As you may recall:
• MIT partly hosts W3C, but withdraws Dec 31
• A W3C nonprofit needs to take over on Jan 1
• MIT has assets (dues, contracts, IP…) to transfer to new W3C
• I was elected to the W3C Board & in the negotiations
Two weeks from cutover it's going… poorly. 🧵
On November 17 we saw terms that were unfair in that they made W3C carry the cost of MIT’s questionable accounting practices and failed to honour prior agreements, but that came with sufficient funds to support the continuation of W3C Inc.
Dec 4, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I wish I could count the number of times people have told me "you can publish anything you want on the web, that shows it isn't captured!"
The question was never "can you publish" but "who decides whether it gets seen?" *That* is what gatekeeping means.
On the web, we have two variants of a single category of gatekeepers: search and social. They look superficially different - one is pull, the other push - but that's just a UI detail. It's all algorithmic media exposed in slightly different ways.
Aug 16, 2022 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
What we have in mind when we talk of "democracy" tends to be bland, abstract, and simplistic. It's a rich and potent space, we've just grown jaded with a small subset of it.
We need to re-imagine what is possible. Thanks to @divyasiddarth for driving the way forward! 🧵
I might not agree with some of Divya's preferences, but that's kind of the point: the better the means of collective stewardship, the more we sustain a world of rich plural complexity.
And we need to remember that technology can help with that.
May 11, 2022 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
C'est @criteo qui vient sur ton site — et PAF la vie privée!
Oui, ceci est une blague extrêmement adtech :)
Contexte: @criteo a rejoint le mouvement réactionnaire anti-vie privée "SWAN". SWAN est la risée du monde des éditeurs et de l'adtech depuis des mois, d'où sans doute le changement de nom vers "PAF."
Feb 13, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
"History shows that inequality is essentially ideological and political, not economic or technological."
Somehow I'd missed this @PikettyLeMonde essay when it came out - it's good. (ht @anabmap) noemamag.com/long-live-part…
"First of all, no valid environmental policy can be carried out if it is not part of a global socialist project based on the reduction of inequalities, the permanent circulation of power and property and the redefinition of economic indicators."
Jan 25, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I'm sympathetic with where @seanmcarroll is coming from with this, but I think it's the wrong framing.
We have a way to coordinate and solve large-scale, systemic, wickedly complex problems: it's called "society."
It regularly happens that a given society's complexity, costs, and problems cease to be functional — at which point it collapses. This is common, not Mad Max dramatic, and adaptive: a fast simplification of what it tackles.
Earlier today, Google announced "Topics" as their next iteration on FLoC to provide cookieless interests-based targeting on the Web.
This is a thread of notes — in no particular order.
Technical Explainer: github.com/jkarlin/topics
Blog post: blog.google/products/chrom…
Google's blog post doesn't start off very well. "Transparency and control" sounds great, but it's what companies say when they don't want privacy.
It means "we know we're doing things you won't like, that we've set a default you don't want, and that most of you won't change it."
Oct 5, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I agree with Charlie that we can think about more than one problem at once, but on this specific topic I would go one step further:
Antitrust might not solve but it would very significantly help with content moderation issues. 🧵⏬
A key problem with toxic content isn't that it exists — that's hardly new — but that it gets amplified. With monopolies, when toxic content becomes successful, it spreads like wildfire.
It's exactly like parasites on a monoculture: get one and it's a blight.
Jun 1, 2021 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
Governance in digital advertising? I can hear you mock me from where I sit.
Yet I think it's a worth a shot to solve a relatively constrained problem (details in 🧵) and if that works maybe build a healthy ecosystem for advertising on it.
My first draft: darobin.github.io/garuda/
One active area of work today is how to enable effective advertising — which is a source of revenue for which there is no clear alternative — without carelessly broadcasting personal data.
One important component to achieve that is the ability to anonymise ad requests.
Jan 11, 2021 • 28 tweets • 10 min read
Here goes my 2021 reading log! I anticipate fewer books this year as I have started switching to taking more in-depth notes. But we'll see!
If you're looking for my 2020 log, it's over there. Was I ever young, foolish, and innocent way back then!
The UK’s competition authority, @CMAgovUK, has opened an investigation into Google’s “Privacy Sandbox”. This is a fascinating topic at the intersection of privacy and market power. If they act, it could be either great or terrible for consumers. 🧵 gov.uk/government/new…
What is the “Privacy Sandbox”? It’s the name of a loose bundle of proposals from Google to improve privacy in advertising. Before diving in, a few misconceptions about the PS need to be addressed.
Oct 16, 2020 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
🚨🚨🚨😺
The Belgian data authority finds that the IAB TCF infringes the GDPR. This isn’t surprising: the @IABEurope CEO had said the same thing. The only unexpected aspect is how long it took for enforcement to step in.
This is a good outcome 🧵 iccl.ie/news/apd-iab-f…
First, it’s good for people. The TCF was designed to support the existing status quo in real-time bidding (RTB). RTB is a data free-for-all that operates with complete disregard for the safety and privacy of individuals.
We can fix this! But this requires putting people first.
Nov 22, 2018 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
The @IABEurope has written up an article to try to distance their consent framework from the recent @CNIL decision finding issues with Vectaury's application of consent. I didn't expect much, but I was disappointed anyway. Read it at iabeurope.eu/policy/the-cni…, some notes follow. 👇
But first: you MUST consent.
Nov 16, 2018 • 19 tweets • 6 min read
Recently, the @CNIL issued a decision regarding the GDPR compliance of an unknown French adtech company named "Vectaury". It may seem like small fry, but the decision has potential wide-ranging impacts for Google, the IAB framework, and today's adtech. It's thread time! 👇
It's all in French, but if you're up for it you can read:
• Their blog post (lacks the most interesting details): cnil.fr/fr/application…
• Their high-level legal decision: legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCnil.do?…
• The full notification: legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCnil.do?…
I've read it so you needn't!
Sep 23, 2018 • 20 tweets • 5 min read
This is a good question: what is the root cause of the lack of privacy online today? Why does media track so much? My personal take is that it boils down to browsers and mobile platforms. Not only is that the master fix, but it is within reach. Follow the thread❗👇
First, I have some assumptions that I want to ensure you know: 1) Without a free and well-funded press before long we'd have no privacy at all. This does NOT justify an exception regime for media, but it constrains the solution. Getting rid of media is not the right option.
