Datacide

We’ve put together a list of some of the most interesting articles and sites we’ve seen over the last week.

• Datacide

  The Total Annihilation of Life as We Know It. By Douglas Haddow on Adbusters

• Before we give doors and toasters sentience, we should decide what we’re comfortable with first

  “It’s becoming more and more common for everyday appliances to have features we don't expect, and the implications for privacy and freedom can be surprisingly profound. We should be sure we know what we’re buying into.” By Ian Steadman on the New Statesman.

• Six ways your tech is spying on you – and how to turn it off

  “Compared with what’s already happening, Samsung’s warning not to discuss sensitive issues in front of its TVs seems pretty tame. But you can fight back.” By Alex Hern in The Guardian.

• We Have More To Worry About Than Samsung’s Smart TV Privacy Policy

  “The world has gone nuts today, over a story that says Samsung is spying on us in our living rooms via its Smart TV software. Lines have been drawn between a scary caveat in a privacy policy and George Orwell’s 1984, and we’re being warned about how we’re losing ourselves to technology all over again. Don’t be foolish, guys: your privacy vanished a long time ago.” By Luke Hopewell on Gizmodo.

• Millions of Facebook users have no idea they’re using the internet

  By Leo Mirani on Quartz.

• Let’s Encrypt

  When Let’s Encrypt launches in Summer 2015, enabling HTTPS for your site will be as easy as installing a small piece of certificate management software on the server.

• Youtube Ditches Flash, and it Hardly Matters: Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

  “A year ago, the largest video site on the net ditching Flash would have been a blow for Internet freedom. Today, it's a bitter reminder of how the three big commercial browser vendors—Apple, Microsoft and Google—Netflix, the BBC, and the World Wide Web Consortium sold the whole Internet out.” By Cory Doctorow on EFF.

• Google to pay $22.5M fine over Apple Safari

  “Google is poised to pay a $22.5 million fine to resolve allegations that it broke a privacy promise by secretly tracking millions of web surfers using Apple's Safari browser.” In The Telegraph.

• GCHQ spying on British citizens was unlawful, secret court rules in shock decision

  “GCHQ unlawfully spied on British citizens, a secretive UK court has ruled. The decision could mean GCHQ will be forced to delete the information it acquired from people that were spied on.” By Andrew Griffin in The Independent.

• Academics Against Mass Surveillance

  The signatories of this declaration call upon nation states to take action. Intelligence agencies must be subjected to transparency and accountability. People must be free from blanket mass surveillance conducted by intelligence agencies from their own or foreign countries. States must effectively protect everyone’s fundamental rights and freedoms, and particularly everyone’s privacy.