Associate Press wins a Pulitzer for showing how across the world, surveillance technology – often made by Silicon Valley and sold with US government blessing despite sanctions – is increasingly monitoring the moves of citizens who have done nothing wrong.

#Tech #Surveillance #SiliconValley #Journalism
https://apnews.com/surveillance-digital-cage

"This is why labour law belongs at the centre of these debates. Labour law is not merely a technical field regulating wages, contracts and dismissal. It is one of the principal ways in which the rule of law enters the workplace. Employers are granted legal powers to direct, monitor and discipline workers. Those powers are not natural facts. They are constituted and structured by law. Labour law exists, in part, to ensure that these powers do not become arbitrary and all-encompassing, and that workers do not cease to be citizens the moment they enter the workplace. Workers’ rights, in that sense, are not just social entitlements. They are democratic safeguards.

The urgency of this becomes clearer still once we turn to artificial intelligence and algorithmic management at work. These technologies are usually discussed in the language of innovation, efficiency and competitiveness. But they also reorganise and reinforce authority. Employers increasingly use digital systems to hire, direct, evaluate and discipline workers, while collecting immense quantities of data about productivity, pace, location, communications and behaviour. The point is not simply that privacy is endangered, though it is. The point is that managerial command is being intensified through technology."

https://www.socialeurope.eu/silicon-valleys-anti-democratic-turn-begins-at-work

#SiliconValley #EconomicDemocracy #Authoritarianism #Surveillance #AI

RE: https://indieweb.social/@jbz/116407902311911594

Call data centres what they really are: data farms.

It’s where they farm you for your data.

You are the livestock being farmed.

#PeopleFarming #BigTech #SiliconValley #capitalism #dataFarms

#SiliconValley #privacy #DoNotTrack

'An independent review of Microsoft, Meta and Google web traffic in California in March found the tech companies may have violated state regulations around internet privacy.'

https://www.kqed.org/news/12079887/what-is-the-point-of-californias-privacy-laws-if-big-tech-ignores-them

KQED: What Is the Point of California’s Privacy Laws if Big Tech Ignores Them?. “An independent review of Microsoft, Meta and Google web traffic in California in March found the tech companies may have violated state regulations around internet privacy. The audit, by webXray, also said that nearly 200 online advertising services ignored ‘legally defined, globally standard, opt-out signals’ […]

"Acclaimed journalist and '#EmpireOfAI' author #KarenHao sat down with award-winning writer #NaomiKlein for a conversation on the precarious #AI moment we find ourselves in."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1B__Efqacc

#artificialIntelligence #AGI #SamAltman #tech #BigTech #OpenAI #SiliconValley #surveillance #techFutures #technosolutionism #techWorkers #labour #books @bookstodon

CNBC: Online age-verification tools spread across U.S. for child safety, but adults are being surveilled. “New U.S laws designed for online child safety are pulling millions of adult Americans into mandatory age-verification gates that often use AI technology, and causing major headaches for social media companies attempting to strike a balance for users between legal compliance and privacy.”

Engadget: COPPA 2.0 passes the Senate again, unanimously this time. “Today the US Senate unanimously passed proposed legislation known as COPPA 2.0. This measure, fully named the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, aims to create new protections for younger users online, such as blocking platforms from collecting their personal data without consent.”

Ars Technica: OpenClaw security fears lead Meta, other AI firms to restrict its use. “A Meta executive says he recently told his team to keep OpenClaw off their regular work laptops or risk losing their jobs. The executive told reporters he believes the software is unpredictable and could lead to a privacy breach if used in otherwise secure environments. He spoke on the condition of anonymity […]

Silicon Valley Rallies Behind Anthropic in AI Clash With Trump
Actions by the president and the Pentagon appeared to drive a wedge between Washington and the tech industry, whose leaders and workers spoke out for the start-up.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/technology/anthropic-trump-pentagon-silicon-valley.html?unlocked_article_code=1.PlA.kDX6.gX_T8ebijKTK&smid=url-share

from #NewYorkTimes #NYT
[gift article]

Feb. 27, 2026

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said in a memo to employees this week that “we have long believed that AI should not be used for mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons.”

More than 100 employees at Google signed a petition calling on the #tech giant to “refuse to comply” with the #Pentagon on some uses of #ArtificialIntelligence in military operations.

And employees at Amazon, Google and Microsoft urged their leaders in a separate open letter on Thursday to “hold the line” against the Pentagon.

#SiliconValley has rallied behind the #AI start-up #Anthropic, which has been embroiled in a dispute with #Trump and the Pentagon...

#news #politics #technology #USpol

A Super Bowl for the “kids picked last in gym class.” Read more from @Techcrunch:

https://flip.it/HaLxEx

#Tech #SiliconValley #SuperBowl #Technology

Santa Clara County may ditch camera vendor amid privacy issues

Santa Clara County officials signaled growing distrust with Flock Safety, a company that sells license plate reading cameras to cities across California, over concerns the cameras are being used by federal immigration authorities.

#SiliconValley #California #FlockSafety #surveillance #privacy #ice #technology #tech

https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-may-ditch-camera-vendor-amid-privacy-issues/

Back in 2020, tech companies expounded about how important it was to "bring your whole self to work." Now, they want you to leave that girl or guy at home, while you, of course, return to the office. What gives? @mmasnick writes for @techdirt.com about how it was always just a business decision — and that explains the rightward shift across Silicon Valley too.

https://flip.it/cNEF9F

#Technology #Tech #Politics #SiliconValley #DEI

Reuters: Exclusive-Pentagon clashes with Anthropic over military AI use, sources say. “The Pentagon is at odds with artificial-intelligence developer Anthropic over safeguards that would prevent the government from deploying its technology to target weapons autonomously ​and conduct U.S. domestic surveillance, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtEidzV5nNE

"Ever heard of the Enuma Elish? It’s this ancient Babylonian myth where the gods got tired of working, so they created humans to be their slave class. Sound familiar?"

"In this video, I’m exploring how Silicon Valley is basically reenacting this exact same story right now. Except this time, we want to be the gods, and AI is the new slave class."

"I dive into the difference between being made in the "Image of God" vs. the "Image of Man" (Imago Hominis), and why that distinction matters more than ever. We aren't building a god; we are building a mirror—and the reflection isn't always pretty."

#AI #SiliconValley #Tech #ArtificialIntelligence #Religion #Myth

“But now things suck even for me and I’m sad!”

Oh, the gravy train ran out of gravy, did it? Something about leopards eating people’s faces?

Here, have a very fucking tiny violin.

🎻

#BigTech #BigWeb #SiliconValley #SiliconRoundabout #SurveillanceCapitalism #PeopleFarming #fascism

“How could we have known?!”

Maybe if you’d listened to those of us warning you – often times your own damn friends – instead of siding with the corporations that paid your salaries/consulting fees/sponsored your conferences/invited you to parties and bought you free booze…

🤷‍♂️

#BigTech #BigWeb #SiliconValley #SiliconRoundabout #SurveillanceCapitalism #PeopleFarming #fascism

#AmericanPrestige pod welcomes #OmarZahzah, author of #TermsOfServitude: Zionism, #SiliconValley, and Digital #SettlerColonialism. Discussion includes the #SheikhJarrah uprising, the repressive weaponizing of #tech and #AI against #Palestinians, and Palestinian use of #socialMedia to change the narrative of their struggle.

https://americanprestige.supportingcast.fm/listen/american-prestige-1/e334-silicon-valley-and-the-israeli-occupation-w-omar-zahzah

#media #digitalMedia #mediaCriticism #BigTech #oPt #censorship #digitalCensorship #cyberharassment #digitalRights #Gaza #books @bookstodon

Amid concerns over the Biden administration's regulation of the crypto industry, billionaire tech investor Marc Andreessen, a longtime Democrat, donated more than $5 million to groups supporting Trump ahead of the 2024 election.

Since then, he's gotten what he called for: a hollowed-out Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-cfpb-marc-andreessen-silicon-valley?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Technology #Finance #Business #Trump #SiliconValley #USPolitics #Tech

#SiliconValley (series) fans, can you help me find a GIF of the scene when the guy from Hooli partners with a factory in China to initialise as many devices as possible with its OS so that it could take control of #PiedPiper?

I want to use it to explain the pitfalls of decentralisation in my slides for my talk at SFSCON 2025

#Fediverse #decentralization #GIF #TV #series #TVseries

Convened by #SiliconValley #billionaire #PeterThiel & #JDVance, then an investor who had written a best-selling memoir, the meeting included hedge fund heiress #RebekahMercer, then-FoxNews host #TuckerCarlson & economist #OrenCass, acc/to 2 people familiar…. The details have not been previously reported.

But the person in the room who would solidify the group’s ambitions was an Arizona insurance entrepreneur & conservative media figure named #ChrisBuskirk.

#law #democracy #aristocracy #USpol

Karl Marx has multitudes more to offer to the problem of AI alignment than any of these machiavellian narcissists in Silicon Valley right now.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdTfREkk/

#ai #aialignment #siliconvalley #narcissim #marxism #tech #fascism

Stepping down as Framework Linux Community Ambassadors

We are Tommi and Fraxinas, Framework Linux Community Ambassadors since September 2024.

We apprehensively followed the developments and the debate concerning Framework’s endorsement and support of Omarchy. We have no direct experience with this Linux distribution, its community, nor with the political environment around it. We did not speak up before now because learning about all of it and keeping up with all the commentary would have been a full-time job. Unfortunately we do not have the time to read every single comment on the dedicated forum thread.

Despite our admittedly limited and superficial understanding of this matter, we believe we have witnessed and read enough to make an informed decision and take a clear position.

The statements from Framework and from Nirav Patel (its CEO) made it very clear for us that Framework is not a company we feel represented by any more, and surely not a company that we want to represent as Ambassadors.

To be frank, it is not even necessary to dive into the petty drama about the recent events in order to provide an explanation of our decision. We are deeply disappointed by a company that is self-proclaimed as the resistance of the tech industry, the good David that intends to stand against the big tech Goliaths that are devouring it. Framework’s behaviour brought to surface an embarrassing and absurd inability to take an explicitly political position, blinded by the Western patriarchal narrative that technology in itself is not political. By trying to keep everyone happy (or at least not to make anyone mad) inside a fictitious “big tent”, the company proved to be no better than any of its Silicon Valley peers, dismissing comments about DHH, and comments about fascism and racism as not strictly related to the main mission.

We were proud to be ambassadors because we believed that Framework not only made products that empowered those who purchase them to fully own and repair their devices, but most importantly because we wrongly expected that this would imply changing the paradigm and the narrative about tech companies altogether.

We were offered the possibility of having a 1:1 conversation with Nirav Patel. We did not take it, because it is self-evident that our opinions are in contrast with the statements that he already made. Too bad, Framework is going to lose much more business than it would have if it simply acknowledged a mistake, took a deep inward look, and questioned its own values and stance.

In a world that is burning, thorn by conflict and greed, it is not enough to be “less evil”, to be radical only in some cases, and be moderate in others. We wanted to be ambassadors of a company that does not see fascism and proprietary software as two distant topics, but that recognised the entanglement of politics and technology, of capitalism and authoritarianism. It seems that this is not the case.

Farewell, Framework. We will miss the shining brave idea we had of you.

— @tommi and @fraxinas

The following statement was cross-posted on Framework’s Community Forum.

#Framework #politicalTechnology #SiliconValley #CalifornianIdeology

But more poignantly for me, a cog in the Silicon Valley machine, is how Big Tech royally screwed itself by completely misunderstanding what motivates the core of the right wing. They thought they could endear themselves to the right by debasing themselves before Trump and kissing his ring, but the right wing aren’t buying any of it. They remember that only a year ago, Big Tech was all into deplatforming them and cozying up to “diversity” and left-wing ideas—ideas that are diametrically opposed to their view of Western Civilization; and now Big Tech claims they’re part of the right wing? Yeah, right.

The right wants to see Big Tech burn. And ironically, now so does the left, because Big Tech’s prostration and capitulation before Trump has thoroughly disgusted those fighting for progressive values.

Trump is the only person holding Big Tech and the right wing together. And when Trump is gone—and he will be gone—Big Tech will find itself without anyone on their side.

#conservatism #siliconValley

/end

The biggest surprise (to me) from this conversation is that there is a growing and likely *irreparable* rift between the core right-wing intelligentsia and Big Tech, and much of it driven by #AI.

Those on the right are still reeling from having their media outlets “cancelled” and deplatformed by Big Tech over the last five years, only to learn that Big Tech is now training AI on their material, which can potentially jeopardize their monetization. That puts right-wing pundits on the same team as small-time creators whose works are being stolen by Big Tech. Strange bedfellows indeed.

According to Nguyen, conservatives are so deeply distrustful of Big Tech that they now make it a priority to own their entire tech stack—something that the left can probably learn from—and not ever depend on the good graces of AWS or Meta ever again. Truth Social is built on such vertical integration. Now that the right has their tech stack, they no longer need Big Tech, and a divorce is underway.

#conservatism #siliconValley

…

Really think our government in the UK should be made aware of this, and to stop huffing Tech Bros flatulence.

Bubble's are going to burst, let's not be face deep into one?

#AI #TechBros #SiliconValley #UKPOL #UKPOLITICS #Economic

Alt...

The Al bubble is the only thing keeping the US economy together, Deutsche Bank warns When the bubble bursts, reality will hit far harder than anyone expects By Alfonso Maruccia September 25, 2025 at 2:03 PM 38 comments

Peter Kyle, our idiot Technology Minister wants to put this dangerous product into every home in the UK.
You could say he's bought the sales pitch, he apparently uses the damn thing to manage his Ministerial day for him, I guess OpenAI will be keyed into important British Governmental communications now, ...they can read everything you tell it.

https://metro.co.uk/2025/08/27/chat-gpts-final-messages-teenager-took-life-24009052/

#OpenAI #ChatGPT #PeterKyle #Youth #MentalHealth #Suicide #LLMs #GenAI #TechBros #SiliconValley