💙 New blocking rules! On the 5th July 2019, Laura blocked adtech on one site, fixed one site and blocked two new trackers. better.fyi/news/

This is happening in just over half an hour. There’s some really smart panellists and we’ll be covering loads around the topics of privacy and ethics on the web. Come join us! x.com/smashingmag/st…

I almost forgot to share photos of the gorgeous printed Smashing Magazine from Smashing Magazine 🇺🇦 🏳️‍🌈! Getting all this into 2000 words was a challenge, but I’m happy with the result. Thank you Rachel Andrew for the opportunity and Owen Gregory (@[email protected]) for the editing.

“Now, data collection and artificial intelligence are threatening to turn borders into an underregulated free-for-all.” —Nicole Chi magazine.areweeurope.com/stories/code-o…

“Feeling anxious? Got lucky last night? Having some health issues? Tell Maya and they’ll let Facebook and others know (oh, and they’ll share your diary too!)”— Privacy International privacyinternational.org/long-read/3196…

“Neighborhoods armed with Ring videos, Flock readers, and NextDoor posts have the power to create networked engines of suspicion, sometimes ill-founded or erroneous, that may embolden residents to take actions they should not.”— Elizabeth Joh slate.com/technology/201…

“putting computers everywhere is bad for most people. It enables advertisers, employers and cops to exercise more control over us – in addition to helping heat the planet.” theguardian.com/technology/201…

“Sites that have relied upon opting EU users into ad-tracking cookies in the hopes they’ll just click okay to make the cookie banner go away are in for a rude awakening.”—Natasha 🧗‍♀️ techcrunch.com/2019/10/01/eur…

💙 New blocking rules! On the 2nd October 2019, Laura blocked adtech on one site, and blocked five new trackers. better.fyi/news/

“For decades, the overriding objective of American business and government has been to remove friction from the tracking system, by linking networks, by speeding connections, by eliminating barriers.” A long, sickening, read. nytimes.com/2019/10/02/mag…

“Seventeen dollars for a smartphone sounds like a great deal, especially for people living in poverty who can barely afford rent. But there’s a problem: low-cost smartphones are privacy nightmares.” fastcompany.com/90408472/cheap…

“[A]nonymity is no longer guaranteed. Facial recognition gives police and companies the means of identifying and tracking people of interest, while others are free to go about their business. The real question is: who gets that privilege?” theguardian.com/technology/201…

“[T]he ‘natural evolution of technology’ was never a thing to begin with, and it’s time to question what ‘progress’ actually means.” vox.com/the-highlight/…

“Platforms *are* societies of intertwined people and machines. There is no such thing as “online life” versus “real life.” We give massive ground if we pretend that these companies are simply having an “effect” or “impact” on some separate society.” niemanlab.org/2019/10/tech-p…

“Activists and tech critics sometimes use the word complicit when talking about companies that look the other way… Assistive might be more accurate. Providing database and web services—even just email—to a cruel immigration regime assists in the cruelty” slate.com/technology/201…

“Humans are data and data is money, and this is the business model of many of the technology firms up to the task of ubiquitous computing.” kotaku.com/the-creators-o…

“Some people think that technology is magic, that artificial intelligence will save us,” Vance said. “A lot of the questions and a lot of the privacy concerns haven’t [been] thought of, let alone addressed.” theguardian.com/world/2019/oct…

“You are building an infrastructure that can be later co-opted in undesirable ways by large multinationals and state surveillance apparatus…” theguardian.com/technology/201…

Hi folks, just to let you know that we’ll be closing our forum in the next couple of days. Support for Better will still be available from Better, and via email to [email protected]. —Laura

New on my blog: 📌 Closing the Ind.ie forum laurakalbag.com/closing-the-in…