Court documents recently reviewed by VICE have revealed that ShotSpotter, a company that makes and sells audio gunshot detection to cities and police departments, may not be as accurate or reliable as the company claims. In fact, the documents reveal… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘Commentary’
Disentangling Disinformation: Not as Easy as it Looks
Body bags claiming that “disinformation kills” line the streets today in front of Facebook’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. A group of protesters, affiliated with “The Real Facebook Oversight Board” (an organization that is, confusingly, not affiliated with Facebook or its Oversight… Read More ›
Council of Europe’s Actions Belie its Pledges to Involve Civil Society in Development of Cross Border Police Powers Treaty
As the Council of Europe’s flawed cross border surveillance treaty moves through its final phases of approval, time is running out to ensure cross-border investigations occur with robust privacy and human rights safeguards in place. The innocuously named “Second Additional… Read More ›
Pegasus Project Shows the Need for Real Device Security, Accountability and Redress for those Facing State-Sponsored Malware
People all around the world deserve the right to have a private conversation. Communication privacy is a human right, a civil liberty and one of the centerpieces of a free society. And while we all deserve basic communications privacy, the… Read More ›
Right or Left, You Should Be Worried About Big Tech Censorship
Conservatives are being censored Claiming that “right-wing voices are being censored,” Republican-led legislatures in Florida and Texas have introduced legislation to “end Big Tech censorship.” They say that the dominant tech platforms block legitimate speech without ever articulating their moderation… Read More ›
What Cops Understand About Copyright Filters: They Prevent Legal Speech
“You can record all you want. I just know it can’t be posted to YouTube,” said an Alameda County sheriff’s deputy to an activist. “I am playing my music so that you can’t post on YouTube.” The tactic didn’t work—the… Read More ›
The Tower of Babel: How Public Interest Internet is Trying to Save Messaging and Banish Big Social Media
This blog post is part of a series, looking at the public interest internet—the parts of the internet that don’t garner the headlines of Facebook or Google, but quietly provide public goods and useful services without requiring the scale or… Read More ›
PCLOB “Book Report” Fails to Investigate or Tell the Public the Truth About Domestic Mass Surveillance
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) has concluded its six-year investigation into Executive Order 12333, one of the most sprawling and influential authorities that enables the U.S. government’s mass surveillance programs. The result is a bland, short summary… Read More ›
Setbacks in the FTC’s Antitrust Suit Against Facebook Show Why We Need the ACCESS Act
After a marathon markup last week, a number of bills targeting Big Tech’s size and power, including the critical ACCESS Act, were passed out of committee and now await a vote by the entire House of Representatives. This week, decisions… Read More ›
Understanding Amazon Sidewalk
Just before the long weekend at the end of May, Amazon announced the release of their Sidewalk mesh network. There are many misconceptions about what it is and what it does, so this article will untangle some of the confusion…. Read More ›