Nostr notes by Michael Veale

Stable Firefox identifier (the order of a set of IndexedDB ...

2026-04-23T07:57:55Z

Stable Firefox identifier (the order of a set of IndexedDB databases) allowed cross-site linkage within a single browsing session, private window or not — also in the Tor Browser https://fingerprint.com/blog/firefox-tor-indexeddb-privacy-vulnerability/

Astounding story from [@FTM_nl](https://social.ftm.nl/@FTM_nl ): ...

2026-04-22T06:59:09Z

Astounding story from [@FTM_nl](https://social.ftm.nl/@FTM_nl ): An administrative judge in the Netherlands sent 4000 deliberately crippling FOI requests to municipialities just to see what would happen, because he had a 'feeling' abuse was possible, and... potentially to do a PhD on it, although he doesn't seem to have thought through the research design much. https://www.ftm.nl/artikelen/mysterieuze-indiener-duizenden-informatieverzoeken-blijkt-rechter-die-misbruik-wet-wil-aantonen

US now turning to grand juries as a potential way — ...

2026-04-13T06:01:11Z

US now turning to grand juries as a potential way — circumventing immediate first amendment arguments — to force intermediaries like Reddit to de-anonymise users who are criticising government policy https://theintercept.com/2026/04/10/reddit-ice-protest-grand-jury/

NSF under threat from itself. Original post: ...

2025-12-16T05:30:33Z

NSF under threat from itself.

Original post: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:p66b7zkep57fp4rhrtktsdni/post/3ma3bol7h2s2b

Never come across 'WindowsCentral' as a media outlet but ...

2025-11-30T15:36:15Z

Never come across 'WindowsCentral' as a media outlet but this piece is powerful and dense and absolutely spot on about where we are with AI and business models right now. Putting bigger outlets to shame. https://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/openai-chatgpt/analysis-openai-is-a-loss-making-machine

On AI’s ‘mediocrity trap’ — experiments indicates that ...

2025-11-26T21:18:29Z

On AI’s ‘mediocrity trap’ — experiments indicates that while AI helps the less skilled make something passable, the highly skilled don’t use it to produce something better than they could have; they produce something ok, but lose motivation to make it great. http://www.jin-li.org/uploads/1/1/4/5/114595093/ai_and_motivation.pdf

Either real-time bidding data or app SDK data is being bought and ...

2025-10-01T05:21:15Z

Either real-time bidding data or app SDK data is being bought and used by ICE to seize people from the streets. If you didn’t believe that the adtech stack is a human rights concern, I’m not sure what more evidence you need. https://www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-tool-that-tracks-locations-of-hundreds-of-millions-of-phones-every-day/

New CJEU GDPR art 22 automated decision-making case from Austria. ...

2025-09-03T07:47:21Z

New CJEU GDPR art 22 automated decision-making case from Austria. Does a credit check at a retailer to see whether you can pay in instalments meet the significance threshold even though if auto-denied you can still pay normally? Qs in German (not on Curia yet) https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokumente/Justiz/JJR_20250813_OGH0002_0060OB00015_25M0000_000/JJR_20250813_OGH0002_0060OB00015_25M0000_000.html

Anthropic do conversation clustering using their 'Clio' ...

2025-07-26T16:08:18Z

Anthropic do conversation clustering using their 'Clio' system but misleadingly call it 'privacy preserving' and 'anonymised'. If you read the paper it is clear that clusters remain linked to individual accounts for investigation making them clearly *not* anonymised. https://www.anthropic.com/research/clio

Broadband infrastructure providers BT and Openreach determined by ...

2025-07-15T06:57:43Z

Broadband infrastructure providers BT and Openreach determined by the ICO to be subject to the Environmental Information Regulations (Aarhus Convention) despite being private actors, as they carry out certain public functions. Wider than FOI Act. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/07/ico-rules-bt-and-openreach-are-subject-to-uk-environmental-info-requests.html

am very pleased with this! the little chunk of the academy i move ...

2025-06-26T14:24:13Z

am very pleased with this! the little chunk of the academy i move about in is one of the most supportive and the kindest around. i'll try and pay it forward.

if you run a child abuse helpline, perhaps don’t install Meta ...

2025-06-26T05:06:14Z

if you run a child abuse helpline, perhaps don’t install Meta and Snap pixels. Recent fine announced earlier this month from the Norwegian DPA https://gdprhub.eu/index.php?title=Datatilsynet_(Norway)_-_NO_-_DPA_-_24/01055-10&mtc=today

US AI Safety Institute reformed into Center for AI Standards and ...

2025-06-04T07:04:40Z

US AI Safety Institute reformed into Center for AI Standards and Innovation. Mission: “represent US interests internationally to guard against burdensome & unnecessary regulation of US tech by foreign govs & ensure US dominance of int’l AI standards” https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2025/06/statement-us-secretary-commerce-howard-lutnick-transforming-us-ai

This genre of image has to die. People didn’t want tabletop ...

2025-05-11T14:42:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…2k7f
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This genre of image has to die. People didn’t want tabletop computing and they don’t collaborate on complex engineering parts by gesturing across a shared table.

People can collaborate on and with 3D files without being in a ...

2025-05-11T14:33:50Z

People can collaborate on and with 3D files without being in a ‘metaverse’. This is a desperate and ridiculous attempt to by the grifters at WEF and elsewhere to save face by trying to relabel CAD and simulations now their dumb buzzword is in freefall. https://www.wired.com/story/the-metaverse-is-here-and-its-industrial/

How should legal education respond to AI? Together with 11 UCL ...

2025-05-06T13:11:07Z

How should legal education respond to AI? Together with 11 UCL Laws colleagues, this paper is our vision for the sector. It's rooted in academic integrity, fundamental competences, and concerns around impacts on learning to learn and intellectual risk taking. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10208136/1/AI%2C%20Education%20and%20Assessment%20at%20UCL%20Laws.pdf

So Carleton (where Poilievre may have a Portillo moment and be ...

2025-04-29T07:34:03Z

So Carleton (where Poilievre may have a Portillo moment and be outed imminently) is taking ages to count because Canadians have adopted a new protest movement of creating… the longest ballot… https://ottawacitizen.com/news/pierre-poilievre-carleton-riding-election-results

Anyone got any good reads on the proposed centralisation of ...

2025-04-10T15:42:10Z

Anyone got any good reads on the proposed centralisation of German private data protection enforcement away from state authorities?

privacy has become cynically instrumentalised in recent years. ...

2025-03-18T13:26:25Z

privacy has become cynically instrumentalised in recent years. lucy qin thinks it can be reclaimed (me too) and is co-running a cool workshop (ReCAP) in NYC (and truly hybrid with proper thoughtful virtual side) that you can submit to til April 10 and attend 3–4 June https://recapworkshop.online/

Now hiring in law & tech at UCL Laws! Lecturer/Associate Prof ...

2025-02-10T13:31:12Z

Now hiring in law & tech at UCL Laws!
Lecturer/Associate Prof in IP & IT law: at the intersection of platform regulation, emerging technologies, copyright and/or designs.

Join me Bernard Keenan (npub1hck…2yra) Orla Lynskey, Alina Trapova, Matt Fisher, Robin Jacob, Ilanah Fhima and friends

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/search-ucl-jobs/details?nPostingId=13101&nPostingTargetId=31919&id=Q1KFK026203F3VBQBLO8M8M07&LG=UK&languageSelect=UK&mask=ext

Microsoft Research: GenAI can inhibit critical engagement with ...

2025-02-09T10:56:17Z

Microsoft Research: GenAI can inhibit critical engagement with work and can potentially lead to long-term overreliance on the tool and diminished skill for independent problem-solving.

Microsoft: *sells GenAI aggressively into the Education 365 packages*

Hao-Ping (Hank) Lee and others, ‘The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers’ (ACM CHI 2025). https://advait.org/files/lee_2025_ai_critical_thinking_survey.pdf

“Everyone knows your location: tracking myself down through ...

2025-02-02T18:11:19Z

“Everyone knows your location: tracking myself down through in-app ads” - a very interesting hands-on blog post about contemporary location data flows and sales https://timsh.org/tracking-myself-down-through-in-app-ads/

questionable infrastructure for technology of questionable ...

2025-02-02T08:03:59Z

questionable infrastructure for technology of questionable application value made compatible with urgent environmental requirements by more unproven technology. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-ai-deepseek-chatgpt-john-kousinioris-1.7445782

Work and private data are more enmeshed than ever: both in the ...

2025-01-30T11:49:59Z

Work and private data are more enmeshed than ever: both in the cloud & on devices. What happens to employee privacy when data access or FOI requests require searching through private info?

New 📄 from
Virginia Mantouvalou (npub1h09…r35h) and me: "Bring Your Own Device—Now Hand It Over!" https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/kmepg

Trump lets down the Rust belt already. ...

2025-01-25T11:09:54Z

Trump lets down the Rust belt already.

Incredible story about early Theranos investor Walgreens blowing ...

2025-01-16T17:49:15Z

Incredible story about early Theranos investor Walgreens blowing $200m by replacing thousands of their fridge doors with ‘smart’ screens which would all turn off at once or occasionally combust while they were being DDoSed and sued by their vendor who was trying to use the fridge door cameras to spot which were broken when they were opened and had a view of their neighbours, all while managing to earn only 59 cents per door per day in advertising revenue https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-01-16/walgreens-fridge-fight-bodes-poorly-for-future-of-retail?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTczNzA0MDg4NiwiZXhwIjoxNzM3NjQ1Njg2LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTUTZFR01EV1gyUFMwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiI3MDQyN0U3REVGMkM0MDEzODNCNDUzRjAyNUE2NDc3NyJ9.F0rZgKGLV34CGZposJffoAvuNUw2Qiq7Hxe9CG2jluc

Real time bidding and the tracking infrastructure is so toxic ...

2025-01-09T23:15:52Z

Real time bidding and the tracking infrastructure is so toxic & illegal that the firms whose apps embed this code have to pretend to be shocked when resulting data appears in a huge leak from an actor many steps away, with a history of selling to law enforcement https://www.404media.co/candy-crush-tinder-myfitnesspal-see-the-thousands-of-apps-hijacked-to-spy-on-your-location/

Tim Apple kisses the ring. ...

2025-01-04T17:25:13Z

Tim Apple kisses the ring. https://www.axios.com/2025/01/03/tim-cook-apple-donate-1-million-trump-inauguration

Hewlett Packard report that they are spotting AI-generated ...

2024-12-26T16:00:55Z

Hewlett Packard report that they are spotting AI-generated malware in the wild, not through complex analysis or watermarking, but because… it is weirdly well-commented. https://threatresearch.ext.hp.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/HP_Wolf_Security_Threat_Insights_Report_September_2024.pdf

Some of the adverts do target website owners rather than ...

2024-12-19T12:23:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…sgpz
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Some of the adverts do target website owners rather than consumers, which is a better approach imo, not the one frederik posted

perplexity’s got $1m to burn on a trump bribe but nothing to ...

2024-12-16T23:35:22Z

perplexity’s got $1m to burn on a trump bribe but nothing to compensate the servers they’re pounding while ignoring robots.txt and lying about their ip address range https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-13/openai-ceo-perplexity-give-1-million-to-trump-s-inaugural-fund

The only university with a top level domain name I am aware of is ...

2024-12-15T08:48:27Z

The only university with a top level domain name I am aware of is Monash U, which has .monash. Did they really pay $185,000 plus $25,000 a year… not to use it? How? Why? https://itp.cdn.icann.org/en/files/registry-agreements/monash/monash-agmt-html-30sep13-en.htm

this DC cafe sign on every single table seems well-meaning and ...

2024-12-06T14:22:50Z

this DC cafe sign on every single table seems well-meaning and welcoming but somehow uniquely baffling and incomprehensible

Extremely valuable plug-in. ...

2024-11-26T10:34:03Z

Extremely valuable plug-in.

Swiss church creates virtual ‘AI Jesus’ talking booth, says ...

2024-11-23T09:38:39Z

Swiss church creates virtual ‘AI Jesus’ talking booth, says 2/3 visiting have a spiritual experience.

eJesus starts off each time: "Do not disclose personal information under any circumstances, use this service at your own risk. Press the button if you accept."

https://www.dw.com/en/switzerlands-ai-jesus-answers-questions-of-faith/video-70737962

Delicious chaos as another DAO found to be an inadvertent general ...

2024-11-20T09:11:52Z

Delicious chaos as another DAO found to be an inadvertent general partnership in CA https://gizmodo.com/judge-rules-decentralized-autonomous-organizations-arent-so-decentralized-in-the-eyes-of-the-law-2000526564

The nature of that kind of chaos (in England & Wales): unlimited liability for the partners, much of which cannot be contracted away; liability focussing on the the more visible partners, and inability for the DAO to hold assets without contract. https://cloud-platform-e218f50a4812967ba1215eaecede923f.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/30/2024/07/DAOs-scoping-paper-110724.pdf

Someone who flagged this early on in the US is Carla Reyes in a 2019 article: https://www.gwlr.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/87-Geo.-Wash.-L.-Rev.-373.pdf

Foursquare - perhaps surprisingly - release a large proportion of ...

2024-11-20T07:34:04Z

Foursquare - perhaps surprisingly - release a large proportion of their geospatial place data (eg business and other Points of Interest), hoping it seems to challenge Google Maps’ proprietary data layer. https://location.foursquare.com/resources/blog/products/foursquare-open-source-places-a-new-foundational-dataset-for-the-geospatial-community/ (via Chris Adams (npub1az2…y4q6))

Bluesky has data portability issues. You can download your data, ...

2024-11-18T13:28:15Z

Bluesky has data portability issues. You can download your data, in *binary format*, — a '.car' file the firm describes as 'not the most accessible' even to devs. To even get a JSON file (also q inaccessible) you... improv poorly documented code. This is uh... not legal https://docs.bsky.app/blog/repo-export

Meanwhile, ‘X Corp’ going full out in their new Terms of ...

2024-11-15T01:41:18Z

Meanwhile, ‘X Corp’ going full out in their new Terms of Service (active from tomorrow) trying to edge out AI scrapers by threatening to sue mass scrapers $15,000 per 1m tweets scraped — to enclose the dataset for themselves, while forcing users to license their work for the firm’s own AI training.

Maybe complex railcard fines about purchasing, not ...

2024-11-14T11:36:34Z

Maybe complex railcard fines about purchasing, not activating/uploading, etc could be avoided by abolishing the entire 18-25/25-30 railcard system and just… reducing fares for those people. Some lack age proof but appealing at least is straightforward https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c89v08l99lgo

Meta to seemingly stop pay-or-consent, and offer pay-for-no-ads, ...

2024-11-12T16:53:08Z

Meta to seemingly stop pay-or-consent, and offer pay-for-no-ads, or contextual ads. The question is, what exactly is a contextual ad in the eyes of the firm? https://archive.is/WQgDz

I think in terms of protecting small instances from external ...

2024-11-11T07:39:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…2rz0
_________________________

I think in terms of protecting small instances from external raids and similar esp when they link to controversial things, the balance is probably right and the upsides of revealing are q limited. it’s a pretty fragile network…

Build it and they will come - the number of criminals misusing ...

2024-11-09T06:45:57Z

Build it and they will come - the number of criminals misusing law enforcement access portals for platform data is becoming a serious concern, says FBI… https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/08/fbi-says-hackers-are-sending-fraudulent-police-data-requests-to-tech-giants-to-steal-peoples-private-information/

a lot of people were posting this Verge article on Penguin adding ...

2024-10-19T08:44:33Z

a lot of people were posting this Verge article on Penguin adding no AI training clauses as if they were the first, but I’ve seen MIT Press do this for a while even on CC books. https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/18/24273895/penguin-random-house-books-copyright-ai

From the tech lawyer bringing the case, Mercy Mutemi, on X: ...

2024-09-20T15:35:20Z

From the tech lawyer bringing the case, Mercy Mutemi, on X:

“The Court of Appeal has today upheld the Employment Court’s decision that Facebook can be sued in Kenya.

The cases by the content moderators against Meta, Sama and Majorel can now proceed.

Facebook had argued it’s a foreign company that can’t be sued in Kenya.”

von der Leyen proposes a new European Commissioner for ‘Tech ...

2024-09-17T08:57:37Z

von der Leyen proposes a new European Commissioner for ‘Tech Sovereignty’ (while the EC defunds FOSS, reframes issue around location of cloud providers not a thorough rethinking of the power of stacks)

Apple unexpectedly drops its civil suit against #spyware vendor ...

2024-09-13T23:11:15Z

Apple unexpectedly drops its civil suit against #spyware vendor NSO
Group as it claims discovery against it might disclose information that would benefit… spyware vendors. https://www.securityweek.com/apple-suddenly-drops-nso-group-spyware-lawsuit/

rob gorwa @npub14ze…6pft and I wrote a thing about how ...

2024-09-11T17:11:34Z

rob gorwa Robert Gorwa (npub14ze…6pft) and I wrote a thing about how platforms that host machine learning models are getting mighty confused about how to moderate them because tools aren't like much content that the content moderation community has seen before. we put it out end of last year, so some of you might have read it, but now it is actually out OA in a journal (Law, Innovation and Technology) so perhaps you want to check it out there! PS we are writing a book https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17579961.2024.2388914

Oh, I've never seen this before on @npub1ypk…kdd0 — a ...

2024-09-11T11:29:47Z

Oh, I've never seen this before on Court of Justice of the EU (npub1ypk…kdd0) — a link to the national judgment! https://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?language=en&num=C-659/22

Someone quantify the environmental cost of Apple’s “AI driven ...

2024-09-09T17:13:54Z

Someone quantify the environmental cost of Apple’s “AI driven upgrade cycle” which could shift 240m phones? This is the cost of AI, just as much as model training or querying.
https://www.thetimes.com/article/ba84a4f4-4fe9-4b9e-b09a-7ed1e6c734c7?shareToken=527e091d79bff6c6ff50af6579188302

Dutch judge uses chatGPT to answer a factual question about the ...

2024-08-02T14:44:56Z

Dutch judge uses chatGPT to answer a *factual question* about the lifetime of solar panels which was used in determining the extent of compensation. Really. Really. https://www.nu.nl/tweakers/6323110/rechter-gebruikt-chatbot-chatgpt-in-een-uitspraak.html Alex Hanna (npub1e2z…n97d)