surveillance capitalism
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Cyberfascism Bulletin: Hello, Summer! Edition
Anti-Social Media The Stanford Internet Observatory is revealed as a nest of snitches: My First Job, at the Stanford Internet Observatory “In actuality, SIO hired a load of interns to scan social media for posts deemed to be mis- and disinformation. It turns out that the posts we students flagged were often sent along to Read more
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Big Brother is watching…
…with this collection of creepy gizmos. Know your opposition. Read it for the cameras, then follow the link to Tattoo Recognition Programs. Tip from the Geek Press. He links, you decide. Read more
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The Abolition of Cash, Frisco Edition
Do people not understand the words “Legal Tender?” If you want a hot coffee at Blue Bottle, cold hard cash may not work anymore. The high-end coffee company will ban cash at 12 locations across the country starting on March 11 as part of a month-long experiment that aims to speed up purchases. (photo from Read more
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Big Brother Invades the Ice House
The Surveillance Market is set to invade your local quick-stop, grocer, or ice house. A new digital door technology from a company called Cooler Screens is now being tested in Walgreens, and it sounds absolutely awful. Rather than a basic, transparent glass door, coolers and freezers will be sealed by screens that show a sanitized Read more
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You’re not just web surfing, you’re participating in an A/B test
Pretty much every time you log on to Facebook or use Google, you’re participating, as a subject, in an A/B test. Unknowingly. Without informed consent. This is how privacy and human rights are eroded, one click at a time. Worse yet, the folks who do this brag about it! Don’t believe me? Type “A/B testing Read more
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Even your doorbell is spying on you
In it’s unbridled quest for behavioral data, Google put microphones in its subsidiary Nest’s home security systems. Ostensibly for future upgrades. Without telling their customers. Who does PR for these guys? Jussie Smollett? Bonus: apparently Google was pushing privacy limits with Street View as well, sucking up local WiFi addresses. Tip from Stephen Green at Read more
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The War Against Big Brother
Today I begin a series of posts of observations and comments about what I call cyber fascism, the harnessing of ubiquitous information technology to impose political, commercial, and social control over much of the developed and developing world. My first real inkling of the enormity of our situation came as I prepared material for a Read more
The Random Texan 