Developer Unlocks Newly Enshittified Echelon Exercise Bikes But Can’t Legally Release His Software

An app developer has jailbroken Echelon exercise bikes to restore functionality that the company put behind a paywall last month, but copyright laws prevent him from being allowed to legally release it.  Last month, Peloton competitor Echelon pushed a firmware update to its exercise equipment that forces its machines to connect to the company’s servers…

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Contractor Used Classified CIA Systems as ‘His Own Personal Google’

This article was produced in collaboration with Court Watch, an independent outlet that unearths overlooked court records. Subscribe to them here. A former CIA official and contractor, who at the time of his employment dug through classified systems for information he then sold to a U.S. lobbying firm and foreign clients, used access to those…

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Apple Fixes Bug That Let FBI Extract Deleted Signal Messages After 404 Media Coverage

Last week Apple fixed an issue that let the FBI forensically extract copies of incoming Signal messages from a defendant’s iPhone, even after the app had been deleted, because copies of those messages were stored in the iPhone’s notification database. The move comes directly in response to 404 Media’s coverage of a case in which…

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ICEBlock Creator Sues U.S. Government Over App’s Removal

The creator of ICEBlock, a popular ICE-spotting app that Apple removed after direct pressure from the Department of Justice, is suing Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top officials, arguing that the demand violated his First Amendment rights. The move is the latest in the ongoing crackdown on ICE-spotting apps and other information about the…

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