Remote

Nick Doty

@npdoty@techpolicy.social

mastodon 4.7.3

I fight for human rights online. I work on technical standards. I like wildflowers. I take public transit.

previously:
@npdoty@twitter.com (2007-2016),
@npd@octodon.social (2017-2023)

814 Followers

922 Following

15 Posts

Joined November 10, 2022

web:

https://npdoty.name

pronouns:

he/him

CDT:

https://cdt.org/staff/nick-doty/

Nick Doty @npdoty@techpolicy.social

· 5mo ago

Call for participation in the Online Safety Community Group at @w3c@w3c.social:
https://www.w3.org/community/online-safety/2026/04/30/call-for-participation-in-online-safety-community-group/
While many stakeholders have a particular interest in bolstering safety for vulnerable populations such as children, safety is important to all users of the Web. This group will discuss mechanisms for age-based restrictions to content, but also other online safety measures, and the potential impacts to privacy, free expression and Internet architecture.

w3.org

Nick Doty @npdoty@techpolicy.social

· 6mo ago

the wiring to my ebike's integrated headlamp snapped, while I was installing a rack and basket. do bike shops like to fix that kind of electrical thing? or am I an adult that should just relearn the skills to solder/heat-shrink/whatever wires back together?

Nick Doty @npdoty@techpolicy.social

· 6mo ago

“The only point [of these age-verification laws] is to restrict access to content,” says @riana@someone.elses.computer, quoted in
_Papers, Please: The toll of age verification laws on digital sex work_
https://thebaffler.com/latest/papers-please-mcgrady

More and more I see work on privacy and free expression as so directly aligned. When the goal is restricting access to disfavored content (in this case, most directly, porn), the mechanism is invasive data collection, and the side effect is comprehensive surveillance of all online speech.

thebaffler.com

Nick Doty @npdoty@techpolicy.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@rmondello@hachyderm.io what's a generally-accessible, single-sentence definition of what a passkey is? (not explaining to the user why it's better, but explaining what it is, so they have a mental model)

Nick Doty @npdoty@techpolicy.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mhoye maybe not coincidentally, "Galatea" literally means "milk-white"

Nick Doty @npdoty@techpolicy.social

· 9mo ago

Replying to

@josephcox@infosec.exchange your site is showing malware ads. I reported it to Google, but they don't care, it was immediately shown to me again on the next visit.

Nick Doty @npdoty@techpolicy.social

· 6mo ago

stepped out to the burger stand for lunch /
passed a press conference about the local children kidnapped by ICE

Nick Doty @npdoty@techpolicy.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

maybe we could just recognize that some people genuinely find it fun, I can get that. maybe they could stop the self-justification that their fun was essential and inevitable and that everyone else, even as they watched it destroy the institutions around them, had to find it fun too.

Nick Doty @npdoty@techpolicy.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@ireneista @jyasskin voluntary, user-selected age-range signaling seems among the less harmful of approaches, in that it doesn't require or enable much additional data collection, and gives guardians some discretion in what they signal. We hear from both parents and teens that they want those choices, and that they're creeped out by the ID and biometric verification mechanisms.

Nick Doty @npdoty@techpolicy.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@emaytch@mastodon.social see https://mastodon.mit.edu/@jefftk/114490243286359916 from @jefftk@mastodon.mit.edu, and in some earlier posts he's also talked about Corsi Rosenthal boxes mounted from the ceiling specifically.

mastodon.mit.edu

Nick Doty @npdoty@techpolicy.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@ireneista @jyasskin I think the more active fight, and the attention of many conservative activists, is pushing for laws with more invasive mandates. At the US federal level, for example, there's the Kid's Online Safety Act vs the Parents Over Platforms Act. Some laws do have more openings for aggressive interpretation, and ambiguities that might lead to overcompliance. Texas and others refer to undefined "commercially reasonable" verification methods, for example.

Nick Doty @npdoty@techpolicy.social

· 2mo ago

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Advisory Board @ab@w3c.social has published their recommendations for supporting human rights in web standards. https://www.w3.org/TR/furthering-human-rights/ Aligning technical standards with human rights has been a long project, involving privacy standards, long-running groups, horizontal review processes, numerous workshops, and even some reports from the United Nations. (And I’m glad that @CenDemTech@techpolicy.social has been supporting that work for three decades now! Longer blog post to follow.)

w3.org

Further Aligning W3C's Program of Technical Work with Human Rights

There is a clear link between human rights and technical standards setting. In this position paper, we list examples of how the two map, point to existing W3C work in this area, and provide concrete proposals to further the alignment between the W3C’s technical work and human rights.