Category Archives: Surveillance state

Antitrust Spring

Regulators and officials are dusting off antitrust rule books to go after tech monopolists.

How Do You Combat Information Overreach?

A shaggy dog story, and a request for reader ideas on how to escape unreasonable requests for personal information.

Ticketmaster’s Reckless, Privacy-Shredding Covid Plan to Get You in Their Seats

Ticketmaster wants to use technology to make events safer. Too bad its ideas are intrusive and medically questionable.

Bill Would Clamp Down on Cops Collecting DNA From Kids

A proposed New York City bill would halt DNA collection from children in the absence of an arrest or parental consent.

Daniel Ellsberg on the Assange Extradition and Growing Fascism

Daniel Ellsberg, in an interview with Paul Jay, describes the threat the Assange show trial poses for journalists around the world.

Michael Olenick: The Surprisingly Short Road from Abolitionism to Credit Bureaus

Abolitionist Lewis Tappan, the inventor of credit bureaus, would be distressed to see how his creation is being put to use.

Quelle Surprise: NYT Article on U.S. Contact Tracing Deficiencies Doesn’t Fall for Big Tech’s Claim that Effective Contact Tracing Requires an App, But Fails to See What Good Health Care Has to Do with It

NYT piece on contact tracing doesn’t see what good health care has to do with why some of these efforts elsewhere have worked well.

COVID-19 Mistakes to Avoid: Don’t Conflate Contact Tracing with Contact Tracing By App

Big Tech and Big Pharma each has a dog in the COVID-19 fight and wish to replace what has worked before and is working now with technofixes.

Key CIA-Backed Ally Indicted for Organ Trade Murder Scheme

A sordid example of what happens when the CIA is willing to get in bed with just about anyone to advance what it sees as US interests.

No, We Don’t Need to Place Our Faith in Downloading Some Untested, Privacy-Infringing App as the Only Possible COVID-19 Slayer; Why Don’t We Look to Places that Have Successfully Limited Disease Spread and Copy Their Policies?

Ars Technica clutches pearls at poll showing decline in those willing to download privacy-infringing app to stymie spread of COVID-19.

Police State Watch: Amnesty Targets Tear Gas

Amnesty International has yesterday launched a resource on global misuse of tear gas, in the US and elsewhere:

China’s Covid-19 Recovery Is Intensifying Class Exploitation

China’s response to the pandemic is to furth disempower its domestic and peripheral populations.

Watch: This Is What It Looks Like When the Response to Protests Against Police Violence Is… More Police Violence

Compilation of footage of police response to protests in various U.S. cities over police brutality and the killing of George Floyd, plus Amnesty International condemnation.

Why We Need the Human Touch in Contact Tracing for Coronavirus

Contact tracing with the human touch works better than the highly-touted app panaceas du jour – and without raising the same civil liberties concerns.