Commentary on links that caught my attention around the web.
Notable links
[Noah Hurowitz at The Intercept] This should be a five alarm fire: "Up for a potential fast-track vote next week in the House of Representatives, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, also known as H.R. 9495, would grant the secretary of the
Technology
[Sean Goedecke] This is very good. It's advertised as a piece about shipping in big tech companies, but honestly, I think it's true of many smaller companies too. It's not true in the smallest startups or for organizations with certain kinds of engineering cultures
Technology
[Signal] Signal has improved its group call functionality pretty significantly: "If you love group calls on Signal, but don’t want to create a group chat for every combination of your friends or colleagues, you’re in luck. Today we’re launching call links: Share a link with anyone
Media
[Damon Kiesow in Working Systems] Damon Kiesow, who is the Knight Chair in Digital Editing and Producing at the Missouri School of Journalism, writes: "We ourselves have torn down the wall between editorial and business interests if as journalists, our calculation here is not values-based. To wit: “But
Technology
[Bill Fitzgerald] Bill Fitzgerald has updated his open source guide to personal privacy: "Conversations about privacy and security often focus on technology and give scant attention to the human, non-technological factors that affect personal privacy and security. This post covers a range of concrete steps we can all
Technology
[Molly White] Unsure what to do now? Molly White has some solid ways to get started helping: ""Many of us have looked back on historic events where people have bravely stood up against powerful adversaries and wondered, “what would I have done?” Now is your chance to find
Technology
[Heather Bryant] Some good advice from Heather: "One practical thing you can do in as much depth as you like, identify a particular area of information that you care about or feel is important and protect it. Whether it's critical public data, old abandoned websites, or niche
Media
[Taylor Lorenz at User Mag] Gen Z men have lurched to the right, which was one factor behind this month's election result. This is, in part, because they've been inundated with media that speaks to a right-leaning point of view - and there's almost
Media
[Mathew Ingram at The Torment Nexus] Mathew Ingram on blaming social media for the stratification of society: "In the end, that is too simple an explanation, just as blaming the New York Times' coverage of the race is too simple, or accusing more than half of the American
Media
[Dick Tofel] Dick Tofel on where the press should go next: "We held a free and fair election, and the candidate who hates the press, who makes sport of threatening it physically and with censorship and muzzling, won. The campaign was fought across seven states and he won them
Technology
[Senator Ron Wyden at MSNBC] Senator Wyden has long been a loud voice for surveillance reform and stronger data protections, so this op-ed isn't really a surprise - but it's still nice to see him weighing in here: "Data brokers are selling the ability to
Notable links
[ProPublica] "With just days to go before Election Day, political coverage is everywhere. At ProPublica, we avoid horse race reporting and focus on telling stories about deeper issues and trends affecting the country. Here are some stories from the last year about issues that are important to voters."