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Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates
Renegade:
Edward Snowden:
https://twitter.com/snowden/status/679692055271096321
Imagine if the government went after corruption as hard as it goes after guys who run filesharing sites. Priorities.
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Links to Kim Dotcom article.
IainB:
In the post: New ISDS consultation seems surreal it says:
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)
The European Commission has launched a consultation on an investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) variant: a multilateral investment court. 1 In an email the commission confirms the consultation has a narrow scope. The commission does not want feedback on the system as a whole. This way the system’s social and environmental impacts will go unmentioned in the consultation results.
This is irresponsible, as the system as a whole will strengthen investments vis-à-vis democracy and fundamental rights. This undermines our values and ability to respond to crises, including climate change.
Mankind faces its biggest challenge ever: climate change. For the commission it’s business as usual. Give multinationals their own court and keep the social and environmental impacts out of sight.
That’s surreal, not?
I asked the commission two questions about the consultation; below the commission’s answer, with inline comments. ...
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Regardless as to whether one is skeptical of climate alarmism in general, for those who are concerned about it, the above question is valid and (presumably) deserves an articulate response.
But no. Look at the response from the European Commission.
Some people (not me, you understand) might say that the EUC response is basically two fingers (English style) - the equivalent of "F#ck off, rude letter follows", or similar - but I couldn't possibly comment.
IainB:
This seems really whacky:
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)
Hardware maker: Give up your privacy and let us record what you say in your home, or we’ll destroy your property
PRIVACY
POSTED ONAUGUST 30, 2017 • UPDATED AUGUST 30, 2017 • BY RICK FALKVINGE 74 0
Image: guy-with-sledgehammer-1280x720-istockphoto
Hardware maker Sonos has a new privacy policy, and is telling users that unless they agree to it, their devices may cease to function entirely. Of course, since people bought these objects, they’re those people’s property. And since Sonos is taking an action that they know will break these devices, Sonos is effectively saying they’ll willfully destroy your property unless you comply and give up your privacy. This is a new low.
Sonos is a high-end sound system maker, famous for being the first brand to have synchronized music in different rooms with an off-the-shelf device system. This week, they announced a new privacy policy, where they say they’ll be collecting a lot of data about you, including listening in to your room and (in a roundabout way) recording it. People were justifiably quite upset. It is in response to this community reaction that Sonos does the unforgivable: Sonos states that if people don’t accept “the new privacy policy” — meaning give up their privacy in their own home completely — Sonos is going to willfully destroy those people’s property.
“The customer can choose to acknowledge the policy, or can accept that over time their product may cease to function,” the Sonos spokesperson said, specifically.
Sonos is particularly sneaky about the part where they record sound. They say in their blog post that they “don’t keep the recordings” of sound recorded in your home, with the new Voice Assistant. However, they point out that they share their collected data with a large number of parties, the services of which you have “requested or authorized” — where people tend to read “requested”, but where “authorized” is the large part. Further, they point out that they share recorded sound with Amazon under all circumstances, and Amazon is already known to keep recordings for later use by authorities or others, so the point is kind of moot. “We don’t keep the recordings, we let others do it for us” would be a more straightforward wording.
As ZDNet notes, the community’s reaction has been quite hostile to the manufacturer who threatens to destroy their property, and not without justification.
For my personal purchasing choices, behaving like this is enough to get on my blacklist of manufacturers, just like when Sony willfully infected its customers with rootkit malware in 2005, and Sony made it onto my blacklist. (It’s a high bar to get there, and still, hardware makers keep inventing new audacious ways to clear that bar.)
SYNDICATED ARTICLE
This article was previously published at Private Internet Access.
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The SONOS website says:
Try it. Love it. Keep it.
Try any Sonos speaker risk-free, for up to 100 days. Keep it if you love it. Get your money back if you don’t.
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They sound very user-friendly. :huh:
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