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Before yesterdayWIRED

How to Stop Your Data From Being Used to Train AI

By Matt Burgess, Reece Rogers
Some companies let you opt out of allowing your content to be used for generative AI. Here’s how to take back (at least a little) control from ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and more.

The Incognito Mode Myth Has Fully Unraveled

By Dell Cameron, Andrew Couts
To settle a years-long lawsuit, Google has agreed to delete “billions of data records” collected from users of “Incognito mode,” illuminating the pitfalls of relying on Chrome to protect your privacy.

The DOJ Puts Apple's iMessage Encryption in the Antitrust Crosshairs

By Andy Greenberg, Andrew Couts
Privacy and security are an Apple selling point. But the DOJ’s new antitrust lawsuit argues that Apple selectively embraces privacy and security features in ways that hurt competition—and users.

Glassdoor Wants to Know Your Real Name

By Amanda Hoover
Anonymous, candid reviews made Glassdoor a powerful place to research potential employers. A policy shift requiring users to privately verify their real names is raising privacy concerns.

There Are Dark Corners of the Internet. Then There's 764

By Ali Winston
A global network of violent predators is hiding in plain sight, targeting children on major platforms, grooming them, and extorting them to commit horrific acts of abuse.

Binance’s Top Crypto Crime Investigator Is Being Detained in Nigeria

By Andy Greenberg
Tigran Gambaryan, a former crypto-focused US federal agent, and a second Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, have been held in Abuja without passports for two weeks.

Airbnb Bans All Indoor Security Cameras

By Amanda Hoover, Matt Burgess
Starting at the end of April, Airbnb will no longer allow hosts to have security cameras inside their rental properties, citing a commitment to prioritizing guest privacy.

Meta Abandons Hacking Victims, Draining Law Enforcement Resources, Officials Say

By Dell Cameron
A coalition of 41 state attorneys general says Meta is failing to assist Facebook and Instagram users whose accounts have been hacked—and they want the company to take “immediate action.”

Inside Registered Agents Inc., the Shadowy Firm Pushing the Limits of Business Privacy

By William Turton, Dhruv Mehrotra
Registered Agents Inc. has for years allowed businesses to register under a cloak of anonymity. A WIRED investigation reveals that its secretive founder has taken the practice to an extreme.

Here Come the AI Worms

By Matt Burgess
Security researchers created an AI worm in a test environment that can automatically spread between generative AI agents—potentially stealing data and sending spam emails along the way.

The White House Warns Cars Made in China Could Unleash Chaos on US Highways

By Aarian Marshall, Will Knight
As Chinese automakers prepare to launch in the US, the White House is investigating whether cars made in China could pose a national security threat.

How the Pentagon Learned to Use Targeted Ads to Find Its Targets—and Vladimir Putin

By Byron Tau
Meet the guy who taught US intelligence agencies how to make the most of the ad tech ecosystem, "the largest information-gathering enterprise ever conceived by man."

How a Right-Wing Controversy Could Sabotage US Election Security

By Eric Geller
Republicans who run elections are split over whether to keep working with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to fight hackers, online falsehoods, and polling-place threats.

Here Are the Secret Locations of ShotSpotter Gunfire Sensors

By Dhruv Mehrotra, Joey Scott
The locations of microphones used to detect gunshots have been kept hidden from police and the public. A WIRED analysis of leaked coordinates confirms arguments critics have made against the technology.

Leak Reveals the Unusual Path of ‘Urgent’ Russian Threat Warning

By Dell Cameron
The US Congress was preparing to vote on a key foreign surveillance program last week. Then a wild Russian threat appeared.

Apple iOS 17.4: iMessage Gets Post-Quantum Encryption in New Update

By Matt Burgess
Useful quantum computers aren’t a reality—yet. But in one of the biggest deployments of post-quantum encryption so far, Apple is bringing the technology to iMessage.

Leak of Russian ‘Threat’ Part of a Bid to Kill US Surveillance Reform, Sources Say

By Dell Cameron
A surprise disclosure of a national security threat by the House Intelligence chair was part of an effort to block legislation that aimed to limit cops and spies from buying Americans' private data.

London Underground Is Testing Real-Time AI Surveillance Tools to Spot Crime

By Matt Burgess
In a test at one station, Transport for London used a computer vision system to try and detect crime and weapons, people falling on the tracks, and fare dodgers, documents obtained by WIRED show.

Ransomware Payments Hit a Record $1.1 Billion in 2023

By Andy Greenberg
After a slowdown in payments to ransomware gangs in 2022, last year saw total ransom payouts jump to their highest level yet, according to a new report from crypto-tracing firm Chainalysis.

The Mystery of the $400 Million FTX Heist May Have Been Solved

By Andy Greenberg
An indictment against three Americans suggests that at least some of the culprits behind the theft of an FTX crypto fortune may be in custody.

US Lawmakers Tell DOJ to Quit Blindly Funding ‘Predictive’ Police Tools

By Dell Cameron
Members of Congress say the DOJ is funding the use of AI tools that further discriminatory policing practices. They're demanding higher standards for federal grants.

Police Arrest Teen Said to Be Linked to Hundreds of Swatting Attacks

By Dhruv Mehrotra
A California teenager who allegedly used the handle Torswats to carry out a nationwide swatting campaign is being extradited to Florida to face felony charges, WIRED has learned.

How to Opt Out of Comcast’s Xfinity Storing Your Sensitive Data

By Reece Rogers
One of America’s largest internet providers may collect data about your political beliefs, race, and sexual orientation to serve personalized ads.

‘Stablecoins’ Enabled $40 Billion in Crypto Crime Since 2022

By Andy Greenberg
A new report from Chainalysis finds that stablecoins like Tether, tied to the value of the US dollar, were used in the vast majority of crypto-based scam transactions and sanctions evasion in 2023.

How to Stop Your X Account From Getting Hacked Like the SEC's

By Lily Hay Newman
The US Securities and Exchange Commission and security firm Mandiant both had their X accounts breached, possibly due to changes to X’s two-factor authentication settings. Here’s how to fix yours.

Child Abusers Are Getting Better at Using Crypto to Cover Their Tracks

By Andy Greenberg
Crypto tracing firm Chainalysis found that sellers of child sexual abuse materials are successfully using “mixers” and “privacy coins” like Monero to launder their profits and evade law enforcement.

Lawmakers Are Out for Blood After a Hack of the SEC’s X Account Causes Bitcoin Chaos

By Joel Khalili
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is under pressure to explain itself after its X account was compromised, leading to wild swings in the bitcoin market.

How to Be More Anonymous Online

By Matt Burgess
Being fully anonymous is next to impossible—but you can significantly limit what the internet knows about you by sticking to a few basic rules.

The Worst Hacks of 2023

By Lily Hay Newman
It was a year of devastating cyberattacks around the globe, from ransomware attacks on casinos to state-sponsored breaches of critical infrastructure.

The Most Dangerous People on the Internet in 2023

By WIRED Staff
From Sam Altman and Elon Musk to ransomware gangs and state-backed hackers, these are the individuals and groups that spent this year disrupting the world we know it.

Congress Sure Made a Lot of Noise About Kids’ Privacy in 2023—and Not Much Else

By Matt Laslo
Members of the US Congress touted improvements to children’s privacy protections as an urgent priority. So why didn’t they do anything about it?

McDonald’s Ice Cream Machine Hackers Say They Found the ‘Smoking Gun’ That Killed Their Startup

By Andy Greenberg
Kytch, the company that tried to fix McDonald’s broken ice cream machines, has unearthed a 3-year-old email it says proves claims of an alleged plot to undermine their business.

End-to-End Encrypted Instagram and Messenger Chats: Why It Took Meta 7 Years

By Lily Hay Newman
Mark Zuckerberg personally promised that the privacy feature would launch by default on Messenger and Instagram chat. WIRED goes behind the scenes of the company’s colossal effort to get it right.

The Binance Crackdown Will Be an 'Unprecedented' Bonanza for Crypto Surveillance

By Andy Greenberg
Binance’s settlement requires it to offer years of transaction data to US regulators and cops, exposing the company—and its customers—to a “24/7, 365-days-a-year financial colonoscopy.”

9 Best Password Managers (2024): Features, Pricing, and Tips

By Scott Gilbertson
Keep your logins locked down with our favorite password management apps for PC, Mac, Android, iPhone, and web browsers.

A New Trick Uses AI to Jailbreak AI Models—Including GPT-4

By Will Knight
Adversarial algorithms can systematically probe large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 for weaknesses that can make them misbehave.

Anduril’s New Drone Killer Is Locked on to AI-Powered Warfare

By Will Knight
Autonomous drones are rapidly changing combat. Anduril’s new one aims to gain an edge with jet power and AI.

Okta Breach Impacted All Customer Support Users—Not 1 Percent

By Lily Hay Newman
Okta upped its original estimate of customer support users affected by a recent breach from 1 percent to 100 percent, citing a “discrepancy.”

OpenAI’s Custom Chatbots Are Leaking Their Secrets

By Matt Burgess
Released earlier this month, OpenAI’s GPTs let anyone create custom chatbots. But some of the data they’re built on is easily exposed.

The Hundred-Year Battle for India’s Radio Airwaves

By Adil Rashid
The Indian government has a monopoly on radio news, allowing it to dictate what hundreds of millions of people hear. With an election approaching, that gives prime minister Narendra Modi a huge advantage.

Telegram’s Bans on Extremist Channels Aren't Really Bans

By Vittoria Elliott
A WIRED analysis of more than 100 restricted channels shows these communities remain active, and content shared within them often spreads to channels accessible to the public.

Section 702 Surveillance Reauthorization May Get Slipped Into ‘Must-Pass’ NDAA

By Dell Cameron
Congressional leaders are discussing ways to reauthorize Section 702 surveillance, including by attaching it to the National Defense Authorization Act, Capitol Hill sources tell WIRED.

It's Time to Log Off

By Thor Benson
There’s a devastating amount of heavy news these days. Psychology experts say you need to know your limits—and when to put down the phone.

DOJ Charges Binance With Vast Money-Laundering Scheme and Sanctions Violations

By Andy Greenberg
From Russia to Iran, the feds have charged Binance with conducting well over $1 billion in transactions with sanctioned countries and criminal actors.

How to Turn Off Facebook’s Two-Factor Authentication Change

By Reece Rogers
With Meta’s updated 2FA process, the company now automatically trusts devices you often use.

Social Media Sleuths, Armed With AI, Are Identifying Dead Bodies

By Deidre Olsen
Poverty, fentanyl, and lack of public funding mean morgues are overloaded with unidentified bodies. TikTok and Facebook pages are filling the gap—with AI proving a powerful and controversial new tool.

The Mirai Confessions: Three Young Hackers Who Built a Web-Killing Monster Finally Tell Their Story

By Andy Greenberg
Netflix, Spotify, Twitter, PayPal, Slack. All down for millions of people. How a group of teen friends plunged into an underworld of cybercrime and broke the internet—then went to work for the FBI.

How to Get Facebook Without Ads—if It’s Available for You

By Reece Rogers
Meta now offers users an ad-free option, but it’s only available in Europe for those who can afford the €10-a-month subscription.

The GOP Presidential Debate Is Livestreaming on Rumble, Home to White Nationalist Nick Fuentes

By David Gilbert
The third GOP debate is sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition and will be livestreamed on a platform favored by one of America’s most notorious white nationalists.

This Is the Ops Manual for the Most Tech-Savvy Animal Liberation Group in the US

By Andy Greenberg
For the first time, guerrilla animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere reveals a guide to its investigative tactics and toolkit, from spy cams to night vision and drones.

Internet Blackouts in Gaza Are a New Weapon in the Israel-Hamas War

By Matt Burgess, Lily Hay Newman
Israel has said it’s prepared to disrupt internet service in Gaza, signaling a new age of warfare. In the past two weeks, the Palestinian territory has already suffered three communications shutdowns.

YouTube's Ad Blocker Detection Believed to Break EU Privacy Law

By K.G. Orphanides
A complaint filed with the EU’s independent data regulator accuses YouTube of failing to get explicit user permission for its ad blocker detection system, potentially violating the ePrivacy Directive.

Intensified Israeli Surveillance Has Put the West Bank on Lockdown

By Tom Bennett
The West Bank was Israel’s surveillance laboratory. Since the Israel-Hamas war began, Palestinian residents have been locked in for days at a time.

The UN Hired an AI Company to Untangle the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis

By David Gilbert
CulturePulse's AI model promises to create a realistic virtual simulation of every Israeli and Palestinian citizen. But don't roll your eyes: It's already been put to the test in other conflict zones.

The New Era of Social Media Looks as Bad for Privacy as the Last One

By Vittoria Elliott
The slow-motion implosion of Elon Musk’s X has given rise to a slew of competitors, where privacy invasions that ran rampant over the past decade still largely persist.

TikTok Streamers Are Staging ‘Israel vs. Palestine’ Live Matches to Cash In on Virtual Gifts

By David Gilbert
TikTokkers are using a little-known livestreaming feature to falsely represent Israelis and Palestinians—and the company is taking a cut of costly in-app gifts viewers give to participants.

Elon Musk Mocked Ukraine, and Russian Trolls Went Wild

By Matt Burgess
Inauthentic accounts on X flocked to its owner’s post about Ukrainian president Vlodymr Zelensky, hailing “Comrade Musk” and boosting pro-Russia propaganda.

The AI-Generated Child Abuse Nightmare Is Here

By Matt Burgess
Thousands of child abuse images are being created with AI. New images of old victims are appearing, as criminals trade datasets.

A Controversial Plan to Scan Private Messages for Child Abuse Meets Fresh Scandal

By Vas Panagiotopoulos
An EU government body is pushing a proposal to combat child sexual abuse material that has significant privacy implications. Its lead advocate is making things even messier.
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