Laura Kalbag @laura@mastodon.laurakalbag.com

@ghost_bird ohno, I didn’t know that. ffs. Down with the TERFs

Good read on the UK’s age verification porn block: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/18/age-verification-block-porn-ethical-sites-sex

Insightful and horrifying:

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/17/18308466/invisible-women-pain-gender-data-gap-caroline-criado-perez

https://abookapart.com/products/everyday-information-architecture

Everyday Information Architecture by the brilliant Lisa Maria Martin is out today (you might have to hold tight til the US is on working hours) and I wrote about how much I loved reading this book and why you should buy it.

https://laurakalbag.com/everyday-information-architecture/

Using the hand grinder to grind coffee this morning…

One of which is a tracker that “empowers healthcare marketers to stand out and influence their most valuable audiences by combining state-of-the-art digital identity and data with the scale of programmatic advertising.” That’s what you expect on a site about Apple stuff… right?

Blimey, imore.com has a cool (not cool) 100 trackers on its homepage.

Got our EORI number, so by the UK government’s standards, I’m as prepared for no deal as I need to be… 😑

@better I regularly post links about the impact of tracking on @indie (or at https://ind.ie/radar) if you want more background.

I’m so angry and want to write more about this, but I also want to get a @better update out today (going to try to smash those trackers before they get to you.) In short: TRACKING IS BAD and invasive. Consent dialogs are not good enough for consent, let alone opt-out options. Discrimination based on tracking impacts marginalised and vulnerable people first and most. Yet 99% of the web is complicit in it. Go check yourselves.

Given that Apple have just removed Do Not Track from Safari because it was being used for tracking via “fingerprinting”, the decision to add trackability for assistive tech is *baffling.*

Léonie Watson wrote very clearly on this specific issue years ago: https://tink.uk/thoughts-on-screen-reader-detection/

@alana I think it’s being recorded. And Aral has been playing with recording talks while presenting, so we may be able to do that too!

Looking forward to Think About! conference. It’s designed to be properly inclusive, has some great-sounding talks in the lineup, and me and @aral are doing our first ever keynote *together.* Only a couple of weeks left on “regular bird” tickets: https://think-about.io/en/speakies/laura_kalbag_and_aral_balkan.html

It’s unbelievable (and yet so believable) that my Irish car insurance provider is giving me more useful and decisive advice around Brexit than the UK government.

Good morning, did you read this yet?

https://alistapart.com/article/canary-in-a-coal-mine-how-tech-provides-platforms-for-hate

Can’t wait to read Everyday Information Architecture and learn more from Lisa Maria Martin. If you work in anything that touches the web, this book will be indispensable. Pre-order it now!

https://abookapart.com/products/everyday-information-architecture

@switchingsocial @coffeentacos @better @aral Better has one (free and open) blocking rule list, curated by us with the aim to protect your privacy and enforce the principles of our ethical design manifesto (https://ind.ie/ethical-design/). This also means we can fix issues with specific sites/update rules based on reported problems. The app is designed to be easy for anyone to use, so you can just install the app and forget about it (no switches or choices to be made.) Hope that helps!

“We, by way of our platforms, give agency and credence to these acts of violence, then pilfer profits from them. Tech is a money-making accomplice to these hate crimes.”

@Tatianamac writes so clearly and powerfully, also giving us real guidance for action. Stop what you’re doing and read this:

https://alistapart.com/article/canary-in-a-coal-mine-how-tech-provides-platforms-for-hate