-
POLITICO Europe: Top Boris Johnson aide turned on disappearing WhatsApps weeks before COVID inquiry unveiled | Politicians & Civil Servants surrender many rights to commence work; perhaps privacy should be one of them
Other countries have legislation on records retention and they arrange matters so that records of communication are well-kept; in the UK it’s essentially at the discretion of the individuals who are assumed to be good chaps or chapesses, which of course is never any longer the case as far as can be seen. Certainly they…
-
Perhaps the #VAWG / Violence Against Women & Girls charities which supported the #OnlineSafetyBill’s attack on end-to-end encryption, might consider reappraising their strategic positions re: the importance of private messaging
British police testing women for abortion drugs “We already know that police routinely remove phones and computers from women suspected of having an [illegal] abortion and it’s even happening following miscarriage and pregnancy loss,” Lord said. “This is damaging enough as it leaves women frightened and isolated immediately after suffering a substantial trauma. […] In…
-
The State of this Blog
So a few days ago I completely nuked and reinstalled WordPress on a new server, with latest everything, on a much bigger Raspberry Pi; I’ve taken the time since to mess with the look and feel, layout, etc. For several days I tried to use the latest Twenty Twenty Three theme for WordPress, but it…
-
The Internet (almost) never forgets
Jason Scott is on top of his game. The new Speaker of the House deleted his entire website and his entire record of his podcast a day after getting the job. Wouldn’t want people to have it. Man, too bad there aren’t any archivists who knew to grab it immediately. https://digipres.club/@textfiles/111321772132668313
-
There’s a US Presidential Executive Order re: Artificial Intelligence out today, and it’s doomed to fail because (as ever) it makes the rookie mistake of trying to dictate the #ShapeOfCode
For instance: Protect against the risks of using AI to engineer dangerous biological materials by developing strong new standards for biological synthesis screening. Agencies that fund life-science projects will establish these standards as a condition of federal funding, creating powerful incentives to ensure appropriate screening and manage risks potentially made worse by AI. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/30/fact-sheet-president-biden-issues-executive-order-on-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-artificial-intelligence/ We already…
-
Section 230 Protects Gmail’s Spam Filter-RNC v. Google | Technology & Marketing Law Blog | it’s impossible to overstate the importance of Section 230 in development of the open internet & open web
So much so that a friend recently observed that it’s lack of Section 230 which prevents European companies from building popular platforms — a position I see considerable merit in. Having decided that they must meddle with platform content liabilities, the entire European “tech” ecosystem has become toxic for user-generated content platforms; but the application…
-
For the first time in history, the “extra hour in bed” thing worked
I have strong and well-formed opinions re: Daylight Savings Time, but I have to admit that the thing about an extra hour in bed in the autumn* is generally fallacious. Except today. The toddler woke at around 2am and bimbled into the main bedroom, demanded “Where’s Mummy?” twice, collapsed on the duvet, and stayed there…
-
THE SPEECH POLICE DISMISSETH US | the minds behind the free-speech-preserving online safety bill seek to police (reprehensible or not) what academics say in public on social media
It’s really interesting to see the repression starting to sediment:
-
“responsible capability sharing” | UK civil society creates buzzwords for the new oppression
There’s a curious blindness in some parts of civil society where they float new buzzwords to express something that they don’t like — in this case: people are writing apps and there could be bad side-effects — and of course they do this to express how they can add value because as Rachel puts it:…