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Submission + - Burger King Uses Copyright Law to Nix Security Research (bankinfosecurity.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Self-described ethical hacker "BobDaHacker" posted Saturday a blog post disclosing authentication bypass and other vulnerabilities in the "Assistant" system used by Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International, parent company to the hamburger chain as well as Tim Hortons, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs.

The "Assistant" system is deployed across RBI brands, BobDaHacker said in the now-deleted report, which remains archived online.

The blog post, titled "We Hacked Burger King," was up for less than 48 hours, until the researcher said they received a copyright infringement notice transmitted by threat intel firm Cyble. "Their complaint specifically states that our use of the 'Burger King' trademark was unauthorized and creates 'a high degree of confusion among the public that the website is in some way endorsed by/or linked with our client,'" BobDaHacker said in a statement posted to the URL where their research previously was live.

Here it is on the wayback machine

Submission + - Google admits the open web is in 'rapid decline' (theverge.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: For months, Google has maintained that the web is “thriving,” AI isn’t tanking traffic, and its search engine is sending people to a wider variety of websites than ever. But in a court filing from last week, Google admitted that “the open web is already in rapid decline,” as spotted earlier by Jason Kint and reported on by Search Engine Roundtable .

Google submitted the filing ahead of another trial that will determine how it will address its monopoly in the advertising technology business. The US Department of Justice recommends that Google break up its advertising business, but the company argues in the filing that this isn’t ideal because it would “only accelerate” the decline of the open web, “harming publishers who currently rely on open-web display advertising revenue.”

Google:
Finally, while Plaintiffs continue to advance essentially the same divestiture remedies they noticed in their complaint filed in January 2023, the world has continued to turn. Plaintiffs put forth remedies as if trial, the Court’s liability decision, and remedies discovery never happened—and also as if the incredibly dynamic ad tech ecosystem had stood still while these judicial proceedings continued.

But the changes have been many: AI is reshaping ad tech at every level; non-open web display ad formats like Connected TV and retail media are exploding in popularity; and Google’s competitors are directing their investments to these new growth areas. The fact is that today, the open web is already in rapid decline and Plaintiffs’ divestiture proposal would only accelerate that decline, harming publishers who currently rely on open-web display advertising revenue. As the law makes clear, the last thing a court should do is intervene to reshape an industry that is already in the midst of being reshaped by market forces.

The statement sharply contrasts Google’s recent narrative about the health of search on the web. Google has a clear incentive to make itself appear weaker or less monopolistic in the courtroom, but its admission reflects a reality many publishers are going through. Several digital publishers and independent website owners have reported experiencing a decline in traffic following changes to Google Search’s algorithm and the rise of AI chatbots.

Comment The headline is fake news (Score 1) 5

by schwit1 (#65644284) Attached to: Washington State Patrol uses phone data to track speeding

The Michelin Mobility Intelligence system does not track personal identities. Instead, it aggregates data to show speeding behavior in specific locations at specific times.

As a result of this data, state troopers will focus on patrolling areas identified as speeding hotspots, including sections of I-5 and I-90. The targeted enforcement will take place from June 16 to July 31, with the aim of changing reckless driving patterns through increased patrols.

Comment BMW, I am so breaking up with you (Score 1) 142

by schwit1 (#65644102) Attached to: BMW Unveils New iX3 EV With 500-Mile Range, AI-Enabled Software

https://techcrunch.com/2025/09...

Those first few drives felt exhilarating, too. The car was beautiful, the ride was smooth, and I felt like we were going places. Nearly two years later, I’m doing something I never thought I’d do: eagerly awaiting the end of a lease on a luxury car because its software is such a disaster that it makes my rusted-out Volvo look like a paragon of reliability.

Digital key issues have become so widespread that BMW owners have at times shared elaborate multi-step workarounds that read like instructions for disarming a bomb:
1. Open the BMW app on your phone and use it to unlock the door.
2. Sign in with your BMW ID in iDrive.
3. Place your iPhone in the vehicle’s charging tray.
4. Wait for the digital key to reappear in the Wallet app.
5. Double-click the side button, authenticate with Face ID, and—finally—start the car.

Submission + - Game Theory of Police Interrogation (joehuffman.org)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Here’s the problem. When you agree to a police interrogation, you and the police are playing two different games.

As the suspect, you believe you are playing a multiplayer, collaborative game.

But the police aren’t even playing a multiplayer game. They’re playing a one-player game, like Tetris.

As the suspect, you’re not a player in the game. You’re more like the game environment, producing falling blocks for the player—the police.

The police play this game by collecting your statements like blocks and fitting them into a picture that incriminates you. When enough blocks have fit together, the police have won the game and refer the case to a prosecutor.

Submission + - Trump Admin Wants to Own Patents of New Inventions Funded by Tax Dollars (newsweek.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has said that his department has been in contact with top universities to create "deals" that would give the government patents for their research and inventions.

Lutnick told President Donald Trump, along with the Cabinet and the press, that the government would be receiving the patents in return for the "tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars" spent in grants each year.

"So we are going to make a deal with them all, which is: if we give them the money, don't you think it's fair that the United States of America, and the taxpayers who funded it, get a piece of that?"

Submission + - AI is Killing the Internet. Don't Let It Kill the Classroom Too. (realcleareducation.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: AI isn’t merely churning out fluff. In one striking example, bots fueled a disproportionate share of the online discourse following mass shootings, and AI actively spreads misinformation. Online content is increasingly spun up by algorithms for other algorithms to amplify. This deluge of automated content is drowning humanity on the internet.

Lately, it seems that a similar dynamic is charging into our college classrooms with developers of educational technology at its vanguard. Let’s call it the Dead Education Theory, and it works something like this:

A college professor uses one of many dozens of free commercial AI tools to draft a rubric and an assignment prompt for their class. A student pastes that prompt into another AI app that produces an essay that they submit as their completed assignment. Pressed for time, the professor runs the paper through an AI tool that instantly spits out tidy boilerplate feedback. Off in the background, originality checkers and paraphrasing bots duel in an endless game of evasion and detection. On paper, the learning loop is complete. The essay is written. The grade is given. And the class moves on to its next assignment.

It’s entirely likely that this scenario is playing out thousands of times every day. A 2024 global survey from the Digital Education Council found that 86% of college students use AI in their studies, with more than half (54%) deploying it at least weekly and a quarter using it daily. Faculty are increasingly using AI to create teaching materials, boost student engagement, and generate student feedback, although most report just minimal to moderate AI use.

Exit quote: “Banning AI tools isn’t realistic; the genie has escaped that bottle. But instead of allowing AI to drain higher education of its humanity, we must design a future where AI amplifies authentic human thinking. AI will be in the classroom — there’s no question about that. The urgent question is how to keep humanity there as well.”

Submission + - An Online Group Says It's Behind a Campus Swatting Wave (nytimes.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Members of the group offered on Telegram to draw armed officers to schools, malls and airports, though their claims are unverified. Such false emergency calls have disrupted campus life in recent days.

An online group said that it was behind a number of recent hoax emergency calls that drew a heavy law enforcement response to college campuses across the United States and were timed to coincide with the start of the school year.

The group, which calls itself Purgatory, highlighted news media coverage of the recent hoaxes in a public-facing channel on Telegram, an encrypted messaging service often used by criminals.

The online group is suspected of being connected to several of the episodes, including reports of shootings, according to cybersecurity experts, law enforcement agencies and the group members’ own posts in a social media chat. The group’s claims could not be independently verified.

Federal authorities previously connected the same network to a series of bomb scares and bogus shooting reports in early 2024, for which three men pleaded guilty this year.

The spreading of false reports — a practice known as swatting — is intended to sow fear and chaos at educational and governmental institutions, as well as commercial places. Some swatting episodes have focused on the homes of politicians and other famous people.

Submission + - OpenAI Is Scanning Users' ChatGPT Conversations and Reporting Content to Police (futurism.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: For the better part of a year, we've watched — and reported — in horror as more and more stories emerge about AI chatbots leading people to self-harm, delusions, hospitalization, arrest, and suicide.

As the loved ones of the people impacted by these dangerous bots rally for change to prevent such harm from happening to anyone else, the companies that run these AIs have been slow to implement safeguards — and OpenAI, whose ChatGPT has been repeatedly implicated in what experts are now calling "AI psychosis," has until recently done little more than offer copy-pasted promises.

In a new blog post admitting certain failures amid its users' mental health crises, OpenAI also quietly disclosed that it's now scanning users' messages for certain types of harmful content, escalating particularly worrying content to human staff for review — and, in some cases, reporting it to the cops.

"When we detect users who are planning to harm others, we route their conversations to specialized pipelines where they are reviewed by a small team trained on our usage policies and who are authorized to take action, including banning accounts," the blog post notes. "If human reviewers determine that a case involves an imminent threat of serious physical harm to others, we may refer it to law enforcement."

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