Collected Data
"What are the things he and Facebook won’t do?"
It is hard to tell whether money or politics come first, but either way they are intertwined. During industrialization, the two key commodities for economic growth were labor and actual commodities. The British Empire became dominant because it mastered mass production and consumption as well as controlling commodities. And it started with The East India Company. The subjugation of the Indian subcontinent was part of industrialization. In the 20th century, petroleum shaped the political narrative; in this new century, “attention” shapes politics. That is why we have to look at this issue of Internet.org from a cultural standpoint.
Nothing Is Free, Not Even Facebook Free Basics
"Many people assumed that the law would prevent Google from collecting data on his daughter for advertising purposes. But the truth is more complicated."
"It’s not at all clear how to help people navigate a world where the seemingly trivial act of accepting a friend request can have life-altering financial implications."
"The vast majority of web advertising may never actually be seen by end users"
From an end user perspective, moving from a free service to a paid one would actually be a good thing because it would make the relationship between the user and companies like Google more explicit. It is hard to argue that it is acceptable to secretly track users and capture their personal details when the user is paying for a service. Whether this model is going to be as financially lucrative for Google as selling ads is yet to be seen.
Will ad blocking deal the final death blow to already failing online advertising?
"The mobile ecosystem is no longer immune to ravages of the extension"
For publishers, ad blockers are the elephant in the room: Everybody sees them, no one talks about it. The common understanding is that the first to speak up will be dead as it will acknowledge that the volume of ads actually delivered can in fact be 30% to 50% smaller than claimed — and invoiced. Publishers fear retaliation from media buying agencies — even though the ad community is quick to forget that it dug its own grave by flooding the web with intolerable amounts of promotional formats.
Ad Blocks’ Doomsday Scenarios
CBC News;
"We're not against advertising," says Ben Williams, communications and operations director for Eyeo, which operates Adblock Plus. "We think that advertising can be better."
AdBlock Plus mobile browser could devastate publishers
Since I stopped watching broadcast/cable tv and installed an ad blocker, I am always horrified when I actually see an advertisement. Sure, ads can be better, but I also think the products being sold can be better. Stop trying to sell me shit and I’ll stop blocking ads.
Actually, who am I kidding. I won’t stop blocking ads.
Watch" Do Not Track" by Brett Gaylor
Do Not Track Press Kit;
Do Not Track is a personalized documentary series about privacy and the web economy. If you share data with us, we’ll show you what the web knows about you.
This documentary series will explore how information about you is collected and used. Every two weeks, we will release a personalized episode that explores a different aspect of how the modern web is increasingly a space where our movements, our speech and our identities are recorded and tracked.
We want to explore what this means to you, your family and your friends. From our mobile phones to social networks, personalized advertising to big data, each episode will have a different focus, a different voice and a different look.
Do Not Track
"What if I disagree with the interpretation of the CSIS agent about what exactly any text I wrote is supposed to mean, how are we going to resolve this conflict?"
Without a clear definition of what “supporting terrorism in general” means, I can’t see how I can be sure to avoid violating this law by accident, whenever I express my views as a Muslim. If I am expected to not violate a law, it should be at least possible for me to understand it. If the law says that the government decides when the law was violated, then for me to make sure I don’t violate the law, I have to either check with the government about every sentence I want to write, or wait for the government to come and arrest me after I write anything, and if they don’t show up, I will know I didn’t violate the law this time!
Terrorism bill C-51 only creates more insecurity
"The term “judicial oversight”, as used by members of the Conservative Party in this debate, is truly a perversion of reality."
Sitting here today through third reading, I heard a great number of propositions from Conservative members of Parliament. I have no doubt that they believe those propositions in their speaking notes to be true, but they are consistently repeating fallacies that I would like to try to explain and deconstruct so that Canadians will understand why these repeated bromides are just not true.
The three fallacies I want to address in the time I have are the following. One notion is that information-sharing, which is part one of the bill, is designed to ensure that our security services, which are the RCMP, CSIS, Canada Border Services Agency, and CSEC, the agencies of policing and intelligence, share information with each other. That was put forward earlier today several times, and that, indeed, is something that must be done, but this bill does not do it.
The second fallacy is that there is judicial oversight in this bill, because judges are involved in one section. I want to deal with that one as well.
The other fallacy is that the terrorism and propaganda sections in the amendments to the Criminal Code in this omnibus bill would actually make it more likely that we could stop youth from being radicalized.
Elizabeth May makes impassioned speech against Bill C-51
The Conservatives are either ignorant or lying. I don’t know which is worse.
"It really does appear the Conservatives have been in power so long that they’ve truly lost touch."
Wow -- this is how Conservative MP Laurie Hawn responded to the now 140+ businesses who have raised concerns in a letter published by the National Post about reckless spying Bill C-51:"[They] should seriously reconsider their business model and their lack of commitment to the values that bind us as Canadians".
Conservative MP Laurie Hawn attacks Canadian Businesses that raised concerns about Bill C-51
"The federal government's controversial new anti-terrorism bill has won the approval of the House of Commons."
The Anti-Terrorism Act, also known as Bill C-51, easily passed third reading by a margin of 183 to 96, thanks to the Conservative government's majority and the promised support of the third-party Liberals.
Bill C-51 passes in House of Commons
The 183 members of Parliament who voted for this have no respect for the rights of Canadians.
"It’s been almost ten years since Laura Poitras’ name has been on the NSA Watch List."
After a few hours of tense huis clos in the hotel room, Greenwald publishes his first article on the basis of evidence from the former NSA employee. The clock is now running before the NSA and its minions, or the triads, get to them. Laura films Snowden’s confession. He faces the camera and gives testimony: family name, first name, age, profession, motivation. And evidence of the some of most shocking revelations in the history of the American Intelligence Agencies. The Washington Post, the only media company to have commissioned Poitras, releases the video on its homepage on June 6th. The video, a full frontal assault on the NSA, goes viral around the world and is screened in Times Square.
The Woman Who Hacked Hollywood
"As a consumer, you should have the right to know who is trying to persuade you,"
According to the consumer groups' letter, the videos mingle commercial and entertainment content in ways that wouldn't be allowed on television. Search for My Little Pony, for example, and the first several options are lengthy advertisements for My Little Pony Play-Doh and toy kitchen sets, including one Play-Doh segment stretching 19 minutes.
YouTube Kids app stuffed with deceptive advertising, say consumer advocates
Next, Google will try to sell kids illegal drugs.
"The company that has made a fortune on searches doesn’t want to be searched."
And as a society, we’re allowing Google to lower the bar on acceptable business standards. The company argues that holding them to a standard of decency is somehow a threat to “Internet freedom.” Look, I’ve been sued about lyrics in my music. I’m all for freedom of speech. Selling drugs to kids is NOT freedom of speech. Showing citizens how to skirt doctors to get pharmaceuticals is not a right guaranteed in the Constitution. It isn’t some unfortunate consequence of progress that these videos slip past Google. They know what’s there and they know people are watching – and the ads are being seen.
Searching for answers from Google about Google
"When the apparent lone wolf isn’t a Muslim or other minority, he rarely finds the fear-inducing terrorist label pinned on him by the government, the media, or security experts."
At the moment, the response to the lone-wolf hullabaloo, like so much else in recent years, is inching us further down the path toward an American police state. One government response, now being re-emphasized, comes (of course!) with its own acronym: countering violent extremism, or CVE.
If You’re Afraid of ‘Lone Wolf’ Terrorism, You’re Missing the Point
"The announcement, made Wednesday afternoon, seems particularly odd because the bill includes a measure that would let the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) apply for a warrant to ignore the charter."
Asked whether the decision was a tactic so the Conservatives can't use security as a wedge issue against the Liberals in this year's election, Trudeau said that view doesn't do justice to the concerns of Canadians.
Which is true. It doesn’t do justice to the concerns of Canadians, but IT DOES do justice to the Liberal position.
Anti-terrorism bill to be supported by Liberals, Justin Trudeau says
"He now wants to turn our domestic spy agency into something that looks disturbingly like a secret police force."
"If Google really is acting in good faith, as it claims to be, it should only be de-linking content that is very clearly not in the public interest."
If Google is trying to prove that the system is unworkable, then it’s succeeding – only the system it’s apparently operating in isn’t the system the CJEU described. It’s a straw man.
Why is Google really removing links to news articles in Europe?
Google is acting like a spoiled infant.
Google starts censoring search results in Europe due to privacy ruling
As soon as the ruling happened, Google started receiving requests from pedophiles and disgraced politicians asking for links to articles about them to be removed.
Google starts censoring search results in Europe due to privacy ruling
For another way of looking at it...
Life Liberty And Pursued By Google
"I don't think the company is evil, but I don't want to be in a chair having everything I need to me delivered to my fingertips automatically."
I feel weird about it. While buying toothpaste online does nothing to help my local economy, the truth is that I'm not buying it from a mom-and-pop store. My six bucks is going to end up at Amazon or Walgreens, and both are multi-billion dollar companies.
BUY N LARGE PRIME
I would argue that buying local, even from a corporation like Walgreens, is supporting the local economy more than buying from an online retailer like Amazon. I say that as someone who makes purchases from Amazon.
"Google’s vision is clear, their disparate businesses all possessing a common idea: to connect everything and everyone."
Indeed, while credit agencies must — by law — wipe clear their data on us from many years ago, the far larger, far richer, far more encircling Google faces no such restrictions.
Life Liberty And Pursued By Google
"It’s pricing 101: if supply outstrips demand, the price drops"
I just noted that Facebook and Google, in order to function, must be free (and thus ad-supported) in order to offer meaningful social networking and better search, respectively. The biggest beneficiaries, though, are the people who actually use Facebook and Google. Facebook doesn’t seem to get much respect in tech circles, but the truth is it has had and continues to have a more meaningful impact on normal consumers lives than any of the various companies and products that actually get tech people excited. - Ben Thompson
PRIVACY IS DEAD
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