Which company wants to make it easier to punish researchers...

(Paywall-free popularization like this is what I do for a living. To support me, see the end of this post)

…for finding flaws in its software?

Which company wants to make it easier to punish researchers... /img/voatz.jpg

The Supreme Court of the United States is discussing a case that, if interpreted as a certain company asked, could turn lying to social media services about one’s personal info a US federal crime.

If that case went as described in the article, it would make it far easier to " prosecute people who use sites in ways owners don’t expect or engage in research efforts that require ignoring the rules. And it would give abusive site owners plenty of ways to harass users and visitors they don’t like."

And who pushed to make this happen? No one else than Voatz, the same “developer of notoriously flawed e-voting systems” I already mentioned here just a few months ago. Please re-read that post, and the full report at TechDirt to know why and how what Voatz is a BAD thing.

Image source: screenshot of image search results for “Voatz flawed”.

Who writes this, why, and how to help

I am Marco Fioretti, tech writer and aspiring polymath doing human-digital research and popularization.
I do it because YOUR civil rights and the quality of YOUR life depend every year more on how software is used AROUND you.

To this end, I have already shared more than a million words on this blog, without any paywall or user tracking, and am sharing the next million through a newsletter, also without any paywall.

The more direct support I get, the more I can continue to inform for free parents, teachers, decision makers, and everybody else who should know more stuff like this. You can support me with paid subscriptions to my newsletter, donations via PayPal (mfioretti@nexaima.net) or LiberaPay, or in any of the other ways listed here.THANKS for your support!