Five years since the first exhibition, the public perception of ASMR has shifted dramatically. “In 2020, people laughed at ASMR. It was this sort of almost taboo thing,” he says. “It’s much less taboo now. People are a lot more open about it.” In these few years, ASMR has emerged as a subversive response to…
Hong Kong Customs and a consumer watchdog are investigating 22 complaints involving HK$200,000 (US$26,000) in prepaid packages following the abrupt closure of a beauty centre in Fanling, a lawmaker assisting victims has said. Athena Beauty, located in Cheung Wah Estate in Fanling, was also accused of transferring customers’ information without consent to Classic Life, a…
Privacy and digital rights advocates largely prefer the approach of building a travel device from scratch, but they caution that a phone that is too squeaky clean, too much like a burner phone, can arouse suspicion. “You have to ‘seed’ the device. Use the phone for a day or even for a few hours. It…
Notes from a March 18 meeting, marked “Internal/Confidential,” show that a DOL lawyer presented colleagues with an overview of DOL’s interactions with DOGE. “So far,” the notes read, “they do not have write access. They have asked; we’ve held them at bay. We’ve tried to get them to tell us what they want & then…
Privacy advocates say that all this data could enable the government to punish its political opponents by weaponizing information about an individual’s personal life (bankruptcies, criminal histories, medical claims) or halting the benefits they receive (housing vouchers, retirement checks, food assistance). “They have not demonstrated a single case in which fraud detection has required some…
iOS dating apps for BDSM and LGBTQ+ communities found to have exposed private photos. getty Online dating is already an emotional minefield without the addition of anxiety over who can see your photos and messages, including those of the most sensitive nature. Online dating within the BDSM, LGBTQ+ and Sugar Daddy communities, even more so…
As a devastating wildfire burned through a Maui town, killing more than 100 people, emergency management employees traded dozens of text messages, creating a record that would later help investigators piece together the government’s response to the 2023 tragedy. One text exchange hinted officials might also be using a second, untraceable messaging service. “That’s what…
There is a whole shady industry for people who want to monitor and spy on their families. Multiple app makers market their software — sometimes referred to as stalkerware — to jealous partners who can use these apps to access their victims’ phones remotely. Yet, despite how sensitive this data is, an increasing number of…
Earlier this year, 404 Media published another article about the location-tracking industry that surreptitiously gathers and resells our location data (for earlier coverage, see “Exposé Reveals Ongoing Smartphone Location Tracking Threats,” 23 October 2024). This piece highlighted another reason why allowing private companies to collect such information is concerning—one of the major players in the field was…
While Meta, Snap, and X issued a joint statement praising the Utah bill’s passage, Google calls it “concerning.” Rather than protect kids and give parents more control, Google director of public policy Kareem Ghanem writes, the legislation “requires app stores to share if a user is a kid or teenager with all app developers (effectively…