404 Media vs The Independent

Flock Safety Hack Reveals Cameras Track People, Not Just Plates

Hackers from the collective 'stegan0gram' dismantled a Flock Safety ALPR camera in the US, revealing it captures far more than license plates, including images of people, bicycles, and even decals or patches on clothing, which are incorrectly interpreted and stored as plates. Over a 21-day period, one camera captured 1.6 million images and logged 50,000 vehicles, sending data to Flock's cloud for AI-based recognition of plates, make, and color. The hackers also found weak encryption, retrieving a key from an unencrypted area, and storage issues causing crashes. Flock Safety dismissed the act as illegal and pointed to its bug bounty program. The findings, reported by 404 Media and Wired, add to criticism over privacy and potential misuse.

• Hackers dismantled a Flock Safety ALPR camera and discovered it stores images of people, bicycles, and can misinterpret stickers/patches as plates.
• One camera captured 1.6 million images and logged 50,000 vehicles in 21 days.
• The ALPR system uploads data to Flock's cloud for AI-based recognition of plates, make, and color.

OpenAI Employees Read ChatGPT Conversations Under 'Project Lilly'

Internal documents obtained by 404 Media reveal that OpenAI employs hundreds of freelancers to manually review real ChatGPT user conversations as part of 'Project Lilly', a quality assurance initiative. The reviewers evaluate user inputs, summarize the presumed intent, and rate the AI-generated responses, aiming to make the chatbot less sycophantic and more 'smart but humble'. While the program is intended to improve safety, experts raise privacy concerns, noting that users are not adequately informed that human reviewers may read their intimate conversations. OpenAI says it filters personal information and hides usernames, but admits errors can occur. Similar manual review practices are also used by Google and Anthropic.

• OpenAI's 'Project Lilly' deploys hundreds of freelancers to review real ChatGPT conversations.
• The review process involves three steps: reading the input, summarizing intent, and evaluating the AI answer.
• Reviewers are instructed to flag excessive emoji use and sycophancy.

Apple reverses Hide My Email domain change

Apple has reversed a planned change to its Hide My Email feature that would have moved autogenerated addresses to the @private.icloud.com domain. The company confirmed on August 24–25, 2026 that Hide My Email addresses will remain on @icloud.com after user criticism that the proposed domain change would make disposable addresses easier for sites to reject. Daring Fireball reported internal Apple objections to the switch. Earlier reporting from 404 Media documented a Hide My Email bug that leaked users’ real addresses; Apple fixed that bug after being alerted more than a year earlier.

• Apple announced it will keep Hide My Email addresses on the @icloud.com domain rather than moving them to @private.icloud.com.
• The reversal followed user criticism that @private.icloud.com would make disposable addresses easier for sites to block during sign-ups.
• Daring Fireball reported that Apple employees had objected to the domain change internally.

The Independent's social commerce revenue surpasses SEO

The Independent's social-commerce revenue surpassed its SEO-based revenue for the first time in September, indicating a shift toward social platforms and away from search traffic, which has declined partly due to AI. CEO Christian Broughton declared the old search-and-social model 'dead' and outlined four growth areas: AI, creator-led studio work, e-commerce, and membership, expected to contribute nearly half of 2026 revenue. The company reported £55.1 million in 2025 revenue, up 4%, with profit before tax rising 9% to £3.5 million. Broughton also highlighted AI productivity gains, including the 'Bulletin' news app with 12 million monthly users, the 'Eva' AI feature that reduced bounce rate, and a live news team six times more productive. Meanwhile, Meta's upcoming terms update on October 30 extends AI training scraping rights to all linked websites, criticized as a data grab that may override robots.txt and bypass licensing. In parallel, e-commerce platforms are navigating AI agent integration, with Amazon blocking third-party agents while Walmart and Target partner with OpenAI, and Zillow licensing data to Google for Gemini.

• The Independent's social-commerce revenue surpassed SEO-based revenue for the first time in September.
• CEO Christian Broughton declared the old search-and-social business model 'dead'.
• Meta will extend scraping rights to all websites linked on its platforms starting October 30.

Zelensky calls on Trump to act after Russia violates energy ceasefire

The Independent's news section has been updated with new top stories including Ukraine-Russia conflict, a school stabbing in Poland, NHS prescription changes, and other current events.

Taboola: Tesco Clubcard Readership Surges 1,876%

Taboola's Newsroom data shows UK readership of Tesco Clubcard articles rose 1,876% in the most recent 30-day period versus the prior 30 days, generating more than 335,000 page views across Taboola's UK publisher network (up from ~17,000). The surge is attributed primarily to the impending expiry of £11 million in Clubcard vouchers, which publishers warned would become invalid after 11:59pm on 31 August. Additional drivers cited include the return of Clubcard Challenges, Tesco’s "Know What You’re Sitting On" campaign and promotional activity such as the OVO Clubcard Millionaire prize draw. Taboola communications lead Dave Struzzi commented on publishers' role and the attention the Clubcard brand is generating for Tesco.

• UK readership of Tesco Clubcard articles increased by 1,876% over the last 30 days versus the preceding 30 days.
• Taboola’s Newsroom recorded more than 335,000 page views for Clubcard-related articles across its UK publisher network, up from approximately 17,000 in the previous 30 days.
• The surge was driven by the approaching expiry of £11 million worth of Tesco Clubcard vouchers, which were reported to become invalid after 11:59pm on 31 August.