Chronicling Online Communities

Bonus Episode: Privacy’s Defender

Mar 17, 20261h 7mSummary

In this bonus episode of How to Fix the Internet, host Cindy Cohen joins guest Corey Doctorow to discuss her new book, Privacy’s Defender: My 30-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance. Recorded live at San Francisco’s City Lights bookstore, the conversation explores Cohen’s career as a trailblazing advocate for digital rights and her long-term tenure at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The discussion centers on three pivotal chapters in the battle for digital privacy: the 1990s "crypto wars" that secured the right to use encryption, the fight to expose and challenge the NSA’s mass surveillance dragnet, and the ongoing legal struggle against the FBI’s use of secret national security letters. Cohen reflects on the challenges of inventing a new category of digital law while effectively "building the airplane while flying it." She and Doctorow also examine the convergence of state and private surveillance, highlighting how modern data brokers and government agencies often work in tandem to compromise personal autonomy. Ultimately, the episode serves as a battle cry for ongoing institutional reform, urging listeners to remain vigilant and innovative as they defend the privacy rights necessary for a functioning democracy.

Introducing EFFector: How Targeted Advertising Gives Your Location to the Government

Mar 11, 202617 minSummary

This episode of the Effector podcast explores the disturbing intersection between the online advertising industry and government surveillance. The hosts and guests explain how federal agencies are bypassing the Fourth Amendment by purchasing commercially available location data—information originally collected for targeted advertising purposes—to track individuals without a warrant. The discussion centers on the real-time bidding system, a technical process that broadcasts personal user information to hundreds of companies in milliseconds during ad auctions. Experts explain how this system creates a massive surveillance machine that data brokers eavesdrop on to harvest and sell precise location histories. They detail how this data reveals deeply personal patterns, such as where individuals live, work, and worship, making true anonymization impossible. The episode concludes with actionable advice for listeners to protect their privacy, such as disabling mobile advertising IDs and reviewing location permissions for apps. Furthermore, the discussion advocates for systemic policy changes, including the passage of comprehensive federal privacy legislation and the "Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act," to close the loophole that allows law enforcement to legally purchase sensitive personal data from brokers.

Building and Preserving the Library of Everything

Sep 10, 202542 minSummary

In this episode of How to Fix the Internet, hosts Cindy Cohn and Jason Kelly sit down with Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle to discuss his lifelong mission of building a universal, digital library. Kahle, an early internet pioneer and advocate for open access, details how his background in computer engineering and search technology led him to the ambitious goal of digitizing the world’s knowledge. The conversation explores the critical role of the Internet Archive as digital infrastructure, highlighting projects like the Wayback Machine, which preserves the fragile history of the web, and Democracy’s Library, which makes government documents accessible to the public. Kahle emphasizes that delegating the role of librarian to corporations or governments is inherently risky, as these entities often prioritize different agendas over long-term preservation. The hosts also discuss the necessity of privacy, the importance of free and open-source software, and the potential of public-interest AI to make vast, previously obscure archives useful for modern researchers. Ultimately, Kahle calls for a more decentralized web and encourages a new generation of technologists to dedicate their skills to building public-interest infrastructure that serves the common good rather than private gain.

Protecting Privacy in Your Brain

Separating AI Hope from AI Hype

Aug 13, 202539 minSummary

In this episode of How to Fix the Internet, hosts Cindy Cohn and Jason Kelly sit down with Arvin Narayanan, a computer science professor at Princeton and co-author of the book and newsletter AI Snake Oil. The conversation moves beyond typical dystopian fears to offer a clear-eyed assessment of what artificial intelligence can—and cannot—actually accomplish in the real world. Narayanan challenges the popular belief that AI will soon reach superhuman parity across all tasks. He argues that unlike chess, which is a closed system, most real-world jobs require common sense and fuzzy logic, meaning AI is more likely to augment human professionals rather than replace them. The discussion touches on the productive use of AI in education, emphasizing that tools can be transformative for personalized learning when used with a critical, skeptical mindset. Furthermore, the episode explores the dangers of predictive algorithms in high-stakes fields like criminal justice and hiring. Narayanan explains that these tools often rely on biased data that reflects past human decisions rather than objective truths, ultimately masking the need for deeper organizational reform. The episode concludes by advocating for a more pragmatic view of technology, focusing on human-AI collaboration rather than unbridled hype.

Smashing the Tech Oligarchy

Finding the Joy in Digital Security

Cryptography Makes a Post-Quantum Leap

Securing Journalism on the ‘Data-Greedy’ Internet

Why Three is Tor's Magic Number