For those of us just tuning in (which is most of the public, excluding a select group of corporate insiders, and government officials) a new document outlining the details of the ultra-secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was just leaked via Wikileaks, and it could change the landscape of Intellectual Property as we know it.
Internet tax and protests in Hungary; the ‘hybrid’ Net Neutrality plan under consideration at the FCC; the Intercept publishes manual for spyware sold to governments; research group finds sophisticated Chinese cyberespionage group; and FBI’s fake news story, all in this week’s IMWeekly.
China caught spying on iCloud users days after iPhone 6 release, Russia begins thinking about autonomous internet and more in this week's #IMWeekly!
The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) recently discovered spyware software that police officers around the country are distributing to neighborhood parents, free of charge. The software, called ComputerCOP, can secretly scan files and folders on its host computer. It also monitors all web traffic on a user or users, logs every keystroke a user makes, and keeps all this information in a folder on the user’s machine. It can then send this data to a third party, unencrypted server to notify parents of certain keywords being used. Aside from the technological shortcomings of a product like this lies the ethical debate of when, or how much, parents should monitor their children.
On October 13, the 2014 Nobel prize in Economics was awarded to French economist Jean Tirole “for his analysis of market power and regulation.” Tirole is well known for, among other things, his research on regulation of imperfect markets, and widely respected for work that has both academic and practical impact. Using mathematical models, Tirole focused on monopolistic and oligopolistic markets where existing information asymmetries between industry actors and regulators were further complicated by the possibility of collusion between dominant enterprises.
The latest from the Intercept on Core Secrets and NSA saboteurs in China and Germany; tiny Tor router Anonabox meets dazzling success followed by major backlash; China blocks BBC website as tension in Hong Kong escalates; and Wikileaks publishes a new draft of Trans-Pacific Partnership’s intellectual property chapter, all in this week's IMWeekly.
In late September 2014, the people of Hong Kong embarked on a civil disobedience movement demanding genuine democracy and universal suffrage for the 2017 Chief Executive election. Recently dubbed the “Umbrella Revolution” for its use of umbrellas to counteract pepper spray and tear gas from the police, the Occupy Central movement has captured worldwide attention. Since the Occupy Central movement started, much information has been circulating regarding the various aspects of the protest. This post is an attempt to provide and overview of the major trends relating to Internet and media freedom.
Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution makes use of novel social media communication, powerful US tech execs discuss the future of the Internet in a post-Snowden world, Estonia to offer e-residency, and more in this week's IMWeekly.
Internet Monitor is delighted to announce the publication of "Russia, Ukraine, and the West: Social Media Sentiment in the Euromaidan Protests," the fourth in a series of special reports that focus on key events and new developments in Internet...
Internet Monitor is seeking a stellar part-time intern to work with us in Cambridge, MA during the Fall 2014 semester (September-December 2014).