Michael Brennan
@michaelbrennan.bsky.social
Supporting people and organizations building a more equitable internet. Views expressed are my own. Philadelphia.
Funding opportunity! The Spyware Accountability Initiative is giving grants to civil society orgs fighting spyware abuse. Learn more + apply by June 13th at stopspyware.fund/apply #SpywareAccountability #Funding
Apply for funding — Spyware Accountability Initiative
stopspyware.fund
May 6, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Funding opportunity! The Spyware Accountability Initiative is giving grants to civil society orgs fighting spyware abuse. Learn more + apply by June 13th at stopspyware.fund/apply #SpywareAccountability #Funding
Reposted by Michael Brennan
A critical read to understand recent news on AI. The TLDR, it’s not necessary to mortgage the future of the planet to accomplish the promise of AI.
As someone who has reported on AI for 7 years and covered China tech as well, I think the biggest lesson to be drawn from DeepSeek is the huge cracks it illustrates with the current dominant paradigm of AI development. A long thread. 1/
January 27, 2025 at 8:38 PM
A critical read to understand recent news on AI. The TLDR, it’s not necessary to mortgage the future of the planet to accomplish the promise of AI.
Reposted by Michael Brennan
"This is unconstitutional," I scream as the facial recognition equipped robot dogs drag me to my cell.
"This goes against everything America stands for!" I shout, as the algorithmic sentencing machine condemns me to death.
"This is not who we are!" I remind the firing squad of child soldiers
"This goes against everything America stands for!" I shout, as the algorithmic sentencing machine condemns me to death.
"This is not who we are!" I remind the firing squad of child soldiers
January 21, 2025 at 4:51 PM
"This is unconstitutional," I scream as the facial recognition equipped robot dogs drag me to my cell.
"This goes against everything America stands for!" I shout, as the algorithmic sentencing machine condemns me to death.
"This is not who we are!" I remind the firing squad of child soldiers
"This goes against everything America stands for!" I shout, as the algorithmic sentencing machine condemns me to death.
"This is not who we are!" I remind the firing squad of child soldiers
Reposted by Michael Brennan
Where is the money being used to buy Israeli spyware company Paragon coming from? American teachers/police/firefighters retirement funds.
Israeli business news media Globes has some additional details about the $500m acquisition of 🇮🇱 spyware vendor Paragon Solutions by 🇺🇸 AE Industrial Partners.
www.globes.co.il/news/article...
www.globes.co.il/news/article...
January 1, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Where is the money being used to buy Israeli spyware company Paragon coming from? American teachers/police/firefighters retirement funds.
Reposted by Michael Brennan
#Apple's notifications to spyware victims have been a game changer. There are plenty of good reasons to criticize Apple, but this is not one of them
techcrunch.com/2024/12/20/w...
techcrunch.com/2024/12/20/w...
Why Apple sends spyware victims to this nonprofit security lab | TechCrunch
Cybersecurity experts, who work with human rights defenders and journalists, agree that Apple is doing the right thing by sending notifications to victims of mercenary spyware — and at the same time r...
techcrunch.com
December 20, 2024 at 2:48 PM
#Apple's notifications to spyware victims have been a game changer. There are plenty of good reasons to criticize Apple, but this is not one of them
techcrunch.com/2024/12/20/w...
techcrunch.com/2024/12/20/w...
JOBS IN FUNDING OPEN SOURCE: @sovereign.tech is hiring for a bunch of positions including cybersecurity program lead, program managers, technologists, and administration. This is an amazing team funding open source projects with millions of dollars each year. Office (Berlin) and remote options.
Open Positions | Sovereign Tech Agency
The Sovereign Tech Agency is a new organization doing pioneering work in a ground-breaking field with an ambitious mission that has real societal impact.…
www.sovereign.tech
December 19, 2024 at 2:22 PM
JOBS IN FUNDING OPEN SOURCE: @sovereign.tech is hiring for a bunch of positions including cybersecurity program lead, program managers, technologists, and administration. This is an amazing team funding open source projects with millions of dollars each year. Office (Berlin) and remote options.
Reposted by Michael Brennan
we are not paying enough attention to commercially available phone-cracking and spyware being sold to any government who will buy it
Very scary report out of Serbia: Cellebrite is now being used by cops to unlock the phones of journalists they take into custody, and to then infect those phones with tracking malware
www.404media.co/cellebrite-u...
www.404media.co/cellebrite-u...
Cellebrite Unlocked This Journalist’s Phone. Cops Then Infected it With Malware
A new report from Amnesty International reveals multiple cases where Serbian authorities used Cellebrite devices to access targets' mobile phones before loading them with spyware.
www.404media.co
December 16, 2024 at 5:11 PM
we are not paying enough attention to commercially available phone-cracking and spyware being sold to any government who will buy it
JOB ALERT: Great position for someone looking to start a career at the intersection of technology, rights & justice! DC-based. Plus you get to work with @harlanyu.bsky.social - www.upturn.org/join/researc...
Upturn Seeks a Research Associate
This position is ideal for someone who is excited about sharp, interdisciplinary research on a range of topics related to technology, policy, and justice.
www.upturn.org
December 13, 2024 at 2:38 PM
JOB ALERT: Great position for someone looking to start a career at the intersection of technology, rights & justice! DC-based. Plus you get to work with @harlanyu.bsky.social - www.upturn.org/join/researc...
This report by @sarahjeong.bsky.social totally transported me to Seoul last night. It's one of those pieces that makes you feel like you now have a foothold of understanding to someplace new and unfamiliar. It's so good, and so funny.
6 hours under martial law in Seoul
On the ground from the protests outside the National Assembly building
www.theverge.com
December 4, 2024 at 1:45 PM
This report by @sarahjeong.bsky.social totally transported me to Seoul last night. It's one of those pieces that makes you feel like you now have a foothold of understanding to someplace new and unfamiliar. It's so good, and so funny.
Being able-bodied is temporary for all of us. Let's build a web that is accessible to all - it serves us all. Proud to support the Web Accessibility Initiative with this grant.
www.w3.org/press-releas...
www.w3.org/press-releas...
W3C web accessibility work boosted by Ford Foundation core funding
This press release announces our first grant since W3C's newly registered entity as a US public-interest non-profit organization. W3C is the recipient of a major grant from the Ford Foundation toward ...
www.w3.org
November 27, 2024 at 1:58 PM
Being able-bodied is temporary for all of us. Let's build a web that is accessible to all - it serves us all. Proud to support the Web Accessibility Initiative with this grant.
www.w3.org/press-releas...
www.w3.org/press-releas...
Reposted by Michael Brennan
West Ham family .... digital rights matter! We're a broad church afterall, so give this geezer a follow 😀
Oh and @michaelbrennan1.bsky.social too if you've got the time 😉
Oh and @michaelbrennan1.bsky.social too if you've got the time 😉
Found out via clearsky.app that I'm on a bunch of West Ham starter packs which explains a bunch of my followers. I hope you all like digital rights as much as you like football because I don't know shit about soccer!
November 25, 2024 at 8:49 PM
West Ham family .... digital rights matter! We're a broad church afterall, so give this geezer a follow 😀
Oh and @michaelbrennan1.bsky.social too if you've got the time 😉
Oh and @michaelbrennan1.bsky.social too if you've got the time 😉
🫡
Digital rights are better than digital wrongs
November 25, 2024 at 4:39 PM
🫡
Found out via clearsky.app that I'm on a bunch of West Ham starter packs which explains a bunch of my followers. I hope you all like digital rights as much as you like football because I don't know shit about soccer!
November 25, 2024 at 1:06 PM
Found out via clearsky.app that I'm on a bunch of West Ham starter packs which explains a bunch of my followers. I hope you all like digital rights as much as you like football because I don't know shit about soccer!
brb sending this tweet to every reviewer who said my papers on how security tech failed at-risk communities were not "computer science enough"
When I was 5, I loved science, which I took to be planets and magnets and chemicals and shit.
Soon I realized science was a collective human activity, and these were just the objects of its attention.
Anyway, whenever I read an OpEd on how science isn't political, I think "Are you 5 years old?"
Soon I realized science was a collective human activity, and these were just the objects of its attention.
Anyway, whenever I read an OpEd on how science isn't political, I think "Are you 5 years old?"
November 22, 2024 at 1:05 PM
brb sending this tweet to every reviewer who said my papers on how security tech failed at-risk communities were not "computer science enough"
Reposted by Michael Brennan
When I was 5, I loved science, which I took to be planets and magnets and chemicals and shit.
Soon I realized science was a collective human activity, and these were just the objects of its attention.
Anyway, whenever I read an OpEd on how science isn't political, I think "Are you 5 years old?"
Soon I realized science was a collective human activity, and these were just the objects of its attention.
Anyway, whenever I read an OpEd on how science isn't political, I think "Are you 5 years old?"
November 22, 2024 at 4:32 AM
When I was 5, I loved science, which I took to be planets and magnets and chemicals and shit.
Soon I realized science was a collective human activity, and these were just the objects of its attention.
Anyway, whenever I read an OpEd on how science isn't political, I think "Are you 5 years old?"
Soon I realized science was a collective human activity, and these were just the objects of its attention.
Anyway, whenever I read an OpEd on how science isn't political, I think "Are you 5 years old?"
Reposted by Michael Brennan
ESPRIT DE CORPS - Kim Kitsuragi is a nice guy. Wish he was here right now.
November 21, 2024 at 2:50 PM
ESPRIT DE CORPS - Kim Kitsuragi is a nice guy. Wish he was here right now.
"Discover" is my default tab and I'm not ashamed of it!
Not a popular opinion but some sort of algorithm is genuinely helpful for taming the chaos of feeds.
Once you start following more than 50-100 people who are regularly posting, your feed starts to turn into an overwhelming stream of content
Once you start following more than 50-100 people who are regularly posting, your feed starts to turn into an overwhelming stream of content
November 20, 2024 at 8:43 PM
"Discover" is my default tab and I'm not ashamed of it!
"There’s a high probability that we see big rollbacks on spyware policy," says @stevenfeldstein.bsky.social - A somber read. Still, I have hope for global progress on spyware in absence of US leadership.
More Spyware, Fewer Rules: What Trump’s Return Means for US Cybersecurity
Experts expect Donald Trump’s next administration to relax cybersecurity rules on businesses, abandon concerns around human rights, and take an aggressive stance against the cyber armies of US adversa...
www.wired.com
November 18, 2024 at 1:37 PM
"There’s a high probability that we see big rollbacks on spyware policy," says @stevenfeldstein.bsky.social - A somber read. Still, I have hope for global progress on spyware in absence of US leadership.
"Proprietary software, installed in my body, led me to no choice but to accept medical treatment that I didn't even need." - a powerful story of just how personal open source can be sfconservancy.org/blog/2023/de...
A Note from Our Executive Director: 2023 and my personal quest for software freedom
Just when I think that I've really grokked the implications of the technology I have woven into my life, I find that life throws completely new challenges my way that make me realize the extent of the...
sfconservancy.org
January 3, 2024 at 3:47 PM
"Proprietary software, installed in my body, led me to no choice but to accept medical treatment that I didn't even need." - a powerful story of just how personal open source can be sfconservancy.org/blog/2023/de...
Climate Justice & Digital Rights Fellowship Opportunity! Apply to be a Green Web Foundation fellow (paid, 6 months) and help build bridges across these critical global movements www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/fellowships/...
Call For Applications: Green Web Fellowship - The Green Web Foundation
Work on climate justice and digital rights—apply to be a Green Web Fellow today! ⚡
www.thegreenwebfoundation.org
October 5, 2023 at 1:20 PM
Climate Justice & Digital Rights Fellowship Opportunity! Apply to be a Green Web Foundation fellow (paid, 6 months) and help build bridges across these critical global movements www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/fellowships/...