@josephcox.bsky.social
Hacking/crime/privacy journalist. Author of DARK WIRE, buy here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/joseph-cox/dark-wire/9781541702691/#preorder Co-founder of 404 Media. Signal: joseph.404 Email: joseph@404media.co
This is a really great conversation between @jasonkoebler.bsky.social and Chris Gilliard on Luxury Surveillance. The motivations behind surveillance tech companies, much more. Available to 404 Media subscribers today, sign up here 404media.co/membership/
21.11.2025 17:15 — 👍 22 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 1
I wrote some of the behind the scenes of what led up to the U.S's major airlines stopping a program in which they sold Americans flight data to the government to be searched without a warrant. Came after our months-long reporting and lawmaker pressure www.404media.co/behind-the-b...
21.11.2025 17:11 — 👍 32 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
New: cops used Flock AI-enabled cameras to monitor No Kings protests around the country. Also monitored No Hands protests and protests against DOGE.
"Should serve as a warning of how it may be used in the future to suppress dissent."
www.404media.co/cops-used-fl...
it's enjoyable. i'm enjoying it
www.404media.co/elon-musk-co...
New from 404 Media: ICE says critical evidence in abuse case was lost in a "system crash." That crash happened just a day after the government was sued
www.404media.co/ice-says-cri...
New from 404 Media: Ukraine is jamming Russia's "Superweapon" with a song. It's the Kinzhal hypersonic missile. Ukraine is tricking the weapon into thinking it’s in Lima, Peru.
Taken down 19 missiles in the past two weeks.
www.404media.co/ukraine-is-j...
This is one of the worst, most horrifying exposures we have ever seen. It is hard to overstate how bad the things that people are using tools like for are, and it's insane to pretend like these tools are anything other than nonconsensual porn machines
www.404media.co/ai-porn-secr...
Please stop telling me you're not surprised. We've been the leading publication in abuse of AI and porn for years. The newsworthy thing here is the exposed back end shows, definitively, people are turning ordinary people into AI porn at scale. You're pontificating to the wrong people.
19.11.2025 19:33 — 👍 667 🔁 45 💬 6 📌 0Yep, all previous FOIA Forums are available on the site too
bsky.app/profile/magg...
In an hour we will be doing our latest FOIA Forum, a live-streamed event where we show you how to pry records from the government. Today will all be about Flock, and how researchers and others found cops tapping the nationwide network for ICE, etc. Stream link here: www.404media.co/our-new-foia...
19.11.2025 16:54 — 👍 84 🔁 40 💬 2 📌 2
This is a nuts story. An AI chatbot and image platform left millions of images exposed. They show what people are actually using the AI for: taking random women's yearbook, graduation, and social media photos and making super realistic hardcore porn with them
www.404media.co/ai-porn-secr...
The 404 Media Podcast is up! This week
- the Epstein email dump is a mess
- contractor paying randos on LinkedIn $300 to physically track immigrants
- subscribers-only: a new code of conduct in the adult industry
Watch here: youtu.be/_6tVI4jh__Y
After 404 Media's months-long reporting and pressure from lawmakers, the data broker owned by the U.S.’s major airlines will now shut down a program in which it sold access to hundreds of millions of flight records to the government and let agencies track peoples’ movements without a warrant.
18.11.2025 21:39 — 👍 786 🔁 311 💬 7 📌 16
The long running HOPE hacking conference just got banned from its current venue because someone told the university the conference had an “anti-police agenda.” Based it seems on a single pamphlet?
www.404media.co/hope-hacking...
Update to this: bsky.app/profile/jose...
18.11.2025 19:11 — 👍 107 🔁 18 💬 0 📌 1
NEW: US airlines (Delta, United, American, etc) will shut down a program in which it sold hundreds of millions of your flight records to government agencies, including ICE, FBI, ATF, more. Comes after intense lawmaker-pressure and 404 Media's months-long reporting
www.404media.co/airlines-wil...
New: the airlines (Delta, United, American, etc) will shut down a program in which it sold hundreds of millions of your flight records to government agencies, including ICE, FBI, ATF, more. Comes after intense lawmaker-pressure and 404 Media's months-long reporting
www.404media.co/airlines-wil...
New: DHS claimed in court proceedings that nearly two weeks worth of surveillance footage from ICE’s Broadview Detention Center in suburban Chicago has been “irretrievably destroyed” and may not be able to be recovered. ACLU of Illinois said "Hoping DHS can explain"
www.404media.co/two-weeks-of...
![The filing was made as part of a class action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security by people being held at Broadview, which has become the site of widespread protests against ICE. The lawsuit says that people detained at the facility are being held in abhorrent, “inhumane” conditions. The complaint describes a facility where detainees are “confined at Broadview inside overcrowded holding cells containing dozens of people at a time. People are forced to attempt to sleep for days or sometimes weeks on plastic chairs or on the filthy concrete floor. They are denied sufficient food and water […] the temperatures are extreme and uncomfortable […] the physical conditions are filthy, with poor sanitation, clogged toilets, and blood, human fluids, and insects in the sinks and the floor […] federal officers who patrol Broadview under Defendants’ authority are abusive and cruel. Putative class members are routinely degraded, mistreated, and humiliated by these officers.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vcepp6trx4vpe5ourxso4tjl/bafkreicg7mgw2pvraqlhagofyiadrwthcbxfuykp6dakmyqjcayseaojny@jpeg)
The filing was made as part of a class action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security by people being held at Broadview, which has become the site of widespread protests against ICE. The lawsuit says that people detained at the facility are being held in abhorrent, “inhumane” conditions. The complaint describes a facility where detainees are “confined at Broadview inside overcrowded holding cells containing dozens of people at a time. People are forced to attempt to sleep for days or sometimes weeks on plastic chairs or on the filthy concrete floor. They are denied sufficient food and water […] the temperatures are extreme and uncomfortable […] the physical conditions are filthy, with poor sanitation, clogged toilets, and blood, human fluids, and insects in the sinks and the floor […] federal officers who patrol Broadview under Defendants’ authority are abusive and cruel. Putative class members are routinely degraded, mistreated, and humiliated by these officers.”
Footage is missing from October 19 through October 31. This is during a period of mass protest in front of the facility, which has led to many arrests. The footage was sought as discovery in a case where people detained there claim abuse and horrendous living conditions:
18.11.2025 17:01 — 👍 212 🔁 56 💬 3 📌 2
The government claims two weeks of surveillance footage from Broadview ICE Detention Center has been "irretrievably destroyed" and won’t be produced as evidence in a lawsuit against the government over abhorrent conditions there:
www.404media.co/two-weeks-of...
None of the people briefed on the plan who spoke to 404 Media are licensed private investigators. In Virginia, private investigators must apply and be registered with the state’s Department of Criminal Justice Services. In DC, private investigators and security professionals similarly need to apply for a license. But in Feds United’s case, the company appears to be trying to recruit people simply on whether they are former military or law enforcement, despite them being asked to perform physical surveillance of targets.
People being briefed on the plans are not licensed private investigators, despite the job involving physical surveillance. In both locations (Virginia and DC) private investigators need to be licensed. The contractor is sending random people out to verify info for ICE www.404media.co/contractor-p...
18.11.2025 16:47 — 👍 31 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
The data comes from ARC, a data broker that the country's major airlines own. These are the board of directors. Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, American, etc www.404media.co/irs-accessed...
18.11.2025 16:46 — 👍 36 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 3
can't
The revelation is in a bipartisan letter shared with 404 Media. It is addressed to the owners of the country's major airlines urging them to stop this warrantless access www.404media.co/irs-accessed...
18.11.2025 16:43 — 👍 57 🔁 11 💬 2 📌 1
NEW: the IRS accessed a massive database of Americans flights without a warrant. Includes where and when someone flew, credit card used. Usually when the government gets this data from an airline it needs approval. IRS accessed a database it just paid for access to
www.404media.co/irs-accessed...
NEW: a contractor is paying random people $300 to physically track immigrants for ICE. They're given addresses, vehicles, told to monitor the target. That information then goes back up to ICE. These are not licensed private investigators; members of the public
www.404media.co/contractor-p...
New from 404 Media: IRS accessed a massive database of Americans flights without a warrant. Shows where and when someone flew, the credit card used. Hundreds of millions records; the airlines sell this data to the government through a broker they own
www.404media.co/irs-accessed...
One of the people briefed on the Virginia and DC pilot said Feds United was subcontracting under SOS International LLC, or SOSi, which is a large government contractor. In October the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) signed a $7 million contract with SOSi for skip tracing services, The Lever reported. “I do not comment on current projects where I am not the prime vendor,” Brown from Feds United told 404 Media. SOSi did not respond to a request for comment. When asked specifically if SOSi would be able to comment on the pilot, Brown said “after my years of federal training, my response is ‘I cannot confirm nor deny who my client is.’”
One of the people said Feds United is subcontracting for SOSi, a big gov contractor that just got a contract for these sorts of services. “I do not comment on current projects where I am not the prime vendor,” Brown told me www.404media.co/contractor-p...
18.11.2025 16:03 — 👍 32 🔁 4 💬 2 📌 0
Brown said that ICE does not have good addresses for some of its targets, one person briefed on the plans recalled. Feds United would give recruited individuals a list of addresses based on things like utility bills, the person said. Feds United would split the people into teams to perform the surveillance, and after verifying the target lived at the address each person on the team would be paid $300, they added. This would go up to a maximum of $30,000, they said. “Do not talk to the neighbors,” the person said, recalling the plans. “This was strictly supposed to be observe and report,” referring to a tactic where they are not supposed to directly interact with anyone.
The post doesn't mention ICE, but two people briefed on the plans told me the job is to verify information for ICE. Would be split into teams, given vehicles, addresses. $300 for each verified address up to $30,000. www.404media.co/contractor-p...
18.11.2025 15:59 — 👍 51 🔁 11 💬 1 📌 0
Hello to my LinkedIn retired LAW ENFORCEMENT and MILITARY friends. Feds United is seeking approximately 20 more retired experienced law enforcement officers or retired military personnel in the DC/Northern Virginia area to participate in a 90-day pilot project that is expected to kick off within the next few weeks. The project will assess whether contractors can validate addresses associated with subjects of interest. Participants will work on surveillance teams and this is an OBSERVE and REPORT only task. If you are interested in the opportunity please contact me here via LinkedIn messaging. Also, please share this with your network or if you know of anyone else in the area that might be interested, please pass it on.
It starts with this LinkedIn post. Jim Brown is president of a contractor consultancy and a former longtime ICE official. He says he is looking for former law enforcement/military for an upcoming project www.404media.co/contractor-p...
18.11.2025 15:56 — 👍 66 🔁 23 💬 5 📌 4
A government contractor is recruiting randos on LinkedIn to physically track undocumented immigrants for ICE. $300 per person found
www.404media.co/contractor-p...
