WELCOME to Connected Rights, your blessing in the disguise 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 and download a copy of my book, Control Shift: How Technology Affects You and … Continue reading Facebook may get a big breach fine, but probably not $1.63 billion
Time for Google to come clean about China
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your chip off the old block 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 and download a copy of my book, Control Shift: How Technology Affects You … Continue reading Time for Google to come clean about China
Free stuff alert! I’m giving away my book on digital rights
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your cherry on the cake of digital rights news and analysis. FIRST THINGS FIRST! As many of you will know, last year I published a book called Control Shift: How Technology Affects You and Your Rights. Well, I've now decided to give it away for free, so please go ahead and download … Continue reading Free stuff alert! I’m giving away my book on digital rights
Are online platforms tools or privatised law enforcement?
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your jewel in the cuckoo's nest of digital rights news and analysis. THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IS PREPARING TO ABANDON the whole self-regulatory thing around takedowns of terrorist content. Per security commissioner Julian King, there hasn't been "enough progress" from the platforms, and "we cannot afford to relax or become complacent in the … Continue reading Are online platforms tools or privatised law enforcement?
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
When spies get to decide surveillance is OK
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your bun in the oven of digital rights news and analysis. A DECADE'S WORTH OF BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARIES WRONGLY authorised the intelligence agencies to collect as much telecommunications as they liked, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal has found after a lot of bugging (pardon the pun) by Privacy International. Essentially, the foreign secretaries … Continue reading When spies get to decide surveillance is OK
Even Big Tech is worried about facial recognition
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your slice in the toaster of digital rights news and analysis. MICROSOFT HAS DONE SOMETHING VERY UNUSUAL FOR a big tech firm. It has warned that a recent, popular technological development – facial recognition – is dangerous and needs regulating. In a blog post, Microsoft legal chief Brad Smith said facial recognition "can … Continue reading Even Big Tech is worried about facial recognition
Google and Facebook’s home state is the new privacy battleground
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your tip of the iceberg of digital rights news and analysis. CALIFORNIA HAS PASSED A LAW THAT CAN be best described as "GDPR-lite" – like the EU law, AB 375 forces companies to say what data they hold, why they hold it and where it goes, lets consumers object to their data … Continue reading Google and Facebook’s home state is the new privacy battleground
Dark patterns and the “meaning” of privacy
WELCOME to Connected Rights, your flick of the wrist of digital rights news and analysis. BIG TECH COMPANIES ARE MEETING TODAY TO DISCUSS PRIVACY in the wake of the GDPR and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to Axios. The publication quotes Dean Garfield, head of the Information Technology Industry Council, as saying "they've always viewed privacy … Continue reading Dark patterns and the “meaning” of privacy
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