commerce | governance | surveillance

The Public/Private Database Industry

On multiple fronts, the U.S. government is pumping up the database industry with large sums of public money. The notion that “public” government-surveillance and “private” corporate-surveillance are some how different is a useless distinction – they’re two sides of the … Continue reading

censorship | commerce | governance | methodology

Google the Gate Keeper

A reminder that Google doesn’t really search “the web,” just a relatively narrow slice of it. From Threat Level: The homepage of Pirate Bay disappeared from Google’s search results Friday, after Google allegedly received a DMCA takedown notice targeting the … Continue reading

censorship | participation | privacy | property | security | surveillance

iPhones of Mass Destruction and the Code War

According to Apple, jailbreaking your iPhone violates Apple’s license agreement, constitutes copyright infringement – and – is a threat to national security. Meet the new weapon of mass destruction: the hacked iPhone. Just like Saddam Hussein’s WMDs, the iPhone of … Continue reading