Plus: Google made to pay man for capturing him naked on Street View ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

July 28, 2025 | Read online
# UK age-checks begin, a use case for AI and an unsafe women's safety app Plus: Google made to pay man for capturing him naked on Street View
Edition 2383
"Orange Pi Zero with 3.2'' LCD Display Over SPI" (Flickr: kasparsdambis)
# The News
### UK brings in age-checks, VPNs and loopholes explode
The UK’s age verification regime kicked in over the weekend, with services like Reddit, Bluesky, X and P*rnhub requiring users to prove their age to access parts of their platforms (BBC). Naturally, VPN downloads spiked (FT), ranking even higher than the age check platforms on mobile app stores. Other people found ways to fool age check tech into thinking they were adults using video game characters (The Pink News). Meanwhile, Wikipedia is suing the UK government, arguing it shouldn’t be treated the same as other social media platforms under the law (Courthouse News).
The Sizzle: If anyone has any doubt that Australia’s teen social media ban will come into effect this year, look at the UK. It’s happening. I think it’s worth mentioning that pushing people towards VPNs is not a good outcome. Like this piece Don’t use VPN services argues, you are voluntarily letting a third party look at everything you do online. Even if the best ones do what they say and won’t view or hand over logs — it’s very hard to even know who you can trust.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### People with disabilities are actually, really, finding generative AI products useful
People with disabilities are finding that generative AI services and products can actually be really helpful. Neurodivergent people are using them to help them break down social cues and help them communicate, like reviewing conversations to interpret tone (Reuters). Meanwhile, Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses are popular with the vision impaired community who are able to use them to quickly identify and describe things that they can’t see (The Verge)
The Sizzle: I spend a lot of time being critical of gen AI products and their pushers. I don’t regret it, and I don’t think I’ve been wrong. However, it’s good to acknowledge that there are people out there who are having their lives actually, really improved by this tech. Giving someone sight, or insight, is important and I’d like to see more of these kinds of uses and not just brrrrrr goes the slop machine.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### How a women’s safety app made women very unsafe
A viral women’s safety app has been hacked, with thousands of users’ PII, location data and more exposed (AP). Founded in 2023, Tea is an app combining public database requests with social media for the purpose of letting women “vet” men that they might meet dating. The app let women run background checks or look up the criminal backgrounds of men, while also letting them share their own stories. After topping the app charts for a few weeks, the app was “breached” (404 Media, $) when an open Firebase bucket and 60 gigs of user’s selfies and drivers’ licenses — used to verify their identity before they used the app — and other content was found (Jamieson O’Reilly on LinkedIn).
| genddy @ZTobias114838 |
The drivers licenses leaked today from the tea app have been uploaded to a searchable map.... this may be the worst PII leak I've ever seen lol
4:24 PM • Jul 25, 2025
178K Likes 9.43K Retweets
3.12K Replies
The Sizzle: I’m not going to weigh into the whole insane “doing public record requests on your Tinder date” thing. Instead, I wanted to point out the link between this story and the first story. If you make people give you personally identifying data like their ID or a selfie, you aren’t necessarily making them safer but you definitely making them more vulnerable.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Political parties hold vast amounts of data about Australians. Experts say it’s a growing risk (Guardian Australia) Google threatens to sue the Australian Government if YouTube is added to social media age ban (Daily Telegraph, $) Ansett Australia is back for travellers. But not as you knew it (SMH, $) vomit The secret vigilantes cleaning up internet porn (AFR, $) Louis Vuitton confirms Australian customers affected in cyber attack (CyberDailyAU) Tech giants step up opposition to digital competition regime (InnovationAus, $) Australia leads the world in Reddit usage (Mumbrella) This is why your Nintendo Switch 2 screenshots look weird (Gadget Guy) Steam Users Are Banding Together To Contact Visa Over Removal Of Adult Games (The Gamer) Comms Alliance rebrands and restructures with tight carrier focus (InnovationAus, $) Ending Political, Electoral and Social Issue Advertising in the EU in Response to Incoming European Regulation (Meta) Astrology Is So Big in India That Venture Capital Is Jumping in (Bloomberg, $) Tipster: iPhone 17 Pro to Feature 8x Zoom, Pro Camera App, and More (MacRumours) 'Ok Google, turn on the lights' is mysteriously broken for many users right now (Android Authority) Is anyone left to defend trust and safety? (Platformer) Linux 6.16 released (Kernel dot org) How we Rooted Copilot (Eye Security) not like that Amazon Q: Now with Helpful AI-Powered Self-Destruct Capabilities (Last Week in AWS) EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google (r/degoogle) How I hacked my washing machine (Nexy’s Blog) At 7 p.m. last night, Happy Gilmore 2 dropped on Netflix. Right on cue, our network traffic spiked hard! (Linkedin)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Google made to pay man for capturing him naked on Street View
A man who says he was ridiculed after a Google Street View car-mounted camera captured him naked in his yard has been awarded about $19,000 in compensation from the tech giant (CBS). A court found that the man had a reasonable expectation of privacy that was violated by being snapped in the nude, despite Google’s claim that the six-and-a-half foot fence was not tall enough. Sounds pretty rude… (but for 19k? hmm!)
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electronics & electrical
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Computing
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# The End
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