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Clarifications regarding arrest of climate activist
We would like to provide important clarifications regarding the case of the climate activist who was arrested by French police.
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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. ]
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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…
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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...
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Tinder just permabanned me or the problem with big tech
Banned by algorithm with no explanation - the dark side of big tech's automated moderation.
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Windows 11, Amazon, and Uncomfortable Questions
Android app development books
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How Tech Loses Out
This article is part of a series on (European) innovation and capabilities. Hi everyone, This is a transcript of my presentation over at the European Microwave Week 2020, actually held in 2021. You can find the video here and the slides here. I’d like to thank Frank van Vliet, general chair of the EMW, for inviting me…
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Missouri Governor Vows to Prosecute St. Louis Post-Dispatch for Reporting
On Wednesday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a story about how its staff discovered and reported a security vulnerability in a Missouri state education website that exposed the Social Security numbers of 100,000 elementary and secondary teachers. In a press conference this morning, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) said…
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I Like That the Boat Is Stuck
I know it's bad that the boat is stuck, but I like that the boat is stuck.
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The rise of user-hostile software
On the trend of consumer software designed around developer convenience instead of user needs, from forced accounts to telemetry to privilege creep.
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“Free PACER” bill advances through Senate judiciary unanimously
The Senate Judiciary Committee today by voice vote advanced the Open Courts Act (S. 2614), a bill that would modernize the federal judiciary’s case management system and — finally — make access to court filings free for all Americans.
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NYT reporter falsely accuses tech investor of using a slur
The NYT's Taylor Lorenz falsely accuses a tech investor of using a slur after spending months trying to infiltrate and monitor a new app that allows free conversation.
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Early-Retirement Update
I’ve had a difficult time finding a way to create a new entry on a blog that has essentially been dead since 2015. Yet, I have had a persistent feeling that I owe my readers an update.
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Apple’s new abuse prevention system: an antritust/competition point of view
Apple has announced the new client-side content scanning (based on parameters received from the center) to find child sexual abuse materials to be reported to law enforcers.
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The Most Dangerous Censorship
Invisible but present, and far from the eyes of the public
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The Invention of a New Pasta Shape
For the past three years, Dan Pashman of The Sporkful podcast has been on something of a mission: to invent a new pasta shape. All of Pashman’s hard work has pa
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Workaholism leads to health problems, work addiction risk depends on occupation
Workaholism or work addiction risk is a growing public health concern that can lead to many negative mental and physical health outcomes such as depression, anxiety or sleep disorder. Perception of work (job demands and job control) may become a major cause of employees’ work addiction. The international group of…
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German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice
The north-German state of Schleswig-Holstein plans to switch to open source software, including LibreOffice, in its administration and schools. In doing so, the state wants to reduce its dependence on proprietary software, and eventually end it altogether. By the end of 2026, Microsoft Office is to be replaced by…
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What’s interesting about the Florida water system hack is that we heard about it
Stories about computer security tend to go viral when they bridge the vast divide between geeks and luddites, and this week’s news about a hacker who tried to poison a Florida town’s water supply was understandably front-page material. But for security nerds who’ve been warning about this sort of thing for ages, the…
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The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption
Federal law enforcement has been asking for a backdoor to read Americans’ encrypted communications for years now. FBI Director Christopher Wray did it again last week in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. As usual, the FBI’s complaints involved end-to-end encryption employed by popular...
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The Belgian government has removed ‘backdoor requirement’ from new law
The Belgian government has removed 'backdoor requirement' from new law after international protest.
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Hoax email blast abused poor coding in FBI website
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed today that its fbi.gov domain name and Internet address were used to blast out thousands of fake emails about a cybercrime investigation. According to an interview with the person who claimed responsibility for the hoax, the spam messages were sent by abusing…
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Google’s lawyer accidentally made a sensitive document public
A redacted document showed extremely sensitive information. Google's lawyer accidentally made it public.
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You can't censor away extremism or any other problem
Should we stop hate speech? What makes you think we can?
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Apple Will Not Reinstate Epic’s Fortnite Developer Account
Accounts that have never been disabled include the accounts for Rocket League (a game whose Mac support [Epic discontinued in January 2020][rl]), and separately, Unreal Engine. My understanding is that none of those accounts are affected by Apple’s decision not to reinstate the Fortnite developer account.