Weekly Readings: Decoy Data
BY Antonella Napolitano and Rebecca Chao | Monday, June 16 2014
An app the emits false data; Burkina Faso, poor but data rich?; Social media bans in Iraq; and much much more Read More
[Transcript] Surveillance and Its Discontents: A Conversation Across Cyberspace with Edward Snowden and John Perry Barlow
BY Jessica McKenzie | Thursday, June 12 2014
John Perry Barlow and Edward Snowden at PDF14 (Photo: Doc Searls/Flickr)
A full transcript of the Personal Democracy Forum 2014 keynote, Surveillance and its Discontents: A Conversation Across Cyberspace, with Edward Snowden and John Perry Barlow Read More
First POST: Middlemen
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, May 6 2014
New ideas (and issues) for preserving net neutrality; how Governor Andrew Cuomo uses technology to hide his government's workings from the public; the USA Freedom Act moves toward a committee markup; and much, much more. Read More
Analyzing Social Network Metadata to Uncover Censorship
BY Jessica McKenzie | Wednesday, March 12 2014
Screenshot of email metadata (MIT Immersion)
If you've entered your email into the MIT Media Lab Immersion platform, you might have some idea of the information that can be gleaned from metadata. The same is true of social networks like Twitter and Facebook. One researcher has found that analysis of social network metadata can reveal wide scale censorship with 85 percent accuracy, without needing to track sensitive keywords.
Read MoreFirst POST: Today's Big Disaster
BY Micah L. Sifry | Thursday, February 13 2014
Comcast's bid to buy Time Warner Cable could be a huge disaster for consumers and Internet users in America; the connections between online resistance, state surveillance, and data-driven political targeting; more roundups of The Day We Fight Back; and much, much more. Read More
First POST: Dirty Socks
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, January 14 2014
The one thing you should read about Emma and Bill Keller's "cancer-shaming" columns; the privacy issues embedded in the "internet of things"; Josh Cohen's Open Supporter Data Initiative; and much, much more. Read More
First POST: "Who Watches?"
BY Micah L. Sifry | Wednesday, January 8 2014
The Obama administration won't release a legal memo giving the FBI warrantless spying powers; one of the 1971 burglars who exposed FBI domestic spying back then explains her actions; cops use social media to catch gangs; cops get caught on social media defrauding the taxpayer; and much, much more. Read More
The App That Builds Trust Into Citizen Media
BY Jessica McKenzie | Thursday, December 12 2013
What did I tell you about not believing everything you see on the Internet? (Flickr/@Doug88888)
First POST: The 16-Year-Old Vote
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, November 5 2013
Some pesky petitions that the White House still hasn't responded to; more evidence of the NSA's violation of Google's and Yahoo's data networks; the new book on Jeff Bezos gets reviewed by his wife MacKenzie Bezos, on Amazon; and much, much more. Read More
First POST: The Clash
BY Micah L. Sifry | Monday, September 30 2013
Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: As Congress goes over the cliff, is it time for a clean slate?; Is the NSA mapping your social network?; a new sharing company built that connects cooks to hungry city dwellers is taking off in Athens; and much, much more. Read More