In the US, you can give up your house keys for a facial recognition unlocking system – if you want to give ADT $40 per month. Deal? CC-licensed photo by the Original Muddog on Flickr.
You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.
A selection of 11 links for you. Unsecured. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Threads: charles_arthur. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. On Bluesky: @charlesarthur.bsky.social. Observations and links welcome.
ADT Plus review: home security gets smarter • The Verge
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy:
»
My front door unlocks automatically as I walk up to it, and the home security system disarms itself — no code or app required. The system has recognized me using the Google Nest Doorbell’s Familiar Faces, and confirmed I’m me using my phone’s location. The dual-factor authentication triggers the automatic disarming and unlocking, so all I have to do is walk inside.
This hands-free Auto Unlock experience is powered by ADT Plus, the newest security system from America’s oldest security company. It features the usual hardware — a base, sensors, and various accessories — but represents a major upgrade from fumbling for keys or racing to silence a beeping keypad.
I hate that “beeping pressure” home alarm systems put on you, so I tend to avoid turning them on. But ADT’s Auto Unlock, along with other automated features the system offers, has meant I’ve found myself using it much more consistently than any security system I’ve tested. That alone makes it better.
A home that responds to you automatically, without requiring you to bark commands, punch in codes, or fiddle with apps, is the future of the smart home. The most surprising part is that this is coming from a legacy security company like ADT (with help from Google). Less surprising is that you have to pay ADT prices for this convenience.
…ADT Plus is only compatible with Google Home. Also, if you’re averse to high-cost monitoring packages, you should look elsewhere — for the full feature set I tested, ADT Plus will set you back $40 a month.
…The Nest doorbell specifically helps power Auto Unlock and a unique feature called Trusted Neighbor. This uses the same principles as Auto Unlock, but instead of only allowing in residents of the home, it can unlock the doors (and deactivate the alarm) for any approved person based on set parameters.
«
Like the idea of face unlock. Very much dislike the idea of paying that amount for it. Proximity locks (with RFID) seem like a good idea, except cars which use those get stolen – so maybe not. Keys might not be high tech, but they’re really robust, impossible to copy except in specific places, cheap, and proximity dependent.
unique link to this extract
Review: The Real North Korea, by Andrei Lankov • Mr and Mrs Psmith’s Bookshelf
John Psmith:
»
In the 1980s, Japan experienced a crisis of disinformation. For years, there had been mysterious disappearances of Japanese people with no known history of mental illness, drug addiction, or gambling debts. All kinds of people — men and women, young and old, just suddenly vanishing without a trace. Many theories were put forward to explain the puzzle (for instance, some believed it was alien abductions), but the most widespread, pernicious, and dangerous view was that North Korea was responsible. There were people who claimed to have actually seen teams of North Korean commandos lurking on beaches, nabbing random passers-by, and bundling them into waiting submersibles just off the coast. This was obviously crazy. Products, no doubt, of atavistic xenophobia and reactionary sentiments. The Japanese media, government, and academic authorities put a lot of effort into refuting this dangerous disinformation throughout the 1980s and 1990s…which made them look real silly when in 2002 Kim Jong-Il issued a formal apology for the abductions and ordered the surviving captives returned to Japan.
This has always felt like the ur-North Korea story to me, because it has a little bit of everything. First of all, it’s delightfully madcap — they KIDNAPPED RANDOM PEOPLE on BEACHES using SUBMARINES and they did it for DECADES. Second, it’s full of bizarre irony. The North Koreans got away with this scot-free until, in a gesture of goodwill and altruism designed to improve relations with Japan, they fessed up and tried to make things right…at which point everything blew up in their faces and had the exact opposite effect.
…It’s estimated that around 80% of all goods and services in North Korea are provided in secret and in shadow. It’s capitalism as an extremophile species of lichen, colonizing the cracks and crevices of the official society, and keeping the whole system afloat. They are actually speedrunning the entire history of primitive accumulation leading to investment leading to the joint stock corporation. Large (secret) transportation companies now exist in North Korea and maintain unofficial roads forming an unofficial transit network. The trucks and buses are smuggled in from abroad, then “donated” to various government agencies, which then lease them back in exchange for kickbacks. In this way, they’ve reinvented the idea of funding government operations through corporate taxation in a hilariously roundabout way. There is a booming private restaurant scene.
«
This is a fabulous review which, despite being full of detail, really makes you want to read the book. Though the review’s comments about the author are worth turning up for too. (Via Andrew Brown.)
unique link to this extract
Google and Check Point nuke massive YouTube malware network • The Register
Carly Page:
»
Google has taken down thousands of YouTube videos that were quietly spreading password-stealing malware disguised as cracked software and game cheats.
Researchers at Check Point say the so-called “YouTube Ghost Network” hijacked and weaponized legitimate YouTube accounts to post tutorial videos that promised free copies of Photoshop, FL Studio, and Roblox hacks, but instead lured viewers into installing infostealers such as Rhadamanthys and Lumma.
The campaign, which has been running since 2021, surged in 2025, with the number of malicious videos tripling compared to previous years. More than 3,000 malware-laced videos have now been scrubbed from the platform after Check Point worked with Google to dismantle what it called one of the most significant malware delivery operations ever seen on YouTube.
Check Point says the Ghost Network relied on thousands of fake and compromised accounts working in concert to make malicious content look legitimate. Some posted the “tutorial” videos, others flooded comment sections with praise, likes, and emojis to give the illusion of trust, while a third set handled “community posts” that shared download links and passwords for the supposed cracked software.
“This operation took advantage of trust signals, including views, likes, and comments, to make malicious content seem safe,” said Eli Smadja, security research group manager at Check Point. “What looks like a helpful tutorial can actually be a polished cyber trap. The scale, modularity, and sophistication of this network make it a blueprint for how threat actors now weaponise engagement tools to spread malware.”
Once hooked, victims were typically instructed to disable antivirus software, then download an archive hosted on Dropbox, Google Drive, or MediaFire. Inside was malware rather than a working copy of the promised program, and once opened, the infostealers exfiltrated credentials, crypto wallets, and system data to remote command-and-control servers.
«
Beginning to wonder about this “internet” thing. Also, it had been there since 2021?
unique link to this extract
Offshoring automation: Filipino tech workers power global AI jobs • Rest of World
Michael Beltran:
»
Inside a multistory office building in Manila’s financial district, around 60 young men and women monitored and controlled artificial intelligence robots restocking convenience store shelves in distant Japan.
Occasionally, when a bot dropped a can, someone would don a virtual-reality headset and use joysticks to help recover it.
The AI robots are designed by Tokyo-based startup Telexistence, and run on Nvidia and Microsoft platforms. Since 2022, the company has deployed the machines in the back rooms of over 300 FamilyMart and Lawson stores in Tokyo. It is also planning to use them soon in 7-Elevens.
The bots are remotely monitored 24/7 in Manila by the employees of Astro Robotics, a robot-workforce startup. Japan faces a worker shortage as its population ages, and the country has been cautious about expanding immigration. Telexistence’s bots offer a workaround, allowing physical labor to be offshored, Juan Paolo Villonco, Astro Robotics’ founder, told Rest of World. This lowers costs for companies and increases their scale of operations, he said.
“It’s hard to find workers to do stacking [in Japan],” said Villonco. “If you get one who’s willing to do it, it’s going to be very expensive. The minimum wage is quite expensive.”
It’s easy to get young, tech-savvy Filipinos to operate the robots, he said. Each tele-operator, called a “pilot,” monitors around 50 robots at a time, an employee told Rest of World. Most workers in this article requested anonymity to safeguard their jobs.
The bots are usually autonomous, but occasionally — about 4% of the time — they mess up. Perhaps they drop a bottle, which rolls away. Getting the AI bot to recover it by mimicking the human grip perfectly — the friction, the feel of metal in the hand — is one of the more challenging problems in robotics. That’s when a pilot steps in.
Astro Robotics’ tele-operators are benefiting from an AI- and automation-related boom in IT-service work and tech jobs in the Philippines, even as layoffs hit similar workers in richer countries.
«
This is one of the weirdest piece of telepresence, mixed with robotics, mixed with globalisation, that I’ve ever come across.
unique link to this extract
Inside Apple’s quest to add a heart-rate sensor and full workout tracking into AirPods Pro 3 | TechRadar
Jacob Krol:
»
The heart-rate sensor in the AirPods Pro 3 is not Apple’s first foray into this sensor type. Apple initially offered such a sensor when the Apple Watch first launched in 2015, so as Waydo explained, “it was really cool here to get to bring everything we learned over more than a decade of that work to this very different form factor.”
[Apple director of health sensing Steve] Waydo’s team at Apple has been working on heart-rate sensing algorithms since the original Apple Watch, and that 10-year journey proved helpful in the development of the new sensor – but it’s not one for one. “The heart rate sensor in the AirPods Pro uses invisible infrared light. We pulse it up to 256 times per second, and we take that data and we fuse it together with what we’re getting from the onboard accelerometers to measure the blood flow in your ears,” explained Waydo, who noted that’s where the final measurement for heart rate comes from.
This differs from the Apple Watch, which uses green LEDs. Here, the sensors are invisible, and there are either two sources or a single, as AirPods Pro 3 can provide a heart-rate reading with just one bud in or with both in. With the latter, the algorithms work in real time to pick the best, most accurate source.
On those algorithms, the base for how AirPods track heart rate comes from the Apple Watch, but Waydo explained that given these are much smaller, the team “had to shrink those algorithms down to fit within the processing and memory constraints, so that we could deliver the same kind of speed, efficiency, and battery life that our users really love.”
To get there, the team had to ensure the new sensor would work for everyone. As Waydo explained, “there’s a huge amount of variation in ear geometry that we had to tackle, both through fit and through our studies to understand if we could get great signals across everybody who’s going to use these AirPods.”
«
There’s a lot more to this; the AirPods Pro being able to measure heart rate is quite a feat.
unique link to this extract
How the brain moves from waking life to sleep (and back again) • Quanta Magazine
Yasemin Saplakoglu:
»
To fall asleep, “everything has to change,” said Adam Horowitz (opens a new tab), a research affiliate in sleep science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The flow of blood to the brain slows down, and the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid speeds up. Neurons release neurotransmitters that shift the brain’s chemistry, and they start to behave differently, firing more in sync with one another. Mental images float in and out. Thoughts begin to warp.
“Our brains can really rapidly transform us from being aware of our environments to being unconscious, or even experiencing things that aren’t there,” said Laura Lewis (opens a new tab), a sleep researcher at MIT. “This raises deeply fascinating questions about our human experience.”
It’s still largely mysterious how the brain manages to move between these states safely and efficiently. But studies targeting transitions both into and out of sleep are starting to unravel the neurobiological underpinnings of these in-between states, yielding an understanding that could explain how sleep disorders, such as insomnia or sleep paralysis, can result when things go awry.
Sleep has been traditionally thought of as an all-or-nothing phenomenon, Lewis said. You’re either awake or asleep. But the new findings are showing that it’s “much more of a spectrum than it is a category.”
«
Not short, but very interesting, particularly about how you are more creative in the moments where you’re slipping over the edge into sleep.
unique link to this extract
Man detained for protesting National Guard with Darth Vader theme sues • The Washington Post
Joe Heim:
»
A District resident who was briefly detained and handcuffed in Washington DC last month for following an Ohio National Guard patrol while playing “The Imperial March” from Star Wars on his phone has filed a lawsuit saying his constitutional rights were violated.
The American Civil Liberties Union of DC filed the lawsuit Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Sam O’Hara against an Ohio National Guard sergeant, four DC police officers and the District of Columbia. The suit said they had infringed on O’Hara’s First Amendment rights and violated DC law when they detained him on Sept. 11 on a public street in Northwest Washington.
The ACLU suit says that when O’Hara saw the National Guard members that day, he began walking behind them playing “The Imperial March” on his phone and recording them. It alleges that within two minutes, one of the Guard members “turned around and threatened to call the police officers to ‘handle’ Mr. O’Hara if he did not stop.”
O’Hara continued to play the song, also known as “Darth Vader’s Theme,” and the soldier called the DC police. When police arrived, the suit alleges, O’Hara was “tightly handcuffed” and detained for 15 to 20 minutes.
“Government conduct of this sort might have received legal sanction a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” the ACLU wrote in its filing. “But in the here and now, the First Amendment bars government officials from restraining individuals from recording law enforcement or peacefully protesting, and the Fourth Amendment (along with the District’s prohibition on false arrest) bars groundless seizures.”
A DC police spokesman said the department cannot comment on active litigation.
«
I bet. The thing that authoritarians can’t bear is satire, because it’s not proper dissent, which they would know how to suppress. I do hope the ACLU demands that, in restitution, all of those involved have to sit a test on the First and Fourth Amendments while the Imperial March plays at full volume. Make it memorable.
unique link to this extract
US accuses former L3Harris cyber boss of stealing and selling secrets to Russian buyer • TechCrunch
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai:
»
The US government has accused a former executive at defense contractor L3Harris of stealing trade secrets and selling them to a buyer in Russia, according to court documents seen by TechCrunch.
On October 14, the Department of Justice accused Peter Williams of stealing eight trade secrets from two unnamed companies. The DOJ made the allegation in a “criminal information” document, which, like an indictment, represents a formal accusation of alleged crimes.
The document does not specify Williams’ relationship with the two companies or the types of trade secrets, nor does it name the alleged Russian buyer.
TechCrunch has confirmed that the Williams mentioned in the document, which does not specify where he worked, is the former general manager at Trenchant, a division of L3Harris that develops hacking and surveillance tools for Western governments, including the United States.
Williams became Trenchant’s general manager on October 23, 2024, and he worked at Trenchant until August 21, 2025, per UK business records. Williams, a 39-year-old Australian citizen, resided in Washington DC, according to the court document.
Four former Trenchant employees had previously told TechCrunch that Williams, who was known inside the company as “Doogie,” had been arrested.
«
Does the company name “Trenchant” sound familiar? Well done – that’s the company from which a developer working on finding zero-day vulnerabilities was recently warned that he was being targeted with government spyware. There’s wheels within wheels on this.
unique link to this extract
Tech’s love affair with Trump grows stronger by the day • TechPolicy.Press
Paul M. Barrett:
»
Since the United States election in November 2024, the technology industry has distinguished itself in the race to capitulate to and enable the Trump administration. No gesture of obsequiousness or loyalty has been too great or trivial for the moguls of Silicon Valley.
In recent days:
• Representatives of Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft attended a White House dinner where the president thanked wealthy donors to his project of adding a 90,000-square-foot ballroom to the Executive Mansion
• Responding to administration demands, Meta, Apple, and Google restricted digital tools used by activists to flag sightings of masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents seeking to arrest immigrants allegedly lacking legal status
• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, once seen as a progressive benefactor, said in an interview that he avidly supports President Trump and believed National Guard troops should be deployed to his hometown of San Francisco, over the objections of city leaders. (He has since apologized for beckoning the Guard.) Benioff’s company, meanwhile, reportedly has pitched ICE on using Salesforce’s artificial intelligence to help the agency staff up as it expands immigration raids and deportations.…Why has Silicon Valley’s ardor for Trump, The Sequel been so intense? Tech CEOs’ business goals are part of the answer. Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon are all in the midst of federal antitrust litigation that they doubtless hope Trump may influence. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, has billions of dollars in ongoing contracts with the US government and could benefit from closer federal ties.
…In some instances, tech companies are eager for Trump to fold their anti-regulatory agenda into his America First agenda — for example, by using US influence to reduce oversight by the European Union.
«
It’s pure self-interest on the companies’ part, though also self-preservation – but it also looks like enabling a dictatorship. The photographs of the tech execs supping, with not very long spoons, at Trump’s table is strangely reminiscent of the leaders of German companies when they were called in by.. someone else, nearly a century ago.
unique link to this extract
This ‘privacy browser’ has dangerous hidden features • WIRED
Matt Burgess:
»
The Universe Browser makes some big promises to its potential users. Its online advertisements claim it’s the “fastest browser,” that people using it will “avoid privacy leaks” and that the software will help “keep you away from danger.” However, everything likely isn’t as it seems.
The browser, which is linked to Chinese online gambling websites and is thought to have been downloaded millions of times, actually routes all internet traffic through servers in China and “covertly installs several programs that run silently in the background,” according to new findings from network security company Infoblox. The researchers say the “hidden” elements include features similar to malware—including “key logging, surreptitious connections,” and changing a device’s network connections.
Perhaps most significantly, the Infoblox researchers who collaborated with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on the work, found links between the browser’s operation and Southeast Asia’s sprawling, multibillion-dollar cybercrime ecosystem, which has connections to money-laundering, illegal online gambling, human trafficking, and scam operations that use forced labor. The browser itself, the researchers says, is directly linked to a network around major online gambling company BBIN, which the researchers have labeled a threat group they call Vault Viper.
The researchers say the discovery of the browser—plus its suspicious and risky behaviour—indicates that criminals in the region are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
…Tens of thousands of web domains, plus various command-and-control infrastructure and registered companies, are linked to Vault Viper activity, Infoblox researchers say in a report shared with WIRED. They also say they examined hundreds of pages of corporate documents, legal records, and court filings with links to BBIN or other subsidiaries. Time and time again, they came across the Universe Browser online.
“We haven’t seen the Universe Browser advertised outside of the domains Vault Viper controls,” says Maël Le Touz, a threat researcher at Infoblox. The Infoblox report says the browser was “specifically” designed to help people in Asia—where online gambling is largely illegal—bypass restrictions. “Each of the casino websites they operate seem to contain a link and advertisement to it,” Le Touz says.
«
Not surprising, though, because we have already heard that these guys have stolen millions, perhaps billions from the scammed.
unique link to this extract
Volkswagen warns of output stoppages amid Nexperia chip disruption • CNBC
Sam Meredith:
»
German auto giant Volkswagen on Wednesday warned of temporary production outages citing China’s export restrictions on semiconductors made by Nexperia.
The update comes shortly after the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), the country’s main car industry lobby, said the China-Netherlands dispute over Nexperia could lead to “significant production restrictions in the near future” if the supply interruption of chips cannot be swiftly resolved.
A spokesperson for Volkswagen told CNBC by email that while Nexperia is not a direct supplier of the company, some Nexperia parts are used in its vehicle components, which are supplied by Volkswagen’s direct suppliers.
“We are in close contact with all relevant stakeholders in light of the current situation to identify potential risks at an early stage and to be able to make decisions regarding any necessary measures,” a Volkswagen spokesperson said, noting that the firm’s production is currently unaffected. “However, given the evolving circumstances, short-term effects on production cannot be ruled out,” they added.
Last month, the Dutch government took control of Nexperia, a Chinese-owned semiconductor maker based in the Netherlands, in what was seen as a highly unusual move. The Dutch government seized control of the company, which specializes in the high-volume production of chips used in automotive, consumer electronics and other industries, citing fears the firm’s tech “would become unavailable in an emergency.”
China responded by blocking exports of the firm’s finished products, sparking alarm among Europe’s auto industry.
«
| • Why do social networks drive us a little mad? • Why does angry content seem to dominate what we see? • How much of a role do algorithms play in affecting what we see and do online? • What can we do about it? • Did Facebook have any inkling of what was coming in Myanmar in 2016? Read Social Warming, my latest book, and find answers – and more. |
Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified
The Overspill: when there's more that I want to say 
In all of history, has there ever been a dictatorship which sought the assistance of big corporations (i.e. not cases like North Korea or Maoist China), it was legal (i.e. not home-country sanctions for involvement), and those corporations refused to participate in enabling a dictatorship? In my view, one of the very bad things about liberalism becoming so deeply tied to the mindset of the Professional Managerial Class, and looking to corporate power as a solution not a problem, is that it tends to distort perspective on the power system itself.