India has proposed groundbreaking rules, akin to Europe's GDPR, that would require technology companies to garner consent from citizens before collecting and processing their personal data. But at the same time, the new rules also state that companies would have to hand over "non-personal" data of their users to the government, and New Delhi would also hold the power to collect any data of its citizens without consent to serve sovereignty and larger public interest. From a report: The new rules, proposed in nation's first major data protection law dubbed "Personal Data Protection Bill 2019," a copy of which leaked on Tuesday, would permit New Delhi to "exempt any agency of government from application of Act in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order." If the bill passes select controversial laws drafted more than a decade ago would remain unchanged. The bill might also change how global technology companies that have invested billions of dollars in India, thanks in part to the lax laws, see the nation of more than 600 million internet users.

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As polling day approaches, the race is getting tighter and opposition parties are campaigning hard.

Families have been living in tents without running water or electricity since their homes came under attack by government forces.

Twitter is funding a small team of researchers to build an "open and decentralized standard for social media," with the goal of making Twitter a client for that standard. CEO Jack Dorsey announced the news and laid out his reasoning in a tweet thread this morning, although he acknowledged that the process could take years. The project is called Bluesky. Twitter CTO Parag Agrawal is tasked with finding a lead for the project, who will build a team of up to five people. The Bluesky account's only tweet quotes Dorsey with the comment "lo" -- a reference to the first message ever sent on the internet.

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Senate majority leader says if House approves impeachment charges, a trial would be 'first order of business' in January

A new law giving security forces immunity from prosecution does not bode well for Brazil's democracy.

Lindsey Graham is either bipolar or possessed.

The Chilean government has been accused of failing to stop human rights abuses by security forces as they crack down on protests.

Critics say the bill is discriminatory against Muslims and violates constitution.

An anonymous reader shares a paper: The event was running over, the car was waiting, but the keynote speaker did not seem to mind. He was enjoying fielding questions from a large auditorium packed to the rafters with executives, aspiring entrepreneurs, and management students. "Get ready for an age in which we are all in tech," he had told them, "whether you work in the tech industry or not." The moderator called for one last question. "What's the best way to get ready?" a woman asked. "Be great at learning," he said without hesitation. "The moment you stop learning is the moment you begin to die." Calls for learning have long been common at corporate retreats, professional conferences, and similar gatherings. But with the furious pace of change that technology has brought to business and society, they have become more urgent. Leaders in every sector seem to agree: Learning is an imperative, not a cliche. Without it, careers derail and companies fail. Talented people flock to employers that promise to invest in their development whether they will stay at the company or not. And companies spend heavily on it. By one estimate, in 2018, corporate outlays on learning and development initiatives topped $200 billion. Despite the lofty statements and steep investments, however, learning at work remains complicated. People are ambivalent about it, if not outright resistant. We want to learn, but we worry that we might not like what we learn. Or that learning will cost us too much. Or that we will have to give up cherished ideas. There is often some shame involved in learning something new as an adult, a mentor told me at the start of my career. What if, in the process, we're found lacking? What if we simply cannot pick up the knowledge and skills we need? I have spent two decades studying adult learning, helping companies design and deploy learning initiatives, and teaching and coaching thousands of high potentials and executives all over the world. And I have found that mentor's words to be wise: Nothing truly novel, nothing that matters, is ever learned with ease.

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Critics call the order, which will reportedly redefine Judaism as a nationality, anti-Semitic and attack on free speech.

An anonymous reader writes: Oracle has a huge commitment to the Bay Area. The software giant is based in Redwood Shores, a short drive south from San Francisco. It remains one of the largest employers in Northern California. And until recently, the Golden State Warriors were playing in Oracle Arena in Oakland. Just as the naming rights to that arena expired -- and the Warriors moved across the Bay to San Francisco -- Oracle bought the naming rights to the San Francisco Giants' stadium. For more than 20 years, Oracle has held its annual OpenWorld trade show in San Francisco, as well. The 2019 edition of the event, held in the Moscone Convention Center, drew 60,000 people to the already traffic clogged city, driving hotel prices to dizzying heights. But no more. Oracle today confirmed that starting next year it's moving OpenWorld to Caesars Forum, a new 550,000 square foot conference center in Las Vegas due to open next year. CNBC reports that the San Francisco Travel Association told members via email today that the decision reflects feedback from attendee complaints about high hotel rates and "poor street conditions."

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2007: Twitter as a coral reef.

I've been down the road Jack proposes to take Twitter down, it's fraught with problems. Social media has been around a long time and there are plenty of competing standards for integrating platforms. Had they proposed such a standard when they were starting Twitter, no one would have cared, and it would have had a chance of working. Now it's a huge industry with lots at stake and lots of entities that would like to keep it from standardizing. Now maybe Jack knows this, and it's meant as a PR thing, and I'm sure the press will love it. Until they forget about it. It's time for a proprietary approach, one that is open to cloning. That can work because there's a single decision-making entity. If their goal really is to create a standard they can do it, much the way we created standards for content syndication when our product dominated. Waiting for an open development group to synthesize something that can be broadly supported, well I suppose it could happen, but it rarely does.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey outlines a plan to fund a small independent team to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media, a standard that Twitter would support. I advocate something different, Twitter already has the bugs and scaling issues solved for a global notification network. Let's add a few APIs and create a new universe. It'll happen a lot faster with much better results imho. Interestingly I recorded a podcast on just this topic, a week ago today.