#Code Enforcement Apps

[ms-demeanor]

I'm not the most security savvy but two-factor authentication makes me deeply suspicious. Is it actually more secure or is it just annoying? Especially the ones that send a code to your phone that pops up in your notifications.

It is genuinely, massively, TREMENDOUSLY more secure to use 2FA/MFA than to not use it.

One of our clients is currently under attack by a group that appears to be using credential stuffing; they are making educated guesses about the accounts they're trying to lot into based on common factors showing up in the credentials in years of pastes and breaches and leaks. Like, let's say it's a professional arborist's guild and their domain is arborist.tree and they've had three hundred members who have had their credentials compromised in the last ten years and the people looking at all the passwords associated with arborist.tree noticed that the words "arboreal" and "conifer" and "leaf" and "branch" show up over and over and over again in the passwords for the members of the professional arborist's guild.

So they can make an educated guess for how to log in to accounts belonging to the tree-loving tree lover's club, combine that with the list of legitimate emails, and go to town.

And they are in fact going to town. We're getting between 1000 and 4000 login attempts per hour. It's been happening for a couple weeks.

And every single one of those attempts is failing - in spite of some pretty poor password practices that believe me, I have been doing some talking about - as a result of having MFA enforced for the entire group. They all use an app that is synced to their individual accounts with a mobile device, except that sometimes you have trouble getting a code when you're up in a tree so some of them have physical MFA tokens.

People try to sign into my tumblr sometimes. To those people I say: lol, good luck, I couldn't guess my own password with a gun to my head. But if I *did* have some password that was, like "tiny-bastard-is#1" they would also need access to my email address because I've got MFA set up on tumblr. And to THAT I say: lol, good luck, it's complex passwords and MFA all the way down.

Of the types of MFA that most people will run across, the most secure to least secure hierarchy goes physical token>app based one-time-passwords>tie between email and SMS. Email and SMS are less preferred because email is relatively easy to capture and open in transit and cellphone SIMs can be cloned to capture your text messages. But if you are using email or SMS for your authentication you are still miles and miles and miles ahead of people who are not using any kind of authentication.

MFA is, in fact, so effective that I only advise people to turn it on if they are 100% sure that they will be able to access the account if they lose access to the device that had the authenticator on it. You usually can do this by saving a collection of recovery codes someplace safe (I recommend doing this in the secure notes section of your password manager on the entry for the site in question - if this is not a feature that your password manager has, I recommend that you get a better password manager, and the password manager I recommend is bitwarden).

A couple weeks ago I needed to get into a work account that I had created in 2019. In 2022, my boss had completely taken me off of managing that service and had his own account, so I deleted it from my authenticator. Then in 2024 my boss sold the business but didn't provide MFA for a ton of the accounts we've got. I was able to get back into my account because five years earlier I had taken a photo of the ten security codes from the company and saved them in a folder on my desktop called "work recovery codes." If you are going to use MFA, it is VITALLY IMPORTANT that you save recovery codes for the accounts you're authenticating someplace that you'll be able to find them, because MFA is so secure that the biggest problem with it is locking people out of their accounts.

In any kind of business context, I think MFA should be mandatory. No question.

For personal accounts, I think you should be pointed and cautious where you apply it, and always leave yourself another way in. There are SO MANY stories about people having their phones wiped or stolen or destroyed and losing MFA with the device because they didn't have a backup of the app or hadn't properly transferred it to a new device.

But it's also important to note that MFA is not a "fix all security forever" thing - I've talked about session hijacking here and the way you most often see MFA defeated is by tricking someone into logging in to a portal that gives them access to your cookies. This is usually done by phishing and sending someone a link to a fake portal.

That is YET ANOTHER reason that you should be using a good password manager that allows you to set the base domain for the password you're using so that you can be sure you're not logging in to a faked portal. If your password manager doesn't have that feature (setting the domain where you can log in to the base domain) then I recommend that you get a better password manager (get bitwarden.)

In 2020 my terrible boss wanted me to write him a book about tech that he could have run off at a vanity press and could give to prospect customers as a business card. That was a terrible idea, but I worked on the book anyway and started writing it as a book about security for nontechnical people. I started out with a very simple statement:

If every one of our customers did what we recommend in the first four chapters of this book (make good backups, use a password manager and complex unique passwords, enable MFA, and learn how to avoid phishing), we would go out of business, because supporting problems that come from those four things is about 90-95% of our work.

So yes, absolutely, please use MFA. BUT! Save your recovery codes.

[altis-of-olympia]

Let's chat.

This is a bit different from my usual posts, however, I've been noticing this more and more in the HelPol community as I exist on this platform and it's been pissing me off.

The rise of elitism in this space is absolutely abhorrent. It is classist. It is making the religion inaccessible. Have we forgotten that this was a religion observed by people of various class statuses in Antiquity? Have we forgotten that people made do with what they had? We no longer have large community spaces to give large group offerings full of music, life, and festivities. If you have one of these communities, that's great for you. However, not everyone does. Not everyone does, not everyone is safe to practice out in the open. People have to prioritize themselves and their safety before they devote themselves entirely to the Theoi. I feel as though this has been forgotten.

There are people who are new to this community and religion asking for advice and being told that they have to set up an altar and build a shrine and that they can only give x y z offering. Some practitioners are closeted, with unforgiving families. Some practitioners are simply surviving, praying to the Gods for basic necessities. Some practitioners don't have the time to give bigger offerings. By telling people that, in order to be a good and pious practitioner, you need to give such material things is damaging to our community. I started my practice simply by praying. I prayed, I thought of them, I taught myself new skills in their honor and carried myself in their image. There is no reason why people should feel inadequate simply because they are poor.

Have we forgotten that history is written by those who were fortunate? The well-recorded portions of our history are written from the perspective of rich, successful, and flourishing locations. Simply put, it is biased. There is a clear and obvious bias towards those who had the money to put towards their religion. And it seems as though, in our modern age, those who have money are attempting to pull the spotlight towards them. They are attempting to flaunt and show off the fact that they can afford to consistently offer the Gods things. They can afford showy shrines and altars and great displays of piety. Not everyone is privileged enough for this. Not everyone has groups in person that they can celebrate festivities with. I know that I certainly do not have a group in person that I can celebrate with. My group is online. Does that make me any less of a practitioner and Priest for worshipping amd serving an online community? I think not.

To enforce this narrative that you need to have a materialistic approach to the religion is inherently classist. In this regard, I don't quite care what the historical accounts say. If you have to decide between an act of piety and having dinner, there is a clear answer. Thank your Gods for that dinner. Let this be your act of piety.

I am sick and tired of people entering this religion feeling as though they are stepping on eggshells and need express permission to experiment because of the chronic policing of Religion on this app. Don't get me wrong, I am beyond happy to help. But my answers and methods are not gospel. No one has the cheat code to this religion. No one can tell you what is right and what is wrong.

In modern times, this practice is not materialistic. If that is how you practice, then fine, but do not go around telling people that this practice requires material offerings. The Theoi accept offerings in any format that you give. Whether that is a digital collage, a physical libation, or a simple thank you for their domains. Worshipping the Theoi should not leave you without a meal. To believe such pushes classist narratives that I am sick of seeing. Practice how you wish to practice. You do not need anyone's permission. Find things that work for you. And do not be afraid to be wrong. That is how we grow.

And to the people policing people's practice, here are some Delphic Maxims I suggest you review.

012 - If you are a stranger, act like one. 034 - Shun what belongs to others. 056 - Look down on no one. 082 - Restrain the tongue.

Xaire, Altis.

[hms-no-fun]

you were on cohost? i guess too late now, how was it for you?

cohost had its fair share of problems and i could often find the community there a bit too tumblr-core fingerwaggy if you know what i mean. but the site's dead now so it's kind of a moot point. what i find myself reflecting on most these days are the positives.

first, no numbers. i think their no numbers policy was probably a bit over-aggressive, but it quelled some of the rat race popularity contest aspect of social media that often makes it so tedious. i liked their tag tracking system, their robust content warning options, and the absence of infinite scroll. what i miss most about cohost is that their text editor supported CSS, which led to people programming elaborate text effects and puzzles and games in-site that harkened back to the days of flash animations. there was something in this combination of elements that drew out a rebellious creativity in users.

cohost came at a time when social media was across the board feeling terrible (and it's only gotten worse hahaha), particularly as someone who makes shit that relies on you clicking links that take you away from the website or app. algorithms hate this and punish it. users also just seem kind of lazy and disinterested in using the internet so much as letting the internet happen to them passively. but when a post of mine went viral on cohost, people engaged with it. it wasn't just likes and shares, it was comments and additions. it felt like a place that (at its best) encouraged actual conversation and the development of new ideas among like-minded peers. when my posts did well and i included a donation link, people gave me money. it felt genuinely like a website that COULD support professional blog work in a way that was more customizable even than substack yet still RSS friendly, and the Following tab which let you easily see posts of specific users was a REVELATION, like a mini RSS reader within the website itself.

but the enterprise was unsustainable for various reasons (not all of them outside the dev crew's control) and the haters got what they wanted. now our big social media alternative is bluesky, a website that dares to ask the question "what if there was another twitter?" the answer is that it fucking sucks. i hate microblogs so much dude, why on EARTH are we still acting like these disambiguited 300-character-limit posts are the most preferable means of social communication online??? why would you set out to make a better twitter and then deliberately choose to replicate literally every aspect of the user experience that encouraged low-information high-drama conflict fabrication? WHY WOULD YOU MAKE A VERSION OF TWITTER WHERE YOU CAN EASILY LOOK UP THE ACCOUNT OF EVERYONE WHO HAS YOU BLOCKED AND IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A FEATURE NOT A BUG???????? i just don't get it. i don't even get the optimism of the early adopters. i've seen people decry the post-election decay of the platform like "of course the cishets come in to ruin a community that was defined by trans & queer people" i'm sorry HELLO???????? from literally day zero bluesky was aiming to be a hands-off centrist IPO-friendly tech startup, there was never anything structurally embedded within the platform itself to keep this kind of decay from happening, you just happened to be on there when there were dramatically fewer users most of whom were curious tech enthusiasts. seriously, how have we not learned this lesson yet? you can't define a digital culture by the vibes of random user behavior! unless you have LAWS and GUIDELINES whereby you fucking BAN people for being shitheads, unless you enforce an actual code of conduct and punish bigoted speech and design a system that encourages constructive conversation, you are always always ALWAYS going to wind up at unhinged facebook boomer slop!

the death of cohost and the utterly predictable decay of bluesky are a big part of the reason why i've been posting so much more on tumblr. this is like the last bastion of anything even remotely resembling the old web, with its support of longposts and tagging and how easy it is to find random hobbyists doing cool shit you never knew existed before. like, yeah, you have to search that shit out and tailor your feed to not drive you crazy, but that's what i like about it!!! i am an adult with agency who understands that life is complicated and as such i expect to have to put some work into making my experience with a website positive! but in the hellworld of the iphone everything is walled garden apps for aggregating content where the content and its creators are structurally established as infinitely replaceable and uniquely worthless punching bags to be used and cast aside. everyone's given up on moderation and real jobs don't exist anymore especially if you happen to work in the "creative economy" IE are a writer or critic or artist or hobbyist of literally any kind. we've given up on expecting anything from the rich moneyboys who own and profit immensely off of the platforms whose value we literally create!!! especially now with the rise of "AI" grifters, whose work has ratcheted good old fashioned casual sexism and racism and homophobia up to levels not seen in such mainstream spaces since the early 2000s.

i like tumblr because i don't have to use a third party app to get & answer asks at length, and because it is a visual artist friendly platform where i won't be looked at funny for reblogging furry postmodernism or transgender homestuck OCs. it is a site that utterly lacks respectability and that's what makes it even remotely usuable. unfortunately it also sucks! partly it sucks because this place was ground zero for the rise of puritanical feminist-passing conservatism in leftist spaces, so it's like a hyperbolic time chamber for brain-melting life or death discourse about the most inconsequential bullshit you could ever imagine. but it also sucks because it's owned by a profit-motivated moneyboy who has consistently encouraged a culture of virulent transphobia and frequently bans trans women who call this out. so like, yeah, this place is cool compared to everywhere else, but it is exactly like everywhere else in that is also on a ticking clock to its own inevitable demise. the owners of this website will destroy everything that makes it interesting and will EAGERLY delete the nearly twenty years (!!!!!!) of posts it's accumulated the instant it will profit them to do so. this will be immensely unpopular and everyone will agree it's a tragedy and it won't matter. the culture and content of a social media platform is epiphenomenal to its rote economic valuation. i mean, obviously it isn't, zero of these massive tech companies would be what they are if so many people weren't so eager to give their time and labor away for free (and yes, writing a dumb dick joke on tumblr IS a form of labor in the same way that doing a captcha is labor, just because it's a miniscule contribution in an economy of scale doesn't mean you didn't contribute!), but once a tech company reaches a certain threshold its valuation ceases to be tethered to anything that actually exists in reality.

all of which is why i remember cohost with a heavy heart. yeah, it was imperfect. it was also independently owned, made with the explicit goal of creating a form of social media that actually tries not to give you a lifelong anxiety disorder so it can sell you homeopathic anti-anxiety sawdust suppositories. for the brief window of time when it was extant, i was genuinely hopeful for the future of being a creative on the internet. part of why i spend so much time on godfeels, a fucking homestuck fanfiction with no hope of turning a profit or establishing mainstream legitimacy, is that my readers actually ENGAGE with the material. what brought me back to using this website consistently was precisely the glut of godfeels-related questions i got, and the exciting conversations that resulted from my answers. meanwhile i put so many hours into my videos and even when they do well numerically, i barely see any actual engagement with the material. and that is a deliberate design choice on the part of youtube! that is the platform functioning as intended!! it sucks!!!

what the memory of cohost has instilled in me is a neverending distaste for the lazy unambitious also-rans that define the modern internet. i remember the possibility space of the early web and long for the expressiveness that even the most minor of utilities offered. we sacrificed that freedom for a convenience which was always the pretense for eventually charging us rent. i am thinking a lot these days about what a publicly funded government administrated social media utility would look like. what federal open source standards could look in an environment where the kinds of activities a digital ecosystem can encourage are strictly regulated against exploitation, bigotry, scams, and literal gambling. what if there was a unionized federal workforce devoted to the administration of internet moderation, which every website above a certain user threshold must legally take advantage of? i like to imagine a world where youtube isn't just nationalized but balkanized, where you have nested networks of youtubes administrated for different purposes by different agencies and organizations that operate on different paradigms of privacy and algorithmic interaction. imagine that your state, county, and/or city has its own branch of youtube meant to specifically highlight local work, while also remaining connected to a broader national network (oops i just reinvented federation lmao). imagine a world where server capacity is a publicly owned utility apportioned according to need and developed in collaboration with the communities of their construction rather than as a deliberate exploitation of them. our horizons for these kinds of things are just so, so small, our ability to imagine completely captured by capitalist realism, our willingness to demand services from our government simply obliterated by decades of cynical pro-austerity propaganda. i imagine proposing some of this stuff and people reacting like "well that's unrealistic" "that'll never happen" "they'd just use it for evil" and i am just SO! FUCKING! TIRED!!!!

like wow you're soooooo cool for being effectively two steps left of reagan, i bet you think prison abolition and free public housing are an impossible pipedream too huh? and exactly what has that attitude gotten you? what've you gained by being such a down to earth realist whose demands are limited by the scope of what seems immediately possible? has anything gotten better? have any of the things you thought were good stayed good? is your career more stable, your political position more safe, your desire to live and thrive greatly expanded? or do you spend every day in a cascading panopticon of stress and collapse, overwhelmed to the point of paralysis by the sheer magnitude of what it's cost us to abandon the future? you HAVE to dream. you HAVE to make unrealistic demands. the fucking conservatives have been making unrealistic demands forever and look, they're getting everything they want even though EVERYONE hates them for it! please i'm begging you to see and understand that what's feasible, what's reasonable, what's realistic, are literally irrelevant. these things only feel impossible because we choose to believe The Adults (and if you're younger than like 45, trust me, to the ruling class you are a child) whose bank accounts reflect just how profitable it is to convince us that they're impossible. all those billions of dollars these fuckers have didn't come from nowhere, it was stolen from all of us. there is no reason that money can't and shouldn't be seized and recirculated back into the economy, no reason it can't be used to fund a society that is actually social, where technological development is driven not by what's most likely to drive up profits next quarter but by what people need from technology in their daily lives.

uh so yeah basically that's my opinion of cohost lmao

[f1ghtsoftly]

All The Women’s News You Missed This Week

3/10/25-3/17/25

Furious protests erupt in Bangladesh after an 8-year-old girl succumbs to injuries she sustained after being brutally raped. Indian health workers strike for better working conditions. The Queen sends a letter of support to Giselle Pelicot. The Supreme Court will take up conversion therapy bans in a Colorado case and in Kentucky state lawmakers have voted to protect the practice. Ukranian women’s organizations struggle without US funding.

In a piece of good news, Fatou Baldeh, a campaigner against the practice of FGM, has been named Time’s Woman Of The Year.

Want this in your inbox instead? Subscribe here

Opinion and Investigative:

As the US backslides, can China claim moral high ground on women’s rights?

Why US abortion restrictions matter beyond borders

Serbia’s Femicide Record Undermines Claims of Progress on Women’s Rights

The GOP’s Next Target? No-Fault Divorce and Women’s Right to Leave

Lorraine Kelly: Diversity push is leaving working-class people behind

Women, girls bear brunt of cyberbullying against persons with disabilities

“IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD”: ENDOMETRIOSIS PATIENTS AND THE PROMISE OF ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

LGBT:

Supreme Court will take up state bans on conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children, in a Colorado case

Angry response to how transgender lawmaker Sarah McBride introduced

A new anti-LGBTQ+ bill in Hungary would ban Pride event and allow use of facial recognition software

North Dakota Senate rejects resolution asking US Supreme Court to overturn same-sex marriage ruling

Kentucky GOP lawmakers vote to protect conversion therapy

Women’s Rights:

Iran: Authorities target women’s rights activists with arbitrary arrest, flogging and death penalty

Louisiana woman pleads not guilty to a felony in historic abortion case

Risks of state abortion reporting mandates outweigh the benefits, an advocacy group says

Iran using drones and apps to enforce women's dress code

Kentucky lawmakers add specific medical exceptions to the state’s near-total abortion ban

Driving ban puts brakes on young women in Turkmenistan

Ukrainian women’s rights organisations struggle as US aid suspended

Male Violence:

Search for US student in Dominican Republic intensifies

Things to know about the former megachurch pastor charged with child sexual abuse

Airman charged in killing of Native American woman who went missing 7 months ago in South Dakota

UN experts accuse Israel of sexual violence and 'genocidal acts' in Gaza

'He strangled me without asking' - experts say choking during sex now normal for many

Sean 'Diddy' Combs pleads not guilty to updated indictment

Disabled author swamped by hate speech after social media post on feminism

Women Fight Back:

Haitian women commemorate International Women’s Day spotlighting broken justice system

How Iran's 'Woman, Life, Freedom' Protests Live On Today

FGM campaigner honoured with Time magazine title

Teacher ordered to remove signs from classroom, including one saying 'Everyone is welcome here'

Mother of woman who died after Georgia’s six-week abortion ban calls for law’s repeal

Women Radio amplifies African feminist voices

Texas midwife accused by state’s attorney general of providing illegal abortions

BBC presenters settle sex and age discrimination dispute

Queen sent letter of support to Gisèle Pelicot

Yasmeen Lari rejects Israel's Wolf Prize over "continuing genocide in Gaza"

Fierce protests as eight-year-old rape victim dies in Bangladesh

India's frontline health workers fight for better pay and recognition

US arrests second pro-Palestinian Columbia University protester

Women in the News:

Democrat Rebecca Cooke to again challenge US Rep. Derrick Van Orden

Brown Medicine professor and doctor deported to Lebanon despite having valid visa, court filings claim

Woman arrested in US for allegedly holding stepson captive for 20 years

WATCH: Woman trapped in car films as tornado hits Central Florida

'For holding a wombat, thousands threatened my life'

Judge says Fani Willis violated open records law, orders her to pay $54K in attorneys’ fees

Feel Good Stories and Feminist History:

The forgotten story of the woman who invented the dishwasher

The Mexican women who defied drug-dealers, fly-tippers and chauvinists to build a thriving business

Early members of Philly’s roller derby league face off in a match circa 2005-2006. Jeff Fusco/The Conversation U.S., CC BY-ND Philly Roller Derby league turns 20 - here’s how the sport skated its way to feminism, anti-racism and queer liberation

'We couldn't get jobs in sexist garages - so we set up our own'

5 Major Historical Movements Led By Women In Rajasthan

Arts and Culture:

‘Just be radical’: the feminist artist giving Matisse a modern punk twist

The film exploring loneliness of migrant workers

'Santosh' review: Feminist police drama confronts harsh truths

Shabana Azmi On Feminism And Her Powerful Role In ‘Dabba Cartel’

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: I want my books to be read in Africa

Cannes award-winning actress Dequenne dies at 43

Legendary Russian composer Gubaidulina dies in Germany

Book Review: Patrycja Humienik’s powerful debut poetry collection is a conundrum worth mulling over

13 Nonfiction Books to Read This Women’s History Month

As always, this is global and domestic news from a US perspective, covering feminist issues and women in the news more generally. As of right now, I do not cover Women’s Sports. Published each Monday.

[peekofhistory]

So what was yuan dynasty clothing like? For men and women, children, hairstyles, etc. I'm writing a story

Hi 😊

This is a very broad topic regarding an entire dynasty's way of dress for all members of society, including hairstyles. I'm currently still working through the Song Dynasty and haven't gotten to Yuan yet (Yuan is the dynasty after Song, for anyone unfamiliar with Chinese history).

If you're in a rush for your story, I'd recommend doing a quick Google or Baidu search, or if you're on Little Red Book you can search on there as well (there's a lot of Hanfu info on that site/app). Wiki also has an overview of Yuan fashion:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_in_the_Yuan_dynasty

This Little Red Book post has some sample clothing artefacts from the Yuan dynasty: http://xhslink.com/a/guAo7dR8YUycb

The Yuan dynasty was under Mongol rule so the clothing of this period is more complicated. If you're talking about Han people living in this period, they had a certain style of dress that was different than those of Mongol ethnicity who lived in China during this period.

Because of this, a lot of Chinese people don't consider Yuan dynasty clothing as Hanfu, or at least not strictly Hanfu, much like most Chinese people don't consider Qing Dynasty clothing Hanfu due to the rulers being Manchu (although they were much more strict in enforcing certain dress codes in an attempt to subjugate the Han population). You'll notice a lot of Hanfu videos displaying Hanfu through history missing these 2 dynasties.

[mariacallous]

A United States Customs and Border Protection request for information this week revealed the agency’s plans to find vendors that can supply face recognition technology for capturing data on everyone entering the US in a vehicle like a car or van, not just the people sitting in the front seat. And a CBP spokesperson later told WIRED that the agency also has plans to expand its real-time face recognition capabilities at the border to detect people exiting the US as well—a focus that may be tied to the Trump administration’s push to get undocumented people to “self-deport” and leave the US.

WIRED also shed light this week on a recent CBP memo that rescinded a number of internal policies designed to protect vulnerable people—including pregnant women, infants, the elderly, and people with serious medical conditions—while in the agency’s custody. Signed by acting commissioner Pete Flores, the order eliminates four Biden-era policies.

Meanwhile, as the ripple effects of “SignalGate” continue, the communication app TeleMessage suspended “all services” pending an investigation after former US national security adviser Mike Waltz inadvertently called attention to the app, which subsequently suffered data breaches in recent days. Analysis of TeleMessage Signal’s source code this week appeared to show that the app sends users’ message logs in plaintext, undermining the security and privacy guarantees the service promised. After data stolen in one of the TeleMessage hacks indicated that CBP agents might be users of the app, CBP confirmed its use to WIRED, saying that the agency has “disabled TeleMessage as a precautionary measure.”

A WIRED investigation found that US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard reused a weak password for years on multiple accounts. And researchers warn that an open source tool known as “easyjson” could be an exposure for the US government and US companies, because it has ties to the Russian social network VK, whose CEO has been sanctioned.

And there's more. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn’t cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

ICE’s Deportation Airline Hack Reveals Man “Disappeared” to El Salvador

Hackers this week revealed they had breached GlobalX, one of the airlines that has come to be known as “ICE Air” thanks to its use by the Trump administration to deport hundreds of migrants. The data they leaked from the airline includes detailed flight manifests for those deportation flights—including, in at least one case, the travel records of a man whose own family had considered him “disappeared” by immigration authorities and whose whereabouts the US government had refused to divulge.

On Monday, reporters at 404 Media said that hackers had provided them with a trove of data taken from GlobalX after breaching the company’s network and defacing its website. “Anonymous has decided to enforce the Judge's order since you and your sycophant staff ignore lawful orders that go against your fascist plans,” a message the hackers posted to the site read. That stolen data, it turns out, included detailed passenger lists for GlobalX’s deportation flights—including the flight to El Salvador of Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a Venezuelan man whose whereabouts had become a mystery to even his own family as they sought answers from the US government. US authorities had previously declined to tell his family or reporters where he had been sent—only that he had been deported—and his name was even excluded from a list of deportees leaked to CBS News. (The Department of Homeland Security later stated in a post to X that Prada was in El Salvador—but only after a New York Times story about his disappearance.)

The fact that his name was, in fact, included all along on a GlobalX flight manifest highlights just how opaque the Trump administration’s deportation process remains. According to immigrant advocates who spoke with 404 Media, it even raises questions about whether the government itself had deportation records as comprehensive as the airline whose planes it chartered. “There are so many levels at which this concerns me. One is they clearly did not take enough care in this to even make sure they had the right lists of who they were removing, and who they were not sending to a prison that is a black hole in El Salvador,” Michelle Brané, executive director of immigrant rights group Together and Free, told 404 Media. “They weren't even keeping accurate records of who they were sending there.”

The Computer of a DOGE Staffer With Sensitive Access Reportedly Infected With Malware

Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Governmental Efficiency has raised alarms not just due to its often reckless cuts to federal programs, but also the agency’s habit of giving young, inexperienced staffers with questionable vetting access to highly sensitive systems. Now security researcher Micah Lee has found that Kyle Schutt, a DOGE staffer who reportedly accessed the financial system of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, appears to have had infostealer malware on one of his computers. Lee discovered that four dumps of user data stolen by that kind of password-stealing malware included Schutt’s passwords and usernames. It’s far from clear when Schutt’s credentials were stolen, for what machine, or whether the malware would have posed any threat to any government agency’s systems, but the incident nonetheless highlights the potential risks posed by DOGE staffers’ unprecedented access.

Grok AI Will “Undress” Women in Public on X

Elon Musk has long marketed his AI tool Grok as a more freewheeling, less restricted alternative to other large language models and AI image generators. Now X users are testing the limits of Grok’s few safeguards by replying to images of women on the platform and asking Grok to “undress” them. While the tool doesn’t allow the generation of nude images, 404 Media and Bellingcat have found that it repeatedly responded to users’ “undress” prompts with pictures of women in lingerie or bikinis, posted publicly to the site. In one case, Grok apologized to a woman who complained about the practice, but the feature has yet to be disabled.

A Hacked School Software Company Paid a Ransom—but Schools Are Still Being Extorted

This week in don’t-trust-ransomware-gangs news: Schools in North Carolina and Canada warned that they’ve received extortion threats from hackers who had obtained students’ personal information. The likely source of that sensitive data? A ransomware breach last December of PowerSchool, one of the world’s biggest education software firms, according to NBC News. PowerSchool paid a ransom at the time, but the data stolen from the company nonetheless appears to be the same info now being used in the current extortion attempts. “We sincerely regret these developments—it pains us that our customers are being threatened and re-victimized by bad actors,” PowerSchool told NBC News in a statement. “As is always the case with these situations, there was a risk that the bad actors would not delete the data they stole, despite assurances and evidence that were provided to us.”

A Notorious Deepfake Porn Site Shuts Down After Its Creator Is Outed

Since its creation in 2018, MrDeepFakes.com grew into perhaps the world’s most infamous repository of nonconsensual pornography created with AI mimicry tools. Now it’s offline after the site’s creator was identified as a Canadian pharmacist in an investigation by CBC, Bellingcat, and the Danish news outlets Politiken and Tjekdet. The site’s pseudonymous administrator, who went by DPFKS on its forums and created at least 150 of its porn videos himself, left a trail of clues in email addresses and passwords found on breached sites that eventually led to the Yelp and Airbnb accounts of Ontario pharmacist David Do. After reporters approached Do with evidence that he was DPFKS, MrDeepFakes.com went offline. “A critical service provider has terminated service permanently. Data loss has made it impossible to continue operation,” reads a message on its homepage. “We will not be relaunching.”

[notwiselybuttoowell]

After widespread outcry last year, the Iranian authorities said they would suspend enforcement of the new, strict, hijab laws, which impose draconian penalties – including fines and prison sentences – on women found in breach of the mandatory dress code.

Yet women in Iran are reporting that state surveillance has been steadily increasing.

Last week, the UN’s fact-finding mission reported on Iran’s increasing reliance on digital surveillance such as its Nazer mobile application, a state-backed reporting platform that allows citizens and police to report women for alleged violations.

The app is accessible only via Iran’s state-controlled National Information Network. Members of the public can apply to become “hijab monitors” to get the app and begin filing reports, which are then passed to the police.

According to the UN mission, the app has recently been expanded to allow users to upload the time, location and licence plate of a car in which a woman has been seen without a hijab.

It can also now be used to report women for hijab violations on public transport, in taxis and even in ambulances.

According to the UN report, aerial surveillance using drones has also been used at events such as the Tehran international book fair and on the island of Kish, a tourist destination, to identify women not complying with the hijab law.

The government has also increased online monitoring, blocking women’s Instagram accounts for non-compliance of hijab laws, and issuing warnings via text message. CCTV surveillance and facial-recognition technology has also been installed at universities. “This ‘digital repression’ is not only stifling academic freedom but also causing increased psychological stress among students,” says a spokesperson for the Amirkabir Newsletter, an Iranian student media group.

Last July Arezoo Badri, a 31-year-old mother of two, was shot and paralysed when a police officer opened fire on her vehicle in Noor city, Mazandaran province, after her car was reportedly flagged for a hijab violation.

[cupcraft]

Things my highschool didnt allow (plus elementary and middle school): public school, rural, east coast usa. I am 26 now so im sure things have changsd.

1. No bottled drinks unless you were in the cafeteria and bought it (cant have it from home) or had medical/disability accomodations

2. No snacks or food of any kind in class unless again accommodations or teacher gave it

3. 1 and 2 were not enforced if your teacher was chill

4. No bookbags during the day whatsoever. If your locker was on the other side of school (Me) you just had to carry all 8.periods of books and notes all day. You only had 3 mins between periods anyway.

5. When we got ipads you needed a virtual.hall.pass to use the restroom and go to places even if the teacher told you to (ie.go to the office to get xyz) and it required complex pins ans passwords for teachers to put in, interrupting class and the next place yoh went had to do the same so they could track exactly where you are. Sometimes the app would break or the teacher didn't have time to.sign it so.pepple would get in trouble bc it looked like they were in the bathroom all day.

6. Our ipads eventually banned all games and the apple store. It also locked air drop. This affected classes that needed specialized apps (ie music making apps for piano class for ex) they refused to add to their app store.

7. We weren't allowed to connect to the school wifi with our phones.

8. We had many various odd dress code stuff

- no flip flops

- at one pt no open toed shoes ever but this ban went away

- middle school (when I was in highwchool) began banning skinny jeans and leggings bc it was too scandalous

- shorts and skirts had to be 2 inches above knee then it was arms length. Then in highschool they sort of stopped caring.

- no sweaters that were knit because you could see theough them somehow and then they allowed if it girls specifically wore a tank top pr t shirt underneath

- no showing shoulders ever

- no hats or hoods up. This was also applied racistly to be clear.

- no profanity or alcohol or tobacco or weed related stuff on your shirts

9. If you were sick a lot in my school many teachers I had would see you as a boy who cried wolf foe the nurse even though you had a fever that was making you shake in class.

10. No gum

11. If you had a car (couldn't really walk unless you lived very close to the achool which was a farm area) you weren't allowed to leave foe lunch if you wanted say fast food. Also only seniors were allowed to sit outside and there was an armed security guard who made sure of this.

Im sure I'm forgetting stuff but there's the major stuff.

[republicsecurity]

Collar laws

"the collar turns an unpredictable subject into a data‑rich, safely restrained source of testimony—without the bruises, broken wrists, or civil‑rights challenges that handcuffs and arm‑bars invite. Use the tech; keep the process clean."

Why keep the collar on during interviews?

AV4I5: Three key advantages:

Silent‑Gate: Switch the collar to Blue‑Interview preset and the laryngeal filters drop ambient volume to 50 dB while allowing normal‑tone speech. You get a calm suspect who physically can’t ramp to shouting or spit abuse at you or the recorder.

Stress Telemetry: The Bio‑Vitals array overlays real‑time stress curves in your HUD. Micro‑tremor in the sternocleidomastoid, pulse variability—tells you when a question lands hot before you hear the lie.

Postural Guide: The collar’s micro‑servos nudge posture toward upright, open‑shoulder alignment; that keeps airways clear and prevents the classic “slouch and mumble” dodge. Interview audio stays clean for evidentiary playback.

SX12B: So it’s a built‑in polygraph and posture coach. Legal likes that?

AV4I5: Legal loves anything that shrinks “coercion” complaints. The collar maintains constant biometric logging—every muscle micro‑spasm time‑stamped. Defence counsel can request the packet; if we kept force at Compliance‑Safe, the data works in our favour.

ZQ77C: What’s the statutory backing? I mean—neck restraint in an interview room sounds headline‑ugly.

AV4I5: Two pillars:

Republic Security Act § 74‑J (“Non‑Lethal Custodial Aids”) grants Enforcer units the right to apply biometric control devices post‑arrest for “situational safety and evidentiary clarity.”

High Court ruling RSC v. Armitage, 08‑12‑18, which held that the collar is functionally analogous to handcuffs plus medical telemetry— therefore not a “novel search.”

Key clause: so long as the subject retains the ability to breathe, answer questions, and request counsel, the restraint is constitutional.

Internal policy OPS‑9.2 requires a Comms Recording Notification: you must state on tape, “Interview conducted under Compliance‑Safe collar control, serial X‑‑‑.” Once you say that, chain‑of‑custody is airtight.

Republic Security Code §31‑B & §31‑C (Custodial Technology)

31‑B, Sub‑para 4 authorises “adaptive restraint devices” for any detainee classified Risk Tier C or higher, provided the device logs biometric data and all activation events.

31‑C, Sub‑para 2 permits “real‑time physiological monitoring for the dual purpose of detainee safety and investigative integrity.”

Collar firmware is certified under Forensic Chain‑of‑Custody Standard FSC‑12: every mode change, impulse, or dampening adjustment is time‑stamped and cryptographically signed—admissible as evidence and immune to tamper challenges.

Judicial Precedent

State v. Marentis (RSC‑App. 608‑24) upheld collar‑logged stress spikes as corroborating evidence of conscious deception.

People v. Rhodan (608‑67) ruled that a brief bio‑vitals clamp to prevent self‑harm during interrogation was “medically prudent and constitutionally proportional.”

UK90F: Any interview‑only tricks we should know?

AV4I5:

Pulse Settle: Tap Vitals → CalmBurst. Collar emits a 400 Hz vibro‑pulse at C‑2 vertebra; average BPM drops ~12 in ten seconds. Handy before the “tell‑me‑again” loop.

Cheat Lock: If subject tries a table flip, accelerate to Red‑Stun‑Hold—800 ms, enough to freeze them mid‑lunge without cracking skulls. De‑escalate back to Blue once they’re seated. The log shows a justified spike, court nods.

Whisper Gate: Drop the voice gate to 25 dB; suspect can barely whisper, recorder still hears everything via collar mic. Keeps adjoining rooms blissfully ignorant.

SX12B: What about overreach? Any hard “don’ts”?

AV4I5: Absolutely. Policy flags:

No Respiratory Clamp longer than 2 s in interview setting.

No Neuromotor Inversion—that technique’s still restricted to Crowd‑Control Cert.

Remove or power‑down the unit immediately if counsel requests a private consultation; attorney‑client privilege overrides telemetry.

"Break those and OPS‑Internal Affairs will fry your career medium‑rare."

[ellesi6]

Blog Post #5

How is the marketing of diversity used to discriminate and police people of color in the digital world? 

In the article “Race After Technology by R. Benjamin,” the author covers how digital companies glorify diversity as individualistic when it could become a way for law enforcement to monitor people of color. It also makes it easier for white supremacy to reach their targeted audience to hate. Company N-tech is a facial recognition technology used to determine a person’s ethnicity. It is promoted to be something fun for people to assess demographic data. However, what is not talked about is how law enforcement can make use of this data to criminalize people of color. It is easier for pull-out people to discriminate when there is existing data that determines their race. Specifically in a world where race is being discriminated against. The author mentions how “... coded inequity makes it easier and faster to produce racist outcomes” (Benjamin, 2019). Social media platforms like Twitter are promoted for people of different racial backgrounds, and anyone can utilize them. This gives white supremacists the freedom to hate people of color through the digital world. They can view profile pictures and posts to find their targeted audience. Although the content that they are posting is racist and discriminating, the company is benefitting from the usage of the app, which is why they allow it.  

How is racial coding used in the digital world? 

Programs promote diversity and inclusion, but what is not seen is the New Jim code that is built into the coding of specific programs. The promotion of diversity is used to cover up what is happening behind the scenes. Although technology can't be racist on its own, the people who are creating the systems are building their own beliefs into the system. When a black person is being arrested for committing a crime, they do not do so because facial recognition technology connects their face to the crime; it may be due to racial coding. The person or company who created that system may have had some discriminating beliefs and thus built specific codes that allowed that to happen. The reason that people may not make a note of this is that “... coded inequity makes discrimination easier, faster, and even harder to challenge because there is not just a racist boss, banker, or shopkeeper to report” (Benjamin, 2019). Programs and companies can escape racial coding and cover up with their marketing.  

How has racial micro-aggression become more accepted by society? 

In the media, people attempt to make light of racism through comedy bits. In “The Social Media Handbook,” the authors include examples of video bits people were creating, such as “Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Girls,” which went viral on the internet. The content itself is filled with racial stereotypes about black girls and other racial groups. It was dismissed as funny content when it was derogatory against certain groups. The public accepted this because “... they provide relief in socially tense environments” (Noble & Senft, 2014). It is masking racially micro-aggressive content by excusing it as entertainment. People believe it is making light of racism, which allows society to think that it is okay to keep up with these notions. They even give the content creator a platform long after the viral video, which worsens the problem. This is portrayed in the media in other forms as well when someone likes a racist comment. They use the excuse that it was just a like but dismiss why they liked it in the first place. 

How does the merit system benefit the society they are living in? Does it benefit the people? 

In the Black Mirror episode, the merit system used to rate people was based on how well they were conscribed to society’s expectations. That meant how well they presented themselves through their personality, dress, speech, etc. If a person did not make a great impression on another person or spoke in profanity, then they would be demerited. People abided by the merit system because they would gain privileges such as better housing, jobs, entrances to facilities, or accessibility to services. If a person did not fit into society’s rules, they would have to fake a persona. This did not benefit the people because they were prohibited from being themselves. It was put in place to regulate their behavior, but it was being masked by putting in place benefits. It would motivate people to follow these rules to the point where they must dedicate their lives. Overall, it was undignifying and took away their independence to be themselves. It did not benefit the people but rather governed their way of life. 

[postroesociety]

hi

I'm a trans minor w/ a uterus. I've seen a few posts saying to delete all period tracking apps/devices/services etc. and paper track. Is there any reason why? I use the free version of the period tracker "Stardust", because it also has the moon cycles. I'm not sure how well known it is.

So is there any reason why we should start paper tracking? Is it that there is actually a possible threat of people checking through your period apps? For what purposes?

Tysm. I think we're all struggling rn. I hope you're doing well <333

We'll get through this, I know we will.

-B

Hi!!! first of all, thank you for asking and second congrats on being the very first ask I got!

The main reason why people are saying we should delete period tracker apps is that these period tracker apps will often keep your data and if you were to get into trouble for receiving an abortion, then law enforcement would request your data regardless of its "anonymized" status or not. They would still be able to track it back to you and your identity.

Although there is always that reason there's a lot more. for example:

Most of these apps are considered lifestyle apps, which aren't protected by HIPPA laws.

companies can buy and use your private information

there is no legislation protecting you and your data

Stardust, however, does have an encryption code system that they use. Stardust said this in the caption of their most recent Instagram post:

"We keep your data safe by storing your contact information with third parties and storing your health data against a random account ID. This means that we do not link your health data to your real-world identity."

I personally use Stardust but I am still wary of using it and I'm not exactly sure if it would still be completely safe if you live in a state like Texas or Georgia, which has incredibly restrictive laws.

The reason people are urging others to go back to the brick-and-mortar calendar method is because of concerns about data leaks that could be used against you. More specifically, the data of your last period, your last ovulation cycle, among all the other aspects of your cycle can be studied to determine whether or not you may have been pregnant and received an abortion.

At the end of the day, it's gonna be up to you if you trust Stardust, but my advice would be to only use it if you're in a blue state with access to abortion, confident you will not get pregnant from a sexual partner (SA still can happen so be wary), and finally if you decide you can trust Stardust.

For anyone interested in how to track your period via the calendar method, I suggest you consult this article from Planned Parenthood..

And to B, thank you for asking this question, it's greatly appreciated. If you (or anyone else) have questions, concerns, or needs support, please don't hesitate to reach out to me in my dm's or through asks.

Sincerely,

Post Roe Society.

[beardedmrbean]

March 14 (UPI) -- A U.N. fact-finding mission into Iran's treatment of women reported Friday that the Islamic Republic was resorting to extreme measures in its drive to restrict their rights, including electronic "surveillance" and pressuring the public to inform on women not wearing a hijab, which is mandatory dress code.

The increased policing and prosecution of women flouting the dress code and female activists who have received long prison terms, or death sentences in some cases, comes amid increased repression of women and girls and activists demanding their human rights as part of determined government efforts to quash all dissent, the U.N. will say in a report to the Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

Investigators detail authorities' use of drone-mounted cameras, fixed CCTV cameras, and facial recognition software to catch women out in public with their heads uncovered, as well as an app enabling people to use their smartphones to report women on public transport or in taxis directly to the police.

Two-and-half years on from nationwide protests sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, the Iranian state was bearing down even harder, increasingly using technology to keep tabs on women, including "state-sponsored vigilantism in an apparent effort to enlist businesses and private individuals in hijab compliance, portraying it as a civic responsibility."

The report is the outcome of a two-year investigation in which the mission collected 38,000 pieces of evidence and interviewed more than 280 victims and witnesses.

"For two years, Iran has refused to adequately acknowledge the demands for equality and justice that fuelled the protests in 2022. The criminalization, surveillance and continued repression of protesters, families of victims and survivors, in particular women and girls is deeply worrying," said mission chair Sara Hossain.

The increased persecution occurred despite President Masoud Pezeshkian pledging in his campaign in the run-up to elections in July to relax the strict enforcement of the hijab laws pursued by the administration of his predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in May.

The two-year investigation found that in addition to ramping up surveillance, the government had broadened restrictions on the digital space, "extending its repression beyond Iran's borders to silence human rights defenders, including journalists, who speak up from abroad."

[eevylynn]

Lunyx: Alpha Code

Steter || G|| Omegaverse || 1688 wc

In a world where Alphas are stigmatized as dangerous and unfit to live peacefully, Stiles Stilinski and Peter Hale hide their true status by pretending to be other designations. They meet at a tech conference.

I don't usually read non traditional omegaverse, so I'll admit that this one was a bit of a challenge. Especially since I've only written one other omegaverse story and one other Steter story.

I hope you guys enjoy! <3

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Stiles stood in front of the hotel bathroom mirror, razor in hand. He dragged the blade over his jaw, ensuring there wasn't a single hint of stubble left behind. Clean-shaven, he could visually pass for an omega if he wanted, especially with what Lydia called his "doe eyes" and his cupid's bow lips. No one would look at that combined with a smooth face and assume he was an alpha on looks alone.

With practiced efficiency, he reached for his bottle of suppressant pills, dry-swallowing one before uncapping the pheromone-reducing lotion. The scent was mild as he spread it over his arms, neck, pits, and carefully around the base of his dick, working it in until his skin absorbed it. The final step: a scent-neutralizing patch, pressed just below the hair of his armpit. By the time he was done, the only thing anyone would smell on him was his cologne—a crisp, neutral blend that had been meticulously tested for the perfect balance of utterly forgettable.

Dressed in a crisp button-down and a blazer, cut in a way that minimized the broadness of his shoulders while still looking sharp, Stiles took one last look in the mirror.

Professional. Polished. Beta.

He exhaled slowly, squared his shoulders, and grabbed his conference badge before stepping out.

_____________________________

The convention floor buzzed with activity. A low hum of conversation filled the space, punctuated by laughter and the occasional enthusiastic pitch. Stiles maneuvered through the crowd, scanning for his team's booth. It didn't take long to spot them—Scott was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet, gesturing animatedly while talking to someone about the biological data integration within their app.

"Finally," Lydia said, arching a perfect brow as Stiles approached. "I was about to send a search party."

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Had to make sure I look the part of Lead Developer," he said wryly.

No one could know that their team was led by an alpha.

Alphas weren’t trusted in leadership. Too aggressive. Too emotional. Too possessive. If they weren’t trying to dominate, they were acting recklessly. If they weren’t too competitive, they were too unstable. At best, they were considered useful muscle. At worst, a liability. A properly behaved alpha knew their place. Their options were limited—bodyguards, enforcers, security heads, or if they were lucky, a pack alpha who kept their aggression in check under the watchful eyes of beta and omega advisors.

It was one thing for Lydia to be open about being an alpha—she was their mathematician, a genius whose intelligence outweighed any prejudice against her designation. And with Jackson, her omega mate and their lawyer, at her side, she had built-in credibility. She also helped to cover any lingering "alpha scent" on Stiles or any other members of their team who needed to present differently.

Danny, their only actual beta that was present this weekend, barely looked up from his laptop, fingers flying across the keyboard. "You always do. Now help us look impressive."

Jackson smirked, "Like we don't already."

They quickly settled into a rhythm for the day, answering questions, giving demonstrations, and networking. Stiles ran through his pitch a dozen times, each delivery more polished than the last.

Then, a striking omega in an expensive tailored suit stopped in front of their booth, and Stiles straightened instinctively.

The man was sharp—sharp suit, sharp eyes, sharp scent. His gaze locked onto Stiles with an intensity that sent a flicker of unease down his spine.

"Peter Hale of Hale Industries," he said, grasping Stiles hand in a firm grip.

"Stiles," he responded, shaking his hand. "Stiles Stilinski."

[continue on ao3]

[dg-outlaw]

X-Men '97 and the Gambit Ford F-150 Trailer Hitch Clutching

So I haven't watched all the episodes yet, but I wanted to address the stuff I've seen/heard about certain dudes in the "fandom" getting all upset about Gambit's crop top and how it made him seem gay or bi coded, even though in the entire episode he's classic Remy LeBeau from the original 90s series--not too interesting in helping out or doing anything other than what he wants to do, shamelessly flirting with Rogue, and busting everyone else's balls/possibly flirting with them too, but will still jump into the fight when it's time.

Oh, and Gambit was my favorite X-Men character growing up and I'm a cishet male, if that matters. Spoiler alert: It shouldn't.

"Holy Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, Batman! It's his belly button."

If that's you, you clearly were too young in the 90s to remember the fashion of the day. The top photo and the ending basketball scene (a references to the comics as well), was soooo 80s/90s. Bishop's got a lime green tank top on and Cyclops' tank top is tucked into his shorts. The animators understood the assignment.

If anything, Remy (above) is rock-n-roll coded more than anything else. Just Google most 80s era rock bands that had songs about partying, sex, hot babes, etc. and you'll see big hair, eyeliner, bright colors, leather pants, jewelry, fishnets, fingerless gloves, and yes... crop tops. Maybe the 80s and 90s were "gay", IDK, but I remember most of my childhood clothes in the 80s and early 90s were some variation of a neon color as was every other kid's regardless of gender.

As mentioned above, he soooo badly wants in Rogue's pants, which possibly eliminates any gay coding, which only leave bi coding if a 90s crop top = being bisexual.

Who. Freakin'. Cares. Say this out loud with me. You can like, love, and enjoy a character without identifying with that character in any way, shape, or form (and that's probably a good thing for some characters). This can mean their sexuality, gender, ethnicity, religion, morality, or anything else about them. Yes, we can bring in the Punisher debate and how military and law enforcement appropriated the Punisher logo as their badge of honor and intimidation, and how they cherry-picked traits from that character to signal their toxic masculinity when Frank Castle is not meant to be a patron saint of law enforcement or the military. But it is also possible to just enjoy a character without making that character your identity. You can enjoy their characterization, storylines, or even something as simple as their costume, superpowers, or where they're from because you were born or grew up there too.

As mentioned above, Gambit was my favorite character growing up when I first got into X-Men, mostly thanks to this series, and he and I are very different. To me, Gambit was the cool, confident guy that I wasn't. He also wasn't Cyclops or Wolverine.

As a kid, most kids wanted to be Wolverine when playing X-Men on the playground because he had the claws and the healing factor. To us, he was OP which fit in with the whole childish argument of big, bigger, biggest, and finally infinity whatever... until someone busted out with the infinity times infinity argument. Also, there was no real internet and comics weren't readily accessible, so most of the knowledge at that time was from the show and limited comics one might've had. Plus, I think the whole Magneto pulls the adamantium from Wolverine's body storyline hadn't happened yet so yeah, that would've been a good game changer on the playground.

Anyway, outside of Batman, I was never a fan of the "popular" thing growing up and often preferred more underdog characters, teams, and things. Also, due to self-esteem issues I always felt less than, so while I liked Wolverine it was hard for him to be my favorite since he was everyone else's and I felt like I wasn't cool enough to like him. Cyclops on the other hand was the clean cut boy scout, which also didn't appeal to me because that was also something I didn't relate to. Outside of Beast and Morph, who got sidelined earlier in the series, that then left Gambit. (Note: Bishop wasn't a part of the main group and came later on.) But Gambit also seemed cool to me. He had a cool looking outfit, was agile and knew how to fight (I was into martial arts at the time as well), and could throw explosive cards. He definitely fit the "Rule of cool" in my child brain.

Lastly, and this goes back to point #4 above, it shouldn't matter what a character is like or how they identify. They're fictional and enjoying them as a medium should be fun. They are not you and you are not them, even if you have things in common. That said, I do think it's great when there's representation as well. I don't recall if this was in the OG series, though I seriously doubt it was, and I don't know about main Marvel canon, but I also think it's cool that Morph now has they/them pronouns as seen in the profile credits and Marvel wiki. I'm sure some people have missed this and I'm sure that'll be the next hot-button issue, but whether Gambit is gay, bi, straight, or whatever, he's still one of my favorites and it's why I grabbed this guy when it first came out.

I have more things to say about this first episode and my experience with the X-Men growing up, but I'll save that for other posts as this has gotten long enough already.

[4me4you]

FACETUNE PORTRAITS: UNIVERSAL BEAUTY

4me4you recently visited Hope 93 Gallery, where the innovative work of artist Gretchen Andrew was on display.

Gretchen Andrew, an innovative American artist known for fusing traditional art practices with cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence, algorithms, and robotics. Internationally recognised for her playful yet subversive approach to challenging established power structures, Andrew is a pioneer at the intersection of digital culture and contemporary art.

Often described as the first "internet imperialist," she coined the term “search engine art”, using code, glitter, and strategy to infiltrate and disrupt prestigious institutions like Frieze, The Whitney Biennial, and ArtForum.

Her bold artistic interventions continue to reshape conversations about influence, visibility, and control in the digital age.

Among her most compelling works is the acclaimed Facetune Portraits series, which examines how AI-driven filters—from apps like TikTok and Zoom—reshape perceptions of beauty. 

Through custom-built robotics, Andrew translates these fleeting digital effects into physical oil paintings, pairing untouched and algorithmically "perfected" versions of well-known women to highlight the tension between natural identity and digitally enforced ideals.

Expanding on this critique, her Facetune Portraits: Universal Beauty series presents 100 women from 100 countries, each portrayed in both their authentic and AI-altered forms. 

This body of work challenges the concept of a singular global beauty standard, sparking urgent conversations about diversity, digital conformity, and the erasure of individuality by artificial intelligence.

Gretchen Andrew’s work has been featured in The Washington Post, Fast Company, Forbes, and The Financial Times, and is included in both private and public collections worldwide. Her art not only challenges what we see, but how we see—pushing us to question the role technology plays in shaping our identities and our world.

SEE MORE: HOPE93 GALLERY

[mariacallous]

Scan the online brochures of companies who sell workplace monitoring tech and you’d think the average American worker was a renegade poised to take their employer down at the next opportunity. “Nearly half of US employees admit to time theft!” “Biometric readers for enhanced accuracy!” “Offer staff benefits in a controlled way with Vending Machine Access!”

A new wave of return-to-office mandates has arrived since the New Year, including at JP Morgan Chase, leading advertising agency WPP, and Amazon—not to mention President Trump’s late January directive to the heads of federal agencies to “terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person … on a full-time basis.” Five years on from the pandemic, when the world showed how effectively many roles could be performed remotely or flexibly, what’s caused the sudden change of heart?

“There’s two things happening,” says global industry analyst Josh Bersin, who is based in California. “The economy is actually slowing down, so companies are hiring less. So there is a trend toward productivity in general, and then AI has forced virtually every company to reallocate resources toward AI projects.

“The expectation amongst CEOs is that’s going to eliminate a lot of jobs. A lot of these back-to-work mandates are due to frustration that both of those initiatives are hard to measure or hard to do when we don’t know what people are doing at home.”

The question is, what exactly are we returning to?

Take any consumer tech buzzword of the 21st century and chances are it’s already being widely used across the US to monitor time, attendance and, in some cases, the productivity of workers, in sectors such as manufacturing, retail, and fast food chains: RFID badges, GPS time clock apps, NFC apps, QR code clocking-in, Apple Watch badges, and palm, face, eye, voice, and finger scanners. Biometric scanners have long been sold to companies as a way to avoid hourly workers “buddy punching” for each other at the start and end of shifts—so-called “time theft.” A return-to-office mandate and its enforcement opens the door for similar scenarios for salaried staff.

Track and Trace

The latest, deluxe end point of these time and attendance tchotchkes and apps is something like Austin-headquartered HID’s OmniKey platform. Designed for factories, hospitals, universities and offices, this is essentially an all-encompassing RFID log-in and security system for employees, via smart cards, smartphone wallets, and wearables. These will not only monitor turnstile entrances, exits, and floor access by way of elevators but also parking, the use of meeting rooms, the cafeteria, printers, lockers, and yes, vending machine access.

These technologies, and more sophisticated worker location- and behavior-tracking systems, are expanding from blue-collar jobs to pink-collar industries and even white-collar office settings. Depending on the survey, approximately 70 to 80 percent of large US employers now use some form of employee monitoring, and the likes of PwC have explicitly told workers that managers will be tracking their location to enforce a three-day office week policy.

“Several of these earlier technologies, like RFID sensors and low-tech barcode scanners, have been used in manufacturing, in warehouses, or in other settings for some time,” says Wolfie Christl, a researcher of workplace surveillance for Cracked Labs, a nonprofit based in Vienna, Austria. “We’re moving toward the use of all kinds of sensor data, and this kind of technology is certainly now moving into the offices. However, I think for many of these, it’s questionable whether they really make sense there.”

What’s new, at least to the recent pandemic age of hybrid working, is the extent to which workers can now be tracked inside office buildings. Cracked Labs published a frankly terrifying 25-page case study report in November 2024 showing how systems of wireless networking, motion sensors, and Bluetooth beacons, whether intentionally or as a byproduct of their capabilities, can provide “behavioral monitoring and profiling” in office settings.

The project breaks the tech down into two categories: The first is technology that tracks desk presence and room occupancy, and the second monitors the indoor location, movement, and behavior of the people working inside the building.

To start with desk and room occupancy, Spacewell offers a mix of motion sensors installed under desks, in ceilings, and at doorways in “office spaces” and heat sensors and low-resolution visual sensors to show which desks and rooms are being used. Both real-time and trend data are available to managers via its “live data floorplan,” and the sensors also capture temperature, environmental, light intensity, and humidity data.

The Swiss-headquartered Locatee, meanwhile, uses existing badge and device data via Wi-Fi and LAN to continuously monitor clocking in and clocking out, time spent by workers at desks and on specific floors, and the number of hours and days spent by employees at the office per week. While the software displays aggregate rather than individual personal employee data to company executives, the Cracked Labs report points out that Locatee offers a segmented team analytics report which “reveals data on small groups.”

As more companies return to the office, the interest in this idea of “optimized” working spaces is growing fast. According to S&S Insider’s early 2025 analysis, the connected office was worth $43 billion in 2023 and will grow to $122.5 billion by 2032. Alongside this, IndustryARC predicts there will be a $4.5 billion employee-monitoring-technology market, mostly in North America, by 2026—the only issue being that the crossover between the two is blurry at best.

At the end of January, Logitech showed off its millimeter-wave radar Spot sensors, which are designed to allow employers to monitor whether rooms are being used and which rooms in the building are used the most. A Logitech rep told The Verge that the peel-and-stick devices, which also monitor VOCs, temperature, and humidity, could theoretically estimate the general placement of people in a meeting room.

As Christl explains, because of the functionality that these types of sensor-based systems offer, there is the very real possibility of a creep from legitimate applications, such as managing energy use, worker health and safety, and ensuring sufficient office resources into more intrusive purposes.

“For me, the main issue is that if companies use highly sensitive data like tracking the location of employees’ devices and smartphones indoors or even use motion detectors indoors,” he says, “then there must be totally reliable safeguards that this data is not being used for any other purposes.”

Big Brother Is Watching

This warning becomes even more pressing where workers’ indoor location, movement, and behavior are concerned. Cisco’s Spaces cloud platform has digitized 11 billion square feet of enterprise locations, producing 24.7 trillion location data points. The Spaces system is used by more than 8,800 businesses worldwide and is deployed by the likes of InterContinental Hotels Group, WeWork, the NHS Foundation, and San Jose State University, according to Cisco’s website.

While it has applications for retailers, restaurants, hotels, and event venues, many of its features are designed to function in office environments, including meeting room management and occupancy monitoring. Spaces is designed as a comprehensive, all-seeing eye into how employees (and customers and visitors, depending on the setting) and their connected devices, equipment, or “assets” move through physical spaces.

Cisco has achieved this by using its existing wireless infrastructure and combining data from Wi-Fi access points with Bluetooth tracking. Spaces offers employers both real-time views and historical data dashboards. The use cases? Everything from meeting-room scheduling and optimizing cleaning schedules to more invasive dashboards on employees’ entry and exit times, the duration of staff workdays, visit durations by floor, and other “behavior metrics.” This includes those related to performance, a feature pitched at manufacturing sites.

Some of these analytics use aggregate data, but Cracked Labs details how Spaces goes beyond this into personal data, with device usernames and identifiers that make it possible to single out individuals. While the ability to protect privacy by using MAC randomization is there, Cisco emphasizes that this makes indoor movement analytics “unreliable” and other applications impossible—leaving companies to make that decision themselves.

Management even has the ability to send employees nudge-style alerts based on their location in the building. An IBM application, based on Cisco’s underlying technology, offers to spot anomalies in occupancy patterns and send notifications to workers or their managers based on what it finds. Cisco’s Spaces can also incorporate video footage from Cisco security cameras and WebEx video conferencing hardware into the overall system of indoor movement monitoring; another example of function creep from security to employee tracking in the workplace.

“Cisco is simply everywhere. As soon as employers start to repurpose data that is being collected from networking or IT infrastructure, this quickly becomes very dangerous, from my perspective.” says Christl. “With this kind of indoor location tracking technology based on its Wi-Fi networks, I think that a vendor as major as Cisco has a responsibility to ensure it doesn’t suggest or market solutions that are really irresponsible to employers.

“I would consider any productivity and performance tracking very problematic when based on this kind of intrusive behavioral data.” WIRED approached Cisco for comment but didn’t receive a response before publication.

Cisco isn't alone in this, though. Similar to Spaces, Juniper’s Mist offers an indoor tracking system that uses both Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth beacons to locate people, connected devices, and Bluetooth tagged badges on a real-time map, with the option of up to 13 months of historical data on worker behavior.

Juniper’s offering, for workplaces including offices, hospitals, manufacturing sites, and retailers, is so precise that it is able to provide records of employees’ device names, together with the exact enter and exit times and duration of visits between “zones” in offices—including one labeled “break area/kitchen” in a demo. Yikes.

For each of these systems, a range of different applications is functionally possible, and some which raise labor-law concerns. “A worst-case scenario would be that management wants to fire someone and then starts looking into historical records trying to find some misconduct,” says Christl. "If it’s necessary to investigate employees, then there should be a procedure where, for example, a worker representative is looking into the fine-grained behavioral data together with management. This would be another safeguard to prevent misuse.”

Above and Beyond?

If warehouse-style tracking has the potential for management overkill in office settings, it makes even less sense in service and health care jobs, and American unions are now pushing for more access to data and quotas used in disciplinary action. Elizabeth Anderson, professor of public philosophy at the University of Michigan and the author of Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives, describes how black-box algorithm-driven management and monitoring affects not just the day-to-day of nursing staff but also their sense of work and value.

“Surveillance and this idea of time theft, it’s all connected to this idea of wasting time,” she explains. “Essentially all relational work is considered inefficient. In a memory care unit, for example, the system will say how long to give a patient breakfast, how many minutes to get them dressed, and so forth.

“Maybe an Alzheimer’s patient is frightened, so a nurse has to spend some time calming them down, or perhaps they have lost some ability overnight. That’s not one of the discrete physical tasks that can be measured. Most of the job is helping that person cope with declining faculties; it takes time for that, for people to read your emotions and respond appropriately. What you get is massive moral injury with this notion of efficiency.”

This kind of monitoring extends to service workers, including servers in restaurants and cleaning staff, according to a 2023 Cracked Labs’ report into retail and hospitality. Software developed by Oracle is used to, among other applications, rate and rank servers based on speed, sales, timekeeping around breaks, and how many tips they receive. Similar Oracle software that monitors mobile workers such as housekeepers and cleaners in hotels uses a timer for app-based micromanagement—for instance, “you have two minutes for this room, and there are four tasks.”

As Christl explains, this simply doesn’t work in practice. “People have to struggle to combine what they really do with this kind of rigid, digital system. And it’s not easy to standardize work like talking to patients and other kinds of affective work, like how friendly you are as a waiter. This is a major problem. These systems cannot represent the work that is being done accurately.”

But can knowledge work done in offices ever be effectively measured and assessed either? In an episode of his podcast in January, host Ezra Klein battled his own feelings about having many of his best creative ideas at a café down the street from where he lives rather than in The New York Times’ Manhattan offices. Anderson agrees that creativity often has to find its own path.

“Say there’s a webcam tracking your eyes to make sure you’re looking at the screen,” she says. “We know that daydreaming a little can actually help people come up with creative ideas. Just letting your mind wander is incredibly useful for productivity overall, but that requires some time looking around or out the window. The software connected to your camera is saying you’re off-duty—that you’re wasting time. Nobody’s mind can keep concentrated for the whole work day, but you don’t even want that from a productivity point of view.”

Even for roles where it might make more methodological sense to track discrete physical tasks, there can be negative consequences of nonstop monitoring. Anderson points to a scene in Erik Gandini’s 2023 documentary After Work that shows an Amazon delivery driver who is monitored, via camera, for their driving, delivery quotas, and even getting dinged for using Spotify in the van.

“It’s very tightly regulated and super, super intrusive, and it’s all based on distrust as the starting point,” she says. “What these tech bros don’t understand is that if you install surveillance technology, which is all about distrusting the workers, there is a deep feature of human psychology that is reciprocity. If you don’t trust me, I’m not going to trust you. You think an employee who doesn’t trust the boss is going to be working with the same enthusiasm? I don’t think so.”

Trust Issues

The fixes, then, might be in the leadership itself, not more data dashboards. “Our research shows that excessive monitoring in the workplace can damage trust, have a negative impact on morale, and cause stress and anxiety,” says Hayfa Mohdzaini, senior policy and practice adviser for technology at the CIPD, the UK’s professional body for HR, learning, and development. “Employers might achieve better productivity by investing in line manager training and ensuring employees feel supported with reasonable expectations around office attendance and manageable workloads.”

A 2023 Pew Research study found that 56 percent of US workers were opposed to the use of AI to keep track of when employees were at their desks, and 61 percent were against tracking employees’ movements while they work.

This dropped to just 51 percent of workers who were opposed to recording work done on company computers, through the use of a kind of corporate “spyware” often accepted by staff in the private sector. As Josh Bersin puts it, “Yes, the company can read your emails” with platforms such as Teramind, even including “sentiment analysis” of employee messages.

Snooping on files, emails, and digital chats takes on new significance when it comes to government workers, though. New reporting from WIRED, based on conversations with employees at 13 federal agencies, reveals the extent to Elon Musk’s DOGE team’s surveillance: software including Google’s Gemini AI chatbot, a Dynatrace extension, and security tool Splunk have been added to government computers in recent weeks, and some people have felt they can’t speak freely on recorded and transcribed Microsoft Teams calls. Various agencies already use Everfox software and Dtex’s Intercept system, which generates individual risk scores for workers based on websites and files accessed.

Alongside mass layoffs and furloughs over the past four weeks, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has also, according to CBS News and NPR reports, gone into multiple agencies in February with the theater and bombast of full X-ray security screenings replacing entry badges at Washington, DC, headquarters. That’s alongside managers telling staff that their logging in and out of devices, swiping in and out of workspaces, and all of their digital work chats will be “closely monitored” going forward.

“Maybe they’re trying to make a big deal out of it to scare people right now,” says Bersin. “The federal government is using back-to-work as an excuse to lay off a bunch of people.”

DOGE staff have reportedly even added keylogger software to government computers to track everything employees type, with staff concerned that anyone using keywords related to progressive thinking or "disloyalty” to Trump could be targeted—not to mention the security risks it introduces for those working on sensitive projects. As one worker told NPR, it feels “Soviet-style” and “Orwellian” with “nonstop monitoring.” Anderson describes the overall DOGE playbook as a series of “deeply intrusive invasions of privacy.”

Alternate Realities

But what protections are out there for employees? Certain states, such as New York and Illinois, do offer strong privacy protections against, for example, unnecessary biometric tracking in the private sector, and California’s Consumer Privacy Act covers workers as well as consumers. Overall, though, the lack of federal-level labor law in this area makes the US something of an alternate reality to what is legal in the UK and Europe.

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act in the US allows employee monitoring for legitimate business reasons and with the worker’s consent. In Europe, Algorithm Watch has made country analyses for workplace surveillance in the UK, Italy, Sweden, and Poland. To take one high-profile example of the stark difference: In early 2024, Serco was ordered by the UK's privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), to stop using face recognition and fingerprint scanning systems, designed by Shopworks, to track the time and attendance of 2,000 staff across 38 leisure centers around the country. This new guidance led to more companies reviewing or cutting the technology altogether, including Virgin Active, which pulled similar biometric employee monitoring systems from 30-plus sites.

Despite a lack of comprehensive privacy rights in the US, though, worker protest, union organizing, and media coverage can provide a firewall against some office surveillance schemes. Unions such as the Service Employees International Union are pushing for laws to protect workers from black-box algorithms dictating the pace of output.

In December, Boeing scrapped a pilot of employee monitoring at offices in Missouri and Washington, which was based on a system of infrared motion sensors and VuSensor cameras installed in ceilings, made by Ohio-based Avuity. The U-turn came after a Boeing employee leaked an internal PowerPoint presentation on the occupancy- and headcount-tracking technology to The Seattle Times. In a matter of weeks, Boeing confirmed that managers would remove all the sensors that had been installed to date.

Under-desk sensors, in particular, have received high-profile backlash, perhaps because they are such an obvious piece of surveillance hardware rather than simply software designed to record work done on company machines. In the fall of 2022, students at Northeastern University hacked and removed under-desk sensors produced by EnOcean, offering “presence detection” and “people counting,” that had been installed in the school’s Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Complex. The university provost eventually informed students that the department had planned to use the sensors with the Spaceti platform to optimize desk usage.

OccupEye (now owned by FM: Systems), another type of under-desk heat and motion sensor, received a similar reaction from staff at Barclays Bank and The Telegraph newspaper in London, with employees protesting and, in some cases, physically removing the devices that tracked the time they spent away from their desks.

Despite the fallout, Barclays later faced a $1.1 billion fine from the ICO when it was found to have deployed Sapience’s employee monitoring software in its offices, with the ability to single out and track individual employees. Perhaps unsurprisingly in the current climate, that same software company now offers “lightweight device-level technology” to monitor return-to-office policy compliance, with a dashboard breaking employee location down by office versus remote for specific departments and teams.

According to Elizabeth Anderson’s latest book Hijacked, while workplace surveillance culture and the obsession with measuring employee efficiency might feel relatively new, it can actually be traced back to the invention of the “work ethic” by the Puritans in the 16th and 17th centuries.

“They thought you should be working super hard; you shouldn’t be idling around when you should be in work,” she says. “You can see some elements there that can be developed into a pretty hostile stance toward workers. The Puritans were obsessed with not wasting time. It was about gaining assurance of salvation through your behavior. With the Industrial Revolution, the ‘no wasting time’ became a profit-maximizing strategy. Now you’re at work 24/7 because they can get you on email.”

Some key components of the original work ethic, though, have been skewed or lost over time. The Puritans also had strict constraints on what duties employers had toward their workers: paying a living wage and providing safe and healthy working conditions.

“You couldn’t just rule them tyrannically, or so they said. You had to treat them as your fellow Christians, with dignity and respect. In many ways the original work ethic was an ethic which uplifted workers.”