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Profile photo Hugo Roy

I currently work as a privacy and data protection lawyer at apple. I have been involved in the launch of Data Rights an NGO for advancing users’, orgs’ and communities’ rights to their data. Before that, as Vice-President of (France’s oldest Internet access provider), I co-started the Exégètes Amateurs (a digital rights litigation group). I also cofounded Terms of Service; Didn’t Read and am a former board member of the Free Software Foundation Europe. Zappa-ist.

Île-de-France
~hroy.eu/hugo @hugo@mastodon.xyz hugo@nxtcld.ampoliros.net zkl2ss4f1@mozmail.com 0x4BA9A6EE1AA9A69E

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You can’t do that online anymore!

« Il est difficile de dire la vérité, car il n’y en a qu’une, mais elle est vivante, et a par conséquent un visage changeant. »

Franz Kafka,
cité par Étienne Klein, Le goût du vrai (2020)

The EU General Data Protection Regulation explained by Americans

Bashing the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) seems to have become one of American activists’ favourite hobbies in the tech field. Some criticism is entirely justified. But many claims that the GDPR is counterproductive or misses the point are based on misconceptions, rather than an accurate understanding of European data protection laws. As a result, several US privacy advocates have therefore suggested alternative principles or rules… many of which have been part of EU data protection law since 1995.
Read more / Lire la suite

« Il est difficile de dire la vérité, car il n’y en a qu’une, mais elle est vivante, et a par conséquent un visage changeant. »

Franz Kafka,
cité par Étienne Klein, Le goût du vrai (2020)

The EU General Data Protection Regulation explained by Americans

Bashing the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) seems to have become one of American activists’ favourite hobbies in the tech field. Some criticism is entirely justified. But many claims that the GDPR is counterproductive or misses the point are based on misconceptions, rather than an accurate understanding of European data protection laws. As a result, several US privacy advocates have therefore suggested alternative principles or rules… many of which have been part of EU data protection law since 1995.
Read more / Lire la suite

2017-06-18

Données sur le net : tous suspects

À l’occasion des actions engagées en faveur des droits au respect de la vie privée et à la protection des données personnelles, j’ai pu contribuer à la rédaction de cette tribune. Réaction à la position des autorités françaises face à la justice européenne, ce texte esquisse aussi brièvement ma critique de la société de suspicion généralisée — l’une des principales raisons de mes engagements avec « les Exégètes ».
Read more / Lire la suite

Here some little known, yet awesome apps or tools that I use. Thanks to the people working on these (I’m glad to have met some of them, and they’re awesome too)!

Transportr

Transportr is an Android app to help you use public transports systems. It’s simply the best one I’ve seen, and it supports a lot of systems (city-wide like Berlin or Paris and even long-distance).

Feedbin

Feedbin is an RSS web reader. It provides a pleasing reading experience and you can easily browse through items and share links. If you’re looking to host it yourself, have a look at the sources.

ikiwiki

ikiwiki powers this blog, hosted by branchable. If you like git and markdow, and editing your texts with your favourite text editor, this is for you.

Known

Known (formerly “idno”) is more “socially aware” than ikiwiki. It runs with PHP and it’s basically your easy-to-run indieweb space. If you use it with http://brid.gy you will enjoy a nice integration with twitter and other silos (see an example of my own).

YunoHost

YunoHost is custom debian distribution aiming at making self-hosting easy. It provides a nice web interface for administration of your self-hosted server and for users of the web server. If you have basic linux administration skills, this will be very helpful.

Pinboard

Pinboard a simple and efficient bookmarking app that also archives the content of marked pages (if you pay for it). Unfortunately, Pinboard is not released as free software. But you can export your bookmarks.

Sharesome

Sharesome lets you easily share files on the web. It has a pleasant interface that works well on all devices I have tested so far. It’s also available as a web app. The neat feature is that you can choose where to host your data (for instance, with remotestorage; you can get an account at https://5apps.com).

Terms of Service; Didn’t Read

Some shameless self-promo with ToSDR, the app that tells you what happens to your rights online by rating and summarising Terms of service and privacy policies. You can also get it directly in your web browser or as a web app.


If you’re looking for a curated list of awesome web services that are free of charge and based on free software and open data, look no further than Jan’s Libre projects.

« Il est difficile de dire la vérité, car il n’y en a qu’une, mais elle est vivante, et a par conséquent un visage changeant. »

Franz Kafka,
cité par Étienne Klein, Le goût du vrai (2020)

Most of the hardware devices are, even as you read this, available as off-the-shelf items, just waiting to be plugged into each other in order to put an end to the record business as we know it.

Frank Zappa with Peter Occhiogrosso, The Real Frank Zappa Book (p. 336, Chapter 18, “Failure”), A Touchstone Book, published by Simon & Schuster, 1988-1989. Also see, “A proposal for a system to replace phonograph record merchandising”.

– Bah, la vérité, la vérité… Qui peut dire ce qui est vrai et ce qui ne l'est pas, commandant ! Pour nous, l'essentiel, ce n'est pas la vérité, c'est la justice, non ?

Pierre Lemaitre, Alex (2011)