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Latest — Nov 30, 2023

Why is the Struggle for Democracy So Hard?

RFC 9505: Newly minted RFC 9505 is an informational document from the Internet Research Task Force that "describes technical mechanisms employed in network censorship that regimes around the world use for blocking or impairing Internet traffic." The best part about this project that extended over nine years is that it

More issues

Targeting targeted ads; Everything old is new again

Behavioral advertising is about to meet its demise. Scholar-activist Nathalie Maréchal and privacy expert Nick Doty, with colleagues at the Center for Democracy and Technology, have just launched The Future of Online Advertising project. For years it's been apparent that Targeted Advertising Is Ruining the Internet and Breaking the World.

AI has 99 problems

... but PR isn't one. Everyone is talking about AI– even me! Just like no one "goes online" anymore, AI is already everything everywhere all at once. Tim Wu (gift link) centers actual harms in his analysis of the White House executive order on AI, to get you caught up. And

AI has 99 problems and none are technical

It’s critical to confront the reality that AI is just modern data science with one major promise (or peril): It’s our only hope of making sense of the vast quantities of unstructured data produced by ubiquitous sensors and surveillance. It is this underlying motivation that needs our attention.

#NoTechForApartheid; IETF 118; Intimate Partner GBV

The latest in "tech isn't neutral": The ITU spoke out against the internet shutdown in Gaza: “ITU condemns the communication blackout in Gaza and calls for life-saving access to networks to be restored." Full internet blackout means the siege on Gaza is happening in darkness. For a longread narrative author

Beyond carbon; IP Go!; Part II: Human rights + tech

Beyond carbon: This summer I attended a retreat at a convent in Montenegro with the critical infrastructures lab to talk about standards, emerging tech and environmental sustainability. Most discussion in the tech industry focuses on the important and nearly insurmountable problem of energy consumption and emissions, there are many impacts

10 ways the internet makes things worse for human rights

The internet has facilitated a new era of challenges and threats to human rights. While it has enabled e-commerce, it has exacerbated inequality. While it has democratized freedom of expression, it has given a megaphone to hate speech. While it has lowered barriers to access information, it has proliferated misinformation.

How to predict the future; eIDAS security; Part I: Human rights + tech

Some bits about the future: Last week Careful Trouble and I published a new report, A Thousand Cassandras. Conventional wisdom says tech moves faster than policy. So we asked some of the most prescient minds of our time about the ways digital human rights advocates can better predict the future.

Circumventing fragmentation; Who pays?; Are link previews secure?

The internet is becoming increasingly fragmented at the technical level with various companies and countries developing their own digital ecosystems and national intranets. Even if basic internet connectivity is available, and inter-connectivity possible, user access to information and services can be unequal across jurisdictions. Circumventing fragmentation with VPNs is not

Space internet; the I-stars; the Five Eyes

Space-based connectivity is not a new concept, and neither are the benefits and problems associated with a space-based internet. The rapid growth of this sector cannot be overstated. "Mega constellations" are the subject of a research and analysis paper about the governance of satellite broadband, because of their potential to