The German software company behind TeamViewer, one of the most popular software in the world that allows users to access and share their desktops remotely, was reportedly compromised in 2016, the German newspaper Der Spiegel revealed today. TeamViewer is popular remote-support software that allows you to securely share your desktop or take full control of […]
Silicon Valley-Funded Privacy Think Tanks Fight in D.C. to Unravel State-Level Consumer Privacy Protections…
After years of ignoring the issue, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are suddenly engaged in a furious fight over enacting national legislation to establish basic online privacy rights for consumers. As with the crafting of much legislation dealing with complicated issues, legislators are relying on experts to help codify the consumer protections. In a twist that […]
Hide Those Memes, Folks! Europe Passes Massive Online Copyright Changes That Will Lead to Censorship…
Members of the European Union’s parliament ignored dire warnings that they’re heading down a path toward massive online censorship and have passed legislation that will hold online platforms financially liable for copyright violations by users and would require search engines and social media platforms to get licenses from media companies to share even snippets of […]
How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually…
In late November, the Justice Department unsealed indictments against eight people accused of fleecing advertisers of $36 million in two of the largest digital ad-fraud operations ever uncovered. Digital advertisers tend to want two things: people to look at their ads and “premium” websites — i.e., established and legitimate publications — on which to host […]
“Everything Is Fake”: Ex-Reddit CEO Confirms Internet Traffic Metrics Are Bullshit…
“It’s all true: Everything is fake,” tweeted Former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao regarding a Wednesday New York Magazine article which reveals that internet traffic metrics from some of the largest tech companies are overstated or fabricated. In other words; they’re bullshit. Pao was responding to a tweet by the Washington Post’s Aram Zucker-Schariff, quoting the […]
The Internet Lives…
Of all the anti-Trump hysterias of our age, perhaps the most absurd and extreme was the charge that last year’s repeal of an Obama-era regulation would break the Internet. A year later, the Internet is still working just fine and in many ways much better for U.S. consumers. The Obama strategy was to impose on […]
ACTA 2.0 – The End of Freedom on the Internet…
Freedom of expression is a thorn in the side of EU technocrats. The new intellectual property law adopted by the European Parliament in September threatens our fundamental rights. Internet means freedom. Still. We can (still) freely retrieve content with our search engines. We can (still) freely and without further ado access the sources in a […]
MUST READ: A News Consumer’s Guide to ‘Astroturf’ Sources…
Never before have there been so many political and corporate interests with so many tools at their disposal to manipulate our opinions. Thanks to the internet and a changing news landscape, “astroturf” tactics surround us every day. Astroturf, in this case, means “fake grassroots.” In other words, entities deploy surreptitious methods to make us believe […]
Trust Us, We’re Secretly Working for a Foreign Government: How Australia’s Proposed Surveillance Laws Will Break the Trust Tech Depends On…
In the last few years, we’ve discovered just how much trust — whether we like it or not — we have all been obliged to place in modern technology. Third-party software, of unknown composition and security, runs on everything around us: from the phones we carry around, to the smart devices with microphones and cameras […]
CrowdStrike, the DNC’s Security Firm, Was Under Contract With the FBI…
Claims of “Russian interference” have been ubiquitous in U.S. political discourse for almost a full year now; these often amount to a melange of allegations ranging from “hacking” to “influence campaigns” to “online trolls” sent by the Kremlin to harangue unsuspecting Midwestern voters. “Hacking,” however, remains the centerpiece of the narrative — the idea that Russian state […]