IT Guy

Seven VPNs. every one of them said “no logs.”

july 2020: researchers found their shared database sitting open on the internet. no password.

1.2TB of data. over a billion log entries.

inside: plaintext passwords, IP addresses, connection timestamps, websites visited, home addresses, emails, payment info.

UFO VPN’s explanation: covid staff changes meant firewall bugs got missed. also, the logs were only for “performance monitoring” and were anonymized.

the researchers checked the samples. they weren’t anonymous.

the logs they swore didn’t exist were the ones that leaked.

Hola was a free VPN. millions of people installed it to watch netflix from other countries.

turns out you weren’t just using the VPN, you were also a part of it.

hola sent other people’s traffic through your computer, using your connection and your IP.

then it sold access to that network under another name, luminati, reportedly at $20 per gigabyte.

may 2015: someone bought access and used it to attack 8chan. the traffic came from ordinary hola users’ computers.

hola’s founder said selling the bandwidth had always been part of the deal for free users.

the FAQ was updated to say so after the attack.

luminati is now called bright data.

"Welcome back 👋😂"

Turns out when you delete an app on iphone, It can leave a little note in your keychain that just stays there.

Apple even built a tool so developers can recognise your phone after a reinstall. it’s meant to stop people farming free trials, but yeah they know it’s you.

Android’s no better. Reinstall the app and it gets the same ID it had last time.

Cities are tearing out flock cameras. Over 30 have cancelled contracts this year.

Meanwhile, school buses.

BusPatrol already has AI cameras on about 35,000 of them, ticketing drivers who pass a stopped bus.

Honestly, fair. blowing past a bus while kids are crossing should cost you.

$250 a ticket and in many contracts the company keeps 60%.

Now leaked documents show the plan: keep the cameras on all the time, read the plate of every car the bus passes, and share it with police.

Tracking everyone who drives past a school bus.

A school bus goes down every residential street in town. twice a day. On a schedule.

And good luck voting against anything labelled “school bus safety.”

The first use case is always good.