“Bugs in our pockets. The risks of client-side scanning” - a new analysis of the Apple-inspired systems that are intended to scan for child abuse content directly on mobile devices.

The primary argument can be easily dismissed as slippery slope, which it technically is, but some slippery slopes are actually a valid prediction:

But ‘if you build it, they will come’. If device vendors are compelled to install remote surveillance, the demands will start to roll in. Who could possibly be so cold-hearted as to argue against the system being extended to search for missing children? Then President Xi will want to know who has photos of the Dalai Lama, or of men standing in front of tanks; and copyright lawyers will get court orders blocking whatever they claim infringes their clients’ rights. Our phones, which have grown into extensions of our intimate private space, will be ours no more; they will be private no more; and we will all be less secure.

The paper brings actual cases from China and Russia where 1) technical countermeasures initially introduced to combat child abuse and terrorism quickly escalated into blocking literally anything government considers inconvenient, 2) Western companies were actively complying and cooperating with these governments in enforcing these controls.

https://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2021/10/15/bugs-in-our-pockets/ #apple #security #privacy

Gripped by Energy Crisis, Europe Considers Breaking Climate Promises and Turning to Coal

This becomes particularly obvious in the case of nuclear energy, which in many respects would be a climate-friendly way of producing energy, but it is ideological concerns that caused the abandonment of nuclear energy, for example in Germany by 2022, and at the moment a U-turn seems unlikely. All of this causes severe energy shortages – Sweden had to power up two oil-based power plants that burn 140,000 liters of oil per hour, while having simultaneously shut down six out of its 12 nuclear power plants.

https://www.newsweek.com/gripped-energy-crisis-europe-breaking-climate-promises-coal-gas-1637291