Category Archives: policy

Facebook: “we’re keeping your data for your friends’ sake!”

Posted on February 16, 2009 by ben

So Facebook changed their terms of service so they can keep and distribute your data forever, even if you delete your account. It seems that they will factor in your privacy preferences, but I’m not a lawyer and I’m not … Continue reading →

Posted in policy, privacy, web | 4 Comments

The Bar of Public Understanding

Posted on February 1, 2009 by ben

I’m in Louvain-la-Neuve at the Université Catholique de Louvain where Helios Voting is being deployed to 25,000 voters, and I just had dinner with Olivier Pereira, the guy who’s doing a fantastic job leading the project here at UCL. We … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, policy, voting | 2 Comments

Pinker on Personal Genomics

Posted on January 13, 2009 by ben

As some folks know, I’ve spent the majority of my time over the last 1.5 year as a member of the Faculty at Harvard Medical School in the Informatics group, thinking about security and privacy of web platforms for managing … Continue reading →

Posted in genomic, medical, policy, web | Leave a comment

The Crisis on Wall Street

Posted on December 2, 2008 by ben

A fantastic article forwarded to me by my good friend Greg. Amazingly clear and frightening. Choice quote: I thought I was writing a period piece about the 1980s in America. Not for a moment did I suspect that the financial … Continue reading →

Posted in policy | Leave a comment

European Projections of Prejudice

Posted on November 6, 2008 by ben

I grew up in France, so it’s fascinating to see what’s going on on the other side of the Atlantic now that Obama has been elected and, just as importantly, now that Obama has chosen Rahm Emmanuel as his Chief … Continue reading →

Posted in policy | 1 Comment

Pride and Shame

Posted on November 5, 2008 by ben

Obama wins solidly, and I am incredibly proud of my country today. More on that in a later post. Meanwhile, I am ashamed of my new State, California. It looks like Prop 8 has passed, against my every expectation. Prop … Continue reading →

Posted in policy | 2 Comments

Policy from Evidence

Posted on October 25, 2008 by ben

bias explanation: Every now and then, folks are surprised that an election technology guy like me expresses his political opinion in the open. They think: ‘how can I trust this guy on election technology if he’s shilling for the Obama … Continue reading →

Posted in policy | 1 Comment

Putting the “End” in EndNote.

Posted on October 6, 2008 by ben

EndNote is a tool used commonly by a number of academics for adding endnote references to their papers. You keep an EndNote library of references, and you can easily add them to your Word document as you type your paper. … Continue reading →

Posted in data, policy | 6 Comments

Stop, Drop, and Register

Posted on October 3, 2008 by ben

You need to register to vote. Not later today, not tomorrow, now. go register Oh, you think you’re already registered? verify that you are. Oh, and a fun little video:

Posted in policy, voting | Leave a comment

Children vs. Anonymity

Posted on September 23, 2008 by ben

I’m a member of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force‘s Technical Advisory Board, at the Harvard Berkman Center. We’re writing a report on technologies that protect kids online. Today, at the open meeting, we’ve been hearing short presentations from 15 … Continue reading →

Posted in policy, privacy | 3 Comments