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benadida.com
I lead an incredible team building voting machines everyone can trust. https://voting.works Optimistic about judicious uses of tech. Systems, security, privacy, cryptography, and the web are my jam. Previously: Clever, Square, Mozilla, Harvard, MIT.
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Usually, when I hear a story about how some secure app logs the secret messages in plaintext, I sigh because it's an exaggeration. But no, not this time. That unsanctioned Signal client really does just log every secret message you receive in plaintext to a central server. Zomg.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

I mean... sure, why not.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

I spend a chunk of my time explaining how open-source, when you do it on purpose and have a publicly available code repository, strongly disincentivizes you from taking these silly and dangerous shortcuts. We should not underestimate the power of shame and public oversight.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Where is the technical explanation of the Iberian blackout? I wanna understand!

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Boaz is a colleague and someone I admire immensely. Despite that, as a computer scientist, I think he has terribly missed the mark in this op-ed. Our nation is in dire circumstances now, and we computer scientists bear a share of the blame. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/o...

submitted 4 days ago • 12 comments

*Sometimes*, doing crazy things leads to absolutely incredible progress. This is super cool. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/h...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Dammit, you stole my idea!

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

The tech world deservedly receives plenty of criticism when trust and safety are not sufficiently considered in product design. So it's only fair to say that I'm on my 5th Waymo ride, and I'm deeply impressed with how it has handled a few critical safety situations.

submitted 9 days ago • 2 comments

So, encrypted group chats rule the world. This is what some of us cryptography / privacy folks have always advocated. People need real, strong privacy. And I hope everyone in those chats is sending @signal.org a healthy donation. www.semafor.com/article/04/2...

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

I'm in my first Waymo, and it's both absolutely mind blowing and shockingly normal.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

I love my kids, *and* I lock my devices.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

This is a great description of how complex safety-critical systems typically fail because of multiple simultaneous issues. In fact, any safety-critical system that fails from only one issue was never safe to begin with. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/b...

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

We take modern medicine and medical staff for granted. This is just awesome. So glad your little one is safe @klonick.bsky.social

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

It's really freaking good.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Twenty years ago on a short trip to LA, a food truck, a shrimp burrito to die for. I didn't know shrimp or burritos could taste so good.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

All the evidence indicates the @bsky.app team is thinking deeply about building a great product that carefully evolves features towards the true customizable user feeds every expert now agrees is needed. Way to go Bluesky!

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

This is an incredible book. Fascinating and touching from the first to the last page. I listened to the audiobook read by the author, and I can't recommend it enough.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

ahem, you're welcome @bsky.app ;) Joking aside, I think this new trusted verifiers model makes a lot of sense. Yes, it's a little more centralized. Maybe next step is users pick their custom set of trusted verifiers, and even subscribe to someone else's published list of trusted verifiers.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

"geometrically, that should not have happened" is a line I need to use more often. m.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr2h...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

We celebrated the end of Passover with homemade pizza. And now it’s finally time for my favourite interfaith meme again! Yay! Happy Easter, friends!

submitted 18 days ago • 1 comment

At the North Bridge, 21 gun salute. Feeling those cannons in my chest.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

250th anniversary of the Battle of Concord and Lexington. Quite meaningful to be here, where it all started.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

I love this, and I would love to see more "world class athlete vs average human" competitions because I think watching sports doesn't give you any sense of how incredible the very best can be. Make it a Netflix show, please.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

15y ago, I had 10 vials of blood tests done on an empty stomach, at 1pm. I almost passed out. So now, every time I get blood drawn, they ask "have you ever fainted?" and I have to say "yes". They freak out and ask me if I need to lie down, distract me with random questions, etc. It's hilarious.

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

Make America’s Teeth Rot Again.😢 Gift link on the studies that show what happens when fluoride is removed from water, as Secretary Kennedy has recently said he will move to do. Gift link. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/o...

submitted 21 days ago • 5 comments