privacy1 Comment

what happens when we forget who should own the data: PRISM

benadida

Heard about PRISM? Supposedly, the NSA has direct access to servers at major Internet companies. This has happened before, e.g. when Sprint provided law enforcement a simple data portal they could use at any time. They used it 8 million times in a year. That said, the scale of this new claim is a bit staggering. If the NSA has access to these 9 companies’ data, it has access to every American Citizen’s complete life. what’s really happening? I think we don’t know yet what’s happening. I’m dubious that NSA has direct access to servers at Google, Facebook, Apple, etc. … Continue reading what happens when we forget who should own the data: PRISM

identity, mozilla, web3 Comments

getting web sites to adopt a new identity system

benadida

My team at Mozilla works on Persona, an easy and secure web login solution. Persona delivers to web sites and apps just the right information for a meaningful login: an email address of the user’s choice. Persona is one of Mozilla’s first forays “up the stack” into web services. Typically, at Mozilla, we improve the Web by way of Firefox, our major lever with hundreds of millions of users. Take asm.js, Firefox’s new awesome JavaScript optimization technology which lets you run 60-frame-per-seconds games in your web browser. It’s such a great thing that Chrome is fast-following. Of course, Chrome also … Continue reading getting web sites to adopt a new identity system

identity, mozilla, security3 Comments

Identity Systems: white labeling is a no-go

benadida

There’s a new blog post with some criticism of Mozilla Persona, the easy and secure web login solution that my team works on. The great thing about working in the open at Mozilla is that we get this kind of criticism openly, and we respond to it openly, too. The author’s central complaint is that the Persona brand is visible to the user: It [Persona] needs white-labeling. I know that branding drives adoption, but showing the Persona name on the login box at all is too much; it needs to be transparent for the user. Most of the visits to … Continue reading Identity Systems: white labeling is a no-go

Uncategorized1 Comment

so what if torture works?

benadida

I’ve seen most of Zero Dark Thirty, the movie that claims to tell the story of the search for and killing of Bin Laden. It’s a pretty gruesome film, with clear implications that torture led to information that led us to Bin Laden. There are fierce debates about whether that fact – that torture led us to Bin Laden – is true or not. Almost every time torture is discussed, the discussion quickly shifts to one side saying “see, it’s effective!” and the other saying “it doesn’t even work!” Here’s a simple question I don’t hear asked all that often: … Continue reading so what if torture works?

identity, mozilla, privacy, web4 Comments

Firefox is the unlocked browser

benadida

Anil Dash is a man after my own heart in his latest post, The Case for User Agent Extremism. Please go read this awesome post: One of my favorite aspects of the infrastructure of the web is that the way we refer to web browsers in a technical context: User Agents. Divorced from its geeky context, the simple phrase seems to be laden with social, even political, implications. The idea captured in the phrase “user agent” is a powerful one, that this software we run on our computers or our phones acts with agency on behalf of us as users, … Continue reading Firefox is the unlocked browser

identity, mozilla, web7 Comments

the Web is the Platform, and the User is the User

benadida

Mid-2007, I wrote two blog posts — get over it, the web is the platform and the web is the platform [part 2] that turned out to be quite right on one front, and so incredibly wrong on another. Let’s start with where I was right: Apps will be written using HTML and JavaScript. […] The Web is the Platform. The Web is the Platform. It’s going to start to sink in fast. […] Imagine if there’s a way to have your web application say: “please go pick a contact from your address book, then post that contact’s information back … Continue reading the Web is the Platform, and the User is the User

personal1 Comment

Aaron

benadida

I heard about Aaron Swartz in 2000, when he won the ArsDigita prize. I met him for the first time in early summer 2002, when my little open-source webdev company, OpenForce, joined the Creative Commons team to build the CC web site. That’s also when I met Matt Haughey, whose words helped trigger a bunch of memories in me about Aaron. Most hackers inevitably meet a younger, better, smarter version of themselves. For me, it happened probably earlier than for most, and it was the day I met Aaron. I was 25, an MIT graduate with a near-perfect GPA, leading … Continue reading Aaron

health, medical, policy4 Comments

The Onus is on Scientists – Shame on the AAAS

benadida

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 question is not whether genetically-modified foods are safe. I see the benefits, and I see the downsides (especially as a security guy, since food safety testing is, in my opinion, very poorly done), and the debate will rage on for a long time. But whether genetically-modified foods are safe is not the issue. The issue is whether consumers have a … Continue reading The Onus is on Scientists – Shame on the AAAS

identity, mozilla, privacy, security, web

connect on your terms

benadida

I want to talk about what we, the Identity Team at Mozilla, are working on. Mozilla makes Firefox, the 2nd most popular browser in the world, and the only major browser built by a non-profit. Mozilla’s mission is to build a better Web that answers to no one but you, the user. It’s hard to overstate how important this is in 2012, when the Web answers less and less to individual users, more and more to powerful data silos whose interests are not always aligned with those of users. To fulfill the Mozilla mission, the browser remains critical, but is … Continue reading connect on your terms

medical, personal4 Comments

in praise of hands-on expertise

benadida

(I don’t usually share personal stories in public fora, but in this case, and with my wife’s permission, I’m making an exception.) “Shoulder Dystocia,” said the Obstetrician, as we neared the end of my wife’s otherwise-routine delivery of our son last week. This meant nothing to me. My wife, on the other hand, freaked out. She’s a physician and had understood something I’d missed. My child’s head, which had only just emerged, began to visibly turn blue. I froze and, not for the first time in these medical situations, felt utterly useless. What followed is best described as a highly … Continue reading in praise of hands-on expertise