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Privacy Protects Bothersome People (2013)
We need to support privacy, not for those of us who have "nothing to hide", but for bothersome people like investigative journalists and activists, without which our democracy would crumble
Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 515 posts.
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Jamming XKeyScore
Back in the day there was talk about "jamming echelon" by adding keywords to email that the echelon system was supposedly looking for. We ca...
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Diversity and Startups
Sexism in tech is real. One of the most insidious things happening in the debate is people claiming versions of “other industries may have problems with sexism, but our industry doesn’t.” Both men and women claim this, even though it keeps getting harder to do in the face of shocks like the Tinder texts. We know there…
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TSA's X-Ray Nude Body Scanners Output 50% More Radiation Than Admitted to by TSA
A few weeks ago, scientific researchers from top universities released a report confirming my 2012 demonstration that anything can be easily smuggled through the TSA’s nude body scanners. Whi…
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Screwed by Square
In addition to making the small bucks as a science fiction writer, I have a day job. I run a game store which hosts events and serves the local community here in Brooklyn, but also sells games and …
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Protecting Net Neutrality and the Open Internet
(Updated May 6 with additional notes; see below.) In January, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order that prevented Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ...
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Illinois General Assembly passes bill to ban citizens from recording police
The Illinois General Assembly just passed a bill that would prevent citizens from recording the police.
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EFF Dismayed by House's Gutted USA Freedom Act
EFF and Other Civil Liberties Organizations Call on Congress to Support Uncompromising Reform Since the introduction of the USA FREEDOM Act, a bill that has over 140 cosponsors, Congress has been clear about its intent: ending the mass collection of Americans' calling records. Many members of...
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Brand engagement is plummeting on Facebook
According to a new report from Simply Measured, the total engagement for the top 10 most-followed brands on Facebook has declined 40 percent year-over-year—even as brands have increased the amount of content they're posting by 20.1 percent.
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Trust but Verify
It is becoming increasingly difficult to trust the privacy properties of software and services we rely on to use the Internet. Governments, companies, groups and individuals may be surveilling us without our knowledge. This is particularly troubling when such surveillance is done by governments under statutes that…
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Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals
I think this is a great hack: A man bought a first-class ticket and used it to have free meals and drinks at the airport’s VIP lounge almost every day for nearly a year, Kwong Wah Yit Poh reported. The itinerary for the ticket was found to have been changed more than 300 times within a year, and the owner of the…
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The Day We Fought Back: By The Numbers
96,000 calls, 555,000 emails, 245,000 signatures and more. Find out what happened this Tuesday.
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1995 Vannevar Bush symposium: Closing Panel
From the closing panel at the 1995 Brown/MIT Vannevar Bush Symposium , featuring Doug Engelbart, Alan Kay, Ted Nelson, and Tim Berners-Lee.
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A veteran teacher turned coach shadows two students for two days
Hear from a veteran HS teacher who just became a Coach in her building. Because her experience is so vivid and sobering I have kept her identity anonymous.
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Own your own data
A new system would allow individuals to pick and choose what data to share with websites and mobile apps.
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What makes for a stable marriage?
Randy Olson reviews a research paper that outlines what makes for a stable marriage in the U.S.