Jun 10, 2023

Exploring the Age of Mass Encryption

This blog post explores the age of mass encryption ushered in by Edward Snowden's leaks, and how it has changed the way data is sent and stored. It also provides a linkdump of interesting links to explore.

AI ENCRYPTION

Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues

Author, journalist, activist. Touring "Red Team Blues," an anti-finance finance thriller https://t.co/fpDYDNRrr7

Member of Science Fiction

Saturday! Time for a linkdump thread! I'm back from my tour of the US, Canada, UK and Berlin - and I'm jetlagged in the backyard hammock, waiting for my laundry to come out of the machine and plowing through a long backlog of interesting links. Let's goooooooo!

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
Snowden's leaks ushered in an era of mass encryption, ending the age in which most data was sent or stored "in the clear." From mass storage on your phone to the web sessions your browser initiates to the instant messages you send and receive, the age of cleartext is over.

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
Meanwhile, the claims by spy agencies - who proved time and again that they will lie to the public and their democratically elected overseers about their illegal surveillance - that Snowden did untold harms to national security remain as empty as they were a decade ago.

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
As Snowden told MacAskill: "Disruption? Sure, that is plausible. But it is hard to claim 'damage' if, despite 10 years of hysterics, the sky never fell in."

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
It took a brave, independent press to publish the Snowden revelations, but even a decade ago, the press was ailing. Big Tech's chokehold over subscription payments, ads, and delivery of content has allowed it to steal a fortune in cash from the news business.

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
Unfortunately, the media - and its friends in government - have decided that the real problem is that tech is stealing "content," not money, leading to proposals to restrict who can link to, quote and discuss the news.

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
For the past month, I've been working with @EFF on a series describing how tech steals money (not content) from the news, and what to do about it:https://t.co/3rpe43oy8r

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
Though I disagree with people who say tech is stealing news content, I firmly agree that the collapse of the news industry is bad news for society.

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
Indeed, one of the reasons we desperately need an independent press is to ensure critical investigations of the tech industry - something we're more likely to get if the news isn't "partnered" with tech for its survival.

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
Every press outlet has blind spots and biases, and competition can sharpen a media outlet. Editors across the chummy UK press spiked stories detailing the sexual predation of a veteran reporter, #NickCohen. It took the @NYTimes to break the story:https://t.co/0LIpExGPOJ

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
Perhaps the *#NewYorkPost* will keep the *Times* honest, but what about other American cities where news coverage has dwindled to one or fewer outlets.

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
In #Baltimore, a new news outlet called the *#BaltimoreBanner* is looking to discipline the ailing *#BaltimoreSun*, which was recently purchased by #AldenGlobalCapital.

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
Alden is a notorious vulture capitalist that buys up once-great papers, asset-strips and debt-loads them, fires their best reporters, and lets them degrade into a slurry of advertorials, wire service articles, and nonsense:https://t.co/bzTejKoC2s

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
The *Banner* got capital from #StewartBainum, former MD assemblyman and hereditary rich guy, who nevertheless embraced progressive causes in his politics and business. Bainum tried to buy the *Sun*, lost out to Alden, and started a (nonprofit) rival:https://t.co/7My038GwWt

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
While the *Sun* is slashing its newsroom (down to 70 from a peak of 400), Bainum has committed $50m to hire journalists. They're *starting* with 70 and plan to grow from there. They've already poached high-profile editors and writers from the *Sun* and *#WashingtonPost*.

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
The *Banner* will be a local paper, focusing on Baltimore metro stories. Per @ron_cassie in @Baltimoremag, the paper won't run a story about the State of the Union address "unless there is a significant Baltimore angle."

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
The focus will be on "enterprising, explanatory, and investigative journalism" - not the tick-tock of every fire or burglary, but rather, the 'why and how questions." Their revenue target is 50% subscriptions (they're paywalled), 25% ads, 15% donations, 5% events and 5% misc.
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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
One key cleavage line in the fight between news and tech is workers' rights. News workers - like nurses, librarians, teachers, and creative workers - are easy to exploit, thanks to their #VocationalAwe.

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
This awe - described by @Fobettarh in a now-canonical essay - is in contrast to Graeber's bullshit jobs, the idea that since your job makes a difference, you don't deserve to be treated decently:https://t.co/doVzzeRQlW

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
It's truly perverse - you have to be well-compensated to serve a box on an org chart to inflate a corporate princeling's sense of self-worth, but if you actually help people, that is its own reward.

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
Reporters (and other "awe-struck" workers) have reached a breaking point. The latest newsroom to strike is @BusinessInsider, and @InsiderUnion is publishing a delightful countersite called (what else?), *Business Outsider*:https://t.co/xj7tkxs7Ey

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
When those workers bring their bosses to their knees, win their demands, and go back to reporting on business, they'll have a great new tool: @TheJusticeDept has finally launched its long overdue #CorporateCrimeDatabase:https://t.co/R3fZko1DOG

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
Activists and journalists have been clamoring for this for more than a decade, led by @RalphNader. @CorpCrimeReport describes the database: "all of the cases in its system from Main Justice and all 93 U.S. Attorneys offices":https://t.co/sg39PcrGbj

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
The DoJ didn't do this voluntarily: they were spurred to do it by legislation proposed in 2022, the "Corporate Crime Database Act":https://t.co/otK34QtRpI

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
The database doesn't have an RSS feed or other "advanced" features from the previous decade, but all works of federal authorship are public domain, so someone could hack up a scraper that turns new entries into an easy-to-follow feed.

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
On the subject of innovative databases: @Shepherd_books is a book recommendation site that's attempting to provide an independent alternative to the hegemonic dominance of #Amazon's #Goodreads:https://t.co/WgNPpDsrnt

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
It aggregates *writers*' recommendations - "8,000+ authors have shared five of their favorite books around a topic, theme, or mood."

These break down well on topics; there's a great #ScienceFiction section:https://t.co/OweFcSxhwp

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
If you're interested in sf writers' thoughts, you could do worse than #AppliedSciFi from @imaginationASU. These are seminars where sf writers and practitioners talk about the way that sf can contest, inform and inspire current events:https://t.co/NXKM5gqIrQ

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
The next event (a free webinar) is "What is the future of [X]?," on Jun 14 at 9hPT: "what can broaden society’s thinking and impact decision-making about our shared technological future?"https://t.co/ihGkBvIozE

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
The speakers are *great*: @annaleen, #TobiasBuckell, @august_cole, @shrapnelofme and @torystephens, moderated by #JoeyEschrich.

Well, that wraps it up for this linkdump, the third in an occassional and erratic series. Previous editions are here:https://t.co/pO5tGlhcPb

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
Actually - just one more thing. Have you ever wanted to preserve your short, tweet-length thoughts in an awkward archival medium? Me too!

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— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023
Thankfully, there's @DumbCuneiform, who will transliterate your tweet into cuneiform and hand-punch it into a palm-sized clay tablet, bake it, and mail it to you, all for $20:https://t.co/V8Ul2QLtEx

eof/
— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues (@doctorow) June 10, 2023