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Flathead Warming Center supporters take to the streets to show solidarity with homeless population




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Search Interoperability Standards

The E-Government Act of 2002 calls for the U.S. Federal Government to enhance interoperability by adopting a common search standard. The Categorization of Government Information Workgroup has just finished the second version of their Statement of Requirements for Search Interoperability...




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Department of Interior websites shut down for security reasons

A federal judge in Washington yesterday ordered the Interior Department to shut down most of its employees' Internet access and some of its public Web sites after concluding that the agency has failed to fix computer security problems that threaten...




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Internet Identity Workshop XXXVIII Report

Summary: This spring's IIW was full of interesting people and interesting discussions with people from around the globe.

We recently completed the 38th edition of the Internet Identity Workshop. We had 330 people from around the world who called 169 sessions. As usual there was lots of energy and thousands of side conversations. IIW is a place to get things done and it showed in the energy and the comments people made to me about how much they enjoyed it.

Tuesday opening (click to enlarge)

As you can see by the pins in the map at the top of this post, there were attendees from all over the world. Not surprisingly, most of the attendees were from the US (241), followed by Canada (11). Germany, India, and Switzerland rounded out the top five with 9, 8, and 7 attendees respectively. Attendees from India (5), Thailand (3), and Korea (3) showed IIW's diversity with attendees from APAC. And there were 4 attendees from South America this time. Sadly, there were no attendees from Africa again. Please remember we offer scholarships for people from underrepresented areas, so if you'd like to come to IIW39, please let us know. If you're working on identity, we want you there.

Demo hour on Wednesday (click to enlarge)

For states and provinces, California was first with 122. Washington (16), Utah (10), Texas (10) and New York (10) rounded out the top five. San Francisco (14) Oakland (13), San Jose (12), Seattle (11), and New York (9) were the top cities.

Drummond Reed conducts a session (click to enlarge)

In addition to sessions, we have a demo hour on Wednesday that is a little like speed dating. There were 20 different projects highlighted. There's always more than one session that I want to attend in any given time slot and choosing is hard. That's a common refrain. Luckily we have sessions notes that we publish in a Book of Proceedings.

Here's pictures from all three days courtesy of Doc Searls

 

You belong at IIW! IIW is where you will meet people to help you solve problems and move your ideas forward. Please come! IIW 39 will be held October 29-31, 2024 at the Computer History Museum. We'll have tickets available soon.

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Decentralized Identity Comes of Age

Summary: In session after session, attendees at EIC are hearing the message that decentralized identity is the answer to their identity problems.

I'm at European Identity Conference (EIC) this week. I haven't been for several years. One thing that has struck me is how much of the conversation is about decentralized identity and verifiable credentials. I can remember when the whole idea of decentralized identity was anathema here. The opening keynote, by Martin Kuppinger is Vision 2030: Rethinking Digital Identity in the Era of AI and Decentralization. And all he's talking about is decentralized identity and how it's at the core of solving long standing identity problems. Another data point: Steve McCown and Kim Hamilton-Duffy ran a session this morning called Decentralized Identity Technical Mastery which was a hands-on workshop. The rather large room was packed—standing room only.

I attended a couple of sessions on decentralized identity where I didn't know the companies, the speakers, or the specific platforms they were using. The space is too big to keep track of anymore. Identity professionals who were ignoring, or talking down, decentralized identity a few years ago are now promoting it.

This truly feels like a tipping point to me. At IIW, it's identity geeks talking with other identity geeks, so it's no surprise to see lots of discussion about new things. EIC is a different kind of conference. There are about 1000 people here I'd guess. Most of them aren't working on new standards or open source projects. Instead they're the folks from companies who come to conferences like EIC to learn how to solve the problems their organization is facing.

In the keynotes and in numerous sessions, the message that they're hearing is "decentralized identity will solve your problems." Martin closed his talk with the proclamation that "decentralized identity is the new paradigm for identity."


Photo Credit: Credential Tipping Point by DALL-E (public domain) Prompt: Draw a rectangular picture that shows a credential at a tipping point. Make the credential look like a lifelike credential, include cartoon picture, and some writing. Use bright friendly colors.

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What Is Decentralized Identity?

Summary: What is decentralized identity and why is it important? My attempt at a simple explanation.

In Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, nah, Alan Mayo references my recent blog post, Decentralized Identity Comes of Age, and says:

My challenge to the decentralization community is for them (someone) to explain how it works in relatively simple and reasonable terms. I say relative because identity is not simple, so we should not expect simple solutions.

This post is my attempt to do that for Alan and others.

Identity is how we recognize, remember, react to, and interact with other people, organizations, and services. Put another way, identity is about relationships. Online we suffer from a proximity problem. Since we're not near the parties we want to have relationships with, our natural means of recognizing, remembering, and interacting with others can't be used. Digital identity systems are meant to provide us with the means of creating online relationships.

Traditional identity systems have not served us well because they are owned and controlled by companies who build them for their own purposes. The relationships they support are anemic and transactional. We can't use them for any purpose except what their owner's allow.

Decentralized identity systems1 on the other hand allow you to create online relationships with any person, organization, or service you choose and give you the tools to manage and use those relationships. They help you recognize, remember, react to, and interact with them. The most important tool is a decentralized identity wallet. The world of decentralized identity wallets is still young, but organizations like the Linux Foundation's Open Wallet Foundation give me hope that useful, interoperable wallets are a tool we'll all be able to use soon. They are as foundational to decentralized identity as a browser is to the web.

Besides helping you manage peer-to-peer relationships with others online, wallets hold verifiable credentials, the digital analog to the credentials and cards you carry in a physical wallet. One of the most important aspects of digital relationships is providing information about yourself to those you interact with. Sometimes that information can come from you—it's self-asserted—but many times the other party wants to reliably know what others say about you. For example, if you establish a banking relationship, the bank is legally obligated to verify things like your name and address independent of what you say. Decentralized identity wallets allow you to prove things about yourself using credentials others provide to you. At the same time, they protect your privacy by limiting the information disclosed and forgoing the need for the party you're interacting with to directly contact others to verify the information you provide.

In summary, decentralized identity systems allow you to create digital relationships with other parties independently, without relying on any other organization or service. These relationships are direct, private, and secure. They also provide the means for you to prove things about yourself inside these relationships so that even though you're operating at a distance, you and the other party can have confidence in the relationship's authenticity.

How Does It Work

The preceding paragraphs say what decentralized identity is, and provide its benefits, but don't say how it works. Alan and others will likely want a few more details. Everything I describe below is handled by the wallet. The person using the wallet doesn't need to have any more knowledge of how they work than the operator of a browser needs to understand HTTP and HTML.

The foundation of a peer-to-peer, decentralized online relationship is an autonomic identifier like a peer DID. Identifiers are handles that someone else can use to identify someone or something else online. Peer DIDs can be created by a wallet at will, they're free, and they're self-certifying (i.e., there's no need for a third party). A relationship is created when two identity wallets create and exchange peer DIDs with each other on behalf of their owners. Peer DIDs allow the parties to the relationship to exchange private, secure messages.

There are four primary interaction patterns that wallets undertake when exchanging messages:

  1. DID Authentication which uses the DIDs to allow each party to authenticate the other
  2. Single-Party Credential Authorization where the same party issues and verifies the credential.
  3. Multi-Party Authorization where the credential issuer and verifier are different parties.
  4. Generalized Trustworthy Data Transfer which uses a collection of credentials to aid the wallet owner in completing online workflows.
Generalized Credential Exchange Pattern (click to enlarge)

Verifiable credentials make heavy use of cryptography to provide not only security and privacy, but also confidence that the credential data is authentic. This confidence is based on four properties a properly designed credential presentation protocol provides:

  1. The identifier of the credential issuer
  2. Proof that the credential is being presented by the party is was issued to
  3. Proof that the credential has not been tampered with
  4. The revocation status of the credential

The credential presentation can do all this while only disclosing the information needed for the interaction and without the verifier having to contact the credential issuer. Not having to contact the issuer ensures the credential can be used in situations with poor connectivity, that the issuer needn't be online, and preserves the credential subject's privacy about where the credential is being used.

A properly designed credential exchange protocol has four important properties:

  1. The system is decentralized and contextual. There is no central authority for all credentials. Every party can be an issuer, an owner, and a verifier. The system can be adapted to any country, any industry, any community, any set of credentials, any set of trust relationships.
  2. Issuers are free to determine what credentials to issue and whether or not to revoke them.
  3. Wallet owners are free to choose which credentials to carry and where and when they get shared. While some verifiers require a specific credential—such as a customs agent requiring a passport—others will accept a range of credentials. Therefore owners can decide which credentials to carry in their wallet based on the verifiers with whom they interact.
  4. Verifiers make their own decisions about which credentials to accept. For example, a bar you are trying to enter may accept any credential you have about your date of birth. This means some credentials (e.g., passports, driving licenses, birth certificates) may be much more useful than just for the original purpose for which they were issued.

These properties make a decentralized identity system self sovereign.

Why is Decentralized Identity Important?

Decentralized identity systems are designed to provide people with control, security, and privacy while enhancing the confidence we have in our online relationships. Some time ago, I wrote the following. I think it's an apt way to close any discussion of decentralized identity because unless we keep our eyes on the goal, we'll likely take shortcuts in implementation that fail to live up to their promise.

Presently, people don't have operational relationships anywhere online.2 We have plenty of online relationships, but they are not operational because we are prevented from acting by their anemic natures. Our helplessness is the result of the power imbalance that is inherent in bureaucratic relationships. The solution to the anemic relationships created by administrative identity systems is to provide people with the tools they need to operationalize their self-sovereign authority and act as peers with others online. Peer-to-peer relationships are the norm in the physical world. When we dine at a restaurant or shop at a store in the physical world, we do not do so under the control of some administrative system. Rather, we act as embodied agents and operationalize our relationships, whether they be long-lived or nascent, by acting for ourselves. Any properly designed decentralized identity system must provide people with the tools they need to be "embodied" in the digital world and act autonomously.

Time and again, various people have tried to create decentralized marketplaces or social networks only to fail to gain traction. These systems fail because they are not based on a firm foundation that allows people to act in relationships with sovereign authority in systems mediated through protocol rather than by the whims of companies. We have a fine example of a protocol mediated system in the internet, but we've failed to take up the daunting task of building the same kind of system for identity. Consequently, when we act, we do so without firm footing or sufficient leverage.

Ironically, the internet broke down the walled gardens of CompuServe and Prodigy with a protocol-mediated metasystem, but surveillance capitalism has rebuilt them on the web. No one could live an effective life in an amusement park. Similarly, we cannot function as fully embodied agents in the digital sphere within the administrative systems of surveillance capitalists, despite their attractions. The emergence of self-sovereign identity, agreements on protocols, and the creation of metasystems to operationalize them promises a digital world where decentralized interactions create life-like online experiences. The richer relationships that result from properly designed decentralized identity systems promise an online future that gives people the opportunity to act for themselves as autonomous human beings and supports their dignity so that they can live an effective online life.


Notes

  1. I prefer the term self-sovereign to decentralized because it describes the goal rather than the implementation, but I'll stick with decentralized here. All self-sovereign identity systems are decentralized. Not all decentralized identity systems are self-sovereign.
  2. The one exception I can think of to this is email. People act through email all the time in ways that aren't intermediated by their email provider. Again, it's a result of the architecture of email, set up over four decades ago and the culture that architecture supports.

Photo Credit: Young Woman Using a Wallet from DALL-E (public domain) Prompt: draw a rectangular picture of a young woman using a wallet.

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Digital Identity and Access Control

Summary: Until we value freedom and independence in the digital world, we will yield up control of our digital lives to others who will act in their own interests, not ours.

In response to a post on X about China's social credit system, Paul Conlon said:

Digital ID is ultimately about access control where those who impose the system are the ones determining what you are required to be and do.

Provision of resources and liberties become conditional upon the whims of the affluent. Doesn't sound safe or convenient to me.

From X
Referenced 2024-08-28T08:10:31-0400

How Paul said this struck me because I've been thinking a lot about access control lately. I believe that we build identity systems to manage relationships, but, as Paul points out, in many cases the ultimately utility of identity systems is access control.

This isn't, by itself, a bad thing. I'm glad that Google controls access to my GMail account so that only I can use it. But it doesn't stop there. If I use my Google account to log into other things, then Google ultimately controls my access to everything I've used it for. This is federation's original sin1.

Paul's comment points out the primary problem with how we build identity systems today: when access control is centralized, it inherently shifts power towards those who manage the system. This dynamic can lead to a situation where individuals must conform to the expectations or demands of those in control, just to maintain their access to essential services or resources. While we often accept this trade-off for convenience—like using Google to manage multiple logins—the broader implications are troubling.

The more we rely on federated identity systems, with their tendency to centralization, the more we risk ceding control over our digital lives, reducing our autonomy, and increasing our dependence on entities whose goals may not align with our own. This is why the principles of self-sovereign identity (SSI) are so compelling. SSI proposes a model where individuals maintain control over their own identity, reducing the risks associated with centralized access control and enhancing personal freedom in the digital realm.

Critics of SSI will claim that giving people control over their identity means we have to accept their self assertions. Nothing could be further from the truth. When someone wants me to prove I'm over 18, I use a driver's license. The state is asserting my age, not me. But I'm in control of who I show that to and where. Sovereignty is about borders and imposes a system of relationships.

Now, China could use decentralized identity technology to build their social credit system. One credential, controlled by the state, that is used to access everything. Technology alone can't solve this problem. As a society, we have to want a digital world, modeled on the physical one, where individuals are the locus of control and use information and assertions from a variety of credentials to build and interact in authentic peer-to-peer relationships. Until we value freedom and independence in the digital world, we will yield up control of our digital lives to others who will act in their own interests, not ours.


Notes

  1. For similar reasons, I think federated social media systems are a bad idea too, but that's another blog post.

Photo Credit: Papers Please from DALL-E (public domain). Prompt: Draw a rectangular picture of police checking identity papers of people on the street

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Internet Identity Workshop XXXIX Report

Summary: We held the 39th edition of Internet Identity Workshop last week. Like always, it was a great week.

The 39th edition of the Internet Identity Workshop wrapped up last week. We have 364 attendees from around the world who called 178 sessions. I can't begin to describe the energy of the identity community when they all get together to discuss their favorite topics. If you like identity, or simply want to be part of an enthusiastic technical community, you should come to IIW.

As you can see by the pins in the map at the top of this post, there were attendees from all over the world. Not surprisingly, most of the attendees were from the US (251), followed by Canada (18) and France (14). Germany, Japan, and Australia rounded out the top six with 12, 9, and 7 attendees respectively. Attendees from India (5), Columbia (3), and Chile (2) show IIW's geographic diversity. Sadly, there were no attendees from Africa again. Please remember we offer scholarships for people from underrepresented areas, so if you'd like to come to IIW40, please let us know. If you're working on identity, we want you there.

For states and provinces, California was first with 131 attendees. Washington (19), Utah (14), New York (9), and Massachusetts (9) made up the rest of the top 5. San Jose (20), San Francisco (16), Paris (12), Oakland (11), and Seattle (9) were the top five cities.

We'll have the book of proceedings out in a month or so with notes from the different sessions and descriptions of the 20 demos given during demo hour. Past proceedings are available here.

The next IIW takes place April 8-10, 2025 at the Computer History Museum. This will be IIW XL, number 40! We'll have registration open the first part of December. If you're interested in sponsoring, send me a note.

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Larimer County Offers RSS Subscription

Larimer County Colorado has offered an e-mail subscription service of web updates to the county's web site, The Virtual Courthouse, since 1998. This service has grown to 22 separate mailings including job openings, news releases, emergency information, road closures, bids & proposals, various board agendas, and more. Recently this service has been expanded to include an RSS feed of all subscriptions for those who prefer to use a newsreader instead of receiving e-mail. Information on this service can be found at www.larimer.org/subscriptions.cfm, and the RSS feed is www.larimer.org/feed.xml.




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Check Accessibility from Your Toolbar

Steve Faulkner recently released a tool for Internet Explorer called the Accessibility Toolbar. It provides one-click access to accessibility validators and has features that go beyond simple accessibility checks.




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Movable Type Upgrades

Six Apart released Movable Type v. 2.661 this week as a stopgap to help administrators deal with comment flooding spam before they release comment registration in Movable Type 3.0.




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eDG Becomes a Community Site

The eDG Website is nearing another milestone. In a past meeting, we polled members to learn what improvements could make The eDG more useful. All present expressed interest in having a more interactive site. The new eDG, available April 21, is a PHP portal-driven site with more interactive features.




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RSS to Email Primer with Movable Type and Bloglet

Selling government agencies on RSS would be easier if we could demonstrate to them an easy way to convert their existing news formats to automatically generated and delivered email newsletters. In this first, of a two-part series, we show you how easy it is to use Moveable Type and Bloglet to provide rudimentary email delivery.




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The City Center In Paris Is Now Designated A Limited Traffic Zone

Many citizens in Paris were caught off-guard on November 5 when a new ban on motorists in the first four arrondissements of central Paris came into effect. As they looked around their city neighborhoods, residents could see nearly forty signs for the ‘Zone à Trafic Limité’ (ZTL) — or “limited ... [continued]

The post The City Center In Paris Is Now Designated A Limited Traffic Zone appeared first on CleanTechnica.




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Global Installed Solar Capacity To Blow Past 2 Terawatts, USA Or Not

The installed solar capacity of the global PV industry is poised for another round of rapid growth, with or without an assist from the US.

The post Global Installed Solar Capacity To Blow Past 2 Terawatts, USA Or Not appeared first on CleanTechnica.




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Best Value for Money EVs — City Cars (A Segment)

This is the first of a five-part series of articles where I look at the best affordable EVs in each size category. There are plenty of good EVs right now, but one of the main challenges continues to be their price and how much more expensive they are compared to ... [continued]

The post Best Value for Money EVs — City Cars (A Segment) appeared first on CleanTechnica.




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Ever Launches CleanTechnica Partnership: $500 Off Quality, Certified EVs

San Francisco, CA — Ever, a premier retailer specializing in high-quality electric vehicles (EVs), is thrilled to announce an exciting new partnership with CleanTechnica, aimed at making EV ownership even more accessible and affordable. This partnership brings CleanTechnica readers a unique, limited-time offer: a $500 discount on any Ever Certified ... [continued]

The post Ever Launches CleanTechnica Partnership: $500 Off Quality, Certified EVs appeared first on CleanTechnica.




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How Networks Of Ocean Sensors Can Improve Marine Weather Predictability

What difference would it make to be able to unlock ocean data at scale? How would deploying hundreds of marine sensing platforms improve marine weather predictability and accuracy? A company named Sofar is answering some of those questions these days due to their capacity to use real-time data to improve ... [continued]

The post How Networks Of Ocean Sensors Can Improve Marine Weather Predictability appeared first on CleanTechnica.




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Hyundai Votes for Women, Diversity, and Inclusion

The timing on this one is pretty good. At a time when a barrage of overly macho yet lame middle-aged white manosphere “leaders” are bouncing off of the trampoline towards us, Hyundai is reminding us what an advanced democracy not overtaken by cancer is like. Well, maybe I’m going a ... [continued]

The post Hyundai Votes for Women, Diversity, and Inclusion appeared first on CleanTechnica.











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Feeding the Utah Legal Community

A crack cocaine smoking judge who allegedly presided over his court while high? An attorney disbarred for abandoning his law practice and clients in the pursuit of the unlawful use of methamphetamine? These are only some of today's tintillating stories from official Utah judiciary sources that my news aggregator served me.

The Utah Administrative Office of the Courts and the Utah State Bar have been experimenting with the syndication of news and publications for quite some time. They've now published links to their first public syndicated feeds on their homepages.

Utah Courts offers an RSS feed for "Recent Court Opinions" that links to recently released and archived opinions of the Utah Supreme Court, Utah Court of Appeals, and Per Curiam decisions. If you'd rather get the same information by email, Steve Brown, Courts Webmaster, offers a notification subcription service.

http://www.utcourts.gov/rss/opinions/index.xml


The editors of the Utah Bar Journal with the assistance of Utah State Bar IT Director Lincoln Mead have imported the Journal into Movable Type. Recent past issues are also archived in PDF format.

http://www.utahbar.org/barjournal/index.rdf

This is a good trend because RSS syndicated legal information makes its delivery more timely and its content more findable and accessible.




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4 Ways to Increase Your Company’s Online Security Now

Despite increasing awareness of online threats, the Cyber Security Breaches Report 2022 shows that the number of cyber-attacks against UK businesses is growing. With the potential to damage your operations, finances, and reputation, a cyber-attack can cause catastrophic damage to your organization, which is why it’s essential to take steps to mitigate the threat. With …

4 Ways to Increase Your Company’s Online Security Now Read More »




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The Top 3 Cloud Network Security Threats (And How to Avoid Them)

As more businesses move to the cloud, they are becoming increasingly vulnerable to cloud network security threats. Here are the top three threats and how to avoid them: Data breaches One of the most common and devastating cloud security threats is data breaches. These can occur when hackers gain access to a company’s cloud-based data, …

The Top 3 Cloud Network Security Threats (And How to Avoid Them) Read More »




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Debian Linux 12 bookworm receives eighth update with crucial security fixes

The Debian project has announced its latest point release for Debian Linux 12, codenamed “bookworm,” marking the eighth update to this stable distribution. This 12.8 update primarily addresses security issues and fixes various critical bugs, enhancing the reliability and security of the system. Importantly, this release is not a new version but an update to existing packages within Debian 12. Users who routinely update via security.debian.org will notice only minimal changes, as most updates are rolled into this point release. There is no need to replace existing installation media for bookworm; a simple upgrade through an up-to-date Debian mirror suffices… [Continue Reading]




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Mitigating third-party risk in today's cyber ecosystem [Q&A]

As third-party risk continues to be a critical concern for enterprises, the need for effective risk management strategies has never been more pressing. We spoke with Bob Maley, CISO of third-party risk management specialist Black Kite, to get his insights into effective strategies for managing this challenge along with the nuanced risks and necessary tactics to secure enterprise environments against sophisticated threats. BN: How can organizations assess and manage risks associated with emerging technologies? BM: Organizations need a proactive approach that begins with detailed assessments to identify potential risks. These assessments should focus on the technology’s architecture, possible attack vectors,… [Continue Reading]




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Logitech expands availability of refurbished products in North America and Europe

Logitech is making it easier for consumers to access refurbished devices with the expansion of its Certified Refurbished program. Now, customers in North America and Europe can purchase a wide range of products, including mice, keyboards, tablet accessories, gaming gear from Logitech G, and Bluetooth speakers through Logitech’s eBay Refurbished brand store and its own websites. The company is tapping into a growing trend as more consumers seek out high-quality refurbished products. The appeal of these devices lies in their cost-effectiveness and environmental benefits, offering users a way to own premium technology while contributing to waste reduction. Sacni Leon, Head… [Continue Reading]




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Failed security controls cost businesses billions

A new report finds 61 percent of organizations have suffered a security breach in the past year because their policies, governance, and controls failed or were not working effectively. This is costing US businesses $30bn and UK businesses £10bn per year. The study from security posture management firm Panaseer surveyed 400 security decision makers across the US and UK and found 72 percent have taken out indemnity insurance in response to growing personal liability, whilst 15 percent have considered leaving the industry. In addition, 85 percent of decision makers are facing greater scrutiny from the board. 57 percent say they… [Continue Reading]




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OWC launches Thunderbolt 5 Hub to supercharge Mac and PC connectivity

Other World Computing (OWC) has launched the Thunderbolt 5 Hub, which promises to elevate device connectivity for Macs, PCs, and even tablets like the iPad Pro. This new hub delivers an impressive 80Gb/s of bi-directional data speed -- double that of Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 -- and supports up to 120Gb/s for users needing higher display bandwidth. With just a single cable, users can expand their device’s ports to include three Thunderbolt 5 ports and a USB-A port, making this hub a productivity game changer. For tablet users, the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Hub is especially transformative, turning an iPad Pro… [Continue Reading]




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Google Merchant Center Adds Sale Events Promotion Type

Google has added a new promotion type to Google Merchant Center named "Sale events." Sale events are a type data that you can submit on Google and are shown on non-product-centric surfaces. This seems to be available in the US for free Merchant Center listings right now.

This was spotted by Dario Zannoni who posted about it on LinkedIn and wrote, "A new "Sale Event" promotion type has been released in Google Merchant Center."

The help document says:

Sale events highlight a general sale happening in your store on different Google surfaces. Events don't show up on product listings, both organic and ads.

Unlike promotions, events aren't mapped to offers. Since events aren't directly mapped to offers, you can use ranges for discounts, such as 'Up to 40% off,' which isn't allowed with promotions.

Dario Zannoni shared this screenshot:

He wrote, "Standard promotions in Merchant Center require linking to specific products, which can make them challenging to implement. Now, Google has introduced a new promotion type called "Sale Event," which is not tied to individual products. Instead, it can be used to advertise general sales, like "All items discounted up to 70% off" or "Special discount: 10% off on golf bags.""

For more details, check out this help page.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.




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Google AdSense First-Party Cookie Controls Are Changing

Google will be changing how it handles the first-party cookie controls on AdSense sites. Google said, "We're making some changes to how first-party cookies are managed in your AdSense account to simplify controls and improve your access to third-party demand."

Google has combined the controls for enabling "first-party cookies" and "first-party cookies for personalization" into a single control.

Turning on the new control will enable first-party cookies for the publisher, share it with demand sources, and enable all usages including personalization, Google explained.

The new control will be set to your existing personalization setting to aid the transition, Google added.

Google added:

Currently, first-party cookies are shared with Google demand sources (Google Ads, Display & Video 360). Starting no earlier than December 4th, 2024, your first-party cookies will also be shared with Authorized Buyers. However, for the time being, this sharing will not include users in the EEA, Switzerland, UK, California, and some US states.

If you're already using first-party cookies for personalization, sharing with Authorized Buyers will be turned on by default. If you're only using first-party cookies without personalization, sharing will remain off.

Choose whether or not you want to allow first-party cookies from Google on your site, and allow sharing of first-party cookies for personalization with eligible advertising platforms (Google Ads, Display & Video 360, and Authorized Buyers). Allowing first-party cookies from Google may increase your revenue because it enables features like frequency capping on ads and allows ads with a frequency cap to serve on your site. First party cookies for personalization help to show personalized ads to your users when third-party cookies aren't available, which may also increase your revenue.

Cookies are small text files downloaded to a user's browser that can be used to store user information and preferences. Cookies are either first-party (associated with the domain the user is visiting) or third party (associated with a domain that's different from the domain the user is visiting). Google may use first-party cookies when third-party cookies are not available.

Forum discussion at X.





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More Volatility in Rankings! Core Update Gains Disappear

Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! This week Jared and guest host Morgan Overholt break down the biggest news affecting publishers and SEOs and cover the latest moves by Google. After the news, they talk…

The post More Volatility in Rankings! Core Update Gains Disappear appeared first on Niche Pursuits.





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AI's Role in the Partnership of Data + Creativity

The merging of data and creativity has long been a north star at Comscore. Now, with the help of artificial intelligence technology, the intersection of art and science is expanding to include new possibilities such as helping marketers shape or create video, images and text content, or predicting a consumer’s digital behavior.




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The Paradox of Prayer and the Revelation of Beauty

Fr. Stephen speaks about the paradox of prayer and the personal character it has in our life as well as the personal character of beauty and the resolution of all paradox.




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Humility - The Only Path Forward for Orthodoxy

Fr. Stephen looks at the virtue of humility and its place in the life of Orthodox Christianity, suggesting that it is our only path towards union with God.




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How Simple Should Christianity Be?

Despite a drive to simplify everything - Fr. Stephen contends that Orthodoxy describes not a simplicity but a fullness of life and invites into that fullness and not just a small religious corner.




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Speaking with Authority

Fr. Stephen looks at the nature of authority and its root in the reality of the Cross.




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The Opacity of Sin

Sin is opaque - it does not allow the light of God to enter and be reflected from our lives. Fr. Stephen looks at the work of God's light within our lives and suggests ways in which we may understand our relationship with God through what the Scripture says about light and darkness.




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The Hard Reality of the Kingdom of God

Fr. Stephen looks at the teaching of Christ on love for enemies and sets it in its proper spiritual context.




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Forty Days Before Christmas - Why We Fast

Fr. Stephen looks at the very heart of fasting—not the foods, not the 'how to's'—but why we fast.




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A Priest's Thoughts on Depression, Anxiety, the Soul, Your Body, and Your Brain

Fr. Stephen Freeman speaks from his own experience about depression, anxiety, and a 40-year battle with panic attacks. He sets these within the wisdom of the tradition and offers a way of understanding as well as some helpful ways of moving forward.




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Humble and Meek and Middle Class Morality

Fr. Stephen Freeman describes some of the problems that arise when our morality is a "mere morality," marked only by our outward behavior rather than inward healing and transformation.




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Christianity in a One-Storey Universe - Part 6: Where Do We Begin?

Fr. Stephen looks at the aspect of seeing the world in wonder—an experience shared by both Christian and non-Christian—and suggests, following St. Gregory of Nyssa, that it is the place where our faith should begin.