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A nuanced “Global South” take by @nwbrownboi re: LibGen, Copyright & AI + contrast from @greg_jenner & @prof_alice_roberts (all Threads) HT @dsearls
Quoted with links & refs to an Atlantic article; punch quote: Where was this outrage when students & researchers in the Global South needed these books to study, work, and build a future? AI isn’t the first thing to challenge your control over knowledge. It’s just the first time you’ve noticed. Quoth Shrey: OK I
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Yahoo sells TechCrunch to investment firm Regent | …maybe this is good maybe not?
Certainly it’s better than letting TC go under: Regent … investments include … a media portfolio comprised of newspapers and magazines including Sunset, Defense News, Military Times and broadcaster CheddarTV. https://www.regentlp.com/news/regent-acquires-techcrunch-from-yahoo According to WP they have… …at least two or three media brands under which TechCrunch could land, one of which is for government types,
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“Analysis of the Telegram Key Exchange” | …it’s from Martin & Kenny so this is bound to be correct, fun, and probably demands alcohol…
Quote: We describe, formally model, & prove the security of Telegram’s key exchange protocols for client-server communications. To achieve this, we develop a suitable multi-stage key exchange security model along with pseudocode descriptions of the Telegram protocols that are based on analysis of Telegram’s specifications and client source code… https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/451.pdf
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France: National Assembly votes to maintain confidentiality of encrypted messaging during a restless night
Yay: Despite a voting system failure, MPs on Thursday rejected the measure championed by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, which would have allowed intelligence services to access drug traffickers’ Signal and WhatsApp communications. https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2025/03/21/l-assemblee-vote-pour-le-maintien-de-la-confidentialite-des-messageries-cryptees-lors-d-une-nuit-agitee_6584121_3224.html
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Reminder: Heathrow is/was “down” due to a power failure, and all those folk who point at the Aviation industry as a paragon of risk-aversion… well, a friend just observed:
[Heathrow, the] biggest airport in the country & a major global hub… taken out via a single substation. Who designed a single point of failure into the infrastructure? People absolutely lose their shit if you do that in cloud tech. I am currently listening to an audiobook of The Digital Republic by Jamie Susskind, and
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“Zero arrests! Proves it’s working, doesn’t it?” | Big Brother Watch
Public facial recognition is one of those things where they are going to demand we nerd harder until some value proposition is established. Quote: 162680 faces scanned. 0 arrests. THIS is the reality of South Wales Police’s ‘live facial recognition zone’ spanning a whole city-centre.
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Fabulous little explainer by @umcopu on Twitter (ThreadReader link provided) on how EU Digital Markets Act “interoperability” will negatively impact security & integrity of their platform offerings
Previously. Previously. Quote: This is a big mistake. In the thread below, you can find a detailed breakdown of the privacy and security risks arising from the interoperability changes required by the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), especially relating to Apple’s ecosystem. See unrolled thread at: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1902430030317179191.html#google_vignette
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Signal threatens to leave France if encryption backdoor required | Computerworld
UPDATE: sanity prevailed! One of these days this is going to actually have to happen before they pay attention; one of the few architectural benefits of Signal requiring a phone number to bootstrap an identity is that they can fairly easily block any account associated with a +33 or +44 international dial code: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3850597/signal-threatens-to-leave-france-if-encryption-backdoor-required.html
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Alec’s Personal, Utterly Speculative Opinion: Why does the UK Government want a Backdoor into Apple iCloud Encryption? Answer: “Corporate & Foreign Government Espionage for Five Eyes”
In case this is not clear enough from the headline, I’ll repeat: the following is utterly personal and very speculative speculation re: why the UK Home Office are pursuing a backdoor into Apple’s iCloud product, a privacy weakness that will be local in scope but global in nature — although we can all be reassured