Archive | November, 2016
EU public-private censorship outside the law
By HAX on November 3, 2016 in Censorship, Democracy, EU, Facebook, Freedom of Speech, Rule of law, social media
According to the Code, the four companies do not need to check if the content they delete is illegal or not.
TED will let you speak to the world – anonymously
Ideas are powerful things. So powerful, in fact, that regardless of the messenger or medium an idea can stand on its own and change the world. That’s the theory behind a new creative initiative from TED—and its significance can’t be overstated. (…)
TED is teaming with Audible, the podcasts and audiobook company, to produce audio content for TED. The twist: The presenter will be completely anonymous. (…)
As TED President Chris Anderson wrote in his Medium post about this new project, “What matters is only what can be shared: an idea that matters.” Explaining further why some might choose to anonymously share their ideas, he asked: “How many people have an important message but refrain from ‘going public’ out of fear of losing their jobs or hurting loved ones? How many ideas worth spreading remain hidden because some speakers simply can’t publicly be associated with the very thing the world needs to hear?”
Wired: Anonymous Speech Is More Important Than Ever. TED Proves It »
WOT: Your surf history for sale
The browser plug-in WOT (Web of Trust) is supposed to warn users about unsafe web pages. But now it turns out that it puts users privacy at serious risk.
From the WOT web page “Secure a simple and safe browsing experience. Our add-on doesn’t slow your browser, it’s easy to use and free.”
As per usual when something is free, it is likely to turn out that you are the product.
WOT collects data from your web sessions (like your surf history) and sends it – allegedly anonymized – to their server. Then this data is sold to e.g. the advertising industry.
Today, German media have more or less exploded with reports of such data for sale not being properly anonymized.
Investigative reporters have gained access to a WOT database where individual users can be identified. In the reports, there are mentions of police officers, judges, journalists, business leaders, and others – and their surf history e.g. when it comes to medical matters, prostitutes, drugs and esoteric erotic pleasures.
On Chrome alone, WOT has some 1.5 million users.
NDR: Nackt im Netz: Millionen Nutzer ausgespäht »
/ HAX
Eight years since the Bitcoin whitepaper was published
It’s Bitcoin’s Birthday: Whitepaper Released 8 years Ago Today »
Call for Facebook transparency
The letter called on Facebook to make publicly accessible its guidelines for censoring content. Specifically, the groups want Facebook to reveal the technical and policy details about the company’s internal system for handling censorship requests on individual pieces of content from law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and other government entities. It also urged Facebook to create a public appeal platform for users to contest content removals, institute a blanket policy of only turning over user data to governments when required to do so by the force of law, and undergo an external audit of its content- and data-sharing polices.
The Daily Dot: Over 70 activists groups call on Mark Zuckerberg to reveal Facebook’s censorship policies »