The Internet and Social Media Snap at Putin Doug Bernard | Washington DC There are few things worse for a politician than losing an election. One of those is being mocked. Just ask Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In late November, two weeks before parliamentary elections, Putin decided to appear on live television to introduce […]
Who’s Buying All the Spy Gear?
The Full Truth Is Hard To Know Doug Bernard | Washington DC Five times a year, in cities as diverse as Prague, Washington, Brasilia, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, thousands of buyers and sellers of electronic gear gather for a series of events that have come to be known as “The Wiretapper’s Ball.” On display are […]
UPDATE: SMS vs. the King
Thailand’s Expanding Crackdown on Free Speech and Lese Majeste Doug Bernard | Washington DC UPDATE, December 7, 2011: A Thai court has sentenced American citizen Joe Gordon to 2 1/2 years in Thai prison for admitting to posting weblinks to a banned biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej which was found to violate lese majeste. The […]
Carrier IQ, Quietly Tracking Your Phone
New Questions About Mobile Phone Privacy Doug Bernard | Washington DC Trevor Eckhart, by his own account, is a 25-year-old “average Joe.” A digital developer based in Connecticut, Eckhart’s been quietly exploring the privacy and security aspects of the Android mobile operating system. This week, the quiet ended. First posted on his website “Android Security […]
Four Degrees of Facebook?
And the Campaign Against “Breaking The Internet” Doug Bernard | Washington DC Periodically we like to share a few of the stories and posts from across the web that caught our eye. There are no editorial threads implied connecting these items together, other than being interesting. #1: What’s With The “Weirdness” from China? There’s been […]
The Web Goes World Wide
Who’s Online Now, and Who’s Coming Next With the creation in 1989 of the “HyperText Transfer Protocol” by researcher Tim Berners-Lee, the Internet has been synonymous with what’s called the “World Wide Web.” (That name, incidentally, was also Berners-Lee’s idea.) The phrase, like Berners-Lee’s new computer language, is elegant, compact and easily grasped. But for […]
Has Facebook Faded? Part Two
Has Facebook Become Everyone’s Creepy Friend? Doug Bernard | Washington DC We’re taking a two-part look at the dual challenges facing social networking giant Facebook: increased complexity and decreased privacy. In part one, we explored whether the constant addition of new features is complicating the user experience, making it less fun and more work. Today, […]
Has Facebook Faded? Part One
Part One: Is Facebook’s Size Its Strength, or Vulnerability? Doug Bernard | Washington DC We’re taking a two-part look at the dual challenges facing social networking giant Facebook: increased complexity and decreased privacy. First, we explore whether the constant addition of new features is complicating the user experience, making it less fun and more work. […]
Anonymous vs. the Zetas
And Taking the OWS Protests Online Doug Bernard | Washington DC Periodically we like to share a few of the stories and posts from across the web that caught our eye. There are no editorial threads implied connecting these items together, other than being interesting. #1: Anonymous vs. the Zetas. Over the last year, the […]