A great explanation of real time bidding and how your personal information does get shared by google (and many others) with thousands of third-parties, some in China and Russia. Whatever sneaky language they use to reassure you, this is the reality of the online advertising world.
Two women reminisce about their teenage years in the 1890s. They were obviously better off than many of their counterparts of the day but it's still quite fascinating to get first-person accounts that go so far back. I'm also impressed by one woman's cycling endurance. London to Brighton and back on what was effectively a fixed-gear bike is quite something.
As someone who used to hang out in all these strange and exciting places, I'm happy to know it's all still happening despite the mainstream takeover.
It's a long read, but well worth it. The story of how investigators followed Bitcoin transactions to bring down a large child abuse site.
Bitcoin isn't as anonymous as most people think:
Within a few years of Bitcoin’s arrival, academic security researchers—and then companies like Chainalysis—began to tear gaping holes in the masks separating Bitcoin users’ addresses and their real-world identities. They could follow bitcoins on the blockchain as they moved from address to address until they reached one that could be tied to a known identity. In some cases, an investigator could learn someone’s Bitcoin addresses by transacting with them, the way an undercover narcotics agent might conduct a buy-and-bust. In other cases, they could trace a target’s coins to an account at a cryptocurrency exchange where financial regulations required users to prove their identity. A quick subpoena to the exchange from one of Chainalysis’ customers in law enforcement was then enough to strip away any illusion of Bitcoin’s anonymity.
Warning: there's some disturbing content in the article. It's depressing to read about these people.
If you haven't seen it yet, this segment from John Oliver about data brokers is worth a watch, particularly the magnificent ending.
Bloomberg reporters placed tracking devices in plastic bags to see what happened to them. They made quite a journey and revealed how obscure and problematic the recycling business can be.
It made me wonder about how local recycling is processed but all I could find was vague rhetoric.
