Google investing in connectivity in emerging markets
The Wall Street Journal quotes unnamed sources who reveal Google’s long–term strategy to invest in wireless networks in emerging markets in sub–Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia: “The drive to be a vertical player starts at the top of Google. Chief Executive Larry Page for years has spearheaded secret research on alternative methods to provide more people with internet access, and has become more active in thinking about providing wireless internet access to consumers, said people familiar with the matter.”
UK: Politicians rush to capitalize on atrocity to revive surveillance bill
The LINX Public Affairs blog names and shames the UK politicians who took to the media to call for the revival of a proposed law to monitor the communications of British citizens just hours after the violent murder of a British soldier by two Muslim men took place in London last week. As the Independent reports, the UK intelligence agency MI5 has intimated that the powers granted by the Communications Data Bill, which was shelved just a few weeks ago due to human rights concerns, would not have helped them prevent the attack.
LINX | Independent
South Africa: Forensic DNA database receives criticism
The Forensic Genetics Policy Initiative has submitted comments to the South African Parliament criticizing a proposed law that would sanction the creation of a forensic DNA database in the country: “Considering the immense weight of information that DNA carries, allowing law enforcement to seize demonstrably innocent persons DNA, DNA from individuals who have yet [to be] proven guilty of any crime, and DNA from persons convicted of… minor crimes for which DNA evidence is not even relevant is to give law enforcement uncontrolled and unprecedented access to the private lives of the citizens of South Africa.”
Europe: Parliament calls for removal of conditions from Treaty for the Visually Impaired
IP Watch reports that the European Parliament has voted to urge the European Commission to cease negotiating for concessions for rights–holder groups in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Treaty for the Visually Impaired: “MEPs also pushed for access to the negotiating mandate, which has been made a classified document. They have asked for access to the document for over a month now.”
Facebook joins Global Network Initiative
TechPresident reports on Facebook’s announcement that it will become a full member of the Global Network Initiative (GNI)—a self–regulatory group set up “to address the challenges technology companies face when dealing with governments about issues like freedom of expression and data privacy”, whose corporate members include Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!.
US: Silicon Valley uses growing clout to kill a digital privacy bill
The Los Angeles Times reports on how lobbying by California’s tech firms, including Facebook, has led to the shelving of a proposed law that would have given citizens access to the data being collected on them online.
Nobody puts data in the corner
Alix Dunn puts out a request on the Engine Room for solutions to a perpetual problem: how to make sure resources that are vital to a large group of advocates but produced by small and often precarious organizations do not one day disappear from public view because a web hosting invoice goes unpaid.
Interview: Sunil Abraham
Sunil Abraham of India’s Centre for Internet and Society talks to TechPresident about successful—and not so successful—attempts to tackle corruption in India using technological tools.
Anatomy of a hack
This widely–circulated article from Ars Technica on the relative weakness of passwords contains a lot of technical details, but remains an enlightening, if frightening, read.
Book Review: “The New Digital Age”
Evgeny Morozov writes a damning review of Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen’s book “The New Digital Age” for The New Republic: “If you ever wondered what the gospel of modernization theory sounds like translated into Siliconese, this book is for you.”
Audio: Regulating Code
Along with technology pundit Bill Thompson, I interview Christopher T Marsden and Ian Brown about their new book “Regulating Code” for the podcast Little Atoms. The book presents an alternative, European–inspired vision for the role of the state in regulating technology.
Video: The Pirate Bay–Away From Keyboard (TPB–AFK)
This documentary by director Simon Klose charts the lives of peer–to–peer filesharing site the Pirate Bay’s founders during their trial in Sweden, and was released earlier this year. The film has recently been the subject of seemingly spurious copyright takedown requests sent to Google by the major Hollywood film studios, a development Torrent Freak speculates might be related to the its anti–Hollywood content. The film, an original production that was part–funded by a Kickstarter campaign and is available for free under a Creative Commons license, portrays the site’s founders as much gentler characters than they appeared to be in press reports at the time of the trial.
Film | Torrent Freak report
Y2K: Much Ado about nothing?
The New York Times uses archive footage to reconstruct the hype around the so–called Millennium bug of the late nineties, and concludes that the panic may not all have been for nought, as the more robust computer systems that emerged were able to recover quickly from disasters such as 9/11.
The Barefoot Technologist 