I am a consultant at ThoughtWorks, a software developer and privacy advocate.
Facebook provides an alternative media channel in state-media-dominated nations, a community organising tool, and a convenient way for simply keeping in touch with friends and relatives. It’s also an effective tool for advertisers. But what are consumers trading for this service? And how can technologists build a future that betters humanity? Your data on Facebook Facebook collects data on you in…
Today is census day in Australia, usually a chance for Australians to help “count the nation” and create a snapshot dataset to be used for effective government policy making. But the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has gradually introduced more invasive techniques to the census over the last few decades. This year, they topped it off by taking it online, extending their retention of…
The governments of Australia , Germany , the UK and the US are destroying your privacy. Some people don’t see the problem… “I have nothing to hide, so why should I care?” It doesn’t matter if you have “nothing to hide” . Privacy is a right granted to individuals that underpins the freedoms of expression, association and assembly; all of which are essential for a free, democratic society. The…
You know, metadata is a different kind of data but it actually is very intimate. If you call a suicide prevention hotline, it doesn’t matter what you say; it’s the fact that you called them. Metadata reveals who we’re intimate with, who we associate with, what our interests are, who we are, what we are. And because it can be processed by computers automatically — it’s not voice conversation, it’s…