I linked a few weeks ago to a new tool called Memex, a browser extension that touts itself as bookmarking for “power users of the web.” Its primary unique differentiator is how they approach the privacy angle.
I’m a couple of weeks into using it and it brings an interesting new approach to the world of bookmarking tools like Pinboard or Raindrop, both of which I’ve used a lot. Raindrop has been my tool of choice lately, but it’s heavy for what I really want,...
The winds of internet privacy1 shift all over the place. Certain technologies like encryption have given us important moves forward in security, but then big platforms like Facebook or a million small ad tech outfits have taken us the other way with invasive trackers and mishandling of data they shouldn’t have and most of the time don’t need. But the prevailing winds over the past few years have moved, on net, positively toward a focus on protecting personal data.
The nuclear options deployed by the pro-privacy EFF advocate to combat internet creepiness are...
Our friends over at the American Geographical Society have spearheaded a new competition (in partnership with the Omidyar Network) called EthicalGEO to seek out new ideas on how the community can better understand the ethical challenges with geospatial data, privacy, sharing, and the like, and find solutions and systems to embrace what’s new and combat the risks and downsides:
The EthicalGEO initiative seeks to activate thinkers, innovators, entrepreneurs, policymakers, practitioners, students, and everyday citizens and bring them in to a global dialog that shines a light on their best ideas about the...
This is a fascinating idea, arguing that we should shift our thinking about privacy and data away from “ownership.” Since owning / renting data doesn’t afford the privacy and agency control people actually want, the author argues for a broader set of rights
Clear, broad principles are needed around the world, in ways that fit into the legal systems of individual countries. In the US, existing constitutional provisions—like equal protection under the law and prohibitions against “unreasonable searches and seizures”—are insufficient. It is, for instance, difficult to argue that continuous, persistent tracking of a person’s movements in public is...