Andrew Orlowski

Collected Journalism

  • Web politics: The honeymoon is over

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Parallel moves in Canada and the US may signal the end of the honeymoon for web-based political campaigning – or change it beyond recognition. Politicians are becoming increasingly familiar with sudden squalls of email filling up their inboxes, and policy makers with responses to public consultations arriving via a web intermediary. But not surprisingly many…

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  • Google Street View logs WiFi networks, MAC addresses

    Google Street View logs WiFi networks, MAC addresses

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Google’s roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it’s got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users’ unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along. Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says he’s "horrified" by the…

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  • Lizard People drop ACTA draft from Black Helicopter

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Emerging briefly from their underground volcano lair, the shadowy A.C.T.A. organisation has released their latest list of demands. It’s another relentless march towards global New World Order governance. Actually, that’s how a few bloggers and even professional hacks have portrayed it. But what’s wrong with this picture? Read more at The Register…

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  • How the photographers won, while digital rights failed

    How the photographers won, while digital rights failed

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    How did the music business end up with a triumph with the new Digital Economy Act? How did photographers, whose resources were one laptop and some old fashioned persuasion, carry an unlikely and famous victory? How did the digital rights campaigners fail so badly? Back in January, a senior music business figure explained to me…

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  • BBC investigates Richard Madeley’s PC panic attack

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Richard Madeley told the nation how the Government was going to whisk away his computer last week. The BBC has promised to investigate. The segment on Monday’s Simon Mayo drive time heard Madeley, who is filling in for Mayo, say: “What a pain! I only got computer literate three years ago, just as I get…

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  • Obama’s got a Google problem

    Obama’s got a Google problem

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Obama has created an exquisite problem by hiring so many senior executives from Google – some of the Oompa Loompas don’t seem to realise they no longer work for the company. Now a Congressman has called for an enquiry. The issue was made apparent when a trail of correspondence by administration official Andrew McLaughlin was…

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