Top all-time · #1253
Lauren Weinstein
Personal blog · lauren.vortex.compoliticssecurity
Lauren Weinstein's personal blog at lauren.vortex.com covers politics and security. Since 2007, 58 different Hacker News readers have linked it 106 times, most often “The death of Google”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-15, and you can follow it by feed.
Most-linked posts?
- The death of Google3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-10-09
- One of the Most Alarming Internet Proposals I've Seen2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-02-23
- Under Fire, US Social Security Site Changes Security Policy Again2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-08-01
- Social Media Is Probably Doomed2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-10-10
What Hacker News says?
A very substantial portion (~98% of all public posts) of Google+ was successfully archived, at the Internet Archive, thanks to the Archive Team. As a longtime G+ user, and one of the organisers behind the G+ "Plexodus", the existence, assistance, and capabilities of the Archive Team were hugely appreciated. AT and the Internet Archive have succeeded in preserving other content, though not all projects are successful…
Comment linking /2019/01/29/googles-g-user-trust-betrayal-gets-worse-and-worse
on “Verizon/Yahoo Blocking Attempts to Archive Yahoo Groups – Deletion: Dec. 14”Submitted One of the Most Alarming Internet Proposals I've Seen as a story · 534 points
HN discussion> I noticed that Chrome had moved the SSL details dialog away from the lock dropdown too. I have no idea about the rationale but here's where SSL details reside now... it's insane what they have done: >First, get into Developer tools. You can do this via Chrome’s upper-right three vertical dots, then click “More tools” — then “Developer tools” — or on many systems you can just press the F12 button. >But wait, there’…
Comment linking /2017/01/28/heres-where-google-hid-the-ssl-certificate-information-you-may-need
on “Chrome Widevine DRM can no longer be disabled”Submitted As Feds Demand the Keys, Preparing for the Death of Public-Key Encryption as a story · 407 points
HN discussionHi all. The original blog post on this topic is mine. Let's assume you're a very "privacy conscious" person who only accepts cookies for sites where you feel they are necessary -- say ones where you're going to login, or you really want to read articles there and you can't without the cookies, or whatever. Under Firefox (and Chrome under the old modality) your cookie setting choice was "Block but notify on new cooki…
Comment linking /
on “Google Removes Cookie Control from Chrome”Submitted The death of Google as a story · 343 points
HN discussionSome context: http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001076.html "What they propose for the new HTTP/2.0 protocol is nothing short of officially sanctioned snooping."
Comment linking /archive/001076.html
on “Explicit Trusted Proxy in HTTP/2.0”Submitted New Facebook Feature Empowers the Dangerous "Comment Nazis" as a story · 125 points
HN discussionThis site was incredibly slow for me to connect to. Just in case the server goes down here's the text of the article. I will remove this if requested. Mirror for the ctrl+f folks ---------------------------------- Windows 10's New Feature Steals Your Internet Bandwidth A couple of days ago I discussed a number of privacy and other concerns with Microsoft's new Windows 10, made available as a free upgrade for many ex…
Comment linking /archive/001115.html
on “Windows 10 “steals” your bandwidth”Submitted Google Removes Cookie Control from Chrome as a story · 114 points
HN discussionUnrelated to Lauren Weinstein, the privacy activist: https://lauren.vortex.com/
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on “The Genius of Learning”Submitted Windows 10 “steals” your bandwidth as a story · 94 points
HN discussionHere's an interesting solution. CMU just put out a tool called Perspectives that runs public notary servers. The servers probe sites periodically to get a history of keys. This can go a long way toward determining whether there is a man-in-the-middle sending you a fake SSL certificate (because it will not match the history). http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~perspectives/ (hat-tip Lauren Weinstein) http://lauren.vortex.com/arc…
Comment linking /archive/000414.html
on “Mozilla SSL policy bad for the Web”Submitted Sadly, How Windows 10 Reveals Microsoft's Ethics Armageddon as a story · 47 points
HN discussionAs an appreciator of vintage BSTJ issues (in particular the 1948 C.E.Shannon vehicles ;-), I liked this bit: [...] it was widely argued that a single page and a single table from the November 1960 edition of The Bell System Technical Journal -- in fact, this page and this table [1], triggered the rise of telephone network hopping “phone phreaks” [...] [1] http://lauren.vortex.com/bstj-bluebox.jpg
Comment linking /bstj-bluebox.jpg
on “Censorship, Governments, and Flagellating Google”Submitted White House Proposes Vast Federal Internet Identity Scheme as a story · 39 points
HN discussionhttps://www.theverge.com/2016/3/7/11173010/verizon-supercook... https://tech.slashdot.org/story/07/07/25/155200/tool-detects... https://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000337.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/markgibbs/2013/05/01/cox-commun... https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/confirmed-isp-modifies-google...
Comment linking /archive/000337.html
on “Ask HN: Why Paul Graham’s Website Isn’t Using HTTPS?”Submitted Microsoft's Police State Vision? Exec Calls for Internet "Driver's Licenses" as a story · 31 points
HN discussionLauren's outlook on social media is monochromatic, apocalyptic and incorrect in one respect. When real names and pictures are required of everyone, cyberdisinhibitionism, the tendency for people to act horribly and without boundaries, is reduced and conversation becomes more civilized. Signalvnoise (Basecamp / DHH blog) points to this observation. https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2205-there-is-an-inverse-rela... Anoth…
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on ““Once upon a time long ago, I was sitting alone in the UCLA ARPANET site #1””Submitted New Anti-Piracy Windows 7 Update "Phones Home" to Microsoft Every 90 Days as a story · 30 points
HN discussion(from http://lauren.vortex.com/googler-lyrics ) "Our data store of your actions makes NSA's look just like toys," bet their pr folks love that one.
Comment linking /googler-lyrics
on “"I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major Googler" (Song)”Submitted Censorship, Governments, and Flagellating Google as a story · 22 points
HN discussionSubmitted Some Software Designers Don’t Seem to Care About the Elderly as a story · 17 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Death of Google as a story · 16 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Hysteria Over Google's Wi-Fi Scanning as a story · 11 points
HN discussionSubmitted Google cracking down on Android apps using Accessibility Services as a story · 9 points
HN discussionSubmitted Google is making their weak, flawed passkey system the default login method as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Google Modifies SSL Behavior and the Results Are Troubling as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why I'm Skeptical of the FCC's Call for User Broadband Testing as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Google and the DoD’s Disturbing “Maven” A.I. Project Presentation Document as a story · 7 points
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