In world of morally compromised technology and markets, a few entities stand out as consistently on the side of right. @ConsumerReports is one of them.

For 85 years, they have produced rigorous, unbiased, trustworthy accounts of the manufactured goods in our lives.

1/ A 1933 photo an electromechanical lab facility superimposed
As good as they are at this, understanding digital technology requires significant changes, as software-based devices (especially those that interact with remote services) are difficult to evaluate in the lab, since their characteristics can be silently altered at any time.

2/
CR rose to this challenge with a series of excellent, in-depth cybersecurity breakdowns of products and services, but it's still early days.

Enter the CR Digital Lab, with nonresidential fellowships "to uncover and address emerging consumer harms."

digital-lab.consumerreports.org/join/

3/
These are paid ($50k!) one-year fellowships " of interest to engineers, computer scientists, information security professionals, independent researchers, academics, social scientists, and others."

4/
Fellows work with CR's reporters and advocates, get access to its lab facilities, and work with its wide-ranging network of public-interest technologists.

You have until May 21 to apply.

eof/
ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2021/05/07/pro…

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More from @doctorow

8 May
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: How copyright filters lead to wage-theft; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2021/05/08/cop…

#Pluralistic

1/ Image
I'm doing two live events next Wednesday, May 12:

* Interoperability and Alternative Social Media, a panel with @daphnehk for the Knight Center's Reimagine the Internet event
knightcolumbia.org/events/reimagi…

* Book launch for @aminder_d's Cyclopedia Exotica
crowdcast.io/e/udbva8py/reg…

2/
How copyright filters lead to wage-theft: A Red Queen's race with fraudsters.



3/ Image
Read 17 tweets
8 May
Last week, "Marina" - a piano teacher who publishes free lessons her Piano Keys Youtube channel - celebrated her fifth anniversary by announcing that she was quitting Youtube because her meager wages were being stolen by fraudsters.



1/ Joseph Karl Stieler's iconi...
(If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:)

pluralistic.net/2021/05/08/cop…
Marina posted a video with a snatch of her performance of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," published in 1801. The composition is firmly in the public domain, and the copyright in the performance is firmly Marina's, but it still triggered Youtube's automated copyright filter.

2/
Read 34 tweets
7 May
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: The PRO Act and worker misclassification; $50k fellowships for critical technologists; The FTC's (kick-ass) Right to Repair report; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2021/05/07/pro…

#Pluralistic

1/
Later today (May 7), the @GburgBookFest is featuring me in an interview conducted by John @Scalzi; we pre-recorded the event but I'll be in the live chat for the premiere.



2/
The PRO Act and worker misclassification: A turning point in the class war.



3/
Read 19 tweets
7 May
It's been nearly two years since the @FTC's #NixingTheFix workshop on how corporations have sabotage our #RightToRepair. Finally, the Commission has issued its report, and it's hugely vindicating for R2R advocates.

ftc.gov/system/files/d…

1/ EFF's Right to Repair logo: a green flag with a crossed hamm
If you don't have time to read the 56-page report, check out @Ifixit's cheat-sheet, which highlights the salient points, namely:

ifixit.com/News/50251/ftc…

2/
* Companies routinely violate federal law by voiding their customers' warranties in retaliation for seeking independent repair

* Anti-repair tactics more heavily harm Black people and communities of color

* The pandemic made independent repair sabotage even more important

3/
Read 11 tweets
7 May
One of the Biden admin's most important pieces of legislation is the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (#PROAct), which reverses decades of union-busting policies and laws that have led to widening inequality, wage stagnation, and working poverty across America.

1/ 'ILGWU Local 62 marches in a Labor Day parade' - A group of
It's the first pro-worker law since 1935's NLRA, and it restores many of the rights to organize unions and create serious penalties for employers who break the law to prevent their workers from unionizing (today, employers break labor laws with impunity).

2/
For a great, plain-language breakdown of its contours, check out this breakdown by @GrimKim, @TeenVogue's labor reporter. Note that the law bans many of the dirtiest tricks used by Amazon to defeat the union drive in its Bessemer, Alabama warehouse.

teenvogue.com/story/what-is-…

3/
Read 24 tweets

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