Privacy

Yesterday, New America Foundation's Rebecca MacKinnon testified before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on "Promoting Global Internet Freedom."

What would George Orwell make of Facebook? Nothing really: His account would probably be deactivated by the company. If he were lucky, he would be told to produce a scanned first page of his passport and return as Eric Blair.

Originally posted on DanBlah.com and cross posted from the Open Technology Initiative.

While I am by no means a seasoned investigative journalist, I have the good fortune to work with some. Looking ten years back I couldn't imagine a media organization considering geek qualifications a core part of an investigative team. In 2011, turning a geek into an investigative journalist is a no-brainer.

Originally posted on DanBlah.com

While I am by no means a seasoned investigative journalist, I have the good fortune to work with some. Looking ten years back I couldn't imagine a media organization considering geek qualifications a core part of an investigative team. In 2011, turning a geek into an investigative journalist is a no-brainer.

The New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative today welcomed Sarah Morris as the program’s newest Policy Analyst. Morris previously served as a Google Policy Fellow with the Media Access Project, where she assisted with research and drafting of FCC comments on issues including media ownership, the open Internet and broadcast licensing. She earned a B.A. in Poltical Science and English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a J.D. and LL.M.

Now that the dust over the US embassy cables is beginning to settle, WikiLeaks finds itself at a crossroads. To effectively continue its war on government secrecy, it will need to make fundamental adjustments to how it operates – with no guarantees that the new, more mainstream WikiLeaks will be in much demand.

Princeton's Center for Information Technology and the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative on October 22 hosted a discussion on the emerging threat to online trust, moderated by Sascha Meinrath, Director of the Open Technology Initiative. As outlined by Edward W. Felten, Director of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy, the use of https and security certificates are intended to ensure that Internet users have secure connections to online entities they trust.

We don’t normally address questions of media policy abroad on this blog, but the situation in Italy seems worthy of highlighting.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been increasingly critical of the media, recently giving public voice to a cause that is apparently very close to his heart: “Italian citizens, please go on strike. Stop buying newspapers for a while. They only tell lies. They totally disinform. They give an upside down view of reality.”

He got a strike, but not the one that he intended.

Google has threatened to pull out of China, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was surprisingly blunt in her criticisms of that nation's online censorship. China, meanwhile, denies any involvement in the recent hack attempts, and said that any such accusation is “groundless and aims to denigrate China.”

Last week, reputable Web sites reported that semi-reputable Web sites had reported that Tiger Woods entered a Mississippi clinic for sex-addiction rehab. Meanwhile, South Carolina’s legislature rebuked Gov. Mark Sanford for bringing “disgrace and shame” to the state via his extramarital affair with an Argentine journalist. And NBC aired a “Law & Order” episode apparently based on the alleged attempt to blackmail David Letterman over his staff liaisons.

For students of high-profile philandering, 2009 was the gift that keeps on giving.