'The Digital Rights Forum is a public debate on the important issues surrounding digital rights, with each event designed around the general over-arching topic of digital rights, puls a more narrowly focused subject. On Friday, the 18th of May, the forum will tackle the issue of Online Privacy.

With our lives ever more integrated with the web and social media, staying safe online is becoming an increasing concern to everyone. From mobile apps to websites and email, protecting our personal information and online privacy has never been more complicated and more important. Faced with software vulnerabilities such as contacts being leaked onto the Internet by mobile application providers, the increasing push toward revealing more private and personal information on social networks, and attempts by some to protect their businesses through litigation or processes which require the disclosure of personal information, the modern digital landscape has made protecting one's privacy more difficult than ever before.

With this in mind, this Digital Rights Forum will discuss the current state of data protection and online privacy in the current context of social networks and mobile applications.'

Featuring Billy Hawkes (the DPC, no less!), and Devore from Boards.

you know Noonan's "deal" with the ECB is insane when the FT compares it to the South Park underpants gnomes. oh dear

A new Irish news site with some familiar names. 'What is a fact? In philosophy, a fact is something that makes a statement true. In science, it is a verifiable observation. In our case, we take a fact to be something that we can provably demonstrate to be true. This means that we can check the truth of a statement about the current state of affairs but we cannot check claims about the future. Inevitably, as the evidence gets more granular, our view of a fact can change but we should take the scientific approach of going where the evidence leads us, rather than the all too common habit today of starting with a conclusion and looking for supporting data. We are holding ourselves to a high standard and we want you to call us on it where you believe we have fallen short. It is more important that, as readers and writers, we collaborate to put verifiable facts into our daily discourse rather than that we save face. We are looking forward to what we’re sure will be a challenging and rewarding experience and hope you enjoy the ride.'

Sean Sherlock says the new SI will "establish Irish copyright law on a firm footing to encourage innovation, foster creativity", which is pretty bloody hilarious. plus a nice little dig at the online campaign: "As there are clearly many diverse interests, it is important that interested parties come together and work in a constructive way to map the path forward." They really don't have a clue what they've done. After 20 years of Labour first prefs, I'm never voting Labour again

Anti-spam/AV filtering technology turned to a different purpose: political repression. 'The next day, 225 instructed Syriatel to block messages containing the word “massacres.”'

In which Ben Walsh memorably takes on racist/right-wing comments from a Labour senator, and gets told to "go back to D4". ho ho

'The data simply doesn’t suggest that piracy is causing any serious economic harm to the US economy or the entertainment industry. Heavy-handed approaches to preventing piracy are wrong-headed and reveal a dangerous level of short-term thinking on the part of both lawmakers and industry leaders. Worse, the impetus to crack down on piracy is based largely on industry data that wildly inflates the problem.'

'In 2011, we have a new Government, who have stopped making excuses for the Vatican State. The Facebook campaign now has over 5,000 members, who continue to send emails and letters to their TDs and to the Minister for Foreign Affairs expressing the clear message that we want action. Enda Kenny said yesterday that the Vatican downplayed the rape and torture of Irish children to to uphold instead the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and ‘reputation’. We should expel the Vatican’s Papal Nuncio and send the message that they have destroyed the very things they prized the most.'

"The Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Sexual Abuse in the Dublin ArchDiocese clearly states that the Papal Nuncio, the Diplomatic representative of the Vatican, refused to reply to investigators. Now the Cloynes Report has found that the Vatican's Ambassador intervened to undermine the efforts to protect children as recently as 1996. This is not acceptable. The Irish Government has the power to expel diplomats. If we are to take the reports' findings seriously, we must expel the Papal Nuncio."

'leaking the indo's offline wikileaks coverage online where it belongs' - scans of each article

'The postwoman is paid a pittance to deliver corporate mail. She hasn’t done her job well, yet so few people have complained about missed deliveries that she hasn’t been found out. Across the world, postal services are being altered like this: optimised to deliver the maximum amount of unwanted mail at the minimum cost to businesses. In the internet age private citizens are sending less mail than they used to, but that’s only part of the story of postal decline. The price of driving down the cost of bulk mailing for a handful of big organisations is being paid for by the replacement of decently paid postmen with casual labour and the erosion of daily deliveries.' (via Tony Finch)

“As the banks’ losses deepen and Dublin’s credibility withers, now is an apt time to rethink the foundations of the European Union’s Irish-rescue strategy, one that is now effectively premised on sinking one country so that tough political choices may be avoided in another.”  ouch

'Last year we revealed that the Department of Justice was working on secret plans to introduce internet filtering in Ireland. Now, despite a complete lack of any legislation, public consultation or democratic discussion, these plans have moved to the implementation stage.' wtf, this is just appalling lack of oversight

'Because it’s easy for a kid to find a site that isn’t blocked – or to “borrow” mum or dad’s credit card – it’s of no serious concern to the intrepid kid. It does suck if they want to find out how not to get AIDS though. So, we’re stuck with a situation that’s expensive for MNOs, embarrassing and annoying for consenting adults, and trivial for a child to bypass.'

Adrian Weckler with a plea for the incoming govt regarding the attempt to rush through '3 Strikes' by the outgoing one: 'Such a law will have absolutely no effect on the practice of illegal filesharing. None. Zero. It hasn't worked in France. It hasn't worked in Britain. And it certainly won't work in Ireland. On the other hand, it may well send a signal to huge, jobs-creating digital IT companies that Ireland is a place that tries to legislate away personal digital freedoms.'

FG 63 seats, Labour 51, SF 23, Greens 10, Ind 11, FF 2. interesting to see SF's strong showing among emigrants -- something for electoral reformers to think about ;)

Brilliant! "find out which political parties are compatible with you." The app asks a few questions, you furnish survey-style responses, and it figures out which party is closest in published policy. It works quite well, determining that my optimum is Labour (correct)

A symbolic online vote for Ireland's emigrants, courtesy of Joe "ICTE" McCarthy -- the site is now open, and 'will remain open for one week until 12:00 GMT on Tuesday 22nd. Only those living outside Ireland will able to cast a ballot.'

Jesus H. Christ, this is incredibly nonsensical. Green Party candidate Eamonn Ryan proposes replacing the TV license fee with an internet tax -- 'some small charge on the volume of data.'  WTF

'See or post leaflets shoved through your door by parties and candidates across the land. RSS feeds and email alerts available by constituency. Add new leaflets through a web form or by email.'

fast work from new FF leader Micheal Martin: 'None of those who complained consented to their details being used to contact them in this way and none could establish how Fianna Fáil obtained their addresses.'

incredible insider account of Cowen's final ineptitudes as FF leader. Beyond GUBU

some amazing details of Stuxnet's apparent background. 'By the accounts of a number of computer scientists, nuclear enrichment experts and former officials, the covert race to create Stuxnet was a joint project between the Americans and the Israelis, with some help, knowing or unknowing, from the Germans and the British.'

all signs point to 'they didn't.'  also, interesting comment in the Reddit thread: 'From a source close to the situation; the forms [on the FG site] were not being sanitised [against SQL injection attacks] at all.'  incredibly amateurish, if true

'Greater access to information on the workings of government empower the public in making informed decisions on the direction they want the country to take. Open Government and media reforms can make this a reality. The key inspiration for Reset Ireland comes from projects such as the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative along with various other projects promoting openness, transparency and accountability in Government around the world.'

good article from Gabriella Coleman in The Atlantic

good round-up on this FF quango fiasco

Leo on the current political situation in Ireland. I'm mostly in agreement

Pretty good explanation, actually

Dagestan knows how to party. 'The main activity of the day was eating and drinking -- starting from 4 p.m., about eight hours worth, all told -- punctuated, when all were laden with food and sodden with drink, with a bout of jet skiing in the Caspian'

does exactly what it says on the tin

Conservapedia gold. "His father was half-English, half-Russian. His mother was dutch. He speaks English, Dutch, French, German and Spanish. His wife is Roman Catholic. Aged sixteen, Clegg was arrested in Germany and charged with arson. He and his friends destroyed a priceless collection of rare cacti while he was drunk."

'it becomes clear that for some time now the Department of Justice has been proposing the introduction of internet blocking in Ireland – and has been doing this under the radar, without any public consultation or legislative approval. Indeed, it is clear from the list that the Department is not planning on introducing legislation but instead intends to introduce this new form of censorship without any legal basis, based on the now discredited Norwegian and Danish models.' This is very bad news indeed

fantastic article about Mass Effect's political allegory. I'm slightly disappointed that Mass Effect 2 didn't live up to ME1's quality, IMO

MS internal politics routinely torpedoed cool new projects. surprise, surprise. 'Engineers in the Windows group falsely claimed [ClearType] made the display go haywire when certain colors were used. The head of Office products said it was fuzzy and gave him headaches. The VP for pocket devices was blunter: he’d support ClearType and use it, but only if I transferred the program and the programmers to his control.'

Dublin City Council is offering the ability to public consultation via a Boards forum. cool

how the Great Firewall of Oz breaks so much more than the web browser

'Ohm notes, this illustrates a central reality of data collection: "data can either be useful or perfectly anonymous but never both."'

Satire site The Emergency on pro-life paramilitary nutter group Coir's new scaremongering campaign: "A German Will Be In Charge Of The SKY Remote IN YOUR LIVING ROOM!!!! Unless you vote NO!" -- a pretty accurate rendition of their posters

features mainly posts from NAMA-sceptic economist Karl Whelan

hilarious response to mind-boggling US healthcare talking-point derpitude: 'People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.' fantastic