SMEX

RightsCon2026 was de facto canceled after China pressured Zambia to exclude Taiwanese participants. Access Now took a principled decision and refused to hold a conference on those terms.

The cost of the cancellation was both financial and human.

But this moment is also a prompt to ask harder questions about how we build a civic space that prioritizes inclusion and can withstand challenges.

Read the full piece: https://buff.ly/ugPvZho

What are ad trackers and how do they work?

If you’ve ever wondered how platforms seem to know exactly where you came from, like prompting you to follow an account after watching a shared video, it’s probably due to ad trackers.

When you forward a tracked link, you’re also forwarding metadata about how you got it, like: a newsletter link you shared, which might reveal the campaign you received, or a shopping link might include referral codes.

It’s important you clean them out before sharing to preserve your privacy and those of your loved ones.

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On March 13, thousands of leaflets dropped over Beirut. At the bottom sat QR codes. A month later, the question remains: why would a military drop QR codes for people to scan? Were they malicious? And what were they actually trying to collect?

Our Senior Cybersecurity Analyst breaks down what metadata is and why Israel's military could've been after it.

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[Opinion] Israeli leaflets with QR codes could be after Lebanese metadata - SMEX On March 13, thousands of leaflets dropped over Beirut. At the bottom sat QR codes A month later, the question...

أعادت الحكومة اللبنانية فتح ملف إدارة “ألفا” و”تاتش” بقرار يهدف لتسليمهما لمشغل خارجي، لكن الطريق تعثر بسبب جدل قانوني ومالي حاد حول استعانة “الهيئة المنظمة للاتصالات” بمستشار دولي لإعداد عقود الإدارة بدلاً من إنجاز المهمة بنفسها كما ينص القانون، وسط تحذيرات من هيئة الشراء العام وسابقين من غموض الأسس القانونية ومصدر التمويل واحتمال تكرار أخطاء حوكمة سابقة، في نقاش يمسّ كفاءة الدولة وشفافية المال العام في قطاع حيوي.

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