Category: Videos
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Why Privacy Matters
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On Pay Equity
I’m certain that, in some countries, efforts to achieve pay equity in this manner would result in Parliament legislating the ‘striker’ to work. Such legislation would be ‘necessary’ on grounds that efforts to achieve pay equity threatened the national economy and, thus, had to be moved to binding mediation without the employer being forced to deal with the existing market situation.
Lawful access legislation and its associated powers are not new. In the wrong hands, however, these powers ‘legitimize’ the gross abuse of citizens. I highly recommend you watch this investigative news piece on Sweden’s Teliasonera and how lawful access is used by dictators reliant on Teliasonera’s equipment.
If you can’t watch it all then at least watch the interview with the company’s representative, starting at around minute 52. It’s a chilling interview that exposes how ‘good’ Western companies enables human rights abuses around the world in the name of profit and ‘enabling’ communication.
A quick TEDx talk about the inherent (in)security of the software-driven devices that are increasingly embedded throughout our lives.
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IBM and Intelligence Cities
IBM’s efforts to add ‘intelligence’ to cities – and thus make them more manageable – is an ongoing effort. While what they’ve developed in Rio is interesting, I suspect that several facets of the ‘defence mechanism’ obfuscate residents’ economic realities.
Specifically, the video notes that residents of favelas may receive text messages that warn of oncoming disasters. This is good, but misses the point that a warning system without a capacity to absorb/protect residents who are fleeing poorly-build environments is effectively useless.
While the IBM ‘smart city’ project may make the city more intelligent, and improve daily operations, such intelligence doesn’t necessarily mean that the city can temporarily house residents of favelas in ‘safe’ areas of the city if a major disaster occurs. Unfortunately, the sale of technology in this video obfuscates this key truth of disaster preparation.
Excited Pixels 