S4:E2 - U.K. Central Bank Digital Currency, the Environmental Impact of Digital Currency, a Problematic Spotify Patent, and WordPress’ Google FLoC Block

In this episode, we talk about WordPress blocking Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts tracking technology, a web app that received so much negative feedback from food bloggers it was taken down in less than a day, and The Bank of England and HM Treasury creating a joint task force to explore the possibility of creating a central bank digital currency in the U.K. Then we speak with Tim Swanson, founder and director of research at Post Oak Labs, and head of market intelligence at ClearMatics, as well as the author of the research paper, “Bitcoin and other PoW coins are an ESG nightmare,” about the environmental impact of digital currency. Then we chat with Isedua Oribhabor, U.S. policy analyst at Access Now about their letter to Spotify on why the company should abandon their recent speech-recognition patent of a technology to detect emotion, gender, and age.

Show Notes

• DevDiscuss (sponsor)
• CodeNewbie (sponsor)
• Avalanche (sponsor)
• Proposal: Treat FLoC like a security concern
• Tech keeps trying to ‘fix’ recipe sites. Food bloggers wish they’d stop.
• Bank of England statement on Central Bank Digital Currency
• Access Now Letter To Spotify (Axios)
• RightsCon 2021
• Bitcoin and other PoW coins are an ESG nightmare

Tim Swanson

Tim Swanson is the founder and director of research at Post Oak Labs, head of market intelligence at ClearMatics, as well as the author of the research paper, “Bitcoin and other PoW coins are an ESG nightmare,”

Isedua Oribhabor

Isedua is Access Now's U.S. Policy Analyst and Business and Human Rights lead. She works to promote human rights in the digital age, focusing on the responsibility of tech companies to respect human rights.