This week I signed the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief in the Apple/FBI iPhone-unlocking lawsuit. Many prominent computer scientists and cryptographers signed: Josh Aas, Hal Abelson, Judy Anderson, Andrew Appel, Tom Ball (the Google one, not the Microsoft one), Boaz Barak, Brian Behlendorf, Rich Belgard, Dan Bernstein, Matt Bishop, Josh Bloch, Fred Brooks, Mark Davis, […]
What Your ISP (Probably) Knows About You
March 4, 2016 by
Earlier this week, I came across a working paper from Professor Peter Swire—a highly respected attorney, professor, and policy expert. Swire’s paper, entitled “Online Privacy and ISPs“, argues that ISPs have limited capability to monitor users’ online activity. The paper argues that ISPs have limited visibility into users’ online activity for three reasons: (1) users […]
An analogy to understand the FBI's request of Apple
February 22, 2016 by
After my previous blog post about the FBI, Apple, and the San Bernadino iPhone, I’ve been reading many other bloggers and news articles on the topic. What seems to be missing is a decent analogy to explain the unusual nature of the FBI’s demand and the importance of Apple’s stance in opposition to it. Before I dive […]
Apple, the FBI, and the San Bernadino iPhone
February 17, 2016 by
Apple just posted a remarkable “customer letter” on its web site. To understand it, let’s take a few steps back. In a nutshell, one of the San Bernadino shooters had an iPhone. The FBI wants to root through it as part of their investigation, but they can’t do this effectively because of Apple’s security features. […]
How Does Zero-Rating Affect Mobile Data Usage?
February 10, 2016 by
On Monday, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a decision that effectively bans “zero-rated” Internet services in the country. While the notion of zero-rating might be somewhat new to many readers in the United States, the practice is common in many developing economies. Essentially, it is the practice by which a carrier creates an […]
