The 266th Block: Privacy, surveillance, and data breaches
And AIverywhere
This week…
Your reading time is about 5 minutes. Let’s start.
This week, to no one’s surprise, Elon Musk and Donald Trump are feuding.
Anyway, I’m sharing an essay I wrote about jus in bello in space. Because one day space wars will happen, I’m sure of it.
Your Wikipedia this week: Counter-recruitment
And now, a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week.
ICYMI: The Previous Block was about influencing the news.
CORRECTION NOTICE: None notified.AI
Turkey’s AI-powered protest crackdown
Ylenia Gostoli for New Lines Magazine:
Pale-faced and barely out of his teens, it’s hard to say if Onur’s apparently frail demeanor, somewhat in contrast with his height, is a result of his time in detention or simply the way he has always been. Sitting at a cafe in Istanbul, he recounted being sick throughout most of his 20 days in Silivri, the same high-security prison in which the arrested mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, has been locked up since March 19 on corruption charges, sparking protests that quickly spread throughout the country.
Everyone got sick during detention at the Vatan Emniyet police station, the special branch for terror suspects, where Onur, whose name has been changed for security reasons, was held.
Already politically active with leftist groups, he knew exactly what could happen when students and young people poured into the streets after the mayor’s arrest. The charges could come easily: resisting the police, supporting a terrorist group, carrying a weapon (which encompasses something as minor as a stone), covering his face, even carrying a placard with a slogan that could be taken as an insult to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. That’s why he moved carefully, mindful of every step.
“I’m on the government’s watch list,” Onur said. “I know that pretty well, so I did nothing in particular. Most of the time, I was helping people to handle [tear] gas, telling them what to do when you can’t open your eyes or breathe.”
“I never threw stones, bottles, anything,” he added. “I thought they would maybe bust some people’s houses, but this will not be me because what could they put on my file? They don’t have anything.”
Loosely linked:
Has AI transformed university for the better? by Ethan Gudge for BBC.
Youtube channels use AI to turn paywalled articles into videos by Rhi Storer for Press Gazette.
Why do Christians love AI slop? by Emanuel Maiberg for 404 Media.
Nobody wants a robot to read them a story! The creatives and academics rejecting AI – at work and at home by Emine Saner for The Guardian.
Film festival showcases what artificial intelligence can do on the big screen by Wyatte Grantham-Philips for AP.
PRIVACY
VC money is fueling a global boom in worker surveillance tech
Gayathri Vaidyanathan for Rest of World:
Technologies that promise to track, manage, and supervise workers, increasingly using artificial intelligence, are getting entrenched in the developing world, according to a new report by Coworker.org, a labor rights nonprofit based in New York.
Audits of more than 150 startups and regional companies based in Kenya, Nigeria, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and India showed workplace surveillance is expanding in scale and sophistication, the researchers said. While large corporations are known to develop surveillance technologies, a so-called Little Tech ecosystem of mostly unregulated, venture capital-funded startups and small vendors making these products has grown since Covid-19, the report found. The term “Little Tech” was popularized by the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, which argued that excessive regulation was stifling innovation.
Loosely linked:
Tracking apps monitor remote employees’ performance — and invade their privacy by Danielle E. Thompson (University of Waterloo) for The Conversation.
VPN signups surge after Pornhub pulls out of France by Eliza Gkritsi for Politico.eu.
China issues warrants for alleged Taiwanese hackers and bans a business for pro-independence links by Christopher Bodeen for AP.
How illicit markets fueled by data breaches sell your personal information to criminals by Thomas Hold (Michigan State University) for The Conversation.
Other curious links, including en español et français
LONG READ | America’s infatuation with boy geniuses and ‘Great Men’ is ruining us by Alice Bolin for The Guardian.
INTERACTIVE | The Hajj explained visually by Mohammed Haddad and Konstantinos Antonopoulos for Al Jazeera.
PHOTO ESSAY | Tskaltubo, Stalin’s spa resort: the decay of a Soviet past in Georgia by Laura Fornell, photography by Oscar Espinosa for The Guardian.
Adiós a las llamadas spam en España: la normativa que entra en vigor este fin de semana por Silvia López en El Confidencial.
México marca el camino para democratizar la justicia por Paula Sabatés y Emiliano Gullo en CTXT.
Colombia revive la pesadilla de los magnicidios con el atentado contra Miguel Uribe por Juan Esteban Lewin en El País.
We Report, Youpress, Enketo... Ces journalistes indépendants qui jouent collectif par Tom Sallembien dans La revue des médias.
Les « bonnes nouvelles », l’arme qui se multiplie pour lutter contre la fatigue informationnelle par Sabine Blanc dans La revue des médias.
Est-ce la fin de la toute-puissance du dollar ? Une opportunité géopolitique pour l’Union européenne par Kambiz Zare (Kedge Business School) dans The Conversation.
What I read, listen, and watch
I’m reading Empire of AI (2025) by Karen Hao. Remember in #263, she talked about her book in the podcast I recommended. As soon as it was available on my library app, I placed it on hold.
I’m listening to Decoding the Gurus on shamanism with cognitive anthropologist Manvir Singh.
I’m watching Al Jazeera’s Marc Lamont Hill speak to AI ethicist Rumman Chowdhury on AI accountability.
Chart of the week
In a report by by Maria Smerkovich, Kelsey Jo Starr, and Andrew Prozorovsky for Pew Research Center, Israeli public is increasingly skeptical about lasting peace with Palestinians.