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Google vs. the Open Web
A few days ago, I made a social media post about Google vs. the Open Web. It received some responses, so I’ll reproduce it below with some...
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 4,917 posts.
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Does current AI represent a dead end?
Eerke Boiten, Professor of Cyber Security at De Montfort University Leicester, explains his belief that current AI should not be used for serious applications.
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AdFection: Targeted ads turned into a pipeline for zero-click mercenary spyware
This is the first-ever public confirmation of zero-click mercenary spyware delivered via targeted ads. We call the technique AdFection, and show how it was used to infect devices at Al Jazeera with Candiru’s spyware. We also uncover Discover-Tech, and show how the company helps mercenary surveillance vendors track and…
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Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,Norway,Sweden,UK
As members of NATO, we are committed to strengthening Arctic security as a shared transatlantic interest. The pre-coordinated Danish exercise ”Arctic Endurance” conducted with Allies, responds to this necessity. It poses no threat to anyone. We stand in full solidarity with the Kingdom of Denmark and the people of…
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Keep the web free, say no to Web3 (2021)
A look at what is wrong with Web3.
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One Step Closer to a Closed Internet
Today, the FCC voted on Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal to repeal and replace net neutrality protections enacted in 2015. The verdict: to move forward with
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Six Palestinian organizations hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware
On 19 October 2021, Israeli Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, announced the designation of six leading Palestinian civil society organizations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as “terrorist organizations” under Israel’s Anti-Terrorism Law 2016. The groups named are Addameer; Al-Haq; Defense for Children …
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Survey of YC female founders on sexual harassment, coercion by angels and VCs
Earlier this year we funded Callisto [https://www.projectcallisto.org/], a non-profit dedicated to building tech to combat sexual assault and harassment. During their time at YC, we helped Callisto send a survey to 125 of the 384 female founders who have participated in YC.1 They were asked if they’d ever been…
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Grand jury subpoena for Signal user data, Central District of California
It’s the first half of 2021 – nearly five years since the “first half of 2016” – but in many ways not much has changed. The United Kingdom is still trying to figure out Brexit, another Justin Bieber song hit #1 on the charts (is it too late now to say sorry?), and Signal still doesn’t really know...
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South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste
A compulsory recycling scheme in South Korea has dramatically cut the amount of food the country throws away. Here's how it works.
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Court Records Should Be Free
Court records belong to the public. Yet anyone seeking access to federal court filings through PACER, a government software system that stands for Public Access to Court Electronic Records, is usually required to pay hefty fees to search for and view documents. PACER’s fees have long acted as a...
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PayPal shuts down long-time Tor supporter
Larry Brandt, a long-time supporter of internet freedom, used his nearly 20-year-old PayPal account to put his money where his mouth is. His primary use of the payment system was to fund servers to run Tor nodes, routing internet traffic in order to safeguard privacy and avoid country-level...
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Luanti removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice
Luanti has been removed from Google Play due to a DMCA notice from Tracer.AI. We have filed a counter-notice, but this isn't the first time.
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Can Beethoven send takedown requests?
Imagine you are a teacher at a public school, and you want to use a free recording of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony in your classroom. As an author of music textbooks and a music theory professor, I am always looking for creative ways to develop teaching materials as Open Educational Resources (oer-musik.de), so that…
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Open Letter from Governments to Facebook Is an All-Out Attack on Encryption
Top law enforcement officials in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia told Facebook today that they want backdoor access to all encrypted messages sent on all its platforms. In an open letter, these governments called on Mark Zuckerberg to stop Facebook’s plan to introduce end-to-end...
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N26 will be leaving the UK
We want to take this opportunity to thank all our UK customers for believing in our vision to build the bank the world loves to use.
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PayPal Freezes Mailpile Campaign Funds
[ Update: PayPal have unfrozen the account, for now at least. Thank you for your support!]
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Keeping secrecy the exception, not the rule
This morning we filed a new lawsuit in federal court against the United States government to stand up for what we believe are our customers’ constitutional and fundamental rights – rights that help protect privacy and promote free expression. This is not a decision we made lightly, and hence we wanted to share…
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Web Scrapers Claim to Sell Personal Data on Facebook Users on a Hacker Forum
Data on over 1.5 billion Facebook users is being sold on a hacking-related forum, enabling cybercriminals advertisers to target users.
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Sailing boat rescued by the Götheborg
Besök Ostindiefararen Götheborg i Göteborg och upptäck världens största oceanfärdiga träskepp. Boka biljetter och utforska historien bakom detta unika fartyg.
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