> I call on the Secretary-General to pledge that, within 180 days, the United Nations will remove all third-party tracking, analytics, testing and advertising scripts, and all tracking beacons, from its websites - the entire online estate, not a single flagship page.
I'm not defending the UN here, but I don't think that the Secretary General is the person who decided to put Google Tags on their website. I'd be shocked if he even vaguely knows what a Google Tag is.
As much as I sympathize with the message I don't like the way it was brought. I cannot help but feel that this "indignation journalism" hurts more than does good. Everybody knows the UN is imperfect, and yet the people that win from its disenfranchisement are tyrants, billionaires and certainly not you or me. In fact even the tyrants need a UN because you need to cooperate somehow. We need to improve and strengthen international institutions, not discredit them. The article could have been written with that in mind
You are assuming that the author (me) hasn't tried to help the UN do it right in the past and that assumption would be wrong.
They don't get to shout at big tech when they are doing exactly the same thing and using the same vendors they are berating, to do it for them. It is rank hypocrisy.
Also, I was very clear in the introduction that I support the UN and their mission, which is precisely why they need to be held to account because their own Charter requires it.
As much as I support the UN (I have worked in privacy for 20 years, my life's work is in the field of human rights) - I do not support hypocrisy and it is long past due that the UN lead by example.
Eye roll. The UN are pointing out that the AI hype is literally burning the planet. Just because they have Google Analytics on their site doesn't mean they are participating in the destruction.
This is like calling out environmentalists that took a flight.
The organizer of the conference was negotiating oil deals at the climate conference. This was the stuff of conspiracy theories not 5 years ago but actually happened.
> I call on the Secretary-General to pledge that, within 180 days, the United Nations will remove all third-party tracking, analytics, testing and advertising scripts, and all tracking beacons, from its websites - the entire online estate, not a single flagship page.
I'm not defending the UN here, but I don't think that the Secretary General is the person who decided to put Google Tags on their website. I'd be shocked if he even vaguely knows what a Google Tag is.
The buck stops at him, whether he likes it or not.
As much as I sympathize with the message I don't like the way it was brought. I cannot help but feel that this "indignation journalism" hurts more than does good. Everybody knows the UN is imperfect, and yet the people that win from its disenfranchisement are tyrants, billionaires and certainly not you or me. In fact even the tyrants need a UN because you need to cooperate somehow. We need to improve and strengthen international institutions, not discredit them. The article could have been written with that in mind
You are assuming that the author (me) hasn't tried to help the UN do it right in the past and that assumption would be wrong.
They don't get to shout at big tech when they are doing exactly the same thing and using the same vendors they are berating, to do it for them. It is rank hypocrisy.
Also, I was very clear in the introduction that I support the UN and their mission, which is precisely why they need to be held to account because their own Charter requires it.
As much as I support the UN (I have worked in privacy for 20 years, my life's work is in the field of human rights) - I do not support hypocrisy and it is long past due that the UN lead by example.
Eye roll. The UN are pointing out that the AI hype is literally burning the planet. Just because they have Google Analytics on their site doesn't mean they are participating in the destruction.
This is like calling out environmentalists that took a flight.
Or you could actually read the article and look at the evidence which is based on peer reviewed research...
When it comes to UN hypocrisy ... remember the last climate summit: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/25/climate/cop-failures-futu...
The organizer of the conference was negotiating oil deals at the climate conference. This was the stuff of conspiracy theories not 5 years ago but actually happened.