Technology
[Meredith Whittaker in the Financial Times] A great op-ed from Meredith Whittaker, President of Signal on the ludicrous demands by the British government for Apple to backdoor its encryption: "Imagine a government telling a car company to secretly weaken the effectiveness of the brakes on all the cars it
Technology
[Scharon Harding at Ars Technica] Don't keep an Amazon Echo (or any smart speaker) in a room where you'll be having sensitive conversations, either with your family or on a work call. Particularly if you're a journalist or activist - but privacy is something
Technology
[Benedict Collins at TechRadar] This was always inevitable, but in the current environment it makes sense that it's accelerating: "Several major European tech companies are pushing for greater action from the European Union to reduce the bloc’s reliance on foreign-owned infrastructure by buying and building locally.
Technology
[A.C. Thompson, ProPublica and FRONTLINE, James Bandler, ProPublica, and Lukáš Diko, Investigative Center of Jan Kuciak] A tragic story of a teenager recruited by a network of extremists, who ultimately murdered multiple people before taking his own life. It's also an example of why moderation and safety
Technology
[Davis Erin Anderson and Dr. Martin Shelton at the Freedom of the Press Foundation] These security tips are designed for journalists but are good ideas for everyone (and particularly activists or anyone working in a sensitive field): "In tumultuous times, we believe in being prepared, not scared. Sound digital
Technology
[Joe Woods] This is good, actionable advice: "As an engineering leader, you should be constantly working to reduce the amount of time it takes to complete one cycle of a feedback loop. What do I mean by feedback loop? This is anything where you do work, and then you
Technology
[Kunal Khullar at Tom's Hardware] Straight into my nightmares: "Australian biotech company Cortical Labs has introduced what it claims to be "the world’s first code deployable biological computer," which combines human brain cells with traditional silicon-based computing. The system, known as CL1, was presented
Technology
[Bill Fitzgerald] What a missed opportunity. As Bill Fitzgerald points out: "Mozilla has given a masterclass, yet again, in how to erode trust among people who have loved your work." Mozilla rolled out a new terms of service and privacy policy that rolled back a key promise never
Technology
[Edwin Wong and Andrew Melnizek at The Verge] This is much-needed research: "The Verge partnered with Vox Media’s Insights and Research team, along with Two Cents Insights, to better understand how American consumers are embracing this shift. The goal of the work was to redefine what online communities
Technology
[Craig Silverman at ProPublica] Let the attention dollars flow: "Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said in January that the company was removing or dialing back automated systems that reduce the spread of false information. At the same time, Meta is revamping a program that has paid bonuses to creators
Technology
[Bert Hubert] A European point of view: "We now have the bizarre situation that anyone with any sense can see that America is no longer a reliable partner, and that the entire US business world bows to Trump’s dictatorial will, but we STILL are doing everything we can
Technology
[Allison Hantschel in DAME] Hand-wringing over people leaving overtly unsafe spaces like X to find communities that are actually enjoyable to hang out in (like Mastodon and BlueSky) is absolute nonsense. "With that user growth, mostly from liberals disgusted with Musk’s nonstop promotion of conservative disinformation, came criticism