“Anyone who has ever fallen in love with technology knows the amount of control that it gives you,” says Cory Doctorow. But in a new interview about his recently-released scifi novel Attack Surface, he argues that many Silicon Valley employees are now having second thoughts: If you can express yourself well to a computer it will do exactly what you tell…
Tag: Orwellian
India Is Planning a Huge China-Style Facial Recognition Program
India is planning to set up one of the world’s largest facial recognition systems, potentially a lucrative opportunity for surveillance companies and a nightmare for privacy advocates who fear it will lead to a Chinese-style Orwellian state. Bloomberg reports: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will open bids next month to build a system to centralize facial recognition data captured through surveillance…
Alabama Tracking Students’ Locations To Penalize Them For Leaving Games Early
The University of Alabama is taking an extraordinary, Orwellian step to reward students who attend games — and stay until the fourth quarter — by using location-tracking technology from students’ phones to see who skips out and who stays. If students stay until the fourth quarter, they will be rewarded with improved access to tickets to the SEC championship game and…
Amazon’s Creepy Twitter PR Army is Growing
On Wednesday, a horde of Amazon employees rushed to defend the honor of the world’s richest man. From a report: The employees — known as “FC ambassadors,” for Amazon’s Orwellian-sounding “fulfillment center” warehouses — flooded into the mentions of several Twitter users. This isn’t the first time these accounts have attracted attention. Earlier this year, the accounts descended on Twitter with…
Financial Tyranny: America Has Become a Pay-to-Play Exercise in Fascism
John W. Whitehead, Guest Waking Times If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street, If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat. If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat, If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet. Don’t ask me what I want it for If you don’t want to… Continue reading Financial Tyranny: America Has Become a Pay-to-Play Exercise in Fascism