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What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world?
Running around in the woods, firing small plastic pellets at other people, in pursuit of a contrived-to-be-fun mission, turns out to be, well, fun.
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 992 posts.
92
Proton joins suit against Apple for practices that harm developers and consumers
Apple's anti-competitive App Store policies are gouging consumers, enabling censorship, and harming privacy-focused developers. We're joining a lawsuit to restore internet freedom.
93
Age Verification Laws: A Backdoor to Surveillance
I’m old enough to remember when age verification bills were pitched as a way to ‘save the kids from porn’ and shield them from other vague dangers lurking in the digital world (like…“the transgender”). We have long cautioned about the dangers of these laws, and pointed out why they are likely to...
94
We regret but have to temporary suspend the shipments to USA
Starting August 29th, new regulations have come into effect. Both DHL and UPS currently have no working solution, so on their advice, we are temporarily suspending all shipments to the USA effectiv…
95
The Rise of Whatever
This was originally titled “I miss when computers were fun”. But in the course of writing it, I discovered that there is a reason computers became less fun, a dark thread woven through a number of events in recent history. Let me back up a bit.
96
The demoscene as a UNESCO heritage in Sweden
The demoscene has become a national UNESCO-heritage in Sweden, thanks to an application that Ziphoid and me did last year. This has already happened in several European countries, as part of the international Art of Coding initiative to make the demoscene a global UNESCO heritage. I think this makes
97
Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations
Wikipedia is the backbone of knowledge on the internet. Learn how the Wikimedia Foundation is safeguarding it under the UK Online Safety Act.
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Internet's biggest annoyance: Cookie laws should target browsers, not websites
Save and Share: Click. Ugh. Another one. You know the drill. You land on a new website, eager to read an article or check a product price, and before the page even finishes loading, it appears: the dreaded cookie banner. A pop-up, a slide-in, a full-screen overlay demanding you “Accept All,” “Manage Preferences,” or…
100
Greenland is a beautiful nightmare
Greenland is a complicated topic here in Denmark. The former colony that is still treated a bit like a colony is something that inspires a lot of emotions. Greenland has been subjected to a lot of unethical experiments by Denmark, from taking their kids to wild experiments in criminal justice.
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Accountability Sinks
Accountability engineering in institution design
103
A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure
The issues described in this article were resolved after this article was posted.
104
“Super secure” messaging app leaks everyone's phone number
You can be, do, and have whatever you want, except for not spilling user information
105
Time to start de-Appling
I ‘ve done such a thorough job of de-Googling that I forgot to show up for a meeting with someone, because I hadn’t checked my Google calendar in ages. (No, they were not amused.) In my defense, I proceeded to explain to them that having de-Googled, I was also in the process of de-Appling, which is a special bonus…
106
TikTok is harming children at an industrial scale
Recently revealed text in legal briefs tells a damning story about the company, in its employees’ own words
107
Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics
When a government contractor pays a company for "Takedown Services" to prevent transparency in government
108
Say No to Palantir in the NHS
NHS England is rolling out software to run our health records from Palantir - fight back
109
AI surveillance should be banned while there is still time
All the same privacy harms with online tracking are also present with AI, but worse.
110
I built something that changed my friend group's social fabric
This is a story that started back in 2022, but I think its a perfect time to reflect on the impact that it has had on my friend group still to this day. Update (2/7/2025): I'm genuinely blown away by the response to this post. This hit the
111
Secret Documents Show Pepsi and Walmart Colluded to Raise Food Prices
The Trump FTC tried to hide a complaint showing Pepsi forced shoppers to pay higher prices everywhere but Walmart. But now it's unsealed. And the politics of affordability are explosive.
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Ban me at the IP level if you don't like me
“Bro, ban me at the IP level if you don't like me!”
114
An update on Mozilla's terms of use for Firefox
On Wednesday we shared that we’re introducing a new terms of use (TOU) and privacy notice for Firefox. Since then, we’ve been listening to some of our
115
Chat Control proposal fails again after public opposition
The European Union’s controversial Chat Control proposal has been withdrawn once again following intense public pressure. This marks another defeat for legislation that would have mandated scanning of encrypted messages across the EU.
116
Nobel Peace Prize 2025: María Corina Machado
The Nobel Peace Prize 2025 was awarded to Maria Corina Machado "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy"
117
“The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab” – a “study”
This write-up was originally posted on reddit , though I've cleaned things up specifically for this post. Due to reasons discussed towards the end of this post, I'm not entirely happy with the results and intend to take another shot at it in the near future.
118
Being poor vs. being broke
The more I speak about being poor, the more I realize how fundamentally other folks misunderstand what it means to be poor versus being broke.
119
Death by AI
One man's struggle with his mortality.
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Horses: AI progress is steady. Human equivalence is sudden
AI progress is steady. Human equivalence is sudden.