David Meyer

Google, China and InfoWars: Online censorship hits the headlines

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your hadron in the collider of digital rights news and analysis. GOOGLE PULLED OUT OF CHINA EIGHT YEARS AGO over the country's censorship requirements and state-sponsored hacking. But now, according to multiple reports, the company is planning a return, with censor-friendly search and news aggregation apps being developed under a project codenamed … Continue reading Google, China and InfoWars: Online censorship hits the headlines

David Meyer

Good Apple

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your journey through the looking-glass of digital rights news and analysis. APPLE HAS ANNOUNCED THAT THE NEXT VERSION OF SAFARI will tell users when third parties are trying to track them through things like "like" and "share" buttons, and give them a simple way to block the tracking. And which tracker did … Continue reading Good Apple

David Meyer

Apple makes another worrying China decision

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your pinch on the cheek of digital rights news and analysis. APPLE HAS ALARMED PRIVACY ACTIVISTS by agreeing not only to store its Chinese customers' iCloud data on Chinese servers, but to store the encryption keys for that information in the country too: http://on.wsj.com/2ESetY6 The company claims that the keys will be … Continue reading Apple makes another worrying China decision

David Meyer

How do you know if your rights are violated by mass surveillance?

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your wind in the sails of digital rights news and analysis. PRIVACY SHIELD IS NOT IN THE CLEAR YET. Europe's privacy regulators said on Tuesday that they want to see the US stick to the terms of the transatlantic data-transfer deal by 25 May next year, otherwise they will take the matter … Continue reading How do you know if your rights are violated by mass surveillance?

David Meyer

State hijacking of social media is getting worse

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your fist in the air of digital rights news and analysis. SOCIAL MEDIA HAS BEEN HIJACKED TO INFLUENCE elections in at least 18 countries over the past year, according to Freedom House's latest Freedom on the Net report: http://bit.ly/2yZcOku "The Chinese and Russian regimes pioneered the use of surreptitious methods to distort online … Continue reading State hijacking of social media is getting worse

David Meyer

Finally, a country’s citizens get to have their say on mass surveillance

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your shot in the dark of digital rights news and analysis. THE DUTCH PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GET A MASS SURVEILLANCE REFERENDUM, probably next March. The country has a law that says if people can gather 300,000 valid signatures calling for a poll on an issue, they get their referendum. And that's … Continue reading Finally, a country’s citizens get to have their say on mass surveillance