Microsoft Demos How to Be Sexist Jerks to Gamers at E3 (TRIGGER WARNING)

"I can't even block correctly and you're too fast," she says.
He replies, "Just let it happen. It will be over soon."
The audience laughs
"Wow, you like this," the man continues.
"No, I don't like this," she replies.

It might sound like the dialog you'd hear regarding a sexual assault you might be surprised to know it was on stage Monday at a gaming conference Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3.
One of the producers of Killer Instinct, a man, got on stage with an Xbox Community Manager, a woman, and proceeded to play in front of the crowd. While the remarks were not scripted - the fact that they happened on a stage representing the company in an industry already known for misogyny is deeply illustrative of the attitudes.

Sadly for Microsoft the sexist language is far from their biggest problem at E3 with their own console failing to make waves in the same way that rival Sony did with their new PS4, which by allowing users to use old games and delivering a price point of $399 is $100 cheaper than the Xbox.
Even that news managed to find a way to be expressed with rapey language on twitter...


Even just noting that there were no female protagonists in any Microsoft demo received sexist backlash.
Clearly it's not Microsoft's day, and they've got a lot to respond to - but if they want to take a page out of Nintendo's old playbook and get sales number boosted by women gamers, they're going in the wrong direction. One man on twitter summarized it well:

Obama is Reading Your Email and other Memes about the NSA Scandal

While the NSA's scandal continues to dominate the news and with the leaker, Edward Snowden now publicly open with the reasons for leaking the documents, there's also humor in some of the reactions. Meme culture has some pretty humorous responses to the news.
There's a whole tumblr dedicated to the idea of Obama is checking your email.

But there's also plenty of one off images circulating around twitter. Such as Obama eavesdropping.

In reference to the famous New Yorker cartoon, we see the internet dog.


Buzzfeed targeted Verizon specifically with a series of re-imagined ads.
 
Other users focused on Snowden who gives Good Guy Greg some serious competition.

Campaign posters were also redesigned to include NSA references.


And we even had a TSA reference in the mix!

While the policies in question and the consequences of the government's activities are no laughing matter, once again we see Internet humor moves at an incredible pace and humor remains a way to quickly make a point or introduce and share an idea rapidly.

You Don't Have Digital Privacy Thanks To PRISM

If you reconsidered using Verizon after discovering that the NSA was collecting your phone records, you should probably turn your computer off now. In another stunning publication the Guardian reported today about a program called PRISM which has been monitoring 9 large tech companies and thus most likely your email.

This program allows the NSA direct access to the servers of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Paltalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. To put that in perspective, When you're at work if you're using Google Apps for Business (like I do) you're being monitored. If you were an early internet user and still have your Hotmail, AOL or Yahoo email addresses - you're being monitored. If you're purchasing books or music through iTunes, you'd be monitored. Vacation pictures on Facebook? You're monitored...

The worst part of this all, Congress voted on allowing this in the Protect America Act without much of a debate voting quickly on a Friday in 2007 to avoid being seen as soft on terrorism. That program which lacked judicial oversight to begin with - has since been expanded into what we learned of today.

While those companies denied knowledge of the program and didn't know what PRISM was until this report came out earlier today, the reality is even those companies don't have the best track record with defending users privacy rights as shown in this EFF Report. Whether it is not requiring a warrant for content or not telling users about government data requests- it's hard to trust either the companies individual use of data and how such data is shared with third parties willingly, so when even that level of data security is frequently compromised without users being notified it's an even greater breach of trust when those companies don't know they're also being watched.

Previous scandals such as the Google WiSpy scandal, AOL search leak, Facebook App's Privacy issues and iPhone tracking illustrate those companies whether through a desire for more data, a lack of respect for users, negligence in managing data or interest in helping advertisers - are all guilty of having breached users trust in the past. And this doesn't even include what happens when all of that data is being tracked by the government.

Now the comments by Senator Ron Wyden in May of 2011 can be seen in context I think most will agree: "When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry."

I know I am. Though I'm hopeful now that this abuse has come to light we can begin a serious conversation about privacy rights in a digital age.

Aaron Swartz Continues to Make the Internet More Open

Internet Activist Aaron Swart's project with The New Yorker launched Wednesday. Strongbox lets users share information, messages, and files with writers and editors anonymously.

Months after his suicide, Internet activist Aaron Swartz continues to make the world a more open place. Wednesday the New Yorker announced the launch of a project he helped develop with them, Strongbox, a tool that allows sources to anonymously submit information, messages and evidence with writers and editors.

Strongbox uses a Tor network to protect the transportation of data by redirecting packets through a distributed anonymous network in a series of encrypted steps so no machine in the pipeline knows where the packet came from before arriving. Because any computer within the pipeline can see no more than one hop in the circuit, even a compromised path can't be used to connect the information's source and destination.

Once a user accesses Strongbox, they can upload files or send messages using a randomly generated user name. That anonymous ID can either be used only once to send information to a writer or editor, or the user if they're willing to follow up, can use the ID to access messages and questions from editors and writers who might have further questions.

Within their privacy promise regarding Strongbox they state that, "Strongbox servers are under the physical control of The New Yorker and Condé Nast in a physically and logically segregated area at a secure data center. Strongbox servers and network share no elements in common with The New Yorker or Condé Nast infrastructure."

The final step to access the files involves writers and editors downloading files onto a thumbdrive, using a separate thumbdrive with an encryption key on a laptop without a harddrive that regularly wipes its memory, and then accessing the information on that seperate machine. This allows physical air space between the network that sent the message, and the machine that actually opens the documents.

Strongbox is the first use of Aaron Swartz's Deaddrop code which he finished in the month before his suicide on January 11th of  this year. The code for Deaddrop as well as Strongbox is open source in a fitting tribute to his work.

Aaron Swartz defended the use of anonymous communication on his blog years before in 2008 saying, "In 1787, when America’s framers wanted to argue for its Constitution, they published their arguments (the Federalist Papers) anonymously. Whistleblowers have released everything from the Pentagon Papers to the Downing Street Memos. Anonymous speech is a First Amendment right."

Given the increasing usage of the Internet for everything from our daily communication, work, commerce, socializing and an ever expanding world of applications in our daily lives, digital privacy should be a huge concern. Especially after the recent compromise of the AP phone records, the importance of Strongbox offering journalists a new safer tool to protect sources is more obviously needed than before. And luckily for us, Aaron Swartz was tackling the problem before his death.

As Swartz said, "Here’s to anonymity — and more tools protecting it."