Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. Additionally, he has a tech entrepreneur background and loves good whisky and fast motorcycles.
When I grew up, we knew that the countries east of the Iron Curtain had secret agencies that spied on their own citizens, and we were taught that it was…
As we get increasing insight into the self-image of the surveillance agencies around the world, a disturbing image of self-appointed alpha males appear, rather than the modest and professional civil…
Bitcoin heralds great promise to break that symbiosis between banks and governments that enable erosion of our financial privacy. But in the absence of banks, bitcoin comes with its own…
There is an ongoing discussion whether we should fear governmental intrusion into our privacy more, or corporate carelessness with our private data more. This is a false framing of the…
People who defend today's mass surveillance tend to claim that the collected data on everybody's private communications and movements won't be abused. History tells us that they are horribly and…
When we talk of privacy online, it is easy to narrow the discussion to something that can be described as "anti-wiretapping". But privacy is a much more diverse and important…
People sometimes ask if I prefer transparency over privacy, as a society can't have both. The premise is wrong. It's a sliding scale, and perfect privacy for the individual citizen…
Angela Merkel is outraged that the United States has wiretapped her phone. However, she expresses no concern for her fellow 82 million Germans, nor for her fellow 500 million Europeans…
Throughout the western world, politicians appear keen on eliminating cash as a concept. There are many reasons on the surface - preventing armored car robberies, combating organized crime, making money…
Tracking is moving offline as computers get smarter, and face recognition technology is gaining steam rapidly with distributed systems. There are already prototype glasses that identify people in your field…