This Week’s Top Stories
Edward Snowden appears on livestream at SxSW. This was the first time the NSA whistleblower addressed the US public since he leaked scandal in June. You can watch the full (non-optimized audio) interview on YouTube.
Omlet – A safe way to connect with friends. A start-up from the Stanford StartX incubator created a mobile messaging system and promises to never monetize or sell user data.
Bill Gates thinks cameras in inner cities could be a good thing. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gates said that cameras could be useful, specifically alluding to London where petty crime has gone down and terrorism prevented with the help of cameras.
The NSA’s plan to infect millions through malware. The Intercept revealed that the NSA has relied on more sophisticated techniques to siphon data from targets. One is a man-on-the-side attack where they disguise themselves as a Facebook server and are able send data packets to users containing malware.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee thinks the Web should have a bill of rights. With the 25-year anniversary of the Web, inventor of the internet Tim Berners-Lee told the BBC that there should be a ‘Magna Carta’ bill of rights in order to protect users.
Zuckerberg called Obama to talk about surveillance. It doesn’t seem like there will be reform any time soon according to Zuckerberg. In a post on Facebook, Zuckerberg said, ”So it’s up to us — all of us — to build the internet we want. Together, we can build a space that is greater and a more important part of the world than anything we have today, but is also safe and secure. I’m committed to seeing this happen, and you can count on Facebook to do our part.”
Opinion
Drones will cause an upheaval of society like we haven’t seen in 700 years. Noah Smith from Quartz talks about the dangers of drones and autonomous robots.
A look at how the Immunity Project handles HIV in the lab. The company developing a free vaccine for HIV shows how they work with the virus in their lab.