How do you know the internet has a deepfake porn problem? Just look at takedown requests due to copyright violations. WIRED discovered this week that Google is receiving thousands of Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaints for deepfake nudes, most of which were published by just a handful of websites. Experts say the flood of DMCA takedown requests is evidence that Google needs to remove offending sites from search results. In Texas, a federal court upheld state age verification requirements for porn sites, which could lead to more lawsuits.
In a win for privacy advocates, Airbnb announced Monday that it will ban the use of indoor security cameras at short-term rental properties around the world. The ban extends to outdoor areas where ‘more privacy is expected’, such as saunas or outdoor showers. The company has long banned the use of hidden cameras and has required hosts to tell guests where security cameras are installed. Hosts who violate the security camera ban can have their properties removed from Airbnb.
Cryptocurrency firm Binance’s problems have gone from bad to downright scary. Two of the company’s executives – Tigran Gambaryan, a former financial crimes investigator for the IRS, and British-based government affairs specialist Nadeem Anjarwalla, have been detained for weeks by the Nigerian government amid its wider crackdown against cryptocurrency. Neither man has been charged with any crime, and their families are asking the U.S. and British governments for help in securing their release.
In case you’re wondering: No, the US government is not hiding evidence of aliens, according to a new Pentagon report. But it certainly seems to be hidden something, which raises more questions about what’s out there if that thing isn’t UFOs. Elsewhere in the world of government secrets, the chairman of the US House Intelligence Committee recently held a closed-door meeting in which he urged lawmakers to block privacy reforms to a major US surveillance program by citing how it could be used to invade the US to keep an eye on established demonstrators. further increasing civil liberties concerns. Congress’ efforts to renew that program, known as Section 702, remain ongoing.
Donald Trump earned enough delegates in the 2024 Republican primaries this week to officially clinch the party’s nomination. If Trump wins another term in the White House, experts fear he could use a range of “emergency powers” to implement an authoritarian agenda — and there is little the other branches of government can do to stop him.
Finally reporters from The mirror, Recorder, The WashingtonPostand WIRED collaborated to investigate a global network of violent predators using major platforms like Discord, Telegram and even Roblox to target children and extort them into committing horrific abuse – or worse.
And that’s not all. Every week we collect safety news that we have not discussed in detail ourselves. Click on the headlines to read the full stories and stay safe out there.
Insurance companies have long offered discounts to drivers who carry GPS devices or download smartphone apps that track their driving habits. But if attentive drivers refuse, insurers look for other ways to monitor their driving behavior. Data brokers like LexisNexus buy people’s car data directly from manufacturers, like General Motors, who make money selling it. This data is then used to create ‘risk’ scores for individual drivers, which insurers use to set premiums. The companies claim that data sharing is consensual, but most drivers have no idea what’s happening. Drivers whose risk scores are shared with insurers often see their monthly insurance payments skyrocket.
The operator of a darknet cryptocurrency “mixing” service called Bitcoin Fog faces up to 20 years in prison after his conviction this week by a federal jury in Washington, DC. Roman Sterlingov, 35, ran Bitcoin Fog between 2011 and 2021, moving about $400 million worth of currency, much of which, prosecutors say, was tied to narcotics, identity theft and cybercrime. Sterlingov had denied founding Bitcoin Fog in interviews with WIRED; However, the US Department of Justice has contradicted this claim in court with blockchain analysis and a financial paperwork process.
According to a letter from Ron Wyden, a U.S. senator from Oregon, two commercial safe manufacturers have been called out for installing backdoors in their safes. The reset codes are one of the reasons why the Department of Defense has banned the safes from being used within the US government. Knowledge of the codes, which Wyden says makes consumers vulnerable to criminals and spies, was made public through a letter he wrote to the National Counterintelligence and Security Center. In it he asks the service to send out an alert, warning Americans of the risks posed by the safes.