61
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 354 posts.
62
When “free forever” means “free for the next 4 months”
Last week, the open-core team chat platform Mattermost announced that “Mattermost Cloud Free will no longer be offered after July 26, 2023.” This likely came as an unpleasant surprise to users on that plan, as less than a month before, Mattermost’s pricing page featured the promise that the Cloud Free …
63
Internet Archive responds to recording industry lawsuit targeting obsolete media
Late Friday, some of the world’s largest record labels, including Sony and Universal Music Group, filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive and others for the Great 78 Project, a community effort for the preservation, research and discovery of 78 rpm records that are 70 to 120 years old. As a non-profit library, we…
64
New AI classifier for indicating AI-written text
We’re launching a classifier trained to distinguish between AI-written and human-written text.
65
66
Urgent: Sign the petition now
Nearly 40,000 of all depositors at Silicon Valley Bank were small businesses. If swift action isn’t taken, over 100,000 people could soon lose their jobs.
67
Mercedes-Benz workforce to receive record profit-sharing bonus
Exklusive Einblicke und individuelle Angebote: Erleben Sie mit Mercedes-Benz das Maximum aus digitaler Live-PR. Exclusive insights and individual offers: Experience the maximum of digital live PR with Mercedes-Benz.
68
EU's concealment of secret 'expert list' on CSAM regulation is maladministration
After a year-long inquiry, the EU Ombudsman recommends that the European Commission should monitor stages of progress in every Big Tech case that the Irish Data Protection Commission is responsible for.
69
Suing to protect right of incarcerated people to receive physical mail
In 2021, San Mateo County, California, banned people incarcerated in county jails from receiving physical mail. Instead, family and friends were required to mail their letters to Smart Communications, a private for-profit company based in Florida that would scan and destroy those letters so that...
70
Apple vs. Meta: The Illusion of Privacy
Learn how Apple and Meta use psychology and UX to collect your data while creating an illusion of privacy.
71
Privacy washing: Google claims to support privacy while lobbying against it
Just as Big Oil has used greenwashing to block environmental protections, Big Tech uses privacy washing to stand in the way of privacy.
72
73
Why I can no longer recommend a Mac to fellow blind computer users
As many of you will know from personal experience, there is a longstanding issue with VoiceOver on Mac where Safari may become unresponsive with VoiceOver repeatedly announcing the message “Safari not responding.” When this issue occurs, the user's Mac may become unusable for up to several minutes at a time. Sometimes…
74
The feds' vehicle 'kill switch' mandate is a gross violation of privacy
Over the last century, the Land of the Free has slowly transformed into a land governed by endless laws, largely by cracking down on vices instead of actual crimes, creating a society that would render us all criminals if our behavior were constantly observed. Meanwhile, the state has steadily expanded its use of mass…
75
76
The Online Safety Bill: An attack on encryption
The Online Safety Bill has some genuinely good intentions, but the proposed legislation is remarkably poor.
77
Remote work on HN: Who is hiring? – 69% jobs in 2023 are remote
Virtual space platform to help remote teams collaborate.
78
Intuit pouring money into lobbying amid push for free government-run tax filing
Intuit spent more than $3.5 million on federal lobbying in 2022 — a new record for the leading tax prep company, which owns TurboTax.
79
UN Human Rights Chief Urges UK to Reverse ‘Deeply Troubling’ Public Order Bill
GENEVA (27 April 2023) - The Public Order Bill, which has now been passed by Parliament in the United Kingdom, is deeply troubling legislation that is incompatible with the UK’s international human rights obligations regarding people’s rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, UN High…
80
Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle
Mickey, Disney, and the Public Domain: a 95-year Love Triangle by Jennifer Jenkins, Director, Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain On January 1, 2024, after almost a century of copyright protection, Mickey Mouse, or at least a version of Mickey Mouse, will enter the United States public domain. The first…
81
EARN IT Act undermines the privacy, security, and safety of law-abiding users
Yesterday, TechFreedom sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee raising concerns about the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2023 (EARN IT Act). As it did when introduced in each of the past two sessions of Congress, the EARN IT Act undermines the privacy, security, and…
82
83
Hundreds of thousands trafficked to work as online scammers in SE Asia, says UN
GENEVA (29 August 2023) – Hundreds of thousands of people are being forcibly engaged by organised criminal gangs into online criminality in Southeast Asia - from romance-investment scams and crypto fraud to illegal gambling - a report issued today by the UN Human Rights Office shows.
84
Element is one of fourteen messaging apps blocked by Central Indian Government
Element is one of 14 messaging apps blocked by the Central Indian Government which - we believe from media reports - relates to Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
85
The EARN IT bill is back. We've killed it twice, let's do it again
EARN IT Act is aiming at scanning our messages and photos, we are calling of Senators to oppose this surveillance bill!
86
We will not ‘walk out’ of UK, nor comply with any request to bypass encryption
Tutanota: We will not 'walk out' of UK like Signal. Nor will we comply with any request to bypass our encryption.
87
The FBI proves again it can’t be trusted with Section 702
The FBI doesn’t believe that either our rights or the limitations that Congress has placed upon them matter when it comes to the vast amount of information about us collected under FISA Section 702. The latest exhibit in this is in yet another newly declassified opinion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court…
88
Debian celebrates 30 years
Over 30 years ago the late Ian Murdock wrote to the comp.os.linux.development newsgroup about the completion of a brand-new Linux release which he named "The Debian Linux Release". He built the release by hand, from scratch, so to speak. Ian...
89
IBM, Red Hat and Free Software: An old maddog’s view
Several people have opined on the recent announcement of Red Hat to change their terms of sales for their software. Here are some thoughts from Jon "maddog" Hall on it.
90
Statement on AI Risk
A statement jointly signed by a historic coalition of experts: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”