Ben Collier
@susansegfault.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer at University of Edinburgh in STS. Criminologist and author of Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy. Chair of the Foundation for Information Policy Research. Researching power and harm in digital infrastructure. Pfp Jamie Buchan
Pinned
Tor
A biography of Tor—a cultural and technological history of power, privacy, and global politics at the internet's core.Tor, one of the most important and mi...
mitpress.mit.edu
For any lovely people who haven't heard, or aren't totally sick of me going on about it, my book on @torproject.bsky.social - bizarrely, the first book to tell the secret history of the technology behind the so-called 'dark web' - is out. Buy here or any bookstore: mitpress.mit.edu/978026254818...
Reposted by Ben Collier
I want to extend my full support to staff threatened with compulsory redundancy at the University of Edinburgh.
I have today written to the Principal imploring him to change direction.
I have today written to the Principal imploring him to change direction.
November 19, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I want to extend my full support to staff threatened with compulsory redundancy at the University of Edinburgh.
I have today written to the Principal imploring him to change direction.
I have today written to the Principal imploring him to change direction.
Reposted by Ben Collier
More technical report www.volexity.com/blog/2025/10... via the excellent @fipr-policy.bsky.social
APT Meets GPT: Targeted Operations with Untamed LLMs
Starting in June 2025, Volexity detected a series of spear phishing campaigns targeting several customers and their users in North America, Asia, and Europe. The initially observed campaigns were tail...
www.volexity.com
November 16, 2025 at 9:57 PM
More technical report www.volexity.com/blog/2025/10... via the excellent @fipr-policy.bsky.social
Reposted by Ben Collier
In the latest episode of the @plutopia.io #podcast we interview @susansegfault.bsky.social Ben Collier about his new(ish) biograophy of the Tor Project: plutopia.io/ben-collier-...
Ben Collier: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy - Plutopia News Network
Ben Collier discusses his book "Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy," arguing that media overstates Tor's ties to crime.
plutopia.io
October 28, 2025 at 12:37 PM
In the latest episode of the @plutopia.io #podcast we interview @susansegfault.bsky.social Ben Collier about his new(ish) biograophy of the Tor Project: plutopia.io/ben-collier-...
Reposted by Ben Collier
A very good book on the history of an important privacy tool.
Had a lovely time on the Plutopia podcast talking about my book - Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy.
Listen here:
plutopia.io/ben-collier-...
Listen here:
plutopia.io/ben-collier-...
Ben Collier: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy - Plutopia News Network
Ben Collier discusses his book "Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy," arguing that media overstates Tor's ties to crime.
plutopia.io
October 28, 2025 at 12:37 PM
A very good book on the history of an important privacy tool.
Had a lovely time on the Plutopia podcast talking about my book - Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy.
Listen here:
plutopia.io/ben-collier-...
Listen here:
plutopia.io/ben-collier-...
Ben Collier: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy - Plutopia News Network
Ben Collier discusses his book "Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy," arguing that media overstates Tor's ties to crime.
plutopia.io
October 28, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Had a lovely time on the Plutopia podcast talking about my book - Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy.
Listen here:
plutopia.io/ben-collier-...
Listen here:
plutopia.io/ben-collier-...
Reposted by Ben Collier
Honestly feel like Labour on immigration is a political and moral crisis with potentially scary consequences
Worth saying that despite asking for more than 12 hours we’ve had nothing back from Labour on this
A Conservative MP tipped as a future party leader has been condemned for saying large numbers of legally settled families must be deported, in order to ensure the UK is mostly “culturally coherent”.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
October 20, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Honestly feel like Labour on immigration is a political and moral crisis with potentially scary consequences
Reposted by Ben Collier
While they’re at it, they could pay more attention to the human rights problems with their Additional Measures proactive technology proposals. @douwekorff.bsky.social’s consultation submission here, referencing my blogpost as ‘typical British understatement’ 😀. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Fully-automated free speech-killing robots are incompatible with European and UK fundamental rights
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In the UK, the communications services regulator, Ofcom, has issued for consultation proposed guidance to user-to-user (U2U) platforms and search engines
papers.ssrn.com
October 19, 2025 at 9:14 AM
While they’re at it, they could pay more attention to the human rights problems with their Additional Measures proactive technology proposals. @douwekorff.bsky.social’s consultation submission here, referencing my blogpost as ‘typical British understatement’ 😀. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Reposted by Ben Collier
I actually don't really care if AI is useful/interesting/good for some things in education actually - it is besides these things clearly a big problem already that maybe need listing yet again:
October 11, 2025 at 10:20 PM
I actually don't really care if AI is useful/interesting/good for some things in education actually - it is besides these things clearly a big problem already that maybe need listing yet again:
Reposted by Ben Collier
Jamie Buchan, Sarah Anderson, and Katrina Morrison have published a 'Criminal Justice in Scotland' textbook 📚🍷📖👏
I had the joy of chairing their well attended book launch today.
It has gone straight onto #Criminology Uni reading lists.
🔗
www.routledge.com/Criminal-Jus...
@kmmorrison.bsky.social
I had the joy of chairing their well attended book launch today.
It has gone straight onto #Criminology Uni reading lists.
🔗
www.routledge.com/Criminal-Jus...
@kmmorrison.bsky.social
October 7, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Jamie Buchan, Sarah Anderson, and Katrina Morrison have published a 'Criminal Justice in Scotland' textbook 📚🍷📖👏
I had the joy of chairing their well attended book launch today.
It has gone straight onto #Criminology Uni reading lists.
🔗
www.routledge.com/Criminal-Jus...
@kmmorrison.bsky.social
I had the joy of chairing their well attended book launch today.
It has gone straight onto #Criminology Uni reading lists.
🔗
www.routledge.com/Criminal-Jus...
@kmmorrison.bsky.social
Reposted by Ben Collier
📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.
Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.
Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.
We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...
signal.org
October 6, 2025 at 6:46 AM
📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.
Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.
Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.
Hey look www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
October 1, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Hey look www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Ben Collier
Has this all be throught through. In short, this has all the makings of another fiasco like the Post Office scandal. People will be wrongly denied access to basic services, employment, and other aspects of day to day life when this all breaks down.
September 26, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Has this all be throught through. In short, this has all the makings of another fiasco like the Post Office scandal. People will be wrongly denied access to basic services, employment, and other aspects of day to day life when this all breaks down.
Reposted by Ben Collier
On the BritCard - in theory better government systems are a great idea, but implementing it requires very high levels of management competence to cope with the ambition and complexity; the costs will correspondingly be very high.
September 26, 2025 at 1:26 PM
On the BritCard - in theory better government systems are a great idea, but implementing it requires very high levels of management competence to cope with the ambition and complexity; the costs will correspondingly be very high.
Reposted by Ben Collier
Systems like this need real institutional legitimacy to work.
September 26, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Systems like this need real institutional legitimacy to work.
netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/09/26/t... great overview of the history and evidence on ID cards by Wendy
The absurdity card
Fifteen years ago, a new incoming government swept away a policy its immediate predecessors had been pushing since shortly after the 2001 9/11 attacks: identity
netwars.pelicancrossing.net
September 26, 2025 at 1:29 PM
netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/09/26/t... great overview of the history and evidence on ID cards by Wendy
Reposted by Ben Collier
The other countries where this kind of digital ID has been implemented are far smaller, and don’t have our appalling track record of expensive government IT disasters.
September 26, 2025 at 1:26 PM
The other countries where this kind of digital ID has been implemented are far smaller, and don’t have our appalling track record of expensive government IT disasters.
Reposted by Ben Collier
There are absolutely real cybersecurity risks as well - not least, from the people with legitimate access to the system. For example, every year more than half of the prosecutions under the Computer Misuse Act are of serving police officers caught misusing their access to police databases.
September 26, 2025 at 1:26 PM
There are absolutely real cybersecurity risks as well - not least, from the people with legitimate access to the system. For example, every year more than half of the prosecutions under the Computer Misuse Act are of serving police officers caught misusing their access to police databases.
Reposted by Ben Collier
Linking together all these different government systems and databases and tying them to a single point of truth about you - the obsession of the Tony Blair Institute - is going to be incredibly complicated, and is a disaster waiting to happen.
September 26, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Linking together all these different government systems and databases and tying them to a single point of truth about you - the obsession of the Tony Blair Institute - is going to be incredibly complicated, and is a disaster waiting to happen.
Reposted by Ben Collier
This isn’t just about ID - most people have some form of ID, and digital ID systems can be designed well and preserve our privacy and basic rights. It’s about the particular design of this system and what they want to achieve with it.
September 26, 2025 at 1:26 PM
This isn’t just about ID - most people have some form of ID, and digital ID systems can be designed well and preserve our privacy and basic rights. It’s about the particular design of this system and what they want to achieve with it.
Nominal popular support for SOME kind of digital ID v different to support for this specific system brought in by this specific government. Would be interesting to see if the polling being thrown around for ID card popularity is the same in a month once the policy irrevocably associated w/ Starmer.
September 26, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Nominal popular support for SOME kind of digital ID v different to support for this specific system brought in by this specific government. Would be interesting to see if the polling being thrown around for ID card popularity is the same in a month once the policy irrevocably associated w/ Starmer.
Reposted by Ben Collier
When combined with the ‘sex-based’ papers please approach being trailed by Streeting for public institutions, this has the potential to be a massive further clampdown on access to public life for trans people in the UK
September 25, 2025 at 8:52 PM
When combined with the ‘sex-based’ papers please approach being trailed by Streeting for public institutions, this has the potential to be a massive further clampdown on access to public life for trans people in the UK
Reposted by Ben Collier
Also important to ask - how will trans people, ever the punching bag of this govt and the assembled UK press, be represented in this single point of truth about the data self?
www.theguardian.com/politics/202... This is an extremely dangerous idea to propose right now. We can argue on civil liberties and privacy aspects, but the one thing systems like this need is institutional legitimacy, something that the UK’s media and political elite have been torching in recent yrs.
Keir Starmer expected to announce plans for digital ID cards
As government looks for ways to tackle illegal immigration, move will spark battle with civil liberties campaigners
www.theguardian.com
September 25, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Also important to ask - how will trans people, ever the punching bag of this govt and the assembled UK press, be represented in this single point of truth about the data self?
Reposted by Ben Collier
On why the #UK #LabourParty is increasingly looking like an arm of US platform capitalism...
Lord Glasman "sought out, and was sought after, by some of the most important Trumpworld movers and shakers" JD Vance, Steve Bannon... Curtis Yarvin and "as @bylinetimes.bsky.social can reveal – the tech baron and Palantir data firm founder, Peter Thiel"
bylinetimes.com/2025/09/25/b...
bylinetimes.com/2025/09/25/b...
'Blue Labour' and the Thiel Effect: How MAGA Is Making In-Roads Into British Politics
The ideology of the ‘Make America Great Again’ movement, which has transformed politics in the United States, is having an impact in the UK. But how is this influence being transmitted?
bylinetimes.com
September 25, 2025 at 9:01 PM
On why the #UK #LabourParty is increasingly looking like an arm of US platform capitalism...