EFF: “At EFF we spend a lot of time thinking about Street Level Surveillance technologies—the technologies used by police and other authorities to spy on you while you are going about your everyday life—such as automated license plate readers, facial recognition, surveillance camera networks, and cell-site simulators (CSS). Rayhunter is a new open source tool… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: March 2025
Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not)
TechDirt: “While political reporters are still doing their view-from-nowhere “Democrats say this, Republicans say that” dance, tech and legal journalists have been watching an unfortunately recognizable plan unfold — a playbook we’re all too familiar with. We’ve seen how technology can be wielded to consolidate power, how institutional guardrails can be circumvented through technical and… Continue Reading
Shutting down the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database appears to violate records law
CREW – “On January 24, 2025, the Trump administration decommissioned the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD) in an apparent violation of federal law. CREW sent a letter to the Department of Justice Inspector General and Acting National Archivist asking them to investigate and take corrective action. NLEAD was created in 2023 as a centralized… Continue Reading
Visualizing all books of the world in ISBN-Space
phiresky’s blog – “Libraries have been trying to collect humanity’s knowledge almost since the invention of writing. In the digital age, it might actually be possible to create a comprehensive collection of all human writing that meets certain criteria. That’s what shadow libraries do – collect and share as many books as possible. One shadow… Continue Reading
How Do America’s Largest Corporations Score on Democracy?
The American Democracy Scorecard is a living, interactive resource that grades the country’s biggest corporations on their support for democracy. The project evaluates corporations’ statements and efforts in support of our democracy, alongside their political spending and actions around January 6th, state and federal voting legislation, election integrity, and other democracy-related issues. The goal is… Continue Reading
Trump Moves to Increase Logging in National Forests
“A rarely used amendment to the Endangered Species Act allows for the creation of a committee nicknamed “the God Squad” to take unprecedented action during emergencies like hurricanes and wildfires. Trump wants to convene this committee to bypass endangered species protections and other environmental regulations to ramp up timber production across 280 million acres of… Continue Reading
Rail Transit & Population Density
Comparing and ranking 250 cities around the world – “Good public transit connects people to places. Ideally, this is done efficiently and sustainably, with transit routes and stations serving and connecting the most amount of people possible. But in reality, there’s a lot of variation within and between cities in how effectively this is done.… Continue Reading
The Changing Tides of the SEC Under the Second Trump Administration
The Changing Tides of the SEC Under the Second Trump Administration – “From the moment the second Trump presidential term became a reality in November 2024, it was widely expected that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would undergo broad changes under a Republican-led commission focused on rolling back many of the Biden administration’s regulatory… Continue Reading
DOGE Deletes Agency Behind Login.gov, IRS Direct File, Other Tech Projects
PC Mag: “The General Services Administration (GSA) has axed a technology unit that developed key public-facing IT services like Login.gov, the central login system for key government services like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The decision, unearthed in an internal memo seen by Politico, was ordered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as… Continue Reading
Trump Bid to Take Over Postal Service Could Threaten Mail Voting
Democracy Docket: “President Donald Trump may soon attempt to absorb the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), an independent agency, into his administration by issuing an executive order that reportedly would dissolve the service’s leadership. The order could allow the Trump administration to make mail voting — which was used by tens of millions of voters last… Continue Reading
The Nicest Swamp on the Internet
The Atlantic [no paywall] “…The joy of Reddit comes from it being simultaneously niche and expansive—like an infinite world’s fair of subcultures, fandoms, support groups, and curiosities. There seems to be a subreddit for everyone and everything. There are mainstream subreddits with popular appeal, such as r/askscience (26 million users) and r/technology (18 million users).… Continue Reading
The Rise of QR Phishing: How Scammers Exploit QR Codes and How to Stay Safe
Hack Read: “QR codes have become an everyday convenience, allowing quick access to websites, payment platforms, and digital menus with a simple scan. However, as their popularity has grown, so has the interest of cybercriminals looking to exploit them. A not-so-new but lesser-known wave of phishing attacks known as “QR phishing” or “quishing” is on… Continue Reading
