Werd I/O

Every modern car brand abuses your personal information. 84% sell your data (including where you go and when). 56% will share it with law enforcement without a warrant. And none of them have demonstrably adequate security. #Technology

[Link]

Rest in peace, Molly. We've lost one of the really good people who made the web better. #Technology

[Link]

“In a way, the people our cars mow down are doing just as much as our highly paid programmers and engineers to create the utopian, safe streets of tomorrow. Each person who falls under our front bumper teaches us something valuable about how humans act in the real world.” #AI

[Link]

Two thirds of the political content people consume come from non-news sites. And most of the news content people read is not overtly political. Instead, it's mostly coming from entertainment - which has no ethical need to report factually. #Media

[Link]

Another way the effect of the climate crisis is understated: climate deaths are undercounted. Changing this state of affairs is possible but requires effort, training, and resources. In the meantime, many people still don’t understand how serious the crisis actually is. #Climate

[Link]

“Fundamentally: Klein is a leftist, Wolf was a liberal. The classic leftist distinction goes: leftists want to abolish a system where 150 white men run the world; liberals want to replace half of those 150 with women, queers and people of color.” #Media

[Link]

One thing I learned from this story is that forced sterilization of inmates has still been widespread in the 21st century in America. Ghoulish. #Society

[Link]

Yes. Absolutely this. And everywhere. #Democracy

[Link]

Flexible work from home policies have allowed more mothers with young children to join the workforce than ever before. Yet another reason why these policies are positive for everyone and should not just stick around but be significantly expanded. #Labor

[Link]

It turns out that if you give homeless people money as assistance, it really helps them. This is something society should do. #Society

[Link]

In turns reassuring and helpful, this was a great primer on what to do to provide a foundation to help my child eventually learn to read. If only all parenting books could be as human and equity-minded as this one is. #Nonfiction

[Link]

"An interactive guide to rights the Supreme Court has established — and could take away." Published a few months ago, but completely relevant, on-point reporting (served as a fully-static web page). #Democracy

[Link]

Good overview. I think European tech regulations have been broadly good, establishing the anti-competitive and pro-privacy rules that US legislators have failed to enact. If we could only all be so protected. #Technology

[Link]

It makes sense that oil companies would try to frame driving a gas car as freedom. As an EV driver, I can tell you that it is not. I would prefer if we all had great, integrated public transit - but for the moment, at least, it has been an improvement in every way for me as a driver. I'll never go back. #Climate

[Link]

A really great list of foundational and/or influential writing about how to build the web, starting with Tim Berners-Lee's Cool URIs Don't Change post from 1998. #Technology

[Link]

It says a lot that in areas where officers aren’t allowed to put schoolchildren in holds that restrict breathing or their ability to speak, departments take officers out of schools in protest. These laws should be in place everywhere, and police officers should not be in schools. #Society

[Link]

I certainly have some thoughts that I will share. Imagine if you could allow an AI agent to create copyrighted works at scale with no human involvement. It would allow for an incredible intellectual property land grab. #AI

[Link]

I’m surprised that mandatory disclosure of carbon emissions isn’t widespread - it does seem like the prerequisite to making any change. And yeah, these companies should pay. And be forced to reduce their emissions. And be fined heavily, and prosecuted, when they don’t. #Climate

[Link]

Remote workers feel less connected to company missions, but the big message here is that nobody really feels all that connected. There are no superficial answers here: the real differentiators are better company cultures where people feel truly valued, much stronger communication, and better missions. #Labor

[Link]

Good commentary on the dissonance between vendors like Microsoft banning scraping of their platforms while simultaneously releasing products that depend on scraping other peoples' data. Some sort of commons agreement would go a long way here, but it won't happen while platforms can get away with this one-sided relationship. #Technology

[Link]

A neat rule: union-busters must recognize the unions they're trying to undermine. The union rebound continues. #Labor

[Link]

I'd love to understand what prompted Automattic to offer a hosting plan for $38K. On one level, I love it - it lasts for 100 years! and I love Automattic! - but I can't justify this, and I'm not quite sure who it's for? If this is marketing, what are the goals? #Technology

[Link]

Republicans think cities are much less safe than Democrats do. San Francisco and Philadelphia (my old neighborhood and new one) are notable here: Democrats agree that they're pretty safe, whereas Republicans seem to think they're war zones. I think we can solidly blame conservative media propaganda for this. #Democracy

[Link]

Less than a quarter of Americans know they don't have meaningful privacy protections on the internet. The first step to changing this fact might be to change this number. #Democracy

[Link]

Customs and Border Protection is using sentiment analysis on inbound and outbound travelers who "may threaten public safety, national security, or lawful trade and travel". That's dystopian enough in itself, but there's no way they could limit the trawl to those people, and claims made about what the software can do are dubious at best. #AI

[Link]