Back in April, we were joined on the podcast by Chris Riley, the Executive Director of the new nonprofit Data Transfer Initiative that aimed to promote data portability and empower users to transfer their data from one service to another. Today, the Initiative has released its first annual report (pdf link), and Chris is back […]
So as you probably know, yesterday, the Senate held one of its semi-regular “let’s call tech CEOs to Congress and make ourselves look out of touch and foolish” hearings. This time the focus of the discussion was on “children’s safety,” but there was little to no discussion on what it actually takes to protect children […]
US Private Vaults has an interesting business model. It offered something akin to end-to-end-encryption for physical goods. Unlike banks and their safety deposit boxes, US Private Vaults did not collect or retain information about its customers. Nor did it retain master keys that would allow it to access stored goods. This lack of master keys […]
Dive into Godot – a rising star in the game engine world. You’ll learn to create platformers, RPGs, strategy games, FPS games, and more as you master this free and open-source engine with easily expandable systems. Plus, you’ll also explore techniques for game design and game asset creation – giving you the ultimate techniques to […]
Back in December, we wrote about Appin. We were not writing about the reports (of which there have been many) that the organization that started as a sort of cybersecurity training school, but morphed into a kind of “hack-for-hire” scheme was involved in all sorts of nefarious activity. Rather we wrote about their (ab)use of […]
When last we checked in with right wing propaganda mill One America News (OAN), the conspiratorial gibberish farm was busy trying to pretend (with the help of numerous Republican AGs) that DirecTV’s decision to boot the network from its cable lineup was part of a vast, diabolical cabal to censor conservatives (it wasn’t, the channel simply isn’t […]
Here we go again. In the long and vaunted history of DRM in software, and especially in video games, there is one general truism: DRM tends to effect only legitimate buyers while so-called “pirates” route around it completely. There are all kinds of anecdotal stories as to the annoyances at best, and game-crippling outcomes at […]
One of the things we talk about quite a lot on Techdirt is how the “easy” policy ideas that many people have aren’t quite so easy, because everything has tradeoffs. You want strict privacy laws? Well, that might create issues for free speech and competition. You want stronger liability on social media services? Well, that’s […]
Last November, Maine residents voted overwhelmingly (83 percent) to pass a new state right to repair law designed to make auto repairs easier and more affordable. More specifically, the law requires that automakers standardize on-board diagnostic systems and provide remote access to those systems and mechanical data to consumers and third-party independent repair shops. But as […]
As you’ve likely heard, this morning the Senate did one of its semi-regular hearings in which it drags tech CEOs in front of clueless Senators who make nonsense pronouncements in hopes of getting a viral clip to show up on the very social media they’re pretending to demonize, but which they rely on to pretend […]
Lots of things look pretty great up front but completely terrible in retrospect. Most of us, however, tend to weather our worst decisions without getting a foreign military force involved. Unfortunately for UK resident Aditya Verma, something that seemed funny at the moment soon turned into an international incident. Here’s how it started, as reported […]
Headway Premium is the revolutionary app designed to help you turn personal growth into a habit. With a lifetime subscription, you get unlimited access to a huge number of non-fiction bestsellers, summarized into 15-minute reads. Be it personal development, business strategies, or health insights, Headway has you covered. It’s on sale for $49.97. Note: The […]
Starting this week, Amazon Prime Video customers (who already pay $140 per year) will be charged $3 extra every month just to avoid ads that didn’t previously exist. Shifting toward ad-based tiers has been popular among streaming companies like Netflix, Max, Disney+, and Paramount. But whereas those services make a cheaper ad-based tier an opt-in […]
Well, this is not that much of a surprise, but in the leadup to the Senate “child safety” dog and pony show that will be happening in a few hours, Microsoft decided to twist the knife in to some of its competitors. Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith (who was formerly the company’s general […]
And here we go. We have spent the past couple of years discussing Microsoft’s acquisition, and all the trials and tribulations that led to it, of Activision Blizzard. This deal, that faced mostly flaccid opposition from several national regulatory bodies throughout the world, cost Microsoft $69 billion, with a “b”, to consummate. And that’s just […]
You probably recall the subreddit WallStreetBets from the whole GameStonks! episode three years ago. Over the last year or so there’s been a different legal issue related to that subreddit, though. Jaime Rogozinski, who created the WSB subreddit, ended up suing Reddit, after they shut down his account. There were a few different issues at […]
First Amendment principles are nothing new. A ton of precedent has been established that firmly limits what the government can do to stop someone from saying something (and, less often, to force someone to say something). Prior restraint is pretty easy to recognize. And yet, every so often, a judge decides to rewrite the First […]
The DOJ can be some vindictive sons of bitches. This has nothing to do with justice at all. This is just pure spite. As has been detailed over and over again, while the public story was that Backpage was taken down for facilitating sex trafficking, the real story is very, very different. The site actually […]
Hey, everyone makes mistakes. Ring certainly did. Amazon’s home surveillance acquisition realized there was no one in the residential space willing to slavishly cater to cops. Ring decided it would provide this supposed “public service.” It gave cops cheap/free cameras and urged them to hand them out to as many private citizens as possible. The […]
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 […]
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