As with last year, the Mozilla Foundation’s privacy researchers have produced a guide to electronic gifts called “Privacy Not Included,” which rates gadgets on a “creepiness” scale, with devices like the Sonos One SL dumb “smart speaker” (Sonos ripped out all the junk that isn’t about playing music) getting top marks, and Ring Security Cams, Nest Cams, Amazon Echos, and other cam/mic-equipped gadgets coming in as “Super Creepy!” (the exclamation point is part of the rating).
These rankings are purely about privacy, so there’s plenty of stuff that’s extremely proprietary and hooked into app stores and other ecosystems that allow the manufacturers to control how you use your property after you buy it, as well as giving them the ability to censor the kinds of information you can receive. Many of these devices contain copyright locks (DRM) and onerous terms of service that would make it a potential felony to have them independently repaired, too, so the manufacturer gets to decide what can and can’t be fixed, and unilaterally declare that it’s time for your device to become e-waste in some distant landfill (Apple is notorious for this, and they led the charge that killed 20 state-level Right to Repair bills last year, and CEO Tim Cook started 2019 with an investor call last January that warned investors that Apple was facing a crisis because people were not replacing their devices as often as they used to, opting instead to repair them).
And this kind of thing also matters for privacy! If not for the independent repair sector, we’d have never found out that Google had made a “smart speaker” with a secret, hidden microphone, so if you were relying on the manufacturer’s specifications to evaluate the privacy dimension of a product, you could land in trouble. Likewise DRM: because security researchers face felony prosecution and massive civil liability if they reveal information that weakens a DRM system, devices with DRM (to ensure that you only use approved apps, parts or consumables) are less likely to be independently audited, and when they are, there’s a greater likelihood that the researchers will delay or bury their assessments. That means that security defects in DRM-equipped devices (many of which get top marks on privacy) can fester for longer and do more damage before coming to light.
Sonos did something interesting this year. They took their Sonos One smart speaker and made it dumb. Seems there is a market for privacy-minded people who just want a speaker for playing music, not with a built-in microphone that could be spying on you. This Sonos One SL is just like the Sonos One minus the microphone listening for Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant commands. Control it with the Sonos app over WiFi, not Bluetooth, or use Apple Airplay to stream your music. To think, a speaker simply built to play music and not listen to you all day long. Crazy!
Privacy Not Included [Mozilla]
Anthony Gulino writes, “Los Anarchists Junior Derby is a nonprofit that takes a DIY approach to teaching roller derby to kids. It runs programs for all levels from the youngest, newest skaters to the highest level of competitive junior derby at its dedicated facility, Anarchy Hall, in Sun Valley, CA. Los Anarchists’ travel team is […]
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[[Generations of propaganda about the instability of “the commons” and the desirability of assigning property rights in everything has led the human race into a very dark place: now, two scholars, David Bollier and Silke Helfrich, have published Free, Fair and Alive, which offers a critique of the “Tragedy,” case studies of working commons, and a path to a better world based on shared resources and commons-based production. -Cory]]
Could we please, finally, lay to rest the tendentious “tragedy of the commons” fairy tale that has poisoned the minds of at least two generations? The accurate story about the commons deals with its ability to address the intractable problems of our time — wasteful economic growth, predatory markets, the climate emergency, savage inequality. The commons offers practical ways to develop non-capitalist social systems that meet needs while helping rebuild our ecosystems and create a sense of belonging.
This was a key reason why we wrote Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons. At some point, Big Deceptions such as the “tragedy” fable become so deeply rooted they need to be confronted and debunked. One way to do this is to recognize the social realities and political potential of actual commons.
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For more than a decade, Britons have relied on Mysociety’s Theyworkforyou to find out who represents them in Parliament (as well as the regional assemblies), find out what those people are doing and saying, and to get in touch with their lawmakers and their fellow constituents to hold them to account.
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It should be obvious to anyone who has ever opened up a web page that the route to a career in Silicon Valley does not necessarily travel through a traditional university. Even so, budding coders need guidance and the right expertise. That’s where the Treehouse Project comes in. It’s built for self-starters and contains a […]
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What does it take to be an effective project manager? These days, it’s more than just amorphous “people skills.” Methodologies like Agile, Scrum and Six Sigma lay out a proven roadmap for completing big jobs not just in software but in any industry. If you’ve got the will to master them, the Premium 2020 Project […]