Stripe is reportedly buying OpenRouter for more than seven billion dollars. The middle door that sold "you can always leave" would sit inside the company that writes the bill. Alex and Jordan also audit Cloudflare injecting a measuring script into free sites by default, a free IRS tax tool that scored well and still died, and a Firefox iPhone ad blocker that will not touch the ads that pay Mozilla. The side of tech news nobody talks about.

Hosts: Alex & Jordan

Show: Chief Skeptic Officer — The side of tech news nobody talks about.

Drop: Daily at 7:00 A.M. America/New_York

Episode date: 2026-08-17

In this episode

• Stripe / OpenRouter — Anti-lock-in becomes a Stripe billing decision. Reportedly. Still unsigned.
• Cloudflare's uninvited script — You asked for delivery. They rewrote the page. Free pla ...