Kim Dotcom: Privacy & the Abyss
A large Predator statue looms, its legs spread wide, one heavily armoured silver arm in the air. Across the room, a plastic female face looks out blankly from a chequered bed, each of its eyes bigger than a human head. By the door, wrapped in plastic, lie millions of US dollars in cash. These are […]
EU vs. Facebook: Fighting for the Right to be Forgotten
Like most of us, Max Schrems is careful about his online persona: “At the beginning I was like: ‘no pictures’,” said the 25-year-old student who has become a prominent figure in an on-going privacy rights dispute with the social networking platform Facebook. Since he founded “Europe-v-Facebook”, the campaign has become a precedent in the European […]
Literary Events: Mar. 2012
OBAMERIKA “Yes we can” is what Barack Obama promised to the electorate. Little is left from this enthusiasm, which captivated the United States at the beginning of Obama’s presidency. A country struck by the economic crisis, hugely indebted, with broken roads and wretched schools. Wolfgang Geier, correspondent for the Austrian public broadcaster ORF in Washington […]
Facebook and the Homeless
The Austrian National Railway (ÖBB) has offered the use of its premises as temporary night shelters for the homeless, in response to a citizens’ campaign on the social networking site Facebook. The ÖBB management reacted swiftly after a Facebook group entitled “Please ÖBB, keep train stations open overnight in this cold” attracted over 5,000 members. […]
The Virtual Memorial
Killing time on Facebook, mindlessly clicking everything in sight. My head rolling from one hand to another when supporting elbows grow numb. Spellbound by invitations to play Farmville and Texas Hold’em. Photo albums burst random faces on the screen- smiling, waving, and posing. Crushing waterfalls of images are making me queasy. I return to the […]
Face-to-Face with Facebook
Long ago, when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was in grade school, I wrote a book (Release 2.1: A Design for Living in the Digital Age) in which I lauded something called “P3” (now p3p), the platform for privacy preferences. I was sure that people would start using P3 or something like it to control access […]
Wars on the Web
Complaints of racial discrimination on the web are becoming more and more common. But imagine, for a moment, a world with no Internet. At this point, it’s hard to imagine unplugging. In today‘s information crazed society, we have become like addicts, reliant on the web to feed our information habit at the click of a […]
Time to Lose Face(book)?
Finally it is my time to brag about Facebook! Our love relationship has turned into a love-hate relationship. I like(d) social networks: I am home in two different countries. I went to an international school and then an international university. Later, I worked in international business, so my friends are scattered all around the world. […]
My Own Internet?
Facebook’s latest evolutionary stage “Timeline” incorporates seemingly everything users have ever posted into an easily browse-able, chronological, well, timeline. But what is really new here? The eternal discussion on privacy issues has been around nearly as long as the social network itself. Everything submitted to Facebook is stored on its servers, the only difference is […]
CommentaryOctober 1, 2011Comments Off on My Own Internet?Read More