netwars

This week's net.wars, "The lost Internet", misses functioning technology, notes the rise of age verification, and nods at independent journalism. If generative AI were a psychic we'd say what it does is cold reading: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/01/03/the-lost-internet/ #NetWars #AI #privacy

This week's net.wars, "Disharmony", finds Meta allegedly engaging in piracy and changing its content moderation policies, and network neutrality dying (for now?) in the US: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/01/10/disharmony/ #copyright #eu #OnlineSafety #NetWars

This week's net.wars, "Banning TikTok" watches two US presidents go from "Oh my God! The kids are using *TikTok*!" to "Oh, my God! The kids are *using* TikTok!": https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/01/17/banning-tiktok/ #NetWars #SocialMedia #TikTok #FreeSpeech

This week's net.wars, "The AI moment" goes to UK Govcamp 2025 to watch modern civil servants wrangle digital stuff in the face of an old culture: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/01/24/the-ai-moment/ #NetWars @ukgovcamp

This week's net.wars, "Cognitive dissonance", goes to State of the Net 2025 and finds an inability to agree what the subject of conversation is: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/02/21/cognitive-dissonance/ #NetWars #StateOfTheNet2024 #ContentModeration #innovation

This week's net.wars, "The Gulf of Google" sees a new way to splinter the Internet; watches panic over a new Chinese reasoning model; thinks Silicon Valley has its cause and effect backwards; and asks, "Did Trump just screw data flows between the EU and US - again?": https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/01/31/the-gulf-of-google/ #NetWars #AI #Privacy #DataProtection

This week's net.wars, "Dorothy Parker was wrong", has cataract surgery and tells the doctors that sometimes myopic eyesight is is the *best* eyesight: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/03/21/dorothy-parker-was-wrong/ #NetWars #health #aging

This week's net.wars, "What we talk about when we talk about computers" goes to the play _What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank_ and comes out thinking about DOGE and computer systems: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/02/07/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-computers/ #NetWars #Security #HumanRights

This week's net.wars, "Unsafe", finds Apple challenging the UK government over its encryption notice, Wikipedia ever-harder to edit, Firefox going in unwanted direction, and Rachel Maddow comparing cryptocurrencies to Beanie babies: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/03/07/unsafe/ #NetWars #encryption #firefox

This week's net.wars, "Isolate", signs the Global Encryption Coalition's letter opposing Britain's demand that Apple backdoor encryption on its cloud service worldwide, and imagines the worst possible timeline where it's coupled it with Ofcom's rules under the Online Safety Act: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/02/14/isolate/. #NetWars #Ofcom #Encryption #Apple #UKPolice

This week's net.wars, "The risks of recklessness", hears diplomats consider how to cope with emerging technologies: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/03/28/the-risks-of-recklessness/ #NetWars #diplomacy #signal

This week's net.wars, "Catoptromancy", goes to the workshop day of We Robot 2025: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/04/04/catoptromancy/ #NetWars #robots #law #werobot

This week's net.wars, "Three times a monopolist" mulls what can be done about Google as it is *again* ruled guilty of monopolistic behavior: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/04/25/three-times-a-monopolist/ #NetWars #antitrust #google

This week's net.wars, "Dangerous corner", goes to CPDP and finds that privacy issues have expanded to include the electrical grid and farming. "Simplify!" says the EU. For whose benefit? https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/05/23/dangerous-corner/ #NetWars #privacy #HumanRights #CPDP

This week's net.wars, "Predatory inclusion", goes to #WeRobot2025, where understanding how robots and law interact takes a distinctly Canadian flavor: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/04/11/predatory-inclusion/ #NetWars #Robots #Law #Privacy

This week's net.wars, "Lawfaring", visits Apple's day being rebuked by the court, 23andMe in bankruptcy proceedings, and Palantir's work on the master database to rule them all: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/05/02/lawfaring/ #NetWars #Apple #Privacy

This week's net.wars, "The Skype of it all", says goodbye to Skype and remembers what came before it - a little slice of Internet history and a reminder of the importance of network neutrality: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/05/09/the-skype-of-it-all/ #NetWars #Skype #VOIP

This week's net.wars, "Hallucinations", tours the increasing unreliability of "AI" and its chatbots: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/05/16/hallucinations/ #NetWars #AI

This week's net.wars, "Unscreened", is inspired to think about screenless devices and the future of consent by an essay by Gus Hosein at Privacy International: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/04/18/unscreened/ @privacyint #NetWars #privacy

This week's net.wars, "Sovereign", signs an open letter to Keir Starmer advocating UK technological sovereignty, finds model collapse plaguing AI, and reads an unexpected clause in Starlink's terms of service: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/05/30/sovereign/ #NetWars #AI #UK #Starlink #Mars

This week's net.wars, "Second sight", recounts the results of four months comparing the difference a cataract makes: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/07/04/second-sight/ #NetWars #cataracts

This week's net.wars, "Nephology", attends the US House Judiciary Committee's Thursday hearing on "Foreign Influence on Americans' Data Through the CLOUD Act", at which four experts expertly defended encryption: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/06/06/nephology/ #NetWars #USpol #surveillance #encryption #Apple #UK

This week's net.wars, "Negative externalities", watches Texas police use license plate data to search for a woman they think might have self-managed an abortion; pushes back on a report that suggests a publicly funded NHS period-tracking app is a better idea; and notes the passage of the UK's new data bill weakening citizens' rights over their data: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/06/13/negative-externalities/ #NetWars #UKpolitics #Abortion #DataBill #Privacy

This week's net.wars, "A thousand small safety acts", talks to lawyer @neil about the Online Safety Act's impact on the community Internet - the small web boards, forums, chat channels, projects, and volunteer services: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/06/20/a-thousand-small-safety-acts/ #NetWars #FreeSpeech #OnlineSafetyAct #UKPol