1621
The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy
Why I've gotten more and more pessimistic about my relationship with Twitter.
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,064 posts.
1622
AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
Note: This has been cross-posted to my company's blog, in case you think there is some use in sharing with someone in a format that looks more authoritative. Link here .
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Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty
We have come to a point where end-to-end encrypting all your private data and private communications
1625
YouTube: filmmakers presumed guilty until maybe proven innocent
[ The following article, along with comments from Smartsound and Shockwave-Sound, was written by Tony Fleming and published with his permission. ]
1626
1627
Ants recognise infected wounds and treat them with antibiotics
The African Matabele ants are often injured in fights with termites. Their conspecifics recognise when the wounds become infected and initiate antibiotic treatment.
1628
EFF's Fight to End Warrantless Device Searches at the Border
EFF has been working on multiple fronts to end a widespread violation of digital liberty—warrantless searches of travelers’ electronic devices at the border. Government policies allow border agents to search and confiscate our cell phones, tablets, and laptops at airports and border crossings for...
1629
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Judges rule Big Tech's free ride on Section 230 is over
Algorithms are no longer a Get out of Jail free card. The Third Circuit ruled that TikTok must stand trial for manipulating children into harming themselves. The business model of big tech is over.
1631
What are you doing, WordPress.com?
Be sure to check out the update at the bottom. I recently wrote that I've stuck with WordPress.com for so long, for all its purported limitations, because its features fully suffice the committed blogger whose content is textual for the most part and because the company behind WordPress.com is running a good business…
1632
A case against security nihilism
This week a group of global newspapers is running a series of articles detailing abuses of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. If you haven’t seen any of these articles, they’re worth re…
1633
I can't let go of “The Dunning-Kruger Effect is Autocorrelation”
Organizing my thoughts regarding an argument about the Dunning-Kruger study and statistics in general
1634
Facebook is terrifying
Facebook is terrifying Remember that last time you posted a picture on Facebook and it automatically suggested to tag other people on the photo? Nothing unusual. You’ve tagged these people before …
1635
Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments
Over the past few years, Apple seems increasingly willing to cooperate with authoritarian governments, uninterested in protecting its own users, and unwillin...
1636
Your smartphone, their rules: App stores enable corporate-government censorship
Big Tech Oligopoly helps the Trump Administration crack down on free speech
1637
The human genome is, at long last, complete
Results of automated DNA sequencing, displayed on the screen of a tablet computer. (Turtle Rock Scientific/Science Photo Library)
1638
Guccifer 2.0: DNC's servers hacked by a lone hacker
Worldwide known cyber security company CrowdStrike announced that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) servers had been hacked by “sophisticated” hacker groups. I’m very please…
1639
4Chan Lawyer publishes Ofcom correspondence
Ofcom — driven by the letter of British law that they are bound to follow, but still Ofcom — are quietly making Britain look (a) very silly and (b) as if we haven’t yet shucked-off the Americ…
1640
Play deprivation is a major cause of the teen mental health crisis
Allowing more unsupervised free play is among the most powerful and least expensive ways to bring down rates of mental illness
1641
Mastodon Is Better Than Twitter: Elevator Pitch
The personal website and blog of Daniel Long Sockwell, a lawyer-turned-programmer with an interest in web development, open source, and making things as simple as possible.
1642
Claude mixes up who said what
Claude sometimes sends messages to itself and then thinks those messages come from the user. This is categorically distinct from hallucinations or missing permissions.
1643
Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras
Anger over ICE connections and privacy violations is fueling the sabotage. PLUS: 10,000 drivers call on Uber to repay stolen wages, a man is arrested at a public hearing about a data center and more.
1644
Australia’s vague anti-encryption law sets a dangerous new precedent
The Assistance and Access (A&A) law requires tech companies to help law enforcement agencies break into individuals’ encrypted data.
1645
Expedia: Bad for the Traveler, Bad for the Hotel
There is a lot of talk in the news these days about the difficulties facing small business owners around the world. Nowhere are these difficulties felt as deeply as in the travel industry. The rapi…
1646
Mozilla Re-Files Suit Against FCC to Protect Net Neutrality
This morning, the Federal Communications Commission officially published its order overturning net neutrality rules in the Federal Register. We had origina
1647
Facebook says Apple is too powerful – they're right
In December, 2020, Apple did something insanely great. They changed how iOS, their mobile operating system, handled users’ privacy preferences, so that owners of iPhones and other iOS devices could indicate that they don’t want to be tracked by any of the apps on their devices. If they did, Apple...
1648
Signal Introduces Stories
If your favorite way to update your friends about life disappears in 24 hours, we’ve got some happy news for you. Stories are now available on Signal for Android and iOS, with Desktop coming soon!
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We all depend on open source. We will defend it together
An open letter from the technology industry, and the launch of Akrites - a coordinated effort to remediate vulnerabilities in the open source software the world runs on.