The Nexus of 2024

Author: jon

  • Privacy News: January 9

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    Lots of surveillance stories, fines for Facebook, Google, and Apple, and much much more! Surveillance Fighting ‘Big Brother’: Anti-surveillance advocates in New York seek to halt creeping proliferation of cameras and tracking software Ben Brachfeld on amNewYork (amny.com) Anti-surveillance activists are working with progressive lawmakers in Albany seeking to curtail the proliferation of “Big Brother”…

  • Privacy News: January 3

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    Looking back at 2022, a good book list, another Black man mistakenly arrested because of facial recognition technology … and more! We’re now posting privacy news items on Mastodon as well as Twitter.  If you see some links we should cover, please tag us! 2022 Year in Review Cindy Cohn on Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org)…

  • The Nexus of Privacy at the turn of the year

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    Happy 2023 everybody! The start of the year’s a good time to reflect on the Nexus of Privacy’s focus in 2022 – and think about what to do differently in the upcoming year.  Here’s how I originally framed it back in June in Welcome to The Nexus of Privacy: The Nexus Of Privacy is a…

  • Privacy News: December 26

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    Police using health data for surveillance, TikTok spying on journalists, state privacy legislation, and more! Police seize on COVID-19 tech to expand global surveillance Garance Burke, Josef Federman, Huizhong Wu, Krutika Pathi, and Rod McGuirk Remember in the early days of the pandemic when techies scoffed at privacy concerns about contact tracing apps?  Three years…

  • Black Twitter, quoting, and white views of toxicity on Mastodon

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    Last updated: January 12, 2023.  See the update log at the bottom. For a detailed look at design considerations of a “quote boost” implementation, see the followon post Social threat modeling and quote boosts on Mastodon “The platform is made up of people. Elon Musk bought Twitter, but he did not buy the communities that…

  • That’s a wrap (for now): federal privacy legislation update, December 23

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    The 117th Congress has adjourned  after passing the $1.7 trillion, 4155-page “omnibus” appropriations bill, so it’s now official.  Even though several privacy bills advanced from committee in 2022, and bill sponsors continued to express confidence during the lame duck session, at the end of the day nothing passed either the House or Senate (let alone…

  • The omnibus drops – with no ADPPA or KOSA! Federal privacy legislation update, December 20

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    The $1.7 trillion, 4155-page “omnibus” appropriations bill was released at 1:30 am this morning – without any privacy legislation attached.  With Congress rushing to leave DC before a huge snowstorm closes in, it looks like that’s it for 2022. Privacy legislation is hard. Still, by the time we got to the lame duck session, there…

  • Privacy News: December 19

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    A big FTC settlement, student privacy, state and federal privacy legislation, security and privacy issues on Mastodon … and more!   Fortnite Video Game Maker Epic Games to Pay More Than Half a Billion Dollars over FTC Allegations of Privacy Violations and Unwanted Charges the Premerger Notification Office Staff on Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov) Epic…

  • ADPPA and Twitter: eight questions and an elephant

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    Please share your perspectives in the Nexus of Privacy Dreamwidth community, on Mastodon at mastodon.social or on Twitter (unless we get suspended for having a Mastodon link in our profile 🤣) “One effective tactic we’ve used to cut through the complexity of the legislation is to focus on real-world privacy abuses.  How effective will proposed…

  • Privacy News: December 15

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    Privacy after Roe, surveillance, FTC comments, state and federal privacy legislation … there’s so much in the news these last few days that I’m leaving stuff related to Twitter and Mastodon out of this issue of the newsletter, and will have a followon tomorrow.  Even without that, though, this is one of the juiciest news…

  • ADPPA and a “coordinated effort” not to mention the elephant: Federal privacy legislation update, December 12

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    Updated December 15. “Even as enthusiasm among ADPPA’s most optimistic supporters remains high, its prospects are limited this late in the term. Barring miraculous inclusion in a must-pass spending measure, the highest possible outcome for the bill this year is symbolic passage in the House. There appears to have been a coordinated effort underway this…

  • Privacy News: December 11

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    Large language models, iCloud encryption, Twitter privacy issues, state privacy legislation, and much much more! But first, a shameless plug: on Tuesday (December 13) at 9 am Pacific/noon Eastern, please join me and RI Labs for Flocking to Mastodon? Here’s what you need to know! Are you heading to Mastodon as a Twitter alternative or…

  • Flocking to Mastodon? Here’s what you need to know!

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    Next Tuesday (December 13), at 9 am Pacific / noon Eastern: Are you heading to Mastodon as a Twitter alternative or curious about what it is and how it works? Or want to share your own experiences? Join RI Labs Leadership Circle Member & Founder of the Nexus of Privacy, Jon Pincus, in a conversation…

  • Privacy News: December 7

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    SF says no to killer robots (for now), the EU  says  no to Meta’s  business model, questions   about state  privacy legislation … and  more! San Francisco: In a surprise turnaround, robot lethal force is banned — for now Will Jarrett on Mission Local (missionlocal.org) In an unexpected about-face, the Board of Supervisors today voted…

  • Privacy News: December 5

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    Killer robots, a new deadline for Real ID, effective privacy organizing, security cameras with a data leak, Mastodon, and more! DHS resets the clock on its threat to stop flyers without ID Edwad Hasbrouck on Papers Please (papersplease.org) Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has pushed back the requirment to use a “Real ID” license for…

  • Mastodon privacy: you can’t really opt out of search engine indexing

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    There are a lot of reasons people might not want their posts on a social network to be indexed by search engines.  One of the most important is personal safety. Harassers often use search engines to find out information about the people they’re targeting – or to find new people to target.  So Mastodon gives…

  • Privacy News: December 2

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    A lot of links for your weekend reading pleasure! The airport of the future is the airport of today — and that’s not good Ed Hasbrouck on Papers Please (papersplease.org) Hasbrouck looks at the integrated and largely-invisible surveillance infrastructure in airports today and the convergence of interests between government agencies, airlines, and airports.   During…

  • Privacy News: November 29

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    It’s been a week since our last news roundup, so we’ve got a lot of links!  But first, since it’s Giving Tuesday, if you’re considering donating, please keep these options in mind: Maya Morales of WA People’s Privacy is raising funds to support her local, state, and national grassroots organizing efforts.  WA People’s Privacy doesn’t…

  • Will anything pass this session? Federal privacy legislation update, November 28

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    Over 90 organizations have signed on to a letter led by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and Fight for the Future opposing the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Signers include local and national LGBTQ and human rights organizations including the ACLU, American Library Association, Equality Texas, Equality California, Equality…

  • Mastodon: a partial history (DRAFT)

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    Last major update: December 3.  See the update log below for details. DRAFT!  Feedback welcome!I’ve shared the draft on @inquiline@mastodon.social on Mastodon Then again, whiteness resists change.  As Are0h says “It’s culture. And whiteness, as Du Bois identified years ago, is committed to fighting to assert itself in yet another new space.” Unfortunately a lot…