Back in 2023 Mozilla issued a report indicating that automakers have some of the worst privacy and security standards in all of tech, routinely hoovering up oceans of consumer behavior and phone data then failing to adequately secure it. Senator Ron Wyden has been at the forefront of calls for Congress to shake off corruption […]
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is a simple anonymous comment about the fact that 41% of Americans now live under age verification laws: Such “small government” In second place, it’s That One Guy with a comment about the hypocrisy of the right: You can set your watch by the consistent […]
Five Years Ago This week at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, a new study shed light on just how racially biased facial recognition algorithms are, while we looked at how tracking college students everywhere they go on campus had become the new norm. The Minnesota appeals court struck down the state’s broadly-written […]
Bethesda, for any other faults you might find with the company, has built a reputation for itself as a gaming publisher that is not just tolerant of its modding community, but one which embraces that community. While not every attempt at this by Bethesda has been a hit, we’ve seen the company’s embrace of its […]
It has long been acknowledged by federal courts that firing off a one-finger salute to law enforcement officers is not only not a crime, but protected speech. That means that the appearance of the “bird” cannot alone be the basis for stops or arrests. And it certainly doesn’t justify force deployment, especially that of the […]
For the past few years, I’ve used Cronometer as a nutrition app. It’s pretty good for tracking food, exercise, and much more. I appreciate that it has very detailed nutritional data, and even when it doesn’t, I’m able to upload nutritional labels with just a quick photograph on my phone. It’s a nice app. So […]
In what will sadly come as no surprise to anyone, an Arizona prosecutor has decided no cops should be punished for partnering up with a different Arizona prosecutor to portray anti-police violence protesters as gang members for the sole purpose of seeking sentencing enhancements. As millions did all over the nation, Phoenix, Arizona residents hit […]
Embark on the journey of language learning with the Rosetta Stone lifetime subscription for all languages. Trusted by top-tier organizations like NASA, Calvin Klein, and TripAdvisor, Rosetta Stone has been the go-to software for language learning for the past 27 years. With its immersive and intuitive training method, you might be reading, writing, and speaking […]
The telecom industry (with the help of the recent Trump Supreme Court), has been drooling for months at the prospect that the Trump-stocked courts would soon finally deliver the killing blow to FCC net neutrality protections (read: popular FCC rules designed to prevent telecom monopolies from abusing their market power to screw over customers and competitors). […]
Like far too many legislators, Arkansas politicians have decided it’s time to codify irrational hatred. To do this, they pretended they had a sudden and urgent new obligation to protect “the children” harder than they’ve ever been protected before against the encroachment of alternative viewpoints. Like far too many other states, the Arkansas government piggy-backed […]
On October 27, 2024, Oklahoma City police officer Joseph Gibson violently assaulted a 71-year-old Vietnamese man while investigating [checks notes] a “non-injury traffic accident.” The man, Lich Vu, was definitely much smaller than the cop that assaulted him. He was very definitely much older. A discussion about who was at fault occurred, hampered by Vu’s […]
When Apple unveiled its AR/VR Vision Pro headset early last year the product was met with just an absolute ocean of tech press hype. You couldn’t spend thirty seconds online without reading about how the expensive ($3,500-$4,600 depending on accessories) headset was going to revolutionize every industry in existence or change absolutely everything. Seriously: everything. […]
There are no winners here. There are only varying levels of losses. The government sustains the most. As it should. When there needs to be an adult in the room, the government bears that responsibility, no matter how irritating the proverbial child might be. That means the most childish person will learn nothing from this […]
Elon Musk is once again threatening to sue over speech he dislikes — this time, over factual headlines about a deadly explosion involving a Tesla Cybertruck. But not liking how a story is framed doesn’t make it defamatory. For a statement to be defamatory, it must be false, damaging, and published with “reckless disregard for […]
To completely understand computer security, it’s vital to step outside the fence and to think outside the box. Computer security is not just about firewalls, Intrusion Prevention Systems, or anti-viruses. It’s also about tricking people into doing whatever a hacker wishes. A secure system, network, or infrastructure is also about informed people. The All-in-One Super-Sized […]
With the exception of ABC News being weird and just throwing cash at Trump for no apparent reason, every libel lawsuit filed by Donald Trump (or his various business holdings) has failed. This is another one for the loss column. And, despite all these losses, Trump will continue filing lawsuits whenever and wherever there’s a […]
Another day, another major privacy scandal we’ll likely do nothing about. Health care giant Ascension — which owns 140 hospitals and assisted living facilities — says that a May cyberattack compromised the sensitive data of more than 5.6 million patients. According to a filing with the Maine Attorney General and a December 19th post to […]
It’s a new year, and that means new works are entering the public domain, and that means it’s time for the latest installment of our public domain game jam, Gaming Like It’s 1929! If you’ve been itching to get started on your entry, now’s the time — you’ve got until the end of the month […]
As is the tradition on Techdirt, my final post of the year is about optimism and how I continue to be optimistic about innovation and online community, even in the midst of whatever other nonsense may be happening around the globe. This is now my 16th such post. The trend kicked off in 2008 when […]
A couple of weeks back, we discussed the implosion of startup company Embodied and the resulting bricking of its $800 “emotional support” robots designed for children. Like many other stories about IoT-type products, the post focused on how these robots would cease functioning as designed once the backend support infrastructure for the shuttered business was […]
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