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Facebook is far more powerful than its tens of millions of users realise
Facebook is far more powerful than its tens of millions of users realise. „It’s a very scary fact that Facebook has the power to make or break companies or individuals.” That’s a warning from internet expert Danny Mekic’ on the social network’s tenth anniversary. „Because who decides what information you are shown?” Behind the scenes,…
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The Snowden saga shows a radical shift in democracy
The debate about governmental surveillance and mass espionage that Edward Snowden’s revelations have started should also be about capitalism, argues Evgeny Morozov in the Financial Times. Because data is becoming the new money. But data isn’t replacing money at all and the debate should not be about capitalism, replies Danny Mekic. Money, as a medium…
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Survival of the Tinderer
Dear Sir, Chinese dating apps battle with tradition for hearts and minds (Financial Times, December 24th) – but the truth is: tradition already lost that battle, and not just in China. While Facebook still doesn’t facilitate meeting new people, Tinder — mostly popular in English-speaking countries — now has millions of users and has generated…
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Bank of Tomorrow: the keywords are customisation and relevance
26 years old. Bright green sneakers, messy hairdo, an irreverent look in his eyes. Not much out of the ordinary so far. But while the bulk of his peers are looking for jobs, his agenda is booked solid until September 2014 with international consultancy assignments, lectures, workshops and radio and TV appearances: ‘internet guru’, entrepreneur,…
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“You’re allowed to have something to hide”
Nothing is a coincidence. His father moved to the Netherlands before the third Balkan war, after meeting a woman from Amsterdam on a holiday. “Grandpa stayed behind, along with the rest of my relatives. My father is a radio communications enthusiast. He has a license to communicate using powerful radios. We lived in a tall…
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Mass surveillance of web traffic is not an ‘expansion of existing jurisdiction’
This Monday, the investigation report of the Commission Dessens was presented; the commission was tasked by the Dutch House of Representatives last year with evaluating the ‘Wet op de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten’ (Law on the Intelligence and Security Services, abbreviated ‘Wiv’). That commission is now suggesting an ‘expansion of the jurisdiction’ of the Dutch AIVD…