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Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 4,917 posts.
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We’re asking Apple to change the advertising ID for each iPhone every month
Apple’s latest marketing campaign — “Privacy. That’s iPhone” — made us raise our eyebrows. It’s true that Apple has an impressive track recor
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FISA Court Rejects Catch-22 Secrecy Argument in FOIA Case
In the first publicly known victory by a non-government party before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the secret court today granted a motion filed by EFF related to an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The FISC gave its OK to the public disclosure of an earlier opinion...
2046
Portland passes low-density zoning reform
The reform sets a new standard: up to four homes on almost any lot, or up to six homes for price-regulated projects.
2047
How often do people copy and paste from Stack Overflow?
April Fool's may be over, but once we set up a system to react every time someone typed Command+C, we realized there was also an opportunity to learn about how people use our site. Here’s what we found.
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Why Education Does Not Fix Poverty (2015)
We are changing the conversation around our democracy and economy by telling influential new stories about our country and its people. Get our latest media updates here.
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Small payments sharply diminish gap in responses to partisan factual questions
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.
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Iceland radically cut teenage drug use
The relationship between people and the state has allowed an effective national programme to cut the rates of teenagers smoking and drinking to excess.
2053
The Lie Behind the Lie Detector
5th Edition of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector Released
2054
Sorry, Gas Companies – Parody Isn't Infringement (Even If It Creeps You Out)
Activism comes in many forms. You might hold a rally, write to Congress, or fly a blimp over the NSA. Or you might use a darkly hilarious parody to make your point, like our client Modest Proposals recently did. Modest Proposals is an activist collective that uses parody and culture jamming to...
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How to participate in Monday’s oral arguments re: Internet Archive
We’re standing up for the digital rights of all libraries in court! On Monday at 1pm ET, the Southern District of New York will hear oral argument in Hachette v. Internet Archive, the lawsuit against our library and the longstanding library practice of controlled digital lending, brought by 4 of the world’s largest…
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Help Fight Patent Trolls – Support the SHIELD Act
This week brings promising news in the fight against patent trolls. We have written before about how a broken patent system has led to an explosion of lawsuits by patent trolls (companies that assert patents as a business model instead of creating products). In the hands of trolls, patents become a...
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The Next Generation Bends Over
Mint’s sale to Intuit really pissed me off. Why should I care? Because I think it’s indicative of a VC-induced cancer that’s infecting our industry and killing off the next generation. I don’t know the full backstory, but I’d bet this sale was encouraged by a Mint i…
2060
ARRL hails FCC action to remove symbol rate restrictions
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.
2061
Entropic Engineering DEFCON 32 Statement
Entropic Engineering was approached in January ‘24 by the DEFCON Badge Team, who were looking for a small company to partner with. They expressed that they specifically wanted to work with us as a woman-owned, queer- and POC-driven engineering firm to develop an electronic badge with a gaming element for this year’s…
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How airline reservations are used to target illegal searches
One of the most detailed pictures to date of how the US government uses airline reservations to target illegal searches is provided by documents released recently by the US government as part of an agreement to settle a lawsuit brought by David House , an activist with the Pvt. Manning Support Network .
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ISP Association Nominates Mozilla as “Internet Villain”
ISPA Awards Join us on Thursday 26th November at black tie event in the Art Deco Sheraton Grand London Park Lane hotel as we announce the winners of the ISPA Awards 2026. We only have a few tickets left so if you are planning to join us, secure your tickets now…
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Caltech Awards 10,000th PhD Degree
On Friday, October 30, Caltech conferred degrees on 51 graduate students by a vote of the Board of Trustees as part of a special allowance made for students impacted by coronavirus-related campus closures.
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Intent to issue €2.5M fine to Disqus over GDPR breaches
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority has notified Disqus Inc. (Disqus) that we intend to issue an administrative fine of NOK 25 000 000 for not complying with the GDPR rules on accountability, lawfulness, and transparency.
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World's largest association of pilots boycotts body scanners
Big Brother Watch exposes and challenges threats to our privacy, our freedoms and our civil liberties at a time of enormous technological change in the UK.
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Dulce et Decorum Est (1921)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And…
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VMware GPL Enforcement Suit in Germany Continues
Software Freedom Conservancy is pleased to provide updated information regarding the ongoing GPL enforcement lawsuit for Linux, funded by Conservancy, that Christoph Hellwig has brought against VMware in Germany. Information about the suit is available on the FAQ page.The lawsuit continues to progress. VMware has…
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Microsoft will be carbon negative by 2030
The scientific consensus is clear. The world confronts an urgent carbon problem. The carbon in our atmosphere has created a blanket of gas that traps heat and is changing the world’s climate. Already, the planet’s temperature has risen by 1 degree centigrade. If we don’t curb emissions, and temperatures continue to…
2070
The Patent Office is “adjusting” to a Supreme Court ruling by ignoring it
In 2014, the Supreme Court decided the landmark Alice v. CLS Bank case. The Court held generic computers, performing generic computer functions, can’t make something eligible for patent protection. That shouldn’t be controversial, but it took Alice to make this important limitation on patent-...