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
Censorship disaster looms in Europe
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your licence to link to digital rights news and analysis. Sorry there was no Connected Rights last week – I've been taking a little time off. But important stuff is afoot! EUROPE IS A STEP CLOSER TO GETTING A DEEPLY DAMAGING new copyright law, after a vote this morning by the European Parliament's … Continue reading Censorship disaster looms in Europe
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
Who knew it was Content Moderation Transparency Week?
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your chip on the shoulder of digital rights news and analysis. IT SEEMS TO BE CONTENT MODERATION TRANSPARENCY WEEK, judging by the output of both Facebook and YouTube in the last couple days. For those who worry about how the big platforms regulate our online activity, there's a fair bit to digest … Continue reading Who knew it was Content Moderation Transparency Week?
The Facebook scandal and the decentralisation conundrum
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your hat in the ring of digital rights news and analysis. THANKS TO CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK, the purpose of data protection seems to have finally broken through into the public consciousness this past week. Here are several factors that have made this particular scandal exceptional and potentially game-changing. 1. This is … Continue reading The Facebook scandal and the decentralisation conundrum
Dirty spying tools for dirty clients
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your jack in the box of digital rights news and analysis. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to a friend or get them to sign up. I'm David Meyer, aka @superglaze on Twitter and @davidmeyerwrites on Facebook. Don't forget to check out the Connected Rights website. Kaixo! THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF SUPPLYING surveillance equipment to the brutal … Continue reading Dirty spying tools for dirty clients
The hacking of net neutrality. Plus: My book, Control Shift, is finally on sale
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your ghost in the machine of digital rights news and analysis. First things first… I'VE WRITTEN A BOOK! It's called Control Shift: How Technology Affects Your and Your Rights, and you can buy it now on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2Adw7WF (That's the link to the US store – it's in the others too, in … Continue reading The hacking of net neutrality. Plus: My book, Control Shift, is finally on sale
An Uber-bad way to handle a data breach
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your twist in the tale of digital rights news and analysis. UBER HAS DEMONSTRATED PRECISELY WHAT NOT TO DO when a major data breach happens. Yesterday, the company confessed that around a year ago it paid off hackers who had stolen the personal information of 57 million Uber users and drivers around … Continue reading An Uber-bad way to handle a data breach
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
Not handing over your passwords is a terrorist offence, citizen
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your cat in the cradle of digital rights news and analysis. NOT HANDING OVER YOUR PASSWORDS IS A TERRORIST OFFENCE in the UK. I've briefly mentioned the case of Mohammad Rabbani before (http://bit.ly/2whZWQZ), but now he's been officially found guilty: http://bit.ly/2yEsztz Rabbani is the international director of human rights group Cage, an NGO that … Continue reading Not handing over your passwords is a terrorist offence, citizen
