Connor Moucka, a 26-year-old Canadian citizen, has pled guilty to hacking more than 165 companies, stealing billions of records, and extorting several companies and individuals. 

On Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department announced the guilty plea in a press release. 

Moucka was accused of hacking cloud provider Snowflake, which allowed him and his co-conspirators to break into dozens of the company’s customers, including AT&T, LendingTree, and Ticketmaster. Moucka stole data from more than 100 million AT&T customers, including call and texting records, as well as banking information, drivers’ license numbers, and Social Security numbers from other breaches. 

Over the years, Moucka and his accomplices received more than $2.5 million in ransom payments. The hacker also received around $500,000 for selling victims’ data on hacking forums such as the notorious BreachForums. Victims of Moucka and his accomplices’ hacks suffered $9.5 million in losses, according to the DOJ. 

“Connor Moucka’s threats and re-extortion tactics were calculated and predatory, and his actions did real harm to his victims, be they companies targeted for theft and extortion or the millions of everyday people who are their customers,” said W. Mike Herrington, an FBI special agent who worked on the case.

Moucka, who was known online as Waifu and Judische, was arrested in Canada at the end of 2024, just months after the Snowflake breaches. 

At the time, Austin Larsen, a senior researcher at Google’s cybersecurity firm Mandiant who had been investigating the Snowflake hacks, said Moucka was “one of the most consequential” hackers of 2024. 

Moucka is scheduled to be sentenced on October 27, and faces decades in prison.

Four Android advertising software development kits (SDKs) can collect or transmit a device’s location by default once the host app has location permission, according to an August 2026 investigation by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The finding leaves app teams responsible for data flows they may not have knowingly enabled.

Because Android treats an app and its embedded code as one permission holder, an ad library can inherit location access granted for another feature. A shipping build can therefore transmit coordinates even when its consent flow and Google Play Data safety listing say nothing about third-party location sharing.

Android permissions extend to embedded ad code

The EFF investigation identified BidMachine, InMobi, Verve’s HyBid, and Huawei’s Petal Ads as libraries whose public documentation describes location collection or sharing by default when the app already has permission.

Researchers also tested two apps containing BidMachine: QR Scanner, with more than 50 million downloads, and GPS Speedometer, with more than 10 million. Network captures showed both sending precise coordinates to a BidMachine domain. Neither app displayed a notice before transmission, and neither Data safety section disclosed third-party location sharing.

For the other three SDKs, findings came from documentation review and, in HyBid’s case, open-source code rather than equivalent live traffic tests. InMobi says its library automatically forwards available location signals and recommends leaving that behavior enabled because location-enriched impressions typically earn more revenue. HyBid describes tracking as enabled by default, while Petal Ads includes location in ad requests unless developers use a separate opt-out method.

Precise Android location can resolve a device to within about 160 feet and sometimes 10 feet. When included in real-time bidding requests, those coordinates may be broadcast to thousands of prospective advertisers and collected by data brokers that join auctions for the information rather than the ad space.

That inherited-permission problem extends beyond advertising. A third-party Android SDK vulnerability recently exposed host-app privileges, while research into SDKs in apps marketed to US military personnel found mismatches between privacy disclosures and observed data practices.

App teams need evidence from the shipping build

Google’s Android SDK safety guidance says developers are responsible for an SDK’s data collection, including functions they do not use. Third-party location sharing must also appear in the Data safety form and comply with prominent disclosure and consent requirements.

In a 2024 order against InMarket, the Federal Trade Commission alleged that the company failed to ensure third-party apps using its location SDK had obtained informed consent before location data supported targeted advertising.

Contracts and developer documentation cannot prove what a production build transmits. Before each release, teams should:

• Inventory every advertising SDK and version.
• Remove precise location permission when it is not essential.
• Confirm each vendor’s location settings and opt-out behavior in code.
• Capture network traffic with location enabled and disabled.
• Inspect ad requests for coordinates, Wi-Fi identifiers, and persistent device IDs.
• Reconcile observed traffic with consent screens, privacy notices, and Data safety disclosures.

Google Play’s expanded app screening does not replace those checks. SDK behavior can change with an update, so traffic capture and disclosure review should remain recurring release controls rather than one-time integration tasks.

Also read: T-Mobile’s expanded T-Life privacy controls require separate checks across app, account, and device settings.

WhatsApp group chats are borrowing a few tricks from workplace platforms.

Meta is dropping a new set of WhatsApp features to help make group conversations more organized, interactive, and productive. The update introduces various new tools designed to optimize communication in large groups, including anonymous polls, timed voting, @all mentions, and the ability to create new groups directly from existing conversations.

While the changes may appear incremental on the surface, they are another step in WhatsApp’s evolution beyond consumer messaging, adding features that may better support workplace collaboration, community management, and event planning.

New features target growing conversations

The latest update, introduced on Aug. 4, mainly focuses on enhancing how users manage busy group chats. One of the top additions is anonymous polls, which allow members to vote without revealing their identities. Poll creators can also set time limits for voting, making the feature more useful for coordinating decisions with time-sensitive deadlines.

WhatsApp is also introducing @all mentions, which enable administrators or members to notify everyone in a group simply with a single tag instead of mentioning individuals one by one. Functionality like this has long existed on collaboration platforms such as Slack, Discord, and Microsoft Teams.

Another new addition allows users to create a new group directly from an existing chat. Rather than manually rebuilding participant lists, users can quickly split off discussions into separate groups for more focused conversations.

Together, these new features could help to reduce clutter in large chats while giving users more tools to organize conversations.

WhatsApp moves forward with its productivity push

So what do these feature updates say about Meta‘s long-term development strategy?

Well, over the past several years, WhatsApp has steadily added features that move beyond basic messaging, including Communities, Channels, screen sharing, voice chat for groups, and AI-powered capabilities.

The newest group management tools continue on that path by addressing common struggles experienced by organizations, schools, volunteer groups, clubs, and businesses that rely on WhatsApp for daily communication.

Rather than positioning itself as just a messaging platform, WhatsApp is increasingly competing with lightweight collaboration tools that merge communication with organizational capabilities.

Business users benefit

Although Meta markets WhatsApp primarily to consumers, many businesses already rely on the app for workflows such as internal communication, customer support, field operations, project coordination, and more.

It’s easy to consider how the new additions can optimize workforce operations far beyond your everyday messaging app. The new features can be especially helpful for small businesses lacking dedicated collaboration software, as they provide more functionality without requiring employees to adopt another platform.

The competition intensifies

WhatsApp’s newest enhancements also indicate an increasingly competitive messaging landscape.

Platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Slack continue to add AI-powered features, workflow automation, and project management capabilities, while Discord, Telegram, and Signal have expanded tools for organizing large communities and group conversations. Rather than competing solely on messaging, these platforms are increasingly vying to become users’ primary hub for collaboration, coordination, and communication.

As other messaging platforms continue expanding their own collaboration capabilities, more and more users now expect messaging apps to support both personal conversations and organized group work.

For now, WhatsApp, like many others, appears focused on becoming an all-in-one everyday communication platform that melds both personal and professional use cases.

What’s next for WhatsApp

WhatsApp’s newest features may not seem revolutionary on their own, but together they represent a significant expansion of the platform’s capabilities.

Organizations increasingly rely on consumer messaging apps for day-to-day collaboration. As business leaders look toward ways to optimize their workflows, messaging features that improve organization, reduce notification fatigue, and simplify decision-making can be enticing.

The line between messaging apps and workplace collaboration platforms is continuing to blur. As Meta steadily expands WhatsApp’s functionality, the platform is transforming into a tool for managing future conversations at scale.

Other News: CEO Mark Zuckerberg says AI is helping the company accelerate software development and launch new apps faster, though Meta has yet to disclose measurable productivity gains.