TOBY SHAPSHAK: Digital freedom under threat
Android snooping and Uber’s 57m-user data theft were overshadowed by dangerous changes to Net neutrality
Of the revelations last week of corporate malfeasance, which was the most damaging? Was it that ProPublica found Google’s Android operating system tracks its users despite them opting out of such tracking, and after a factory reset of the phone? Or was it Uber exposed for failing to reveal a hack that exposed 57m people’s details last year? In the case of Uber it is another self-inflicted crisis from a company that keeps scoring own goals. Not only is it unethical not to reveal such an attack, it is illegal in many US states. Even more worrying is the dumbfounding decision by the US regulator, the FCC, to roll back the "Net neutrality" that has so far defined the freedom of traffic on the Internet. This decision is going to have the most far-reaching effects on the Internet and how we all access it. It has the potential to be very bad for free speech.Simply put, all Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat data and traffic as equal, be it streaming video (very-bandwidth-intensiv...
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