Updates

“Today, Laura and I want to introduce you to Small Technology Foundation, where we will be continuing the work we started at Ind.ie five years ago.”

“This summer/autumn, I’m speaking at conferences in Amsterdam, London and Edinburgh. This year I’ve had mixed experiences with speaking, so I’m being picky about future talks. So I’m looking forward to the following…”

“I wrote a little essay for Smashing Print #1: Ethics & Privacy titled ‘This One Weird Trick Tells Us Everything About You.’ It covers different types of tracking and how it came to exist, as well as regulation, ethics, and why we need better business models.”

“New blocking rules! On 5th July 2019, Laura blocked adtech on one site, fixed one site and blocked two new trackers. The rules will auto-update if the app is running. If it’s not, you can get the new rules by choosing ‘Update rules’ or ‘Check again now’ from Better’s menu.”

“Who should you thank for Facebook’s Libra? “One of the UK’s leading privacy researchers” University College London The DECODE project And, if you’re an EU citizen who pays their taxes, -You. Surprised? Don’t be.”

“To privacy activists Aral Balkan and Laura Kalbag, we don’t need brain implants to become cyborgs; we’re already jacked in. And we need a Universal Declaration of Cyborg Rights.”

“New blocking rules! On 5th June 2019, Laura fixed two sites, and blocked four new trackers. The rules will auto-update if the app is running. If it’s not, you can get the new rules by choosing ‘Update rules’ or ‘Check again now’ from Better’s menu.”

“New blocking rules! On 15th May 2019, Laura fixed two sites, and blocked four new trackers. The rules will auto-update if the app is running. If it’s not, you can get the new rules by choosing ‘Update rules’ or ‘Check again now’ from Better’s menu.”

“Yesterday, I was interviewed on Al Jazeera news about the Macron-Zuckerberg meeting (Warning: the linked page on Al Jazeera includes privacy-eroding trackers, including Facebook.)1 in which they apparently decided on a framework of “co-regulation.” This is not what I mean when I talk about the need to regulate surveillance capitalists.”

“New blocking rules! On 9th May 2019, Laura blocked one blocker blocker, fixed two sites, blocked cookies for one tracker, and blocked seven new trackers. To get the new rules, choose ‘Update rules’ or ‘Check again now’ from Better’s menu. If you keep the macOS app open, the rules should auto-update.”

“This is the original English version of an article that I wrote for Issue 32 of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (The German Federal Cultural Foundation) magazine. You can also read the German version.”

“New blocking rules! On 17th April 2019, Laura blocked first-party adtech on one site and blocked nine new trackers. To get the new rules, open the app on iOS, or choose ‘Update rules’ from the menu on macOS.”

“New blocking rules! On 1st April 2019, Laura blocked three blocker blockers, fixed one site, and blocked four new trackers. To get the new rules, open the app on iOS, or choose ‘Update rules’ from the menu on macOS.”

“In April, I will be speaking at two events, starting with The Straits Times Education Forum debate on entrepreneurship to be held at Singapore Management University on April 6th, 2019.”

“New blocking rules! On 13th March 2019, Laura blocked one blocker blocker, and fixed two sites. To get the new rules, choose ‘Update rules’ or ‘Check again now’ from Better’s menu.”

“I’m giving two talks this month; at Le Grand Barouf Numérique in Lille, France on the 20th and at the Art, Technology, and Change conference at CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark on the 26th.”

“New blocking rules! On 6th March 2019, Laura blocked two blocker blockers, fixed one site, and blocked seven new trackers. To get the new rules, choose ‘Update rules’ or ‘Check again now’ from Better’s menu.”

“The antidote to Big Tech is Small Tech. Big Tech, with its billion-dollar unicorns, has robbed us of the potential of the Internet. Fueled by the extreme shortsightedness and greed of venture capital and startups, the utopic vision of a decentralised and democratic commons has morphed into the dystopic autocracy of Silicon Valley panopticons that we call surveillance capitalism. This status quo threatens not just our democracies but the very integrity of our personhood in the digital and networked age.”

“New blocking rules! On 21st February 2019, Laura blocked one blocker blocker, fixed one site, and blocked four new trackers.”

“Given the levels of institutional corruption in academia and in the regulatory bodies and advocacy institutions that should be protecting our privacy, very few things shock me these days. So hats off to Bart van der Sloot for managing the impossible and finding a new low by framing institutional corruption as scientific neutrality in his article Dubbele petten in de privacywetenschap…”

“The first era of general computing was the mainframe era and it was centralised. The second, the personal computing (PC 1.0) era, was decentralised. The third is the Web era (let’s call it Mainframe 2.0). And it is, once again, centralised. Today, we find ourselves at the end of the Mainframe 2.0 era and on the precipice of a new chapter in the history of general computing: the Peer Web. Let’s call it the Personal Computing 2.”

“In this episode Laura and Liz discuss Ethical brand design Toxic technology and dark patterns The need for tech industry diversity. Accessibility and inclusivity. How we can be more ethical as designers. How we need to make sure we are working with ethical companies ”

“New blocking rules! On 2nd February 2019, Laura fixed one broken site, blocked a blocker blocker on another site, and adtech on a third site. To get the new rules, open the app on iOS, or choose ‘Update rules’ from the menu on macOS.”

“We are seeing more and more organisations starting to talk about ethical design. Unfortunately I suspect this has less to do with caring about the impact of unethical design on society, democracy and the environment, and more to do with organisations attempting to distance themselves from similar businesses who are finding it impossible to continue to disguise their toxicity.”

“It’s always difficult admitting you’re wrong. But sometimes, it’s exactly what you have to do in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. So, today, I admit that I was wrong about Google, Facebook, and surveillance capitalism in general being toxic for our human rights and democracy. You see, it simply cannot be true given how they are endorsed by some of the most well-respected groups and organisations in the world.”

“Independent technology – ethical technology – must be as accessible as possible for its intended audience at every step of the process. That doesn’t mean it must be accessible as possible to everyone at every stage in its development but rather it should be accessible as possible for the people that are working on it or with it at any given point. Hypha is currently at the start of its development stage and thus must be as accessible as possible to developers who want to follow along with its development, run it themselves, and possibly fork it off and try new things with it.”

“ Own and control your own identifiers. No privileged nodes. Effortlessly own and control your own always-on node on the Internet. ”

“Hypha is an exploration of what personal technology means in the digital/networked age. The goal is to create a bridge from the Mainframe 2.0 era to the Peer Computing (PC 2.0) era1. When we talk about scale in peer computing, our focus is on creating systems that are human-scale.”

“Wait, what, we’re deploying Hypha – but we haven’t even built it yet?! Exactly.”

“I did a live interview on Al Jazeera News today on France pushing forward alone with a new tax on big tech companies.”

“Over the holidays, I found a Chromebook that Samsung had given me to evaluate about six years ago and which had been gathering dust ever since. Coincidentally, Laura’s sister Annie had just told me that she needed a laptop. Hmm… Well, there was no way I was going to give her a Google spy device, so I decided to liberate the Chromebook from Google’s surveillance-based operating system (ChromeOS) and gift it to her.”

“Hypha is not about building a single product. It’s about exploring the possibilities and problem domain of private communication and what it means to have technology that enables privacy (and therefore personhood). At the same time, it isn’t about designing from the inside out. It’s not about building the protocols and waiting for the tools to happen. It’s about experimenting with both. And, in the process, hopefully sparking one or more everyday things that enable people to communicate with privacy.”

“Recently, I recorded a video on surveillance capitalism with BBC Ideas. You can watch the video on the BBC Ideas web site and you can also embed it on your own site, as shown above… But what happens when you add that code to your site? Do you just get the video, as you would expect, or do you also get something you didn’t bargain for?”

“New blocking rules! On 12th December 2018, Laura fixed two broken sites, blocked anti-tracking adtech on two sites, and blocked six new trackers.”

“New blocking rules! Laura fixed one broken site, blocked one blocker blocker, and blocked twenty-seven new trackers. To get the latest rules, select ‘Update rules’ from the menu in the Better app.”

“Five years ago, when I decided to devote myself to tackling the problem of surveillance capitalism, it was clear what we needed: convenient and beautiful ethical everyday things that provide seamless experiences on fully free-as-in-freedom stacks.”

“No, you didn’t misread it and, no, it’s not a typo. GDMR – the General Data Minimisation Regulation – can end surveillance capitalism in the EU. The problem is that no such regulation exists. So, let’s change that, starting now.”

“New blocking rules! On 30th November 2018 Laura fixed three broken sites, blocked first-party targeted ads on three sites, and blocked fourteen new trackers.”

“‘Facebook is accused of undermining democratic institutions, but its CEO fails to face up to MPs at a hearing in London.’ Al Jazeera Inside Story featuring @aral.”

“New blocking rules! On 23rd November 2018 Laura fixed seven broken sites, blocked three blocker blockers, and blocked twenty-three new trackers. To get the new rules, open the app on iOS, or choose ‘Update rules’ from the menu on macOS.”

“Laura and I are happy to announce that Better Blocker version 2018.2 is now available for purchase for iPhone, iPad, and Mac on the App Store and Mac App Store.”

“Ads are the traditional funding source for social platforms; they take users' personal data and serve it to advertisers who want their ads to reach a specific audience. This virtually ensures a fundamentally exploitative business model based on surveillance, says Laura Kalbag, a designer and the co-founder of digital justice not-for-profit Ind.ie.”

“New blocking rules! On 3rd November 2018, Laura fixed seven broken sites, blocked four blocker blockers, and blocked twenty-six new trackers. To get the new rules, open the app on iOS, or choose ‘Update rules’ from the menu on macOS.”

“New blocking rules! On 22nd October 2018, Laura fixed four broken sites, blocked six blocker blockers, and blocked six new trackers.”

“In this episode we get to speak with Laura Kalbag: Author, Co-Founder and Designer at Indie. We chat with Laura about her residence in Ireland, and the the current European political climate with regards to Brexit. We then dive into Laura’s company Indie, and their product Better; Better is a privacy tool for Safari on iPhone, iPad, and Mac that protects from behavioural ads and companies that track and profile on the web.”

“In this opinion piece, activist Aral Balkan says we’re living in a world where data companies have become factory farms for human beings.”

“Laura and I want to thank those of you who purchased Better Blocker last week. Thanks to you, we had our best week ever and sold over 2,500 units. That’s quite something given that we have sold just over 20,000 units in total over the last two years.”

“Today, we complete the roll out of the new design with the launch of the new Better Blocker for macOS. In line with the iOS app, we have also dropped the price to the lowest tier for the Mac app. Even though the new apps are radical redesigns, we decided not to release a new app. If you already bought Better Blocker for iOS and/or Better Blocker for macOS, you can simply upgrade to the new apps via the App Store.”

“Better Blocker for iOS 12 is now available on the App Store. Better Blocker is our content blocker for iOS and macOS that protects you from privacy-eroding surveillance-based behavioural advertising (adtech) and other trackers. It also removes ads that negatively impact your Web experience. This release is a major redesign. We’ve worked hard to radically simplify the app.”

“We’ve made the app simpler, easier to use, and just as effective as before. We’ve also made the app more affordable at $0.99, £0.99, €1.09—we want more folks to be protected on the web.”

“Two weeks ago, in Better Blocker: two year review and thoughts on the future, I wrote that I was going to “radically simplify” the Better apps. Today, I submitted a radical redesign of Better Blocker for iOS to the App Store for approval in time for the launch of iOS 12. The app has a minimal new design and a beautiful new icon that Laura and I designed together.”

“This post is a follow-up to What’s wrong with Twitter?. Mastodon started out as a microblogging platform similar to Twitter, but has evolved with more features that show an ethical, progressive and inclusive focus. Instead of tweets, your posts on Mastodon are called toots. ”

“A couple of weeks ago I posted a quick note mentioning I now have my own Mastodon instance. But first things first: why? My aim is to use Mastodon as an alternative to Twitter. While Mastodon is not equivalent to Twitter, many of its features are similar. And I’m looking for an alternative to Twitter because Twitter is not good for me. ”

“I was recently featured in an episode1 of a technology show called Codice on Italian national television channel Rai 1. I just stumbled on an extended cut they released on surveillance-based video site YouTube. You can watch the segment here without being tracked. ”

“TLDR; We now have usable RSS feeds! RSS feed for Ind.ie News (everything: updates and labs) RSS feed for Ind.ie Updates (posts about what we’re doing and why) RSS feed for Ind.ie Labs (more “technical” posts) RSS feed for the Ind.ie Radar (news items relevant to Ind.ie interests) ”

“I’m proud of what we’ve achieved with Better so far. However, I’m unhappy with the reach Better Blocker has and we must figure out a way of increasing that reach while not cutting off a source of revenue without which we could not afford to pay the rent. Here are some of my thoughts about the future, on how we can optimise for the right things to address these concerns…”

“I am very happy to tell you that the audiobook of Accessibility For Everyone is now available to buy on Audible. It’s thanks to the hard work of my brother, Sam Kalbag, who single-handedly edited, engineered and produced the audiobook, helped me do the recording properly, and gave me the benefit of his extensive knowledge of audiobooks. ”

“A while back I had a lovely evening chatting with the fabulous Shannon Fisher about Accessibility For Everyone. Shannon asks really thoughtful questions, and it was fun chatting to someone who already cares so much about inclusivity. ”

“If you’re a person who is on Mastodon, you may be interested to know that we now have our own instances for Ind.ie, and I have my own instance for me. ”

“The state of sharing on the web is broken. After the Snowden revelations, it became clear that my sharing “content” willy-nilly was a potential danger to me. I was previously oblivious to the risk of sharing everything about myself on social media. The tiniest most harmless piece of information about me could be derived in a data set somewhere to become something very meaningful (even if it’s wrong) and potentially dangerous.”

“When I wrote about owning and controlling my own content, I talked about trying to keep my “content” in its canonical location on my site, and then syndicating it to social networks and other sites. Doing this involves cross-posting, something that can be done manually (literally copying and pasting titles, descriptions, links etc) or through automation. Either way, it’s a real faff. Posting to my site alone is a faff.”

“One of the ultimate goals we have at Ind.ie is owning and controlling our own data. That means I want to have ownership and control over my own personal information, rather than it being in the hands of big corporations. My personal information could range from something as intensely private as my medical information, or my private messages with another person. ”

“This was my opening introduction for Futurefest’s “Who Is the Internet For?” debate today in London. I didn’t hit all the points as smoothly as this, but I covered most of it throughout the debate. In the description for this session, it says “Without the inputs from internet users with physical impairments we wouldn’t have the voice technology underpinning Siri or Alexa.” But what is the cost of using Alexa for people who would find it difficult or impossible to access the web or technology without voice recognition?”

“I’ve been getting more into blogging again, starting with a series on personal websites, my relationship with my own, and how they are valuable in a world of surveillance capitalism… ”

“On Saturday, we celebrated the victory for Irish people as they repealed the anti-abortion laws. We were celebrating not just because we care about the rights of people with uteruses, but also because we have now been resident in Ireland for two months. And we love it here. Why move? If you know Aral and me, you’ll know we’ve been trying to find the right home for the last three or four years.”

“This is the full video and text of my opening intervention at the General Assembly event in Berlin from November of 2017. ”

“Aral Balkan, digital activist: Yes, I’ve been warning about the dangers of surveillance capitalism and data collection by the likes of Google, Facebook and the entire adtech industry for years. In fact, here, “have a cookie” because you’re being tracked by those same companies as you read this very article on The Next Web. (Unless you have a tracker blocker active, that is.) No, there’s no pleasure in being right about this.”

“The office planner on the wall features two reminders: “Technosocialism” and “Indienet institute”. A huge husky named Oskar lies near the door, while the two people who live and work here – a plain apartment block on the west side of Malmö, Sweden – go about their daily business. ”

“To kick off, we explore whether our privacy has been compromised by the tech giants whose business models depend on harvesting and monetising our data. We speak to cyborg rights activist Aral Balkan; the executive director of UK charity Privacy International Gus Hosein; and to Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired magazine. ”

“This is not a post I ever wanted to write but it’s time to tie up loose ends before starting the new year. I’ve left DiEM25 and I’d like to explain to you why that is and what I hope DiEM will do differently in the future if it is to realise its tremendous potential to be a force for good in the world. ”

“Speaking over Skype from a coffee shop in Malmö, Sweden, Aral Balkan is advocating a grassroots revolution against the dominance of such supernodes. The founder of ind.ie, a social enterprise dedicated to building a new internet, he sees the future internet as one in which individuals retain control over their data and how they benefit from it. ”

“For the past three years, Laura Kalbag has been writing a book on accessibility. It’s called Accessibility for Everyone. You should read it. ”

“For the past four years, and with very limited resources, Laura and I – along with the help of some wonderful people – have been trying to make the Web, the Internet, and technology in general a safer and kinder place. In this we are thankful to have wonderful allies, and the shoulders of giants to stand on, some of whom have been working on solutions for far longer than we have even been aware of the problems.”

“Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube (Google/Alphabet, Inc) have formed the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism and Amber Rudd is asking them to quietly drop end-to-end encryption from their products. You should not believe a single word any of those companies tells you about end-to-end encryption or privacy on their platforms ever again. PS. WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. ”

“The Web we have is not broken for Google and Facebook. People farmers are reaping the rewards of their violations into our lives to the tune of tens of billions in revenue every year. How can they possibly be our allies? ”

“Mark Zuckerberg’s manifesto outlines his vision for a centralised global colony ruled by the Silicon Valley oligarchy. I say we must do the exact opposite and create a world with individual sovereignty and a healthy commons. ”

“This is the original English version of an op-ed I wrote for Zeit Online. ”