I like the idea of "nutrition labels" for information sites, and I'd like to see those be as objective as possible. The devil's in the details of course but once those details are worked out, I'd...
I like the idea of "nutrition labels" for information sites, and I'd like to see those be as objective as possible. The devil's in the details of course but once those details are worked out, I'd like to see this become widespread. At the supermarket, you don't find the World News (a tabloid) next to the NYT - that separation helps to distinguish entertainment and information and I think this does as well.
This is the first I've heard of NewsGuard, and their partnership with MS. I'm not sure how to feel about this, on the whole - a cursory search suggests they're fairly neutral and transparent, but...
This is the first I've heard of NewsGuard, and their partnership with MS. I'm not sure how to feel about this, on the whole - a cursory search suggests they're fairly neutral and transparent, but the real test will be whether that holds up as they gain traction (and especially traction above a browser with single-digit market share).
A word of warning to the privacy conscious; I too downloaded this extension after I heard the news, but rapidly uninstalled it once I discovered that the way the extension works is to send off all...
A word of warning to the privacy conscious; I too downloaded this extension after I heard the news, but rapidly uninstalled it once I discovered that the way the extension works is to send off all your browsing data to their central server!
I heard of it via reddit, here is the source: https://twitter.com/gorhill/status/1085980638405148676 Indeed, it doesn't seem to be disclosed in their privacy policy.
Of note: that Twitter account belongs to the man who maintains uBlock Origin and uMatrix. Seems like a pretty trustworthy source on what the code is actually doing.
Of note: that Twitter account belongs to the man who maintains uBlock Origin and uMatrix. Seems like a pretty trustworthy source on what the code is actually doing.
and the guardian is such a top-tier news site that this "story" gets reported on. in all seriousness, who cares what these tools have to say? nothing will replace research skills.
and the guardian is such a top-tier news site that this "story" gets reported on.
in all seriousness, who cares what these tools have to say? nothing will replace research skills.
the issue is, if no one is doing this work out of the goodness of their heart, the entity responsible for judging content will inevitably have an agenda tied to the source of their funding. edit:...
the issue is, if no one is doing this work out of the goodness of their heart, the entity responsible for judging content will inevitably have an agenda tied to the source of their funding.
edit: so we're just adding another layer of potential untrustworthiness to the situation, you feel me? and honestly, picture the type of person that cannot tell a "real" article from a "real" news site from what would be, to you and i, an obviously shady/biased "news" source, or some wacko's blog. what does it matter if the person in question is tricked? it's unlikely they have an impactful place in society if so naive. so i fail to see why any of this is necessary. and it all comes so close to censorship, it gives me the creeps.
I'm pretty torn on this. On the one hand I think the internet should be as open as possible and I'm not a fan of the browser injecting itself into the content of my browsing. But I also think when...
I'm pretty torn on this. On the one hand I think the internet should be as open as possible and I'm not a fan of the browser injecting itself into the content of my browsing. But I also think when a site is known to spread blatantly false information, beyond bias or personal opinions, there is a lot of value to be had in both deterring visitors from blindly trusting the site as well as giving the site an incentive to improve the credibility of their content. But again I do very much understand the fear of a slippery slope; On the extreme end of these practices you get bills like SOPA (of course in this case you can just not use Edge).
that is a pretty good example. i guess it would take something like google doing a blanket ban of anti-vaccine sites to make a big difference, which would lead to other issues and inevitably get...
that is a pretty good example. i guess it would take something like google doing a blanket ban of anti-vaccine sites to make a big difference, which would lead to other issues and inevitably get messy, so hopefully it doesn't happen.
I like the idea of "nutrition labels" for information sites, and I'd like to see those be as objective as possible. The devil's in the details of course but once those details are worked out, I'd like to see this become widespread. At the supermarket, you don't find the World News (a tabloid) next to the NYT - that separation helps to distinguish entertainment and information and I think this does as well.
This is the first I've heard of NewsGuard, and their partnership with MS. I'm not sure how to feel about this, on the whole - a cursory search suggests they're fairly neutral and transparent, but the real test will be whether that holds up as they gain traction (and especially traction above a browser with single-digit market share).
There's a Firefox extension. Not sure about Chrome, Opera or any others.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/newsguard/
A word of warning to the privacy conscious; I too downloaded this extension after I heard the news, but rapidly uninstalled it once I discovered that the way the extension works is to send off all your browsing data to their central server!
That's concerning - I've just read their Privacy Policy and it doesn't mention this. How did you find out that's what it's doing?
I heard of it via reddit, here is the source: https://twitter.com/gorhill/status/1085980638405148676
Indeed, it doesn't seem to be disclosed in their privacy policy.
Of note: that Twitter account belongs to the man who maintains uBlock Origin and uMatrix. Seems like a pretty trustworthy source on what the code is actually doing.
I hadn't realised that, but I'm glad you've mentioned it!
and the guardian is such a top-tier news site that this "story" gets reported on.
in all seriousness, who cares what these tools have to say? nothing will replace research skills.
the issue is, if no one is doing this work out of the goodness of their heart, the entity responsible for judging content will inevitably have an agenda tied to the source of their funding.
edit: so we're just adding another layer of potential untrustworthiness to the situation, you feel me? and honestly, picture the type of person that cannot tell a "real" article from a "real" news site from what would be, to you and i, an obviously shady/biased "news" source, or some wacko's blog. what does it matter if the person in question is tricked? it's unlikely they have an impactful place in society if so naive. so i fail to see why any of this is necessary. and it all comes so close to censorship, it gives me the creeps.
I'm pretty torn on this. On the one hand I think the internet should be as open as possible and I'm not a fan of the browser injecting itself into the content of my browsing. But I also think when a site is known to spread blatantly false information, beyond bias or personal opinions, there is a lot of value to be had in both deterring visitors from blindly trusting the site as well as giving the site an incentive to improve the credibility of their content. But again I do very much understand the fear of a slippery slope; On the extreme end of these practices you get bills like SOPA (of course in this case you can just not use Edge).
One example, among many: https://www.oregonlive.com/clark-county/2019/01/23rd-measles-patient-is-another-unvaccinated-child-in-vancouver-area.html
that is a pretty good example. i guess it would take something like google doing a blanket ban of anti-vaccine sites to make a big difference, which would lead to other issues and inevitably get messy, so hopefully it doesn't happen.