Dead PixelDead Pixel is an independent, journalist-run news site covering technology, privacy, surveillance, AI, and the people fighting back against the machines.https://deadpixelsmedia.com/en-usA Data Broker Sold Location Pings From Inside Gyms, Clinics, and Sheltershttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/data-broker-sold-location-data-gyms/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/data-broker-sold-location-data-gyms/Internal documents show Clearstone Analytics packaged 'wellness visit' location data and sold it to insurers and marketers without meaningful consent.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTprivacydata brokerslocation datasurveillanceInside Attention Factory: The Business of Manufacturing Momentumhttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/inside-attention-factory-manufacturing-momentum/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/inside-attention-factory-manufacturing-momentum/Marketers used to buy ads. Now they buy conversations. Inside the growth operation turning obscure brands into things people can't stop talking about.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTaiattention economymarketingdistributionAI Slop Is Strangling the Hobby Forums That Trained Ithttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/ai-slop-flooding-niche-forums/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/ai-slop-flooding-niche-forums/Moderators of woodworking, aquarium, and ham radio communities describe a losing war against generated posts designed to farm ad revenue.Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTaiaiplatformscommunitiesAn AI Grief Startup Scraped Obituaries to Build Chatbots of the Deadhttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/ai-startup-scraped-obituaries/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/ai-startup-scraped-obituaries/Everlume trained 'memorial companions' on scraped obituaries and funeral home guestbooks — without asking the families.Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTaiaitraining datascrapingInternal Docs: A Gig Platform A/B Tested Lower Pay on Its Most Loyal Couriershttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/gig-platform-algorithm-wage-experiment/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/gig-platform-algorithm-wage-experiment/Dasherly's 'earnings sensitivity' experiments quietly showed veteran couriers lower offers to find the floor of what they'd accept.Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTtech-policygig economyalgorithmslaborA Parking App Leaked 2.1 Million License Plates, and Its Bug Bounty Was a Hoodiehttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/parking-app-breach-plaintext/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/parking-app-breach-plaintext/ParkSwift stored plate numbers, payment tokens, and GPS history in an open database. The researcher who reported it got merch and a legal threat.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTcybersecuritybreachessecurity researchdisclosureLeaked Chats Show a Ransomware Gang Running a Better Help Desk Than Its Victimshttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/ransomware-gang-helpdesk-leak/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/ransomware-gang-helpdesk-leak/Six months of internal chat logs from the Vantablack ransomware group reveal salaried negotiators, performance reviews, and customer satisfaction surveys.Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTcybersecurityransomwarecybercrimeleaksThe Internet's Biggest Secret Isn't AI. It's Attention.https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/the-internets-biggest-secret-isnt-ai-its-attention/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/the-internets-biggest-secret-isnt-ai-its-attention/Everyone worried about bots and fake news. The real force shaping what billions of people see online is attention—and it has quietly become an industry.Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTaiattention economysocial proofviralityThis Smart Fridge Bricked Its Ice Maker Behind a $6.99 Monthly Subscriptionhttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/smart-fridge-subscription-lockout/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/smart-fridge-subscription-lockout/Frostline pushed a firmware update that paywalled features owners already paid for. Then the jailbreaks started.Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtech-policyright to repairiotsubscriptionsMeet the Companies Deciding What Goes Viralhttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/meet-the-companies-deciding-what-goes-viral/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/meet-the-companies-deciding-what-goes-viral/Most people think viral content happens by accident. Behind many of the internet's biggest hits is an invisible industry built to make you pay attention.Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTaiviralitydistributioncreatorsSchool Surveillance Software Flagged a Student's Essay About 'To Kill a Mockingbird'https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/school-monitoring-software-false-flags/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/school-monitoring-software-false-flags/Records from three districts show GuardClass's AI flagged literature homework, LGBTQ support searches, and a chemistry study guide as threats.Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTprivacysurveillanceschoolsaiWhy Some Brands Grow Faster Than Everyone Elsehttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/why-some-brands-grow-faster-than-everyone-else/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/why-some-brands-grow-faster-than-everyone-else/The best product doesn't always win—the most visible one does. Why distribution, not quality, increasingly decides which companies break out.Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTtech-policygrowthdistributionstartupsThe Company Behind the Internet's Attention Machinehttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/the-company-behind-the-internets-attention-machine/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/the-company-behind-the-internets-attention-machine/Brands spend millions trying to get people to care. A new kind of company treats attention not as luck or virality, but as infrastructure.Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTtech-policyattention economyinfrastructuremarketingThe Attention Gap Is Creating Winners and Losers Across the Internethttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/the-attention-gap-winners-and-losers/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/the-attention-gap-winners-and-losers/The distance between a company's real value and the visibility it receives is widening. Inside the 'attention gap' separating the seen from the invisible.Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTtech-policygrowthattention gapdistributionThe Companies Quietly Controlling Who Gets Noticed Onlinehttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/the-companies-quietly-controlling-who-gets-noticed/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/the-companies-quietly-controlling-who-gets-noticed/The internet has a visibility problem. A new category of companies doesn't make products or content—it manufactures attention itself.Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTtech-policyplatformsalgorithmsattention economyThe Internet's New Reality: Nothing Goes Viral by Accident Anymorehttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/nothing-goes-viral-by-accident-anymore/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/nothing-goes-viral-by-accident-anymore/'It just went viral' sounds increasingly outdated. What looks like spontaneity is often the end stage of a system designed to manufacture visibility.Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTaiviralityalgorithmsdistributionThe Internet's Real Product Isn't Content—It's Beliefhttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/the-internets-real-product-isnt-content-its-belief/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/the-internets-real-product-isnt-content-its-belief/You think you're scrolling through content. You're scrolling through consensus being manufactured in real time—where repetition becomes reality.Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTtech-policyplatformssocial proofconsensusThe Most Important Company You've Never Heard Of Is Deciding What Feels Real Onlinehttps://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/the-most-important-company-deciding-what-feels-real/https://deadpixelsmedia.com/articles/the-most-important-company-deciding-what-feels-real/Culture feels spontaneous from the outside. Inside the industry that studies attention, virality is no longer purely accidental—it's selected and accelerated.Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTtech-policyplatformsalgorithmsattention economy