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Digital voting: expensive, undemocratic and an inevitable security liability
It’s a debate that keeps coming back up. Sometimes it’s about voting computers; this time it’s about voting from your home using your laptop or smartphone. Voting with a slip of paper and a red pencil is ‘obsolete’, insist the technophiles. But contrary to what they say, the pencil and paper method is still the…
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ANWB’s Big Brother insurance is a terrible idea
How can a car insurance company continue to make money if driverless cars might make car damage a thing of the past? The answer is simple and sinister: by gathering as much private information about their customers as possible. Google has been doing it very successfully for years and the value of their shares has…
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Why the popularity of ad blockers is the advertising industry’s own fault
Ten years ago, I moved out of my parents’ house. The first thing I bought was a NO/NO sticker, which people in the Netherlands can put on their letterboxes to indicate they’re not interested in junk mail. I put it on mine with a happy smile. Isn’t that wonderful, I thought, having the power to…
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The Dutch government will soon know more about you than your partner does
What were you doing last Tuesday one year ago at 8 PM? Who do you fancy? And does your current partner know? How many times have you told a lie during the past year? How many times have you had sex, and do you remember where, when and with whom? Those are just a handful…
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The Netherlands to leave Britain and the US far behind as digital surveillance state
Constitutions were initially instated to keep the State at an appropriate distance. To never give the government more power or limit citizens’ fundamental rights more than strictly necessary, and only when it’s effective. Today, in the shadow of worldwide dangers and fears, the constitution of more and more western countries has degenerated into a soothing…
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Governments: No more external consultants for IT
IT and the government: MPs playing Mark Zuckerberg is not such a good idea “I had to google what IT means, exactly,” chairperson of the House of Representatives Anouchka van Miltenburg candidly blurted out last Wednesday, upon receiving the inquiry report into governmental IT disasters presented to her by commission president Ton Elias. It wasn’t…