- My name is Ben Adida. I'm a control freak: I care about people controlling their online lives and the role the Web, Crypto, and Policy play. More About Me.
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Category Archives: policy
The Onus is on Scientists – Shame on the AAAS
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has just come out against California’s Proposition 37, which would mandate the labeling of genetically-modified foods. In my opinion, the AAAS has failed its duty as promoters of Good Science. The … Continue reading
Posted in health, medical, policy
4 Comments
an ode to lessig’s optimism, taking on gigantic challenges… and a quibble
Last night, I went to see Lessig pitch his latest book, Republic, Lost. His latest spiel is fantastic, fine-tuned, gripping, thrilling, inspiring. I’ve been an avid fan of Lessigian story-telling for 13 years now. The way he sets up his … Continue reading
Posted in policy
2 Comments
with great power…
When Arvind writes something, I tend to wait until I have a quiet moment to read it, because it usually packs a particularly high signal to noise ratio. His latest post In Silicon Valley, Great Power but No Responsibility, is … Continue reading
Posted in policy, privacy
7 Comments
intelligently designing trust
For the past week, every security expert’s been talking about Comodo-Gate. I find it fascinating: Comodo-Gate goes to the core of how we handle trust and how web architecture evolves. And in the end, this crisis provides a rare opportunity. … Continue reading
Posted in crypto, policy, security, web
3 Comments
i changed my mind on nuclear power
Until this recent catastrophe in Japan (it’s awful, please consider helping out), I was very pro nuclear-power. I’ve never been afraid of technology, and I was raised in France, where 80% of electricity comes from nuclear power and there has … Continue reading
Posted in policy
11 Comments
Wikileaks — not ideal, but a force for good in the end
I’ve found myself quite conflicted over the latest Wikileaks “dump”, specifically the hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables. On the one hand, there is no doubt that the mainstream press is failing miserably in its role of investigating and … Continue reading
Posted in policy
7 Comments
devices, payload data, and why Kim is (in part) right.
A few days ago, I wrote about privacy advocacy theater and lamented how some folks, including EPIC and Kim Cameron, are attacking Google in a needlessly harsh way for what was an accidental collection of data. Kim Cameron responded, and … Continue reading
Posted in data, policy, privacy
5 Comments
Privacy Advocacy Theater
Ed Felten recently used the very nice term Privacy Theater in describing the insanity of 6,000-word privacy agreements that we pretend to understand. The term, inspired by Bruce Schneier’s “security theater” description of US airport security, may have been introduced … Continue reading
Posted in policy, privacy
8 Comments
if you’re outraged by accidental breaches, you’d better sit down
A few days ago, a security bug was discovered on Facebook, whereby users could see the chat transcripts of their friends talking to other friends. Then, another security hole was discovered where a problem at Yelp revealed email addresses of … Continue reading
Posted in policy, security
2 Comments
“It’s a tradeoff” and other uni-dimensional thinking
Many folks, like John Gruber, are responding to criticisms of the iPad’s closed ecosystem with the “it’s a tradeoff” idea: to have such a great computer, you need to lock it down. Some use the argument that Linux has never … Continue reading
Posted in autonomy, policy
4 Comments