I'm just back from a sweltering week in Washington, DC, convinced that those of us who care about protecting consumers' online privacy have reason for optimism. There is growing interest in creating a "Do Not Track Me" list and mechanism to implement it.
I've been thinking about the comments I received to my Google and Facebook posts, as well as some related posts and articles (the article's worth reading, btw) by other people from the last few days. I want to make one more point about this privacy stuff, and then move on for a while
I wrote this post on my own blog as a follow-up to a previous post about Facebook, Internet advertising, and privacy. I think there's definitely a political side to these concerns, though, so I wanted to share it with the political blogs too. Your feedback is very welcome!
I have a lot of personal affection for Google. They're a pretty cool company, they have a nice Northern California vibe, they do a lot of good, I like the April Fool's jokes, I think they'd be a fun place to work, and just yesterday I noticed myself gushing about how awesome is Google Calculator (answer: very awesome). But, as I mentioned in my Facebook post from a few weeks ago, I also have significant reservations about Google that I would like to put in writing. So, please follow me below the fold for more!
Yer little sister, your nephew, daughter and of course a great good read for yourself. "Little Brother" by Cory Doctrow is just about the most timely exciting, involved, explainatory, descriptive and prescriptive book of our time. And a damn good read too. And yes the title is a play on Big Brother, except we are watching them. The power of the small. I feel OK with this diary just seeming like a plug because its so damn useful to progressives and freedom lovers, and because, and you must read why, its also available for free. http://craphound.com/littlebro... is a link to buying the book, and lots of other stuff. It's free at that link too.
Sharing information is certainly one of the central needs and successes of our time. In fact I would hazard that without the inter-toobs, this Reformation would not be possible, no matter how bad or angry or depressed people got, the only relief allowed would be "The Change You Deserve" Anti-depressents, not what we created Change We Can Believe In. So a book, explaining all these issues, from net neutrality to being spied on, to untrusted authority it's all here in a wonderful book, aimed at not just teenagers but the teenager in all of us.
A rollicking good romp, with teen heroes using smarts, tools, cameras and the internet to fight back. This is the kind of book that gets worn and wrinkled as its past from hand to hand to hand.
I'd recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book I've read this year, and I'd want to get it into the hands of as many smart 13 year olds, male and female, as I can.
Because I think it'll change lives. Because some kids, maybe just a few, won't be the same after they've read it. Maybe they'll change politically, maybe technologically. Maybe it'll just be the first book they loved or that spoke to their inner geek. Maybe they'll want to argue about it and disagree with it. Maybe they'll want to open their computer and see what's in there. I don't know. It made me want to be 13 again right now and reading it for the first time, and then go out and make the world better or stranger or odder. It's a wonderful, important book, in a way that renders its flaws pretty much meaningless.
Neil Gaiman, author of Sandman and Anansi Boys
A worthy younger sibling to Orwell's 1984, Cory Doctorow's LITTLE BROTHER is lively, precocious, and most importantly, a little scary.
Brian K Vaughn, author of Y: The Last Man
Get several copies of this book; read one, lend and give the rest. Now lets have more suggestions on great books for young people. Or any gift that gives kids more information, more tools, more confidence would be great.
A rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion, as necessary and dangerous as file sharing, free speech, and bottled water on a plane.
Obama's campaign has found evidence that 'viral campaign' is hurting them in Kentucky, saying "he is a muslim."
The medication for such viruses isn't just lots of information, but lots of skills in finding the truth, how to do research, and how to detect self serving lies.
On Saturday night I used Fandango to purchase the tickets for the movie Michael Clayton.
Then on Sunday, I looked at my Facebook feed and saw this:
"Ari bought Michael Clayton on Fandango. 5:25PM"
Having your privacy violated is a strange feeling. I don't really care that people know I went to the movies on Saturday night. I would freely share this information with anyone. But that's exactly the point. It should be up to me to share this information with others, not up to Facebook or Fandango to make that choice for me.
In a previous comment from another post I mentioned this organization without explaining what it was. When I mentioned it I wondered if maybe some people here had maybe not heard of or didnt know much about this organization. I guess I kinda assumed most readers with an interest in net neutrality knew about this org.
After poking around a bit with this site's search feature I'm starting to think my initial assumption was incorrect because I couldn't find a one single mention of the EFF.org in any comment or diaries on this blog. I'm sure that Matt and many of yall are familiar or at least had heard of this organization.
Quick introduction about The Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF is an incredible and brilliant non-profit organization that is committed to helping fight for internet freedom. It is a favorite of nerdy techies everywhere, especially over at Slashdot, the hugely popular news for nerds weblog. The posters and commentators over there, from my observations, tend to lean to the left. More accurately they lean toward the liberal side of the spectrum, the blog has its fair number of Republican or conservative (the real kind) posters but they seem to be far outnumbered by the Democrats and even possibly even by libertarians. The one thing everyone there has in common is they are all, without exception, diehard net neutrality supporters reguardless of party affilation. Most of them are against the patriot act and pretty much anything thats been done which could even be perceived as damaging civil liberties. Stem cell research and global warming are big issues over there and believe me its incredibly refreshing to see intelligent global warming discussion coming from a completely non-partisan blog where absolutely nobody is a "denier." The global warming "deniers" are about as nutty as the 911 "truthers" IMO.
Back to the EFF, the EFF is somewhat similar to SaveTheInternet , another organization probably more familiar to yall because its been discussed here and promoted by Matt and others. The EFF is a very strong advocate for net neutrality but the main difference between the two organizations is that the EFF has a more broad mission ranging from advocacy for many aspects of internet and technology freedom, in addition to their advocacy for net neutrality. The EFF is a much larger organization than STI and have lots of lawyers and PR type guys on staff. Not to mention a nice bit of money to throw around which always helps.
They're one of my very favorite organizations and they are fighting the good fight and deserve our support. If I had a lot of cash lying around, I would click here to donate to them (I don't work for them or anything I just really support what they stand for and they have been consistently right about technology issues).
They have a lot of very smart lawyers and advocates who specialize in technology and the internet, which is an area of expertise that's fairly difficult to find lawyers who are tech savvy enough to represent such cases and come up with good arguments. They file lawsuits when people try to censor the internet and also on behalf of protecting consumers. Here is a list of their press releases (click here) so take a look at all the great things they have done for us recently.
Besides the obvious net neutrality advocacy other reasons they're so important and neccessary is because they are one of the few (and probably the best/most effective) organizations which are promoting internet freedom and opposing legislation which poses a threat to it. One of the prime functions they serve which I believe to be so invaluable and needed is they help to stop poorly-written legislation from unfairly, un-rightfully, or even unintentionally being passed by congress or enforced by the administration. They do this either by going through the courts or through lobbying and or raising public awareness. They are one of the only 'firewalls' (excuse the pun) protecting us from stupid politicians messing up our internet freedom (the most democratic forum on earth!) and from messing up other technology related things of which they know absolutely nothing (Ted Steven's tubes anyone?) by drafting laws which are either completely ignorant or overly authoritarian and big-brotherish.
They've opposed many laws that restricted freedom and won court victories getting many of these laws struck down including some controversial ones probably written with the best of intentions (think anti-child porn laws). Due to poorly worded language by a lawmaker who didn't know what they were writing about, the bill's had the undesired side effects of damaging privacy or internet freedom. The EFF is sorta like an ACLU, but just for the internet and other tech issues.
Any way I'm glad to introduce this great organization to any of you who were unfamiliar with it. There are lots of great ways to support them with their endeavors even without donating any money. They have Acton Alerts (click here) and many other things; such as petitions and recommendations for how people can help get involved.
I hope everyone will help support this organization because this fight for freedom of the internet is a very important one. It doesn't stop at supporting net neutrality and stopping those who would like to tier the internet (although thats not a bad place to start). I encourage everyone to poke around their site take a look at the wide range of issues they cover.
You guys at OpenLeft should try to team up with them somehow, if only just posting a link somewhere. I know that technically (no pun intended) the EFF is a non-partisan group, and I know how much you guys love partisanship. Everybody knows the Democrats and progressives are much better on this issue the EFF just has to remain non-partisan for tax purposes and because it doesn't hurt to encourage Republicans to act sane. The guys at the EFF are the big dogs on this issue in this fight and are considered credible and well respected by "techies" the legal community alike. I think it be great if you guys teamed up with them somehow or worked together with them you are both on the same side of this issue fighting the same fight against the same people.
UPDATE: sorry about originally horrible grammer I tried to clean it up a bit. I deeply apologize to any poor soul who suffered through trying read and make sense of my original pre-update post.
Tonight at 7pm EST, we will be joined by Ben Scott of Free Press (www.freepress.net) who will address issues of net neutrality and open networks, as well as Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (www.epic.org) to address issues of electronic information collection.
Hello again, I'm Dick Durbin. For those of you who participated in last night's live blogging, thank you so much for the excellent comments.
I think we started off this experiment in online bill drafting with a very successful evening. It was helpful to hear your ideas about municipal broadband, data sharing, open access and the mix of incentives that would help build networks. These thoughts will undoubtedly help me draft legislation that addresses these policy issues.
As for tonight's discussion, I'd like to focus on what we should do to ensure that we can fully take advantage of the power of the internet - how to ensure that it continues to drive innovation and a diversity of views.
STATE BLOGS
I feel OK with this diary just seeming like a plug because its so damn useful to progressives and freedom lovers, and because, and you must read why, its also available for free. 