WEBVTT - Tech News: Dude, Where's My Data? 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:15.080 Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.360 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.640 and I love all things tech and this is the 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:31.320 tech news for Tuesday, auguste. Yesterday, telecrrier T Mobile confirmed 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:35.280 reports that the company had been hacked. The site Motherboard 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:38.879 reported that hackers were offering up for sale private data 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:43.919 of T mobile customers, including social security numbers and driver's 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:48.440 license numbers, which prompted the company to conduct an internal investigation. 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.560 While T Mobile did say that the investigation showed someone 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:56.000 had gained unauthorized access to T Mobile's system, the company 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:59.360 has not yet determined that any personal data was compromised, 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:03.200 and that the company quote cannot confirm the reported number 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.960 of records affected or the validity of statements made by 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:11.280 others end quote. According to Motherboard, the person who tipped 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:13.960 them off to the fact that this breach happened. A 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:18.680 seller of this data, said that their group compromised information 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:24.920 relating to one hundred million people. Motherboard confirmed that the 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.399 samples of data that they saw did in fact reflect 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:32.640 accurate information about T Mobile customers, and the sellers are 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:35.920 peddling the info on the dark web, asking for bitcoin 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:40.200 and exchange from millions of records of personal data. Motherboard 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.640 also reported that the sellers had lost access to the 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:47.319 back door entry to T Mobile servers, but they had 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:51.040 already downloaded all the data, so you know, that's not great. 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:55.320 The damage was already done. This is why businesses that 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:59.240 monitor stuff like the dark web and your information that 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:01.960 may or may not beyond it are getting more popular 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:04.600 because it's a way for you to find out if 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.600 you have had your private data compromised. I may need 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.480 to do a full episode about that kind of stuff 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.000 to talk about. You know, what tools are out there, 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:17.880 how useful are they? What you should do if you 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:19.960 find out that your information has been included in one 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:23.880 of those breaches, because it certainly can be really overwhelming 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:29.800 when it happens. Alright, so hackers stole data from T Mobile. 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.639 But our next story is about how the Dallas, Texas 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:37.600 Police Department lost an enormous amount of data all by themselves. 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:42.440 And by enormous, I'm talking about twenty two terra bytes 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.480 of information. And this relates to a data migration, which 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.080 is a process where I mean it's what sounds like, 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:53.920 you're moving information from you know, one storage receptacle to another, 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:56.720 and it's always a huge pain in the protocus to 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:01.080 do this kind of thing, particularly as amount of information 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.720 gets larger. Just think of every time that you've bought 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:07.480 a new phone and just the process of setting everything 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:10.520 up on there and transferring all your information from your 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:12.919 old phone to your new phone. Now that has slowly 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.840 become easier to do, but still kind of a hassle. 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:19.400 You know, it's time consuming and you just want to 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:23.200 be able to use your new thing. Well, multiply that 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.120 times I don't know, a bajillion, and you get the 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:29.480 idea of what it's like to move the data of 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:34.079 an entire organization from one resource to another, like if 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.680 you're going from one cloud based service to a different 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:41.040 one or something like that. And in this case, during 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.200 that process, the Dallas Police Department managed to delete that 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:49.640 mountain of information. And of course we're talking about the police, 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:54.560 so this can, and in this case did include some 0:03:54.680 --> 0:04:02.320 incredibly important, crucial and private information, including case files related 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:08.040 to a murder trial. So obviously that's beyond disastrous. And 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:12.840 the actual data deletion happened way back in April of 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:17.400 twenty one, but the police Department did not report on 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:21.000 it until this month, and I suppose part of that 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.320 reason was that the department was going into emergency data 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:27.960 recovery mode, and to their credit, they were able to 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.880 restore around fourteen terabytes of data, but that still leaves 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:37.039 eight terabytes of information that have been lost forever, and 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.400 that includes some criminal case files that were created before July, 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.760 though the police department says they don't actually know the 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:50.320 precise number of case files that have been lost. And honestly, 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.880 I am shocked that there wasn't a more comprehensive data 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.720 backup strategy in place for this, because redundancy is a 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:03.280 key feature in data management and it's absolutely critical when 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:07.440 stuff like this happens. That's why you have backup systems. 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.720 It's why you should have a backup system just in 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.719 case something goes wrong with your data, so that you 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.679 still have access to it if the worst should happen, 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.360 whether that's a service now goes offline because it goes 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.000 out of business, or you have a hard drive that fails. 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:30.400 Moving on, a security researcher named Vola Demir Bob Diachinko, 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.280 and I'm certain I've butchered the pronunciation of his name, 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:37.359 and I apologize anyway. He uncovered an online list that 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:41.839 most certainly should not have been uncoverable. It should have 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:46.240 been hidden, and it was a terrorist watch list. Apparently 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.960 the Terrorists Screening Center created the files and stored them 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:55.799 online without turning off the index feature. So search engines 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:59.599 have these things called spiders, and these are little bits 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:03.360 of code just crawl the web and return results back 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.800 to search engines so that the search engines can continuously 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:11.840 update their indices. That way, when you search for a 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.520 particular topic, you have a chance of getting really recent 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.599 results if those happen to be the best match to 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.840 whatever your query is. But you might not want your 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.680 website to enter a search engines index. Let's say that 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.839 you've got a website and you just want a certain 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:30.919 number of people to have access to it. You don't 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:33.719 need it to be accessible to the world at large. 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:39.159 So you can actually go into HTML and create a 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:44.279 little tag so that web spiders just pass over your 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:46.880 your website, they don't index it, so it won't show 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:49.440 up in search that You can do other things too, 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:53.000 like obviously, you could password protect the site as well. 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:54.880 But that's one thing you can do is just not 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.000 have it show up in search. Well, apparently someone neglected 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.200 to take that step while uploading these files to a server, 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:07.640 and search engines thus indexed these files, and Diachinko was 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:10.920 able to read the information in the files through the 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.840 search engines like it wasn't hidden or password protected, and 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:18.040 it included tons of personal information, you know, all the 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:21.320 stuff you would expect, like the name of the person, 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:25.240 their date of birth, their citizenship status. But it also 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:27.800 included some other stuff that you don't typically see on 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:30.080 these kinds of lists, like whether or not that person 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.880 is also on a no fly list. And Diachinko said, 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:37.600 to make matters worse, the files had no password protection, 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.320 so anyone could access them, and Diachinko reported his findings 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:44.680 to the Department of Homeland Security. Now, according to the Verge, 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.720 the files were first indexed on July nine of this year, 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:53.040 and they were still up and available for search three 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:56.760 weeks later before the DHS finally removed them. So here 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.440 we have another example of human error leading to a 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:04.640 mass of security breach and privacy breach with two million 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:10.000 records affected. Pretty awful stuff. And when I say pretty 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.480 awful stuff. I mean, these are people who are on 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:16.240 a terrorist watch list. Some of those people are innocent, 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.280 like not all of those people are guilty of being 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:24.560 associated with or being involved in terrorist activities, And so 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:30.000 you realize that this creates are a true devastating breach 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.720 of their privacy. Although I guess it could also alert 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.199 them that they were, you know, on a watch list. 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:41.440 But yeah, terrible stuff. Moving on, Here's something I'm sure 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:45.240 a lot of you already knew, but because I have 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:49.640 very old, only learned about it today. There is an 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:54.400 online vigilante group that tends to focus on TikTok accounts 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:58.040 that's been pretty busy lately. The group is called the 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:02.240 Great Londini l in D I and I, and in 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:08.439 many ways it reminds me of the anarchic activist group Anonymous. 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:12.040 Just like that famous collective, the Great Landini relies on 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:16.960 a masked visage to serve as its symbol and spokesperson, 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:21.319 so Anonymous. The symbol of choice is a guy Fox mask, 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.600 which is referencing one of the conspirators who plotted to 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:29.640 ignite barrels of gunpowder hidden underneath Parliament hundreds of years ago. 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:35.000 That plan did not go well. Remember remember the Great 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:39.120 Landini's mask of choice has a joker like smile and 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:43.720 creepy hollow eyes, though the profile on YouTube for the 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.680 Great Landini includes other people who are actually wearing guy 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:51.840 Fox masks as well, so they also appropriate that imagery. Well. 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:57.040 They claim they are dedicated to quote exposing racist bullies, 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:01.320 scammers and trolls end quote h the racist singular is 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:04.600 in there, so I'm sure they meant racists. So the 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:08.880 group targets people that they identify as being bullies and racists, etcetera, 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.280 and then they publish those people's identities online, kind of 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:16.640 like dock sing. This includes informing people like the parents 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:21.160 of kids who are being trolls and displaying these kinds 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.720 of behaviors online, or employers in the case of you 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.560 know adults. They claim to consist of a collective of 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:33.040 people with cybersecurity and military experience, which I suspect is 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:39.320 at best and exaggeration. The website insider dot com reported 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:41.720 that the group says they can get to the real 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.480 identity of someone posting you know online on like TikTok 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.960 in eight or nine clicks, and it implies that they're 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.640 using some clever ways to figure out who is behind 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.680 any given account, and you know, digging down and finding 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:59.280 that information out. I suspect that there are some much 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.320 more simple methods that are being employed in many of 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:07.000 these cases. For example, the targets, the bullies or whatever, 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:11.239 they could be posting stuff that just contains identifiable information 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:13.640 in it. So they could be posting TikTok videos where 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.120 you're like, oh, I can totally tell who this person is, 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:21.000 or they might include links to their other social profiles 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:24.520 and that makes it really easy. You just cross reference 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:26.680 and you get all the information you need about who 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:29.360 that person is, Like if it's a Facebook account, it 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.320 might include their location and everything, and their employer and 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:35.320 you know, spouse, all that kind of stuff. So, in 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:37.840 other words, I'm not entirely convinced that this is a 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.760 case where people are using any sort of sophisticated approach 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:44.240 to get the information. And I'd frankly be surprised if 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:48.520 they really did have extensive cybersecurity or military experience, because 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.079 they don't need it to do what they're doing. TikTok 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:56.520 has banned accounts that are associated with this group multiple times, 0:11:56.600 --> 0:12:00.560 and the group consistently keeps making new accounts. As for 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:03.400 what I think about all this, well, I think vigilante 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:07.839 justice is not great, but I also acknowledge that there's 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.600 not really a good system in place to hold trolls 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:14.040 accountable for their actions. I mean, typically it comes down 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:18.120 to the individual platforms, and as a rule, platforms are 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.720 not super responsive to this kind of stuff, usually because 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:25.840 it's just operating on such a scale that it becomes 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:30.320 impractical to react to these things, which just allows the 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:35.400 problems to fester. And that's really an issue because the 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:39.120 actions these bullies make, like the things they do, the 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:42.920 way they can harass people, those can sometimes lead to tragedy. 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.880 I mean there are cases where bullied people have gone 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.920 down a very self destructive pathway. So I understand the 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:54.360 motivation of the group to see justice done and to 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.960 convince bullies to stop being bullies, but I would rather 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:00.560 much see a much more concerted effort to create a 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:05.600 system of justice, like an an official approach, as opposed 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:09.000 to a self appointed vigilante group. But I also realized 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:11.520 that a lot of people have serious doubts that you 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:16.240 could ever really make a just system and have it work. 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.920 We have a couple more news stories But before we 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:30.800 get to that, let's take a quick break. We're back. 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:35.640 Only Fans, the website best known for hosting content creators 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:39.160 who specialize in not safe for work types of content, 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:42.640 is trying to get some broader acceptance in the app 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:47.360 store world. See, because Only Fans is mostly associated with 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:51.480 nudity and sexual content, the company has not been able 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:55.520 to secure permission from Apple and Google's respective app stores 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:59.720 to launch an app for users. So now Only Fans 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:04.120 is promoting a new ish app called o f TV, 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:09.319 which will allow Only Fans creators to make content specifically 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.960 for this app, as long as that content is in 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:17.040 the safe for work category. So there's a strict policy 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:21.360 against stuff like nudity and sexual content, So if creators 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:23.680 want to make stuff for o f TV, they have 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.880 to follow those rules that allows Only Fans to have 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.240 an app in the app stores without violating those app 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:34.000 stores policies. Now, I did say it's a new ish 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:38.120 app because it's actually been available since January of this year, 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:41.600 but Only Fans is only just recently started to, you know, 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.880 tell people that this app even exists. Now, maybe that 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:50.160 was an effort to allow interested content creators to make 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.160 stuff that could live on this app, so that the 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.440 app would have some content available as soon as folks 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.720 downloaded it, rather than having a content app with no 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.280 content on it, which isn't very interesting. I'm sure the 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:07.520 Only Fans reached out to some of their top creators 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.920 and invited them to participate in this. Not Only Fans 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.000 is really trying to branch out of the adult content 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:18.600 niche and become more of a broad content creator platform 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.400 that allows people to monetize their work, similar to platforms 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:27.040 like Patreon. That being said, the app seems more like 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.000 an outreach effort, like a marketing effort, rather than a 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.960 money maker. Tim Stokely, the CEO of Only Fans, told 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:38.560 Bloomberg that the content on O f TV is quote 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:43.720 not being monetized and there's no direct impact on creators 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:48.640 earnings end quote. Which if that's the case, then I 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.880 question why content creators already on Only Fans, those who 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:57.120 are you know, firmly established as creating adult content, in particular, 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:00.480 why they would ever bother to make stuff for O 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:03.440 f TV if they aren't allowed to create the kind 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:07.320 of content that actually brings them revenue, and if there's 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.360 no revenue to be made by creating content for o 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.840 f TV, at least not directly. Then that seems like 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.560 a pretty big investment of time and effort for little 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:20.000 to no payoff, unless your goal is to lure people 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.800 to go to the Only Fans dot com site and 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.760 then become a supporter there. So, in other words, to 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.840 hint at the sort of content you would be able 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:32.920 to get on the Only Fans site, but you couldn't 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.880 actually show it on o F TV. And it's possible 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:42.440 also the Only Fans commissioned content from creators, and like, yeah, 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:46.440 there's no monetization directly through the app, but only Fans 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.400 may have paid creators to create stuff to live on 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:51.480 o f t V. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that. 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.720 I do not know for the record whether that happened 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:56.600 or not, but it wouldn't shock me to learn that 0:16:56.600 --> 0:17:00.400 that's what was going on. Now. Some people might just 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.280 want to make fun stuff for free, and there's nothing 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:05.639 wrong with that, you know, if you want to do that, 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:10.280 you should totally do that. But as a content creator myself, no, certainly, 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:13.840 not only fans creator, no one, No one wants that. 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:18.000 But I have to really be into something in order 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.879 to do it for free because my job has me 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:25.440 creating content every ding dang day, and if there's no 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:28.240 return on that, it feels like I might be taking 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:33.320 away time that I could use to do other stuff. Anyway, 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:35.520 it will be interesting to see how o f TV 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:39.000 plays into the overall strategy, both for only fans the 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:44.400 company and for the content creators making content for that site. Next. 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:49.320 Tesla is once again under the microscope for its autopilot feature. 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:54.159 This time, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration or 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:58.160 in ht s A, is looking into the company due 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:01.280 to a series of accidents in which Tesla vehicles that 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:06.360 were in autopilot mode collided with parked emergency vehicles. According 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:09.800 to the nht s A, since two thousand eighteen, there 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:13.040 have been eleven incidents in which Tesla vehicles in the 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:17.120 driver assist mode, whether that was autopilot or the other 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:21.760 style of driver as system modes, collided with vehicles at 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:26.280 a first responder emergency scene, and those crashes resulted in 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:30.720 seventeen people being injured and in one case, one person died. 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:33.960 And we're starting to see an increasing amount of pressure 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:39.359 on companies that are creating autonomous vehicle systems like government pressure. Now, 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:44.600 in an ideal implementation, autonomous vehicles would drastically reduce the 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.240 number of accidents and thus injuries and deaths on the road. 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:53.400 The vast majority of accidents on the road are due 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:56.520 to human error. So you take human error out and 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:59.520 you will eliminate a ton of accidents, assuming you have 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:03.600 an idea real implementation of autonomous driving technology. But we 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:08.240 are a far way away from having that ideal implementation. 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:11.360 No one has created a system that we could call 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:17.040 truly autonomous. Tesla maintains that autopilot is a driver assist feature. 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.399 It is not a true autonomous mode, but it also 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:25.359 promotes its vehicles as having quote all the hardware needed 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:28.720 in the future for full self driving in almost all 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:32.960 circumstances end quote. So essentially it's saying, yeah, this isn't 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:36.480 an autonomous vehicle, but it's got everything that can make 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:38.760 it an autonomous vehicle. So it's really just you know, 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.520 when we throw the switch is that's kind of the messaging. 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:44.919 That's what sounds like. I'm not saying that's specifically what 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:47.480 they're saying. That's how a lot of people interpret it, 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:49.399 which kind of comes across as a bit of a 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.720 mixed message, and I think ultimately we have to hold 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:58.520 Tesla owners accountable for their choices, such as using a 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:03.679 feature like autopilot beyond its intended function, but still a 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.159 good deal of responsibility also has to fall on the 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:11.440 company itself. The US investigation into Tesla covers all models 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:14.080 from two thousand and fourteen to present day and could 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:17.800 potentially lead to new rules about when features like autopilot 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:21.320 are allowed to be used and when they are not. 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.600 Back in March, a Chinese military satellite called Yunhai one 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:29.720 Dash zero two broke apart in orbit, and at the 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.399 time no one was really sure what caused it to happen, 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:38.200 so there was one hypothesis that perhaps the satellite's propulsion 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:41.520 system had a critical failure that led to an explosion, 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:46.200 something that the Chinese company behind Yunhai said was not likely. 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.679 An astrophysicist named Jonathan McDowell has now determined that the 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:55.120 true cause of yun Hi's demise was a high speed 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:59.120 space collision. He determined that a piece of debris measuring 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:03.399 between four and twenty inches wide collided with un high 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:07.320 and on further analysis, determined that this debris came from 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.760 a Senate to rocket that was used by Russia to 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:14.320 launch a spy satellite in orbit all the way back in. 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:21.880 This piece that was flying around in orbit is one 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:26.640 of eight known pieces from that rocket that satellite trackers 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.600 have kept tabs on over the years, saying here's some 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:31.720 more space debris that we have to be on the 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:35.240 lookout for. The collision with un High generated even more 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:38.440 space debris, which of course means now there's even more 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:41.880 stuff whizzing around in orbit that could potentially create hazards 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:45.880 for various types of spacecraft, whether that has people aborted 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.080 or not. Now, I will remind you space is big, 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:54.560 or as Douglas Adams put it, space is big, really big. 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:57.880 But the orbits where we tend to put stuff are 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:00.600 starting to get a little crowded, and that means that 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:04.440 with each passing year there are more opportunities for collisions 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:09.320 to happen, and depending upon what collides with what we 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:15.560 could see consequences here on Earth as various services get disrupted. Now, granted, 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:18.760 not every satellite is inhabiting the same morbid. We have 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:22.960 some satellites that are in really far out orbits around Earth, 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:27.000 so it's not like everything is crowded into the same space, 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:32.880 but it is getting a little more you know, rough 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:36.800 out there. Also, the increase in space junk means it's 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:40.840 harder for astronomers to see celestial bodies here on Earth's surface, 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:45.560 Like there are more things blocking our view beyond our 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:49.320 own orbit. And that's not great either. Not that I 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:52.560 think that this is necessarily going to get better anytime soon, 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:57.560 but the problem is becoming increasingly evident. I have a 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:00.800 couple more stories to get to. But before we jump 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:11.480 on that, let's take another quick break. Yak and e yak. 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:16.840 We're back, as is yik yak. I'm on track. Okay, So, 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:20.439 for those of you who have never heard of yik yak, 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:23.640 back in two thousand and fourteen, you could download this 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:26.720 app called yik yak and you could use it as 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:31.159 a kind of hyper local social networking platform. So the 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:34.720 idea was, at least in the original incarnation of yek yak, 0:23:35.320 --> 0:23:38.800 that you could see what people were posting in your 0:23:38.960 --> 0:23:42.360 immediate area. You could also post, and people in your 0:23:42.359 --> 0:23:45.680 area could read what you wrote wrote, but you would 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:47.800 only see things that have been posted within a five 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:51.040 mile radius of your current location. And on top of that, 0:23:52.119 --> 0:23:56.280 the whole thing was anonymous, so people would anonymously post 0:23:56.320 --> 0:23:59.639 these things. The idea was for people to share fun 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:03.480 and from aation that was relevant to the specific location. 0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:07.720 But if you're thinking hum an app that lets you 0:24:07.760 --> 0:24:14.399 post anonymously about, you know, anything within your hyper local region, 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:17.560 I bet people could use something like that to really 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:21.520 troll the heck out of other folks, Well, you would 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:27.639 be right. Bullying, doxing, harassment, and more were rampant on 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:32.199 yik yak, which got particularly popular around college campuses. It 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:35.439 got to the point where the company had to geo 0:24:35.600 --> 0:24:39.040 fence the app and cut it off for certain regions, 0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:43.280 like around high schools and stuff, because people were using 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:45.400 it to do all sorts of things like spread rumors 0:24:45.440 --> 0:24:48.160 about others, and because it's anonymous, you never really knew 0:24:48.160 --> 0:24:50.720 who it was that was saying these things. And it 0:24:50.800 --> 0:24:54.520 got bad enough, and the heat got intense enough that 0:24:54.720 --> 0:24:58.240 ultimately yik yak changed up its policy and it required 0:24:58.320 --> 0:25:01.600 users to establish a hand doll So it kind of 0:25:01.640 --> 0:25:05.160 removed that anonymous feature because now there was a handle 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:09.480 associated with a message, it wasn't just anonymous yik yak user. 0:25:10.320 --> 0:25:13.840 The company was already kind of spiraling at that point, 0:25:14.280 --> 0:25:17.760 and ultimately it went out of business and now it 0:25:17.880 --> 0:25:20.879 is under new management as a new group came in 0:25:20.960 --> 0:25:24.840 and purchased the intellectual property to yik yak earlier this year, 0:25:25.400 --> 0:25:27.960 and they are launching a new version of the app, 0:25:28.600 --> 0:25:32.800 and anonymity is back. That is a feature that has returned, 0:25:33.160 --> 0:25:36.919 as is the hyper local focus of the app itself. However, 0:25:36.960 --> 0:25:40.440 the new company says it has a zero tolerance policy 0:25:40.520 --> 0:25:43.800 for harassment and bullying. It's got a list of rules 0:25:43.840 --> 0:25:46.960 that users are supposed to follow or else they face 0:25:47.480 --> 0:25:50.199 getting banned from the service. Because while they might be 0:25:50.240 --> 0:25:53.520 anonymous to all the other users, yik yak on the 0:25:53.560 --> 0:25:58.040 server side can see which account posts what. There's also 0:25:58.080 --> 0:26:01.640 a way apparently to up thee or down vote posts 0:26:01.720 --> 0:26:04.119 on yr kik. I say, apparently, because I have not 0:26:04.280 --> 0:26:07.760 downloaded it myself. Uh, And the company says that posts 0:26:07.800 --> 0:26:11.000