Ashwin J Mathew @ashwin@ischool.social

It's worth remembering Teju Cole's incisive comments in times like these:
"The white savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening."
https://mobile.twitter.com/tejucole/status/177809558608150529
Sure, this FB exec isn't white, but that just illustrates the point...

Former Facebook executive: social media is ripping society apart

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/11/facebook-former-executive-ripping-society-apart

Have I mentioned my love of infrastructure? 😀

https://boingboing.net/2017/12/04/some-people-can-hear-this-gif.html

https://ischool.social/media/SSemhfcbZiXdm8oBy48

Wow... The scripts keep writing themselves now, it seems...

Sources in Trump's White House report meetings to assemble a network of deniable wetwork/black ops spooks to target Trump's political enemies in the US and elsewhere

Sources in Trump's White House report meetings to assemble a network of deniable wetwork/black ops spooks to target Trump's political enemies in the US and elsewhere

https://boingboing.net/2017/12/05/amyntor-ollie-north-erik-princ.html

https://ischool.social/media/0xlEq4hl_bKfHxzx3VU

@ben, thanks for handling everyday maintenance! You should let us all know how we can contribute, even if only for hosting fees.

@npd@octodon.social Technical difficulties aside, what I found most useful/disturbing in that review was the explicit focus on politics and militarism in the state's use of obfuscation for purposes of justifying mass surveillance

@ben I've only read Privacy in Context, but I'd be curious to know what you think of Obfuscation in light of this review. And now I feel obliged to read Obfuscation myself! #bookclub

While I've found Nissenbaum's work useful and interesting, I've always been bothered by the lack of politics in her arguments... This review of a recent book she co-authored cuts deep, to question her approach by taking the role of the state seriously:
http://computationalculture.net/poisoned-fruit-booby-trapped-privacy-guides-as-state-sponsored-propaganda-a-case-study-of-obfuscation/

@ben Excellent - it would be great to catch up! Let me know when you're here, and we can have you over for dinner.

@ben Still in Berkeley - doing research on trust in the infosec world. Come visit! :)

Hey @ben, thanks for putting Mastodon up! Where are you at nowadays?