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April 21, 2021 | The Intercept by Alice Speri | ~2816 words
April 21, 2021 | Motherboard by Joseph Cox | ~1097 words
April 21, 2021 | The News & Observer by Will Doran and Danielle Battaglia | ~700 words
April 21, 2021 | Education Week by Sarah D. Sparks | ~1108 words
April 22, 2021 | The Intercept by Mara Hvistendahl | ~4099 words
April 27, 2021 | Wired by Lily Hay Newman | ~923 words
April 14, 2021 | Washington Post by Ellen Nakashima and Reed Albergotti | ~2203 words
April 15, 2021 | TechCrunch by Natasha Lomas | ~741 words
April 16, 2021 | The Verge by Dieter Bohn | ~1603 words
April 16, 2021 | RNZ Morning Report | 5:04 (audio)
April 17, 2021 | Washington Post by Robyn Dixon | ~1331 words
More by me, #141: Privacy is a human right. San Jose should treat it as such.
April 6, 2021 | The Denver Post by Shelly Bradbury | ~656 words
April 6, 2021 | York Dispatch by Logan Hullinger | ~618 words
April 8, 2021 | Motherboard by Todd Feathers | ~691 words
April 9, 2021 | News Channel 5 Nashville by Cole Johnson | ~165 words
April 9, 2021 | Electronic Frontier Foundation's Deep Links Blog by Andrés Arrieta | ~950 words
ICYMI: The Movement to Ban Surveillance Advertising
In surveil-link #120 I highlighted a Wired article reporting on the group behind the website bansurveillanceadvertising.com. A coalition of organizations posted an open letter to the website calling on law makers to ban trageting advertisements shown to a user based on their behavior, browsing habits, purchase history, etc. The business model, perhaps most famously used by Facebook and Google, has recently come under intense scrutiny in both the public and private sectors. Apple soon will roll out prompts on iOS devices asking if a user wants to allow apps to track them. The planned feature has caused quite a feud between Apple and Facebook and their respective CEOs, something I've talked about in surveil-links #10, #20, and #53.
The coalition published the open letter just days before a congressional hearing with the Jack Dorsey, Sundar Pichai, and Mark Zuckerberg, CEOs of Twitter, Google, and Facebook respectively. During the hearing, Representative Anna Eshoo of California, and the congressional representative of both Pichai and Zuckerberg, stated that "Representative Schakowsky and I are doing a bill that is going to ban this business model of surveillance advertising" after calling the practice "dangerous."
I was able to sit down and discuss the letter and Representative Eshoo's comments with Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of Accountable Tech, the nonprofit organization behind the letter. I also got his thoughts on how the events of 2020 particularly brought the issue to the forefront of public dialogue, what he thinks about Facebook defending its surveillance by masquerading as the hero of small business owners, and what he thinks needs to happen in order for enact lasting legislation that addresses the issue effectively.
What do you think about the idea of banning surveillance advertising? Drop a comment on surveillance.today and let's discuss!
March 30, 2021 | NBC News By Olivia Solon and April Glaser | ~3086 words
April 1, 2021 | The Markup by Alfred Ng and Maddy Varner | ~2123 words
April 1, 2020 | Zero Day by Kim Zetter | ~2,721 words
April 2, 2021 | The Washington Post by Drew Harwell and Craig Timberg | ~4,034 words
April 4, 2021 | The Guardian by Nicola Davis | ~796 words
#120: This Group Wants to ‘Ban Surveillance Advertising’
#121: China to ban apps from collecting excessive user data starting May 1
#122: This is what happens when ICE asks Google for your user information
123: T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T Stop SMS Hijacks After Motherboard Investigation
124: How Musicians and Sex Workers Beat Facial Recognition in New Orleans
#114: TikTok wants to keep tracking iPhone users with state-backed workaround
#115: Your Face Is Not Your Own
#116: Tabloid Hired Gun Tells of Shady Hunt for Meghan Markle Scoops
#117: York NAACP mulling public forum, polling about city surveillance proposal
#118: For this Amazon van driver, AI surveillance was the final straw
#119: True police reform requires regulating surveillance tech, San Jose
A conversation with Albert Fox Cahn from the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.
I have one small favor to ask. I've been writing this newsletter for about two months now and I'm still trying to figure out exactly where to take it, what the right release cadence is, and what not. I need your help to figure that out. I have a short, five question survey that will take you two minutes to fill out but would help me tremendously. You can find it at surveillance.today/survey.
You can reference the sources cited at surveil.link/113.
The plaintiffs and attorneys leverage California common law to enact privacy changes.
View the sources cited in this episode at surveil.link/112.
How one judge thinks the tech giant hasn't been entirely truthful with their users about surveillance.
To view all the sources cited in this episode, visit surveil.link/111.
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