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‘Consent’ Searches Aren’t Doing Anything To Reduce Crime

1 year 3 months ago
A lot of police work in the United States is just playing the odds. Roll the dice enough times, and you’re sure to come up a winner now and then. The odds really don’t matter because law enforcement agencies are playing with house money, so being wrong time and time again will never bankrupt them. […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: MagStack Foldable 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station with Phone Stand & 20W Adapter

1 year 3 months ago
MagStack is the perfect on-the-go wireless charging station that also transforms into a phone stand for FaceTime or video playback while charging. This 3-in-1 foldable design featuring 3 wireless charging spots, enables charging for up to 3 devices simultaneously, including iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods Pro, AirPods with Wireless Charging Case, other Qi-compatible Android phones, and […]
Gretchen Heckmann

GM, LexisNexis Sued For (Nontransparent) Sale Of Driver Behavior Data To Insurers

1 year 3 months ago
Last week the New York Times published a story confirming what everybody assumed was already happening. Automakers collect reams of personal behavior, phone, and other data (without making it clear to consumers) then sell it to a long list of companies. Including insurance companies, who are now jacking up insurance rates if they see behavior […]
Karl Bode

Monster Energy Bullies Trademark Application For Gin Company

1 year 3 months ago
Here we go again. Monster Energy is one of the most prolific trademark bullies in the history of trademark bullying. And the really frustrating part of all this is that at times it can feel like Monster makes trademark bullying a chief international export every bit as much as energy drinks. No trademark concern is […]
Dark Helmet

Moderating Eating Disorder Content Is Harder Than You Think

1 year 3 months ago
Both troubled teens and government agencies are asking, “How thin is thin enough?” The teens are thinking about how thin they want to look, while the government is thinking about what’s too thin to post online. The refrain is always the same: the platforms need to do more—never mind the difficult details. Platforms need to […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: Babbel Language Learning (All Languages)

1 year 3 months ago
You probably already know the benefits of learning a language, so let’s focus on the app. Right off the bat, let’s be clear about one thing: When we say “app” we don’t mean that you’re limited to using Babbel on your phone. You can use Babbel on desktop, too, and your progress is synchronized across […]
Gretchen Heckmann

As The US Freaks Out About TikTok, It’s Revealed That The CIA Was Using Chinese Social Media To Try To Undermine The Gov’t There

1 year 3 months ago
You know that line, “every accusation is a confession?” For no reason at all, that’s coming to mind all of a sudden. No reason. Anyway, a decade ago, Henry Farrell and Martha Finnemore wrote a fantastic piece for Foreign Affairs on “The End of Hypocrisy” (which we also wrote about here at Techdirt). They argued […]
Mike Masnick

Two Decades Later And The FCC Is Still Trying To Crack Down On Anti-Competitive Deals Between Landlords And Broadband Monopolies

1 year 3 months ago
For decades, U.S. broadband providers have struck cozy deals with landlords effectively elbowing out competitors and allowing them to create building-by-building broadband monopolies. That stifled competition results in higher costs, slow speeds, and worse overall service. And while the FCC passed rules in 2007 trying to ban the practice, they were so full of loopholes […]
Karl Bode

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

1 year 3 months ago
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Pixelation with a comment about banning TikTok: Banning TikTok will open the door to the real threat, government control of communication platforms. I would say it’s a republican wet dream, but it’s also a democrat one as well. In second place, it’s That One […]
Leigh Beadon

Game Jam Winner Spotlight: The Burden Of Creation

1 year 3 months ago
It’s time for another entry in our series of spotlight posts looking at the winners of the sixth annual public domain game jam, Gaming Like It’s 1928! We’ve already featured Best Visuals winner Flight from Podunk Station and Best Adaptation winner Mickey Party, and today we’re taking a closer look at the winner of Best […]
Leigh Beadon

EFF Defends Anti-War Group Against SXSW’s Bullshit IP Claims

1 year 3 months ago
We haven’t talked a great deal about SXSW in some time, but they are back in the news and not for good reasons! The conference and festival kicked off in March as planned, but less planned were the protests that organized against the conference as a result of its affiliations with defense contractors and the […]
Dark Helmet

Ctrl-Alt-Speech: The Global Internet – Or Is it?

1 year 3 months ago
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation's Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice. In this week’s round-up of news about online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:  The […]
Leigh Beadon

Daily Deal: The Complete Python Programmer Bundle

1 year 3 months ago
The Complete Python Programmer Bundle has nine courses to help you learn more about programming. This bundle starts with fundamental Python functionality such as arithmetic, conditional statements, and working with basic data structures. It then expands upon your working knowledge of data structures to work with full-blown datasets in the Pandas package. You’ll learn all […]
Gretchen Heckmann

Will Nevada Kill End-To-End Encryption Next Week?

1 year 3 months ago
Last month, we wrote about Nevada’s Attorney General filing an absolutely preposterous, but extremely dangerous, legal filing, demanding that a court bar Meta from offering end-to-end encryption for its messaging apps. Almost everything about this request was crazy. First, Nevada sued Meta, with vague, unsubstantiated claims of “harm to children,” and then it filed a […]
Mike Masnick