Midnight Web by Rahul Banerjee

Bitchat has vanished from the Apple and Google app stores in India. The government ordered Apple to block access to the app under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. So what makes Bitchat different from WhatsApp and most other messaging apps? Almost all of them need the internet to work. Bitchat doesn't. It runs on Bluetooth Low Energy mesh networking, so phones that are close to each other can connect directly. A message can hop from one phone to the next, passing through several devices without touching the regular internet at all.You also don't need a phone number or any kind of account to use it. That design makes it genuinely useful when the internet goes down or gets shut off. But it also makes monitoring, interception and tracing who said what much harder, and that's likely what caught the government's attention. The Internet Freedom Foundation has pushed back on the move. Its argument is that Section 69A is meant for dealing with unlawful content, n...

  UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – 16.09.2026 Hackers ripped open Flock camera above a roadway made a near complete copy of the data and stored inside and shared the files with 404 Media and Wired. And the hackers say they're also publishing details on how they managed to obtain the software in hopes that other people may copy them. The hackers were able to copy the camera storage and recover an encryption key stored on the device, which unlocked videos of thousands of vehicle detections. While much of the ALPR's most sensitive storage remained encrypted and inaccessible, the joint analysis of the recovered data shows that software running on the device explicitly detects people as well as vehicles license plates and bicycles. 404 and wired analysed the camera's content and found the device processor is similar to those used in mid-range smartphones. According to the code, when something moves into view the camera takes a rapid series of photos. A typical passing vehicle gener...

  The internet's obsession with '80s analogue nostalgia has taken over social media feeds, with users turning to AI image generators to transform everyday photos into faded, film grained memories. Nostalgia isn't inherently bad we all love a trip down memory lane. But here's what most people overlook: you are feeding your raw facial data into these tools, and that carries real risks. You upload your photo to an AI tool like ChatGPT or similar platforms, download the retro filtered result, and then post it across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp without a second thought. That's a massive amount of personal biometric data flowing freely across the internet. And with it, deepfake technology is becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect. I'm not here to hand you a prompt those are everywhere. I'm here to make you think twice before you click generate . Good luck world!

Meta is back in court, but this time the stakes are different. A landmark child safety case is threatening to force the social media giant to fundamentally redesign core features across Facebook and Instagram. According to reporting from Wired, the legal challenge represents the most serious regulatory threat yet to Meta's platform architecture, with potential implications that could ripple across the entire social media industry. The case arrives as lawmakers and parents intensify pressure on tech platforms to protect young users. Meta is facing what could be its most consequential legal battle yet. The company finds itself in court defending its platform design choices against allegations that core features of Facebook and Instagram harm young users, and this time the outcome could force fundamental changes to how its apps work. The landmark case represents a shift in how regulators and courts are approaching tech platform accountability. Rather than focusing solely o...

                                         LinkedIn is trying to get a handle on the massive amounts of AI slop on the platform. To do that, the company is testing a new reporting tool that let users flag potential slop and removing the "rewrite with AI" button it once promoted on every post. With the new reporting tool, users will have the ability to flag posts as "seems like AI slop." Doing so will "privately flag" via the site's analytics dashboard that others "feel your post may have come off as inauthentic or heavy use of AI," LinkedIn's Chief Product Officer Hari Srinivasan wrote in an update. The move follows an earlier update that aimed to reduce the reach of AI-generated posts on the platform. The company has since done further work to improve its detection systems, Srinivasan said, which should lead to people seeing fewer AI-generated posts recommended in their feeds. Pos...

The material is said to contain customer and corporate banking information, including Aadhaar numbers , names and loan records drawn from several branches across India. Software engineer and Cashless Consumer founder Srikanth Lakshmanan posted those samples on X and said the link was active. He said, "It's a cyber disaster ." The threat actor says the exposed dataset contains savings and current account information, loan records, Net Banking user details , NRI and corporate banking service records, customer support material, and records related to branches or ATMs. Lakshmanan said the issue was first noticed on dark web tracking site www.ransomware.live He said the information made public appears to include both internal Bank of Baroda records and customer-related material. "I was able to initially verify the documents and have found a range of internal documents of the bank," he said. "This includes branch audits, loan appraisal documents, in...