Blaze

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/8126174

“Today the Sheriff acknowledged that dystopian program violated the Constitution and agreed never to bring it back.”

I dunno about you guys but this case was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" that made me start taking privacy seriously.

tl;dr Pasco County, FL was running a "predictive policing" program where they would use "a glorified Excel spreadsheet" to predict crimes and an algorithm would spit out "potential criminals" in the area. Most of them ended up being children. After that they would harass their families' day and night until they either committed a crime and went to jail or moved out of the county (which was the intention all along).

God Bless the IJ for taking up this cause and shutting it down, because it is honestly terrifying. It's a rare W for privacy. However I'm sure we haven't seen the last of "predictive policing" and we should remain vigilant.

and here's the video they made about it in 2022

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26039725

Andisearch Writeup

A security researcher known as Brutecat discovered a vulnerability that could expose the email addresses of YouTube's 2.7 billion users by exploiting two separate Google services[^1][^2]. The attack chain involved extracting Google Account identifiers (GaiaIDs) from YouTube's block feature, then using Google's Pixel Recorder app to convert these IDs into email addresses[^1].

To prevent notification emails from alerting victims, Brutecat created recordings with 2.5 million character titles that broke the email notification system[^1]. The exploit worked by intercepting server requests when clicking the three-dot menu in YouTube live chats, revealing users' GaiaIDs without actually blocking them[^2].

Brutecat reported the vulnerability to Google on September 15, 2024[^1]. Google initially awarded $3,133, then increased the bounty to $10,633 after their product team reviewed the severity[^1]. According to Google spokesperson Kimberly Samra, there was no evidence the vulnerability had been exploited by attackers[^2].

Google patched both parts of the exploit on February 9, 2025, approximately 147 days after the initial disclosure[^1].

[^1]: Brutecat - Leaking the email of any YouTube user for $10,000 [^2]: Forbes - YouTube Bug Could Have Exposed Emails Of 2.7 Billion Users