Mentioned in today’s edition: Palantir, Linus Torvalds, Meta, Fraser Tweedale, myGov, Pornhub, Android, Mastercard and Andrew Tate. Plus, deals on JVC TVs, Apple AirPods and mini-PCs.

The News

Big Tech is powering Trump 2.0's ICE army

What ICE is doing is a tech story. Killed protestor Alex Pretti's details had been recorded in ICE's "intel collection" systems a week before he was shot (CNN). This has prompted questions about whether this info influenced the agents' deadly actions. ICE is using facial recognition on immigrants and US citizens alike (Guardian). The agency also heavily relies on Palantir's technology (WIRED, $). Meta is blocking its users from sharing a URL to a list of ICE agents' identities (WIRED, $). The FBI is investigating the Signal chats used by Minnesota residents to track ICE (NBCNews). Some tech employees are starting to protest, but still most tech companies are not only doing nothing to oppose Trump 2.0, but most of them are actually courting his favour (NYMag, $).

The Sizzle: It seems like a lifetime ago, but a lot of Silicon Valley actually took a stand against Trump 1.0. The companies' employees flexed their muscles and opposed things like the Muslim travel ban. The companies' CEOs, who started off working with Trump, distanced themselves from the administration, fought it in court, cancelled government projects and criticised its actions. Now? They're all aboard. They're fully committed. Everything you're seeing in the news and in your social media feeds is made possible by Silicon Valley's compliance with — and in some cases, active participation in — the Trump regime. 

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A developer is taking on the government in court because it won't prove myGov is secure

Australian developer Fraser Tweedale has been in a years-long battle to test the federal government's claims about myGov's security (Openmygov.au). He's been trying to FOI the source code of the myGov Code Generator from Services Australia. The agency has knocked it back, citing concerns it would compromise the app's security. Tweedale argues that releasing the code would in fact strengthen its claim to be secure, as well as having other benefits like opening up access for people who don't have Google or Apple devices. Tweedale has appealed it to the ART and has already crowdfunded $10k of his $20k target for legal representation (Pozible).

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Pornhub will stop taking new UK users because of its age check rules

Pornhub will stop accepting new UK users in protest against the Online Safety Act (Engadget). Starting February 2, UK users who haven't already created an account and verified their age will not be able to access its platform. Aylo, its parent company, says the age verification has only pushed traffic to dodgier websites who aren't doing age checks, while putting the privacy of those who do comply at risk.

Relatedly, Australia has similar porn site requirements coming into effect in March!

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Leftovers

Australia:

Rest of World:

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Oh, Also

Using your phone to transmit atomic clock radio transmissions

This is so freaking sick: Apparently, the normal radio signals used to synchronise many watches can barely get through urban areas. So Time Station (GitHub) turns just about any phone or tablet into "a low-frequency radio transmitter broadcasting a time signal that can synchronize most radio-controlled (“atomic”) clocks and watches". It uses the built-in speakers of devices, or even just headphones. So simple and cool.

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Bargains

Electronics

Computing

The End

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