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We were promised flying cars and here I am stil folding bedsheets

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48148184

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/arts/sam-kieth-dead.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48148179

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-fungus-powered-farming-higher-yields.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48148174

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_of_the_Red_Chamber

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48148155

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

If you want the best picture quality you can buy, you have to go OLED. Here are the best TVs I've tested.

If you downloaded the JDownloader installer during the compromise window (May 6-7), you are advised to verify the file.

 JDownloader is a popular download management application, particularly favored for automated downloads from file-hosting services, video sites, and premium link generators.

The JDownloader website was confirmed to have been compromised on May 6-7, 2026. During that window, the Windows “Download Alternative Installer” links and the Linux shell installer were compromised. Other download options, including macOS, JAR files, Flatpak, Winget, and Snap packages remained safe.

Users that applied updates during that period were not affected. The malicious Windows installers deployed a Python-based remote access Trojan (RAT).

The developers confirmed the breach on May 7, immediately taking the website offline for investigation. After security patches were applied and server configurations hardened, the website was restored on May 8-9 with verified clean installer links. The attack vector was identified as an unpatched CMS security bug that allowed attackers to modify access control lists without authentication.

How to stay safe

The developers advised users to verify that their installers have the proper digital signatures from “AppWork GmbH,” which compromised versions lacked.

A full system scan with a trusted anti-malware solution never hurts either.

Malwarebytes blocks the domains contacted by the RAT.

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Recent news had us wondering whether Meta actually knows what it wants.

On one platform, Meta is promoting AI chats that it says even it cannot read. On another, it has removed one of the few features that genuinely prevented Meta from accessing private conversations.

“Meta removed support for end-to-end encrypted chats from Instagram as of May 8, 2026.”

“Meta adds fully private AI chats to WhatsApp.”

At the moment, Meta is heavily promoting a new Incognito Chat mode for its Meta AI assistant in WhatsApp, built on top of a system it calls Private Processing. According to WhatsApp’s own announcement, Incognito Chat is:

 “Truly private — no one can read your conversation, not even us.”

When you start an Incognito chat with Meta AI, you get a temporary conversation where messages aren’t saved and disappear by default, which Meta pitches as “a space to think and explore ideas without anyone watching.”

BBC News and others report that these AI chats are text‑only for now, run in a sandboxed environment, and are separate from your regular end‑to‑end encrypted (E2EE) messaging with other people on WhatsApp.

Meta is also preparing “Side Chat,” which will let you invoke Meta AI inside other WhatsApp chats, again using this Private Processing infrastructure to claim AI assistance without breaking the underlying encryption.

On paper, that’s an impressive technical and marketing story: powerful AI, wrapped in layers of privacy‑preserving infrastructure, added to an app that already has a strong reputation for end‑to‑end encryption by default.

Meanwhile, on Instagram…

Now contrast that with what’s happening on Instagram. On 8 May 2026, Meta removed optional end‑to‑end encryption for Instagram Direct Messages (DMs) entirely. Users who had previously turned the feature on were shown notices that “end‑to‑end encrypted messaging on Instagram is no longer supported as of 8 May 2026,” and were urged to download backups of their encrypted conversations before the cutoff.

End‑to‑end encryption ensures that only the sender and recipient can read their conversations. Instagram offered this as an opt‑in feature since late 2023, but it was buried several taps deep inside individual conversation settings and never turned on by default. Meta’s explanation for shutting it down is that “very few people” used encrypted DMs and that maintaining a separate encrypted system added complexity. Critics have pointed out the circular logic. The company hid the feature, did not advertise it, and is now using low adoption as the reason to kill it rather than, say, making it easier to find or turning it on by default.

What all this means

From a user’s perspective, the result is confusing: one Meta product introduces stronger privacy than ever for AI chats, while another removes the one feature that truly stopped Meta from reading your conversations.

The key point to remember here is that “incognito” and “private” are marketing words, while end‑to‑end encryption is a technical guarantee.

For security‑conscious users, this split personality means you can no longer treat all Meta chats the same. WhatsApp remains end‑to‑end encrypted for person‑to‑person messages and adds optional privacy features around its AI, while Instagram DMs should now be assumed readable by Meta and potentially accessible to law enforcement, advertisers, or attackers who gain access to Meta’s systems.

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Why make AI chats private?

We’ve seen that AI chats have suddenly turned up in search results without users’ knowledge. So there definitely is a positive side to this new feature.

We also know there have been lawsuits against chatbot providers in cases where the outcome of an AI conversation led to very undesirable results. But how would you be able to provide evidence when messages auto-disappear?

How to proceed

Meta’s recent moves show that strong privacy features can be added where they support a strategic narrative and removed where they conflict with business or regulatory priorities. Users can’t control those decisions, but they can respond by choosing where they hold their most sensitive conversations and by assuming that if a chat isn’t end‑to‑end encrypted by default, it is ultimately readable by someone other than the people in it.

So, what’s a safe way to move forward?

• Treat Instagram DMs as postcard-level privacy. Now that E2EE is gone, assume Meta can read and scan your messages and that content could be accessed under legal orders or in a breach. Do not send passwords, recovery codes, banking details, or compromising photos over Instagram.
• When someone asks you to move a conversation to Signal, WhatsApp, or another E2EE messenger, ask them why. It does make sense when you’re sharing financial details, personal images, health information, or anything you would not want a platform provider to read. But sometimes scammers prefer encrypted platforms too, because they’re harder to monitor.
• Do not confuse “incognito” AI chats with full encryption. WhatsApp’s Incognito mode for Meta AI may be a privacy improvement over standard cloud AI chats, but it is still a conversation with a large language model owned by the same company that runs the platform. Share only what you’re comfortable entrusting to Meta.
• Regularly review your privacy and security settings. Check which devices are logged in, enable two‑factor authentication, and verify which of your chat apps are actually end‑to‑end encrypted by default.

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Post Office chairman defends its position on contesting subpostmaster appeals against Capture-based convictions

Article URL: https://radicle.dev/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48147603

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Microsoft has shared mitigations for CVE-2026-42897 until a permanent patch can be released for affected Exchange Server versions.

The post Microsoft Warns of Exchange Server Zero-Day Exploited in the Wild appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Article URL: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/10/meta-employee-spyware

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48147590

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://direct.mit.edu/books/edited-volume/2292/chapter-abstract/59949/Heidegger-s-Parmenides?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48147574

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/about-technical-debates-both-in-general-and-regarding-asp-net-web-forms-and-asp-net-mvc-in-particular/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48147570

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.shtml

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48147567

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://www.thechecklist.app/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48147564

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://barthalion.blog/flathub-internals-cdn/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48147559

Points: 1

# Comments: 2

Article URL: https://comuniq.xyz/post?t=1083

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48147541

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Commentary: I hope Apple gives us something more relatable for its next version of Siri.

Article URL: https://www.oranlooney.com/post/monty-hall/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48147539

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-ssh-keysign-pwn

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48147530

Points: 2

# Comments: 0