Ben Werdmuller
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

NotableLinks

What Happens to Your Sensitive Data When a Data Broker Goes Bankrupt?

"The prospect of this data, including Near’s collection of location data from sensitive locations such as abortion clinics, being sold off in bankruptcy has raised alarms in Congress." As it should - although, of course, fire sales are not the only way this data gets sold and

23 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

European human rights court says no to weakened encryption

"The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that laws requiring crippled encryption and extensive data retention violate the European Convention on Human Rights." This renders some of the EU's own proposed legislation illegal. More importantly, client-side scanning and backdoors become illegal in themselves, making

21 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

US newspaper circulation 2023: Top 25 titles fall 14%

Print newspaper subscriptions of the top 25 titles continue to steeply fall. But digital subscriptions are up. Newspaper is just a technology; the journalism it carries continues to be valuable. One concern is how to maintain accessibility: a print newspaper can be read by anyone with access to the physical

21 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

New York Times publisher A. G. Sulzberger: “Our industry needs to think bigger”

I'm pretty critical of the NYT's coverage these days - I wish they'd do much better on trans issues and on being more critical on America's involvement in global conflicts - but this is a fascinating, illuminating interview. It's honestly

20 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Updating GOV.UK’s crown

A glimpse into a surprising design problem created by constitutional monarchy: the need to update the crown in your logo when a new King has taken the throne. "On each accession, the monarch will choose a Royal Cypher, or symbol to represent their personal authority. You can see the

20 Feb 2024

Stop what you're doing and watch Breaking the News

Breaking the News, the documentary about The 19th, aired on PBS last night and is available to watch for free on YouTube for the next 90 days. It’s both a film about the news industry and about startups: a team’s journey to show that journalism can and should

20 Feb 2024

Social, I love you, but you’re bringing me down

This weekend I realized that I’m kind of burned out: agitated, stressed about nothing in particular, and peculiarly sleepless. It took a little introspection to figure out what was really going on. Here’s what I finally decided: I really need to pull back from using social media in

19 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Heat pumps outsold gas furnaces again last year — and the gap is growing

"Americans bought 21 percent more heat pumps in 2023 than the next-most popular heating appliance, fossil gas furnaces." Quietly, the way we heat our homes is changing - and it has the potential to make a big impact. Because heat pumps use around a quarter of the energy

19 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Can ChatGPT edit fiction? 4 professional editors asked AI to do their job – and it ruined their short story

"We are professional editors, with extensive experience in the Australian book publishing industry, who wanted to know how ChatGPT would perform when compared to a human editor. To find out, we decided to ask it to edit a short story that had already been worked on by human editors

19 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Journalism Needs Leaders Who Know How to Run a Business

"We need people with a service mindset, who understand how to run a business, but a business with a mission that’s more important than ever. We need leaders who embrace new revenue models, run toward chaos, and are excited to build new structures from the ground up. We

18 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Opinion: I'm an American doctor who went to Gaza. I saw annihilation, not war

"On one occasion, a handful of children, all about ages 5 to 8, were carried to the emergency room by their parents. All had single sniper shots to the head. These families were returning to their homes in Khan Yunis, about 2.5 miles away from the hospital, after

17 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Paying people to work on open source is good actually

"My fundamental position is that paying people to work on open source is good, full stop, no exceptions. We need to stop criticizing maintainers getting paid, and start celebrating. Yes, all of the mechanisms are flawed in some way, but that’s because the world is flawed, and it’

17 Feb 2024
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Writing at the intersection of technology, journalism, and community.

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Ben Werdmuller explores the intersection of technology, democracy, and society. Always independently published, reader-supported, and free to read.