links for 12 Jun 2025

Botnet Part 2: The Web is Broken by Jan Wildeboer. So there is a (IMHO) shady market out there that gives app developers on iOS, Android, MacOS and Windows money for including a library into their apps that sells users network bandwidth.

The Guardian’s new whistleblower tool buries leaks to journalists within its own readers’ everyday traffic by Joshua Benton. (previously: AdLeaks)

Attorney General Bonta Urges Immediate Action by Meta to Prevent Investment Scam Advertisements on its Platforms | State of California - Department of Justice - Office of the Attorney General (Don’t tell me California has a strong privacy law. If we had a strong privacy law there would be a bunch of people in CPPA raid jackets carrying servers and boxes of records out of the Meta offices right now. More: some ways that Facebook ads are optimized for deceptive advertising)

Why Denmark Is Dumping Microsoft Office and Windows for LibreOffice and Linux by Steven Vaughan-Nichols. (why, yes, the future of human civilization does depend on European bureaucrats finally pulling off the Year of the Linux Desktop…so we should have nothing to worry about)

WPP attacks Publicis-owned Epsilon SSP in rare public spat - Ad Age by Jack Neff, Ewan Larkin, and Brian Bonilla. (I’m Team WPP on this one. The test did involve an an unusual buying pattern, but saying that most brands don’t buy that way is like saying most restaurant diners don’t check the back of the fridge like a health inspector, or most word processor users don’t make a document title with 1025 emoji in it like a software tester.)

Taylor Swift now owns all the music she has ever made: a copyright expert breaks it down by Wellett Potter. Swift has repeatedly emphasised the need for artists to retain control over their work and to receive fair compensation. In a 2020 interview she said she believes artists should always own their master records and licence them back to the label for a limited period.