Global democracy continued its precipitous decline in 2021, according to the latest edition of the Democracy Index. The annual survey, which rates the state of democracy across 167 countries on the basis of five measures—electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties—finds that more than a third of the world’s population live under authoritarian rule while just 6.4% enjoy a full democracy.

Mozilla engineer Martin Thomson reveals they've been collaborating with Meta (formerly Facebook) on new technology that can measure "conversions" from advertising while still preserving privacy. The proposed new technology is called Interoperable Private Attribution, or IPA.

The Data Act proposal defines the rules for sharing data, conditions for access by public bodies, international data transfers, cloud switching and interoperability, according to a leaked draft.

Web3 is the latest Silicon Valley buzzword, referring to a third iteration of the internet built on blockchain technology. Backers say it will reinvent cyberspace but scepticism is growing. Host Kenneth Cukier investigates the hype and the potential.

Where do you put a trust registry in a decentralized digital ecosystem? Not where it turns into a wrench!

Kyle Rankin: "In this post I’ll tell my story of how tightly Google was integrated in my life, the lengths I had to go to remove them, and what took so long."