Tag Archives: Privacy

We Have Always Been at War with Spam

Via Wilfed Hughes we have: 1864: The first record of electronic spam involved a telegram sent by a dentist in London. One of the recipients was so infuriated by this poppycock that he composed a letter to the editor of … Continue reading

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The Irreal Privacy Policy

As far as I can tell, the GDPR does not apply to Irreal. Nevertheless, Irreal is trivially in compliance because we don’t collect or store any information about our readers. Even if we did collect such information, we would never … Continue reading

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Going Dark: How Many Locked Phones Are There?

In news that will surprise exactly no Irreal readers, the Washington Post and Techdirt are reporting that the FBI has been lying about the “going dark” problem. One of their favorite refrains is that terrorists, pedophiles, drug dealers, and whatever … Continue reading

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California Stores the DNA of All Babies Born in the State

What could go wrong? The iron law of data collection, that’s what. It’s been a while since I’ve written about the iron law, so here’s a quick recap: The iron law states: Whenever the government (or anyone else for that … Continue reading

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RMS on Data Collection

RMS has an article in the Guardian that discusses the safety of your on-line data. With the recent exposure of Facebook surveillance practices and their consequences, reporters have been asking him if he thinks it could be a turning point … Continue reading

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Facebook and Products

If you’re still on Facebook, this is for you.

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Open Source Tools

I prefer open source software but I’m not an absolutist. I no longer have much interest in patching my OS, for example, so I feel comfortable using macOS because the eco-system—or walled garden, if you prefer—allows me to integrate my … Continue reading

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Enough Is Enough

I’m not on Facebook. I’ve never been on Facebook. At first it was simply a matter of not being a 14 year old junior high schooler. Later, even adults started hanging out there but I still thought it was silly … Continue reading

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It Can Be Done

The Dutch people have done a remarkable thing and as such serve as an inspiration to the rest of us. This week the voters rejected a bill that would have given the government sweeping powers to wire tap their citizens … Continue reading

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Privacy Finally Wins One

An appeals court in the UK has declared the UK Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (the so-called Snooper’s Charter) illegal. The judges ruled that the law provided insufficient safeguards. As you’d expect, the government trotted out the usual specter of the … Continue reading

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