‘The Fifth Estate’ screenwriter sits down with Charles Nesson – Names – The Boston Globe, 17 October 2013

“The Fifth Estate” screenwriter Josh Singer sat down with Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson above right, with Singer at the Brattle Theatre Wednesday night before an advance screening of the much-buzzed about film starring Benedict Cumberbatch as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. After the screening, an array of brainy boldfacers — including Lawrence Lessig, Jonathan Zittrain, Yochai Benkler, and Ethan Zuckerman — were scheduled to take part in a panel discussion moderated by NPR’s Sacha Pfeiffer.

via ‘The Fifth Estate’ screenwriter sits down with Charles Nesson – Names – The Boston Globe.

Do Smartphone Sensors Present Security Risk? – Security – Mobile, 14 October 2013

Furthermore, accelerometers aren’t the only way that smartphones can be fingerprinted. For example, Sara M. Watson, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, recently wrote in a Wired opinion piece that the new M7 motion processor in the Apple 5s smartphones has been designed to continually record data from the device’s accelerometer, compass and gyroscope sensors, which could be used by so-called quantified self apps that serve as personal activity trackers. But the sensor data could easily be collected by apps — or even third parties — without the owner’s knowledge.

via Do Smartphone Sensors Present Security Risk? – Security – Mobile.

Hawaiis Public Records: High Fees Are Keeping Public Information Secret, 14 October 2013

“No matter what you do there is a cost associated with this function of government, and the question is how is that function allocated,” said Jeff Hermes, director of the Digital Media Law Project at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

via Hawaiis Public Records: High Fees Are Keeping Public Information Secret.

Fact: the NSA gets negligible intel from Americans’ metadata. So end collection | Yochai Benkler | Comment is free | theguardian.com, 8 October 2013

Defenders of the NSA’s bulk data collection program argue its necessity. But the evidence it makes us safer is vanishingly small

via Fact: the NSA gets negligible intel from Americans’ metadata. So end collection | Yochai Benkler | Comment is free | theguardian.com.