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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 421 posts.
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Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (2019)
After a decade or so of the general sentiment being in favor of the internet and social media as a way to enable more speech and improve the marketplace of ideas, in the last few years the view has shifted dramatically—now it seems that almost no one is happy. Some feel that these platforms have become cesspools of…
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UMN CS&E Statement on Linux Kernel Research
Leadership in the University of Minnesota Department of Computer Science & Engineering learned today about the details of research being conducted by one of its faculty members and graduate students into the security of the Linux Kernel. The research method used raised serious concerns in the Linux Kernel community…
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New German government calls for European ban on biometric mass surveillance
The newly-agreed German government coalition has called for a Europe-wide ban on public facial recognition and other biometric surveillance. This echoes the core demands of the Reclaim Your Face campaign which EDRi has co-led since 2020, through which over 65 civil society groups ask the EU and their national…
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Internet of Snitches
Purism makes premium phones, laptops, mini PCs and servers running free software on PureOS. Purism products respect people's privacy and freedom while protecting their security.
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Apple Has Opened the Backdoor to Increased Surveillance and Censorship
UPDATE: Apple announced it will provide fully encrypted iCloud backups, meeting a longstanding demand by EFF and other privacy-focused organizations, and it has officially dropped its plans to install photo-scanning software on its devices, which would have inspected users’ private photos in iCloud...
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Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook
Facebook suspended President Trump following the mob attack on Congress. But the platform allowed organizing for the pro-Trump rally, as well as the spread of conspiracy theories and militant extremism that drove the rioters.
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Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days
For 75 days straight, Costa Rica ran on 100% renewable electricity
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Police can’t demand you reveal your phone passcode then tell a jury you refused
The Utah Supreme Court is the latest stop in EFF’s roving campaign to establish your Fifth Amendment right to refuse to provide your password to law enforcement. Yesterday, along with the ACLU, we filed an amicus brief in State v. Valdez, arguing that the constitutional privilege against self-...
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Ontario bans non-competes and creates right to disconnect from work
On November 30, 2021, the Ontario legislature passed Bill 27, Working for Workers Act, 2021[1] an omnibus bill introduced by the Progressive Conservatives which amends a number of employment-related statutes. The amendments received Royal Assent on December 2, 2021; however, different parts of the Bill will come into…
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Luca App: CCC calls for a moratorium
Dubious business model, defective software, irregularities in the awarding of contracts: The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) demands an immediate end to states' alimentation of Smudo's million-dollar tax...
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The Stroad
A stroad is a street/road hybrid. Stroads are dangerous and unproductive, and if we want to build strong towns, we have to eliminate them.
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EFF Joins Global Coalition Asking Apple CEO Tim Cook to Stop Phone-Scanning
EFF has joined the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and more than 90 other organizations to send a letter urging Apple CEO Tim Cook to stop the company’s plans to weaken privacy and security on Apple’s iPhones and other products. Have you signed the petition?
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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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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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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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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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Octopuses, crabs and lobsters to be recognised as sentient beings under UK law
Octopuses, crabs and lobsters will receive greater welfare protection following an LSE report demonstrating they have capacity to experience pain or distress.
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China blocks Wikimedia from entering World Intellectual Property Organization
5 October 2021, San Francisco, CA, USA — China today blocked the Wikimedia Foundation’s bid for observer status at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for the second time after the Foundation’s initial application in 2020. WIPO is the United Nations (UN) organization that develops international…
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Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code
From media reports and individual findings that various people have presented to us, it seems that the new social media platform owned by the former president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, so-called Truth Social, is using Mastodon’s source code with various visual adjustments. The platform has not formally…
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People prefer friendliness, trustworthiness in teammates over skill competency
People who are both trustworthy and competent are most sought after when forming teams
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Surveilance bill rushed through Australian parliament in 24 hours
New Australian surveillance bill enables police to hack your device, collect or delete your data, and take over your social media accounts.