1. Dark patterns, the tricks websites use to make you say yes, explained

Source: Vox: read the full essay here.

The idea: The internet is a wild west for designs "that manipulate or heavily influence users to make certain choices.” The tricks include re-framing tracking and surveillance to make ads more personalised and nudging people away from what the company doesn't want. There’s a growing regulatory movement to rein this in.

Key takeaways: It is easy to dismiss dark patterns as the annoying flip side of UX nudging, but would we accept this in cold, wet reality? Would we tolerate a restaurant forcing us to eat there once a week because we didn't read the small print on our first bill? Would we accept a shop that made you solve a logic puzzle just to exit — or worse, sent someone to follow you around town after you left?

Quote: "The big pop-up window urging you to sign up for a website’s newsletter with a big red ‘Sign Me Up’ button, while the opt-out button is much smaller and passive-aggressively implies that anyone who clicks is a bad person."

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2. Law and order and data

Source: Chicago Booth Review: read the full essay here.

The idea: Regulation, caution and avoiding over-reliance will be key if AI in criminal justice is to avoid doing more harm than good. It shouldn’t distract from big-picture police reform.

Key takeaways: AI in 'justice' is hugely heterogeneous. It — and data use in general — is an umbrella term covering a huge range of implications and degrees of responsibility. Incorporating AI into law enforcement isn’t a question of “yes” or “no”, but rather a matter of diligence against unintended negative consequences.

Quote: "There’s also the threat of predictive-policing systems creating feedback loops as they ingest the data generated by their own predictions. Crime data come in part from police observations of crimes — so if an algorithm sends a patrol to a particular neighborhood, it becomes more likely that new data will be generated for that location."

3. Aadhaar in a box? Legitimising Digital Identity in Times of Crisis

Source: Tilburg University: read the full report here.

The idea: Digital identity systems (think biometric passports) were picking up steam before the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in the Global South. Now, they’ve been blasted into the mainstream. This isn’t without risks to data justice, privacy and human rights.

Key Takeaways:

  • Perks of digital ID systems:

    • Keeps people and capital flowing
    • Streamlines access to digital services (e.g. banks and governments)

  • Downsides:

    • Excludes ‘unconnected’ people
    • Heightens surveillance
    • High risk of unscrupulous uses

Quote: “More important than just encouraging new legislation, international development actors and particularly funders must commit to investing in countries’ data protection regulatory capacity.”

4. The internet of Landlords makes renters of us all

Source: The Reboot: read the full article here.

The idea: The digital economy is dominated by a handful of rent-seeking monopolists. This has intensified during the pandemic. Digital commons, anti-trust laws and ‘rent-control’ policies would be appropriate measures to regulate them.

Key Takeaway: By considering tech giants as old-school monopolists, we can blow away the mystique around regulating them.

Quote: “Rather than viewing digital platforms as a great break in society... we should simply see them as the latest case of out-of-control landlords who must be reined in.”

5. Digital colonialism: the evolution of American empire

Source: Roar: read the full essay here.

The idea: The conversation about the big-tech monopolies is far bigger than the USA and Europe. Some of the harshest impacts are felt in the Global South.

Key Takeaways: There are disturbing similarities between the actions of tech giants — especially with respect to surveillance and media influence — and “classical colonialism” (think British East India company).

Quote: “By monopolising the core components of the digital ecosystem, pushing their tech in schools and skills training programs and partnering with corporate and state elites in the South, Big Tech is capturing emerging markets.”

And something you may have missed...

6. How to Become an Intellectual in Silicon Valley

Source: The Baffler: read the full essay here.

The idea: The tech and venture capital world is full of charlatan preachers.

Key takeaway: 100% unfiltered shade. PH 0.1. The funniest, sharpest piece of long-form satire I have read in a long time.

Quote: Nearly all of the article. Here are few examples:

"There is no absolute moral evil that cannot be playfully reframed on irrelevant grounds as a net historical good." "Rousseau, for those unfamiliar with his work, was a radical eighteenth-century blogger best remembered for his pro-innovation defense of private property..." “Your sentences should be short. And simple. And broken out. Into blocks. Like this. See? Not patronizing at all.” “To become a VC intellectual, try as much as possible to be male."

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