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Do Not Turn Child Protection into Internet Access Control
Age verification turns the open internet into a permission system and pushes control away from families, schools, and users.
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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 4,917 posts.
182
We are under attack
Fighting censorship with technology since 2011. We use AI to monitor censorship and expand free speech worldwide.
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Multiple Russia-aligned threat actors actively targeting Signal Messenger
Russia state-aligned threat actors target Signal Messenger accounts used by individuals of interest to Russia's intelligence services.
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FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores
According to the FCC commissioner, TikTok is a video app in "sheep's clothing", suggesting a wolf hides underneath those funny videos.
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Chat Control: Incompatible with Fundamental Rights (2022)
The EU Commission's draft regulation on chat control is currently being negotiated in the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. With the fight against sexual violence against children, the draft pursues an objective that is essential for the protection of children and their rights and can justify…
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The Cuban CDN
On a recent trip to Cuba I brought with me a smartphone and hoped to get Internet access either via WiFi or 3G. I managed that (at a price) but also saw for myself how Cubans get access to an alternate Internet delivered by sneakernet.
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“Captain Gains” on Capitol Hill
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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Grand jury subpoena for Signal user data
In the “first half of 2016” (the most specific we’re permitted to be), we received a subpoena from the Eastern District of Virginia. The subpoena required us to provide information about two Signal users for a federal grand jury investigation. We’ve designed the Signal service to minimize the dat...
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Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update
In a single update, a popular barcode scanner app that had been on Google Play for years turned into malware.
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The chat control proposal does not belong in democratic societies
The European Commission is working on a legislative proposal called chat control. If the law goes into effect, all EU citizens will have their communications monitored and audited. Now is the time to stop it.
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Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents
After decades of explosive growth, Austin, Texas, in the 2010s was a victim of its own success. Lured by high-tech jobs and the city’s hip reputation, too many people were competing for too few homes. From 2010 to 2019, rents in Austin increased nearly 93%—more than in any other major American city. And home sale…
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Universities have formed a company that looks a lot like a patent troll
Imagine this: a limited liability company (LLC) is formed, for the sole purpose of acquiring patents, including what are likely to be low-quality patents of suspect validity. Patents in hand, the LLC starts approaching high-tech companies and demanding licensing fees. If they don’t get paid, the...
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Court agrees with EFF: Utah's VPN law demands a technical impossibility
In a win for digital rights, a federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction blocking Utah’s SB 73, the state’s draconian anti-VPN age verification law. The decision comes as EFF submitted our comments to the Utah Department of Commerce, detailing how forcing platforms to detect and block privacy-preserving tools…
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Save Netflix
Netflix is in terrible danger. In fact, these might be its last days. Oh, not today's Netflix. The Netflix you're using today is fine. It made it—got to do something daring and edgy, prove out its model, and become part of the establishment. But the next Netflix—the company so cool it makes...
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Mozilla to UK regulators: VPNs are essential privacy and security tools
In the context of concerns around young people’s interactions with digital technologies, the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is consulting on additional measures to prepare young people for ...
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EFF in Court to Argue NSA Collection from Internet Backbone Is Unconstitutional
Oakland - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will argue on Friday before a federal court that the National Security Agency (NSA) is violating the Fourth Amendment by copying and searching data that it collects by tapping into the Internet backbone. The hearing on a motion for partial summary...
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New York State Senate passes prohibitions on non-competes
Monumental changes to New York law on non-compete agreements appear imminent. On June 7, 2023, the New York State Senate approved two bills concerning non-compete agreements. The first, Bill No. S3100A, proposes a ban on all non-compete agreements, while the second, Bill No. S6748, proposes a limited ban of certain…
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The upstream cause of the youth mental health crisis is the loss of community
We've forgotten what community really means.
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Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes
A top-down approach to addressing accidents fails to make streets safer. A local approach could change that.
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The case for expanding rather than eliminating gifted education programs (2021)
Teach For America's blog—real change is within reach. Explore stories of our people, tools for making change, leadership development, and career resources.
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Don't Feed the Thought Leaders
In this article, the author shares their experience as an engineering manager and the challenges they faced when trying to reach alignment and prev...
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COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator
Mark Suzman announces the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, a partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard. The initiative aims to identify potential treatments for COVID-19, accelerate their development, and prepare for the manufacture of millions of doses for use worldwide.
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Every new car sold in the European Union must include a driver monitoring camera
The EU's new mandatory ADDW rules could make roads safer by altering distracted drivers, but its privacy safeguards and data handling rules remain a gray area.
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Apple’s app review prevents developer from submitting fix to game for the blind
Hi all. As some of you may know, I am a totally blind iOS game developer. Among other games I have made accessible Hangman, Choose your Face, etc. Well, about 3 days ago I found out a bug which prevented iOS 15 users from running my game accessible hangman. I submitted an update to the app store fixing this problem…
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Sam Altman for President
I’m delighted to announce that Sam Altman has agreed to become president of Y Combinator starting next batch. I’ll continue to do office hours with startups, but Sam is going to lead YC. Why the change? Because YC needs to grow, and I’m not the best person to grow it. Sam is what YC needs at this stage in its…
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Chat Control Must Be Stopped
Chat Control is back to undermine everyone's privacy. There's an important deadline on October 14th, 2025. We must act now to stop it!