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data collection
Your Data or Your Life: DOGE’s Highway Robbery
The greatest public theft in human history is happening right now.
Feb 28, 2025
Our social imaginations have failed to keep pace with our technological imaginations. That has left us unguarded against today’s fast-moving, multi-pronged assault on our individual and collective autonomy.
DOGE isn’t just a power play for the levers of government power. It’s also the greatest theft of a public resource in human history. That resource is data: our aggregated data, in the form of research studies, along with some very personal individual information.
In a very real sense, the fight for this data is a fight for the future.
Our Data Belongs to Us
Last year, I wrote a piece for Current Affairs magazine entitled, “The Only Ethical Model for AI is Socialism.” My main argument was, and is, that the “large language models” (LLMs) behind today’s “chatbot” AI are both a public product and a public good. As I wrote then, “LLM AI was created by humans, billions of them, as they used the internet... a chatbot is a collectivity. Because it’s produced by everyone, it can’t ethically be owned by anyone.”
In the 20th century, military juntas seized radio stations whenever their coups began. Today’s data hijackings represent something similar, but with even more draconian implications.
I’m willing to defend that argument with anyone—socialist, Keynesian, or libertarian. In retrospect, however, I probably failed to fully convey the ruthlessness and brutality of Big Tech’s executives. Maybe I didn’t fully believe it myself. Now, everyone can see it.
Which gets us to the news of the day. The dozens of executive orders, the mass firings, the bizarre flurry of unauthorized memos to workers, the name-calling and intimidation: They’re all important. But the data dimension of this assault has been underemphasized. That must change
Elon Musk et al. are thinking big—bigger than most of their opponents can imagine.
The Great Theft
In the 20th century, military juntas seized radio stations whenever their coups began. Today’s data hijackings represent something similar, but with even more draconian implications.
People became rightfully alarmed when “DOGE” apparatchiks, some barely out of their teens, demanded access to federal payment systems. But there’s an even bigger target: information. The federal government’s massive databases have incalculable value. Their data can be used to manipulate public opinion, reshape policy, and accelerate the privatization of public resources. In a real sense, it can be used to reshape reality.
The leaders of DOGE’s tech jugend understand this. They proved that when they shut down more than 8,000 pages from more than a dozen government websites, going well beyond President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI directive. They took down over 3,000 pages from the U.S. Census Bureau, for example—mostly datasets and surveys used in debates about government policy. They also deleted nearly 1,000 pages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on innocent topics like preventing chronic disease, early detection of Alzheimer’s, and guidelines for treating sexually transmitted diseases. Some of these deletions may be the work of overzealous youngsters, but there are too many to dismiss as happenstance.
These databases contain collective or amalgamated data—on income, labor status, health, environment, and more. They represent millions of person-hours of research intended to benefit the public, not private entrepreneurs or totalitarian leaders.
Digital Big Brother
The assault on our individual data is equally frightening, if not more so. This data can be used to change our behavior, to target vulnerable groups for exploitation—even for blackmail, if it should come to that.
Take just one resource: health information. The federal government’s health data could be used to profile virtually anyone’s overall health, their past care, their mental state (if treated), and in some cases their sexual or recreational drug preferences. Equally sensitive information can be found at the IRS, the Treasury Department, and throughout government.
This information is also invaluable to Musk and his business associates, providing a competitive advantage that could help them build new monopolies. The highly competitive AI economy runs on data, and the U.S. government is the largest untapped data source in the Western world.
Data is power. If the right-wing coup officiants succeed in seizing it, that power could be theirs forever.
Again, let’s use health as an example. The federal government manages one-third of the U.S. health economy. With that data, a corporation could predict doctor and patient behavior. They could map prescription habits by doctor, doctor specialty, medical facility, and patient. They could project the likelihood of any individual experiencing a costly medical emergency in the next year, which could lead to the return of discriminatory “medical underwriting.”
And that’s just the beginning. With that data, a corporation could name its price with pharmaceutical companies, health insurers, and many other companies. Multiply that by every government database in existence, and you can build an information mega-monopoly. Don’t think Musk and his friends haven’t thought about that.
The data currently being hijacked can also be used to automate federal jobs, potentially on a mass scale. AI isn’t likely to do these jobs well, but making government more efficient isn’t the real goal. The goal is to dismantle government and replace it with private contractors wherever possible.
And who will be best positioned to bid on those automated jobs? The corporation that holds this data—our data.
A Fight for Survival
Without access some of these scientific reports, some people will die. Without the government’s medical, economic, and demographic information, many policy debates will be stifled. And this hijacked data can be used to divide us even more: sick vs. healthy, young vs. old, urban vs. rural, white vs. Black...
The bottom line? Data is power. If the right-wing coup officiants succeed in seizing it, that power could be theirs forever. If we don’t stop them now, we may be unable to stop them later.
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Amazon Fined in France for Illegally Spying on Workers
The retail giant was also ordered to pay more than $30 million last year after allegedly surveilling customers with its tech products.
Jan 23, 2024
Months after Amazon was fined more than $30 million for allegedly spying on customers in their homes, a French data watchdog on Monday announced it had ordered the retail giant to pay another $35 million for what it called "excessive" tracking of warehouse employees' activity.
France's National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) informed Amazon France Logistique, which runs the U.S. company's warehouses in the country, of the fine late last month after investigating scanning devices used by employees.
Several features of the tools violate the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to the group.
The technology-focused news outlet The Registerreported that all employees at Amazon's French warehouses are given scanners that document their tasks, including when they pick up an item or place it in a delivery box.
CNIL found that the "inactivity indicators" on the scanners were "too precise" and could lead "to the employee potentially having to justify each break or interruption."
Another feature used to measure the speed at which the scanner is used and one that stored data history for 31 days were also deemed "excessive" by the watchdog.
CNIL's investigation found that before April 2020, temporary employees at the warehouses weren't informed that their data would be collected by the scanning devices and that no workers were sufficiently told that the facilities were equipped with video surveillance systems.
In violation of Article 32 of the GDPR, said the watchdog, "access to the video surveillance software was not sufficiently secure, since the password was not sufficiently robust and the access account was shared between several users."
The group said it determined the amount of Amazon's penalty by taking into account "the fact that the processing of employees' data by means of scanners differed from the methods of monitoring of traditional activity because of the scale at which they were implemented, both in terms of their completeness and permanence, and led to a very tight and detailed monitoring of the work of employees."
The EUobserver, which reports on democracy within the bloc, noted that the fine was announced on the same day that Amazon refused to participate in a European Parliament hearing on working conditions in its warehouses.
The fine comes less than a year after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) determined that an Amazon employee had used its Ring security cameras to spy on female customers for several months, prompting the company to agree to a settlement worth $5.8 million.
Amazon also agreed to a $25 million settlement after being accused to failing to delete audio when parents requested they be erased from Alexa speakers.
The company said Tuesday that it "might appeal" the CNIL's decision and that the watchdog's conclusions about its surveillance practices were "factually incorrect."
In the U.S., progressive law professor Zephyr Teachout called the fine "excellent" and expressed hope that policymakers will soon pass "clear American laws that recognize just how harmful extreme monitoring is."
"Contract law is not the key," said Teachout. "Basic dignity is."
Amazon's focus on closely monitoring employees' activities has led to numerous injuries among workers, according to a survey by the University of Illinois Chicago's Center for Urban Economic Development last October. The center found that out of 1,484 employees, 70% had been forced to take unpaid time off due to sprains, strains, and other injuries sustained while rushing to keep up with Amazon's demanding quotas.
"We see clear evidence in our data," said researchers, "that work intensity and monitoring contribute to negative health outcomes."
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As Quietly as Possible, the Government is Renewing Its Assault on Your Privacy
Having failed to secure an anti-encryption bill, the FBI and justice department are now engaged in a multi-pronged attack on all sorts of other privacy rights
Jun 22, 2016
With their dangerous crusade for an anti-encryption bill in Congress all but dead (for now), the FBI and US Justice Department are now engaged in a multi-pronged attack on all sorts of other privacy rights - this time, with much less public scrutiny.
A report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office harshly criticized the FBI last week for its little-discussed but frequently used facial recognition database and called on the bureau to implement myriad privacy and safety protections. It turns out the database has far more photos than anyone thought - 411.9m to be exact - and the vast majority are not mugshots of criminals, but driver's license photos from over a dozen states and passport photos of millions of completely innocent people. The feds searched it over 36,000 times from 2011 to 2015 (no court order needed) while also apparently having no idea how accurate it is.
Worse, the FBI wants its hundreds of millions of facial recognition photos and its entire biometric database, including fingerprints and DNA profiles, to be exempt from important Privacy Act protections. As the Intercept reported two weeks ago: "Specifically, the FBI's proposal would exempt the database from the provisions in the Privacy Act that require federal agencies to share with individuals the information they collect about them and that give people the legal right to determine the accuracy and fairness of how their personal information is collected and used."
In Congress, Senate Republicans are pushing for a vote this week on controversial new warrantless surveillance measures that would let the FBI use unconstitutional National Security Letters to get email records and internet browsing history from countless US citizens - without going to a judge or court at all. The Senate leadership is bringing the measure up to vote by invoking the Orlando attack, despite the fact that we know the FBI had no problem surveilling the Orlando killer when he was previously investigated. It is a blatant attempt to exploit the tragedy in order to gain powers the FBI has long asked for (powers, by the way, the FBI is already reportedly using, despite the justice department telling them it's basically illegal).
The justice department, meanwhile, is busy attempting to implement a new rule for the court system that would make it much easier for the FBI to hack into computers worldwide - including those of hacking victims. Using the obscure process for amending the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the department has convinced the courts that they should be able to get one warrant to potentially hack thousands of computers, and shouldn't have to comply with the normal rules involving getting the court order in the jurisdiction where the crime occurred.
As the Electronic Frontier Foundation has noted, "this is a recipe for disaster," and it is being done by circumventing the normal democratic process. Several organizations (including Freedom of the Press Foundation, the organization I work for) have called on Congress to put a stop to it.
Also, in the courts, the Justice Department has continued to argue that the US government doesn't need a warrant to gather Americans' cell phone location information—even though that type of information can give authorities their precise whereabouts 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Justice Department convinced the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last month to overturn its previous ruling that police need a probable cause warrant to get such information. The court agreed with the justice department that cellphone users don't have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" around their location, even though it is some of the most intimate information that exists, giving law enforcement officials a detailed picture of your life that even your close friends and family may not know.
Last year, the FBI director disingenuously tried to claim that the pendulum "has swung too far" in the way of privacy despite the fact that the agency has virtually unprecedented access to all sorts of information on Americans. If it wasn't clear before, it should be now: they plan on using any means necessary to further erode the rights of hundreds of millions of citizens in their crusade against privacy.
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