Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
The ACLU of Northern California says it’s time for a privacy check-in on location based-services. Their handy chart compares several of the most popular location-based services along a number of dimensions. Little of what they examine has to do with civil liberties—cough, cough, ahem (this is a favorite critique of mine for my ACLU friends)—but [...]
What a delight it has been to watch the rescue of the Chilean miners on a live feed, without commentary from any plasticized, blathering “news reporter.” Of course, there are editorial judgments being made by the camera crews and on-scene director, but it is refreshing to make my own judgments based on what I see [...]
To hails of derision in some quarters—I’m looking at you, Adam—I have talked about how social media will occupy some of the space being ceded by traditional news reporting, which is struggling to find a business model. Perhaps with validation from an official, vetted, professional, dead-tree news source, it will seem less ridiculous to talk [...]
Every once an awhile I like to post something about my favorite tech toys, apps, and services to highlight what I think are spectacular innovations in the field. I usually do so at the end of the year, like this. But I there’s no reason to wait for end of the year lists. So here [...]
Check out this amazing map of the “Dogs of War” of online competition created by Gizmodo’s Shane Snow (view full size here): For all the complaining about these three tech titans, they’re locked in fierce competition with each other. This chart doesn’t even mention other players in the vibrantly competitive online ecosystem, like Facebook, Yahoo!, [...]
Yesterday, if you paid attention reeeeally carefully (1, 2, 3, 4), you probably figured out the D.C. Circuit had ruled that Congress hadn’t given the Federal Communications Commission power to regulate the Internet and that the FCC couldn’t bootstrap that power from other authority. It was a rare but welcome affirmation that the rule of [...]
Are you a fellow Twitter addict who also monitors Internet policy and cyberlaw developments closely? If so, have you noticed that there really isn’t a good Twitter hashtag for this broad and growing issue set? The #FCC and #FTC hashtags have become catch-alls for a great deal of activity in this area, but they don’t [...]
What distinguishes pragmatic Internet optimists from their starry-eyed, pollyanna-ish optimist kin is the ability to recognize the real problems raised by technology. More than anything else, that means being able to appreciate great satire on the downsides of the Digital Revolution. Robert Lanham, author of The Hipster Handbook and other satirical classics, offers the definitive guide to [...]
“With a few notable exceptions, the tech industry seems unwilling to regulate itself. I will introduce legislation that will require Internet companies to take reasonable steps to protect human rights, or face civil and criminal liability.” – Senator Dick Durbin, as reported by the Washington Post. We hear you, Sen. Durbin. The practices of many [...]
May 23, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
