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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 742 posts.
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The New Wilderness
The need to regulate online privacy is a truth so universally acknowledged that even Facebook and Google have joined the chorus of voices crying for change.
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Mozilla Raises Concerns Over Facebook’s Lack of Transparency
Today Denelle Dixon, Mozilla’s Chief Operating Officer, sent a letter to the European Commission surfacing concerns about the lack of publicly available
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Don't Let Congress Hand Patent Abusers Their Ultimate Wishlist
Congress is considering a bill that would throw out the best defenses against bad patents. The Senate IP Subcommittee recently had a hearing about the Stronger Patents Act, a batch of recurring terrible ideas that has been introduced by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) for the third time in three years....
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The Slow Death of Hollywood
(Big issue 7-9-2019)
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Abuses show Assange case was never about law
It is astonishing how often one still hears well-informed, otherwise reasonable people say about Julian Assange: “But he ran away from Swedish rape charges by hiding in Ecuador’s embassy in London.” That short sentence includes at least three factual errors. In fact, to repeat it, as so many people do, you would
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Reasons not to reveal your DNA
With over two decades of global impact, Mozilla Foundation continues to lead the movement for a better technology future—powered by people, open by design, and fueled by imagination.
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Chrome, the perfect antitrust villain?
Note: I wrote this post on Thursday, and then Friday night, news dropped that the US DOJ is preparing an antitrust investigation against Google. Wow-ee. So, this post may either look better and/or …
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Yogababble
Malcolm Gladwell writes about a fascinating episode in history. Neville Chamberlain’s first plane ride was a trip to meet Adolf Hitler. The British Prime Minister was taken by Hitler’s charisma. He believed the German leader when he promised not to invade Czechoslovakia. After his triumphant return from Germany…
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Walkability a key factor determining upward mobility of a city's residents
Bipartisan Alliance, a Society for the Study of the US Constitution, and of Human Nature, where Republicans and Democrats meet.
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Google’s Nest fiasco harms user trust and invades their privacy
Last month, Google announced that its Nest Secure would be updated to work with Google Assistant software. The problem? Google never told users its product had a microphone to begin with. Simple oversight or invasion of privacy? We break it down.
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EU Copyright Directive is a catastrophe for free expression and competition
Update: Monday 14th 2019: We've added contact details and an action for Belgium.Update: Tuesday 15th 2019: We've added contact details and an action for Czechia.Sweden: Take Action Here.Germany: Take Action Here. Luxembourg: Take Action Here.Poland: Take Action Here.Belgium: Take Action Here....
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“We would like to apologize to the user for the error on our part this morning”
TikTok is the world's leading destination for short-form mobile videos. Our mission is to capture and present the world's creativity, knowledge, and moments that matter in everyday life. TikTok empowers everyone to be a creator directly from their smartphones, and is committed to building a community by encouraging…
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We value your privacy now, but maybe not later
Everybody knows these modal dialogs when visiting a website for the first time that ask you to accept cookies and consent to being tracked by third-party advertising networks. It actually became a habit for me to always click through these things and reject any kind of tracking or use of my personal information except…
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Too Much Dark Money in Almonds
Everyone always talks about how much money there is in politics. This is the wrong framing. The right framing is Ansolabehere et al’s: why is there so little money in politics? But Ansolabehe…
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Starbucks, monetary superpower
I recently spent some time on Twitter discussing the monetary wonders of Starbucks. In this post I'll bring a bunch of tweets together i...
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TSA-style body scanners are coming to public spaces
Civil Rights, Criminal Justice and Homeland Security
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Teacher Effects on Student Achievement and Height: A Cautionary Tale
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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Why ISOC sold .ORG to VCs
It has been widely reported, and generally criticized, that the Internet Society (ISOC) has entered into an agreement to sell Public Interest Registry (PIR) which operates the .ORG TLD, to a VC firm called Ethos Capital for a reported $1.135 Billion dollars. I've disclosed in previous issues of #AxisOfEasy that I…