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Like It or Not, We're Already Cyborgs

pcmag.com/news/368457/like-it-

Our interview with @laura for PC Magazine was published today.

“To privacy activists Aral Balkan and Laura Kalbag, we don't need brain implants to become cyborgs; we're already jacked in. And we need a Universal Declaration of Cyborg Rights.”

I've long thought that it was messed up that engineers chose to portray AI servants as women, and that it reinforced bad stereotypes and behaviors. Now some studies have come out that reinforce this: bbc.com/news/technology-483491

I've been critical of elastic in the past for making basic security like TLS part of their paid Enterprise software. I'm happy to see them open up these security features now: elastic.co/blog/security-for-e

"Recognizing that something needs to be done is easy. Looking to AI to help do that thing is also easy. Actually doing content moderation well is very, very difficult, and you should be suspicious of any claim to the contrary." eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/cont

The practice of content moderation is fundamentally broken, and the integration of AI isn't going to fix it. It's time to rethink the system entirely—and we've got ideas. eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/cont

I was interviewed by Fast Company about @purism hardware kill switches in this piece on the current trend to put them in home automation devices to address everyone's unease with always-on cameras and mics in their bedroom.
fastcompany.com/90349731/the-h

Free startup idea: registering "dibs" on the blockchain. Remember me when you're rich.

I see some people pressuring tech companies to build a machine that blocks entire groups from Internet Society. They must be bigger optimists than I am, all I can think of is how such a machine will be abused.

In Idaho, a judge has ruled that law enforcement cannot compel a person to unlock their phone with a fingerprint because it would violate their 5th Amendment rights, following a similar ruling in California earlier this year.
forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewste

If I could turn back time,
if I could find a way,
I'd get back to the shell before vim ran, and you'd say:

If I could reach Esc,
I'd change my mode for you,
and you'd insert text, remove text like you used to do.

Tech companies and online platforms have other ways to address the rapid spread of disinformation, including addressing the algorithmic “megaphone” at the heart of the problem, and giving users control over their own feeds. eff.org/deeplinks/2019/05/cens

Today we've updated the Librem One website with two important documents:

A short guide to staying safe online no matter what online service you are using. Like our policy document we've kept it short and to the point, with links to more detailed, independent resources if you'd like to learn more.

librem.one/stay-safe/

As well as a code of conduct that makes it clear we will respond to reports of harassment, for example on Librem Social, our opt-in social network.

librem.one/conduct/

This last week all Firefox addons were accidentally disabled due to issues in Mozilla certs. Many security measures out there require full, unrevokable trust in the vendor for them to work and this is a great example of the risks with that approach. Imagine if that ever happened with SecureBoot...

Uncle Ben said that with great power comes great responsibility, but he didn't explain that responsibility lags behind power a bit. There's a brief period where you can enjoy the rush of great power before the weight of great responsibility hits.

This makes a lot of sense given MS's larger strategy with Azure. They need to get Linux devs off Macs and AWS and onto Windows and Azure. Github and Linux tools on Windows are the gateway. arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/0

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