2024-01-24 19:00
Amazon's Ring home doorbell unit says it will stop letting police departments request footage from users' video doorbells and surveillance cameras, retreating from a practice that was criticized by civil liberties groups and some elected officials. Bloomberg: Next week, the company will disable its Request For Assistance tool (non-paywalled link), the program that had allowed law enforcement to seek footage from users on a voluntary basis, Eric Kuhn, who runs Ring's Neighbors app, said in a blog post on Wednesday. Police and fire departments will have to seek a warrant to request footage from users or show the company evidence of an ongoing emergency. Kuhn didn't say why Ring was disabling the tool. Yassi Yarger, a spokesperson, said Ring had decided to devote its resources to new products and experiences in the Neighbors app that better fit with the company's vision. The aim is to make Neighbors, which had been focused on crime and safety, into more of a community hub, she said. New features announced on Wednesday -- one called Ring Moments that lets users post clips and a company-produced Best of Ring -- highlight that push.pdiv class="share_submission" style="position:relative;" a class="slashpop" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Amazon's+Ring+To+Stop+Letting+Police+Request+Doorbell+Video+From+Users%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F24%2F1640212%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a a class="slashpop" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F24%2F01%2F24%2F1640212%2Famazons-ring-to-stop-letting-police-request-doorbell-video-from-users%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook"img src="https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a /div/ppa href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/01/24/1640212/amazons-ring-to-stop-letting-police-request-doorbell-video-from-users?utm_source=rss1.0moreanonamp;utm_medium=feed"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p