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Firefox Personal Data Promise
Tech companies are using the word “privacy” a lot these days. What do they mean when they say it? To one company, privacy means keeping your informatio
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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 352 posts.
182
Our Boss Will Call Your Boss
On February 17, seven Blackwater-like security contractors were arrested in Haiti while driving in unmarked vehicles and transporting illegal weaponry and tactical equipment. They claimed to be on a government mission. Four days later the US “rescued” them. None are expected to face charges. What happened?
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Approaching Peak Housing Dysfunction in California
San Bruno, California laid out a detailed blueprint for more housing. One developer followed that blueprint. $3 million and 3 years later, the city killed his project anyway.
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The ice bucket challenge dramatically accelerated the fight against ALS
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India will soon overtake China to become the most populous country in the world
Explore data from the United Nations World Population Prospects.
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The IA Client – The Swiss Army Knife of Internet Archive
As someone who's uploaded hundreds of thousands of items to the Internet Archive's stacks and who has probably done a few million transactions with the materials over the years, I just "know" about the Internet Archive python client, and if you're someone who wants to interact with the site as a power user (or were
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Self-driving cars will "cruise" to avoid paying to park
If you think traffic in city centers is bad now, just wait until self-driving cars emerge on the scene, cruising around to avoid paying hefty downtown parking fees.
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Adding Client-Side Scanning Breaks End-to-End Encryption
Recent attacks on encryption have diverged. On the one hand, we’ve seen Attorney General William Barr call for “lawful access” to encrypted communications, using arguments that have barely changed since the 1990’s. But we’ve also seen suggestions from a different set of actors for more purportedly...
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Protecting democratic elections through secure, verifiable voting
Today, at the Microsoft Build developer conference, CEO Satya Nadella announced ElectionGuard, a free open-source software development kit (SDK) from our Defending Democracy Program. ElectionGuard will make voting secure, more accessible, and more efficient anywhere it’s used in the United States or in democratic…
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Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library
On Tuesday 27 August Helsinki Central Library Oodi was chosen as the winner of the 2019 Public Library of the Year award in the World Library and Information Congress of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), which is currently underway in Athens. The annually presented Public…
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Attempts to Censor AntiPolygraph.org
AntiPolygraph.org has received a rather unpleasant letter from James D’Loughy, a lawyer representing NITV Federal Services, LLC (NITV), which markets a scientifically baseless voice-based lie detector called the “Computer Voice Stress Analyzer,” and its president, self-described “Renaissance Man” “Dr.” Charles Humble…
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Xinjiang University President Tashpolat Tiyip Sentenced to Death in Secret Trial
Source: Art of Life in Chinese Central Asia (1/22/19) A Death Sentence For a Life of Service By Amy Anderson Note: This article written by Amy Anderson is based on interviews with Tashpolat Tiyip’s…
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New disclosures to our archive of state-backed information operations
Transparency is at the heart of everything we do at Twitter. That’s why we routinely disclose datasets of information operations we can reliably link to state actors.
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Some airlines and regulators ground 737 Max in wake of Ethiopian Airlines crash
Some airlines and national aviation authorities have grounded their Boeing 737 MAX fleet in the wake of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 (ET302).
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A Love Letter to the People Who Build the Internet Archive
When you visit a public library, you get to meet the librarians and others who build and care for those collections. You know there are people who empty the garbage cans, who put back the borrowed books, who maintain the computers, and who determine what ends up on the shelf.
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Whistled Turkish
May 31, 2019 @ 6:29 am · Filed by Mark Liberman under Language and culture , Phonetics and phonology
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Small share of U.S. adults produce majority of tweets on national politics
The findings of this analysis paint a nuanced picture of just how prevalent political speech is among U.S. adults on Twitter.
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People Lose Their Employer-Sponsored Insurance Constantly
If you like your employer plan, you don't get to keep it.
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Elevating original reporting in Search
Google makes ranking changes to highlight original reporting.
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Court Rules That “Patent Troll” Is Opinion, Not Defamation
Free speech in the patent world saw a big win on Friday, when the New Hampshire Supreme Court held that calling someone a “patent troll” doesn’t constitute defamation. The court’s opinion [PDF] is good news for critics of abusive patent litigation, and anyone who values robust public debate around...
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The Mobility Trap: Why We'll Never Fix Congestion by Speeding Up Traffic
Love to hate congestion? We’ll never fix it by obsessing over speed or traffic delays. We need to rethink our whole transportation debate, starting with this premise: it’s not about how fast you can go. It’s about what you can get to.
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There are now more people over sixty-four than children younger than five
What is the age profile of populations around the world? How did it change and what will the age structure of populations look like in the future?
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Let's discuss the source for the GPLed parts of Tesla cars
It has been many years since we started working with Tesla to help them resolve their ongoing GPL violations. However, Tesla has still not provided the necessary source code for their cars (a benefit of ownership enshrined in the GPL, which Tesla chooses to use) and the incomplete versions of source they have released…
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