NZ is finally moving on modern slavery law. What can we learn from Australia? theconversation.com/nz-is-finall...

NZ is finally moving on modern slavery law. What can we learn from Australia?

Large NZ companies may soon be required to report on modern slavery risks. Nearly 17,000 Australian reports reveal what makes such laws work – and what doesn’t.

theconversation.com

Cuts to an already under-powered Privacy Commissioner's office will directly impact people's ability to have their rights upheld. It'll also likely impact investigations into major privacy breaches. Govt says it's not cutting OPC's budget, but preventing it from running deficits = same result.

RNZ News Feeds@rnzrss.bsky.social · 3w ago

Office of the Privacy Commissioner proposes cutting 15 percent of workforce

✍ Riders from the collective ROOM, along with organising lead, @xabivillares.bsky.social , and director, Cailean Gallagher, explain the terrible situation workers are suffering, with fees falling for years while algorithmic management remains as opaque as ever. 🗞️ www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Food delivery riders call on platforms to open up AI ‘black box’ they say has cut pay

Workers who blame algorithms for lowering their earnings are getting help from academics to find out how the system works

theguardian.com

I was very happy to contribute to this piece with Geoff Plimmer on decision to allow MBIE Chief Nic Blakely to stay in his role after misleading MPs. There should not be one set of rules for people at the top of organisations and another for the rest of us. newsroom.co.nz/2026/09/05/p...

Public service’s integrity on the line over decision to keep business ministry boss

From Victoria University - Comment: The decision to spare Nic Blakeley for misleading Parliament creates an unacceptable double standard for workers, write Dr Geoff Plimmerton and Dr Amanda Reilly.

newsroom.co.nz

This will be an interesting case to watch- it challenges the lethal combination of no privacy and algorithmic wage setting www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Uber drivers launch European class action over ‘soulless’ and ‘scary’ AI algorithm

Landmark lawsuit claims tech company’s pay-setting system has breached privacy laws and pushed down earnings

theguardian.com

Algorithmic monocultures - how AI hiring tools filter out candidates across multiple employers hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-hiri...

AI Hiring Tools Can Yield Racial Bias and Systemic Rejection | Stanford HAI

The first large-scale study of hiring algorithms in the wild finds concerning patterns to how systems reject candidates.

hai.stanford.edu

A new report examines how employers increasingly use surveillance technologies, algorithmic management systems, and vast stores of worker data to identify, monitor, and interfere with workers seeking to organize. epic.org/whos-got-the...

Who’s Got the Power? Restoring Worker Power in the Age of Algorithmic Unionbusting

epic.org

The State of Victoria wants to put in some protections against surveillance at work www.premier.vic.gov.au/big-tech-mus...

Big Tech Must Stop Spying On Workers At Work

premier.vic.gov.au

The Newlands Community House team who administer the Newlands Foodbank are in urgent need of pantry staples: rice, pasta, sauces, cereals, instant noodles, cooking oil, biscuits and the like. Donations can be dropped off at the Newlands Community Centre or New World Newlands.

Fifteen years after Pike River, New Zealand is dismantling the reforms it inspired www.publicinterest.nz/fifteen-year...

Fifteen years after Pike River, New Zealand is dismantling the reforms it inspired

The Pike River disaster was meant to transform workplace safety in New Zealand. Fifteen years on, journalist Rebecca Macfie says that consensus is unravelling – and the country is forgetting the lesso...

publicinterest.nz

Will NZ’s workplace safety overhaul cut red tape – or simply shift responsibility? (Answer= it weakens the law and makes it incoherent and workers will pay the price) theconversation.com/will-nzs-wor...

Will NZ’s workplace safety overhaul cut red tape – or simply shift responsibility?

The government’s proposed workplace safety reforms aim to create simpler rules for employers. Critics argue they may also move risk onto workers.

theconversation.com

OpenAI received billions from Microsoft, Google has its web scraping capacities, Meta its treasure trove of data. This is a reflection of deeper problems rooted in the surveillance practices of Big Tech.

Generative AI won't take over the world, surveillance capitalism already has

Is the AI hype fading? Consumer products with AI assistant are disappointing across the board, Tech CEOs are struggling to give examples of use cases to justify spending billions into Graphics Processing...

privacyinternational.org

Workplace Monitoring Platforms share data with third parties scholarship.law.columbia.edu/law_economy/5/

Food delivery platforms in Spain are categorising their drivers as employees with all the entitlements & protections that flow from this. It took a long legal struggle and a criminal law intervention to force the companies to obey the law but they got there. www.ier.org.uk/comments/the...

The end of the gig economy? The case of Spanish riders - IER

ier.org.uk

Happy May Day! Today I am finishing my working week listening to Adam McGrath's "Wrecker Songs: songs from & for the Maritime Union of New Zealand. " adammcgrath.bandcamp.com/album/wrecke...

Wrecker Songs, by Adam McGrath

13 track album

adammcgrath.bandcamp.com

🚨BREAKING: The NZCTU has nominated Uber as one of 2026’s Corporate Underminers of Democracy. Wealthy multinationals should NEVER have a say in the laws that protect our people. (1/3) #nzpol

AUSTRALIA: The ‘uberisation’ of part time roles is driving insecurity for women womensagenda.com.au/latest/the-u...

The 'uberisation' of part time roles is driving insecurity for women

The United Workers Union has surveyed 1200 women working part time. The results reveal a deeper slide into gig-economy like conditions.

womensagenda.com.au

Meta Smart Glasses Wearers data is being manually reviewed by workers who see things like credit card information & obviously intimate private footage. This is authorised by Meta's TOS so I guess Smart Glasses Wearers have consented to this (unlike the rest of us). gizmodo.com/dear-meta-sm...

Dear Meta Smart Glasses Wearers: You're Being Watched, Too

Not for your eyes only.

gizmodo.com

Spotting this a bit late but very happy to share it - at the Wellington Armageddon pop culture show the amazing Ruby is gonna take over the main stage to throw a bunch of international guests at Monster of the Week! Love to see it!

Ruby K@thisisrubyok.bsky.social · 7mo ago

✨️It's time for yah girl's first on-stage TTRPG live show✨️ In a truly wild turn of events, I'm taking over the main stage to run a Monster of the Week live show at Armageddon Expo this year, with a bunch of awesome special guests! #ttrpg #kiwirpg #actualplay #seriouslylookattheseplayers

Stop the AI Surveillance Pipeline. I love this graphical representation of the AI surveillance pipeline by @powerswitchaction.org . As they say our data is "our blood, our tears, our sweat" and we need to fight back. www.datocms-assets.com/64990/177196...

The People's Select Committee have issued their report on the NZ government's rushed pay equity reform. They find there was "flagrant and significant abuse of power". thespinoff.co.nz/politics/24-...

Pay equity ‘select committee’ finds ‘flagrant and significant abuse of power’

A group of female former MPs subjected the pay equity overhaul to the scrutiny it should have received before passing into law. Their newly released report is damning.

thespinoff.co.nz

The onion remains undefeated in delivering the most accurate news. theonion.com/ai-chatbot-t...

AI Chatbot That Only Responds ‘Huh’ Valued At $200 Billion

PALO ALTO, CA—Hailing the new product as a “game changer” in the development of large language models, Silicon Valley insiders confirmed Tuesday that an AI chatbot that only responds “huh” had been va...

theonion.com

Oh look, another seemingly automated thing that's actually propped up by poorly paid human beings

Rest of World@restofworld.org · 8mo ago

For the first time, Waymo has disclosed that it employs workers in the Philippines to monitor and support its driverless rides, which are marketed as fully autonomous. The revelation pulls back the curtain on the manual labor still underpinning the technology www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

"“AI layoffs are looking more and more like corporate fiction that’s masking a darker reality, Oxford Economics suggests”. That darker reality is that the economy is already screwed." The job losses are real — but the AI excuse is fake

Part of the issue is that data is inherently viewed as an asset rather than nuclear waste Ideally, companies would view data as something they only want the bare minimum of in order to function before discarding it as soon as they can Knowing my birthday to send me an email is unnecessary

Amanda Reilly@amandareillyinnz.bsky.social · 9mo ago

‪ Why, oh why, do there seem to be so many data breaches in NZ ? “The Privacy Act doesn’t provide sufficient incentives for many organisations to understand or meet even the most basic privacy requirements.” (Michael Webster, Privacy Commissioner, 1 Dec 2025 www.privacy.org.nz/tuhono-conne... )

Also, the 2010s/2020s decline of technical knowledge in management and cloud hosting mania leads to multiple layers of outsourcing between an organisation’s understanding of its privacy requirements and their capability to take action to support those requirements.

Amanda Reilly@amandareillyinnz.bsky.social · 9mo ago

‪ Why, oh why, do there seem to be so many data breaches in NZ ? “The Privacy Act doesn’t provide sufficient incentives for many organisations to understand or meet even the most basic privacy requirements.” (Michael Webster, Privacy Commissioner, 1 Dec 2025 www.privacy.org.nz/tuhono-conne... )

It’s almost like New Zealand’s mania for ‘light touch regulation’ isn’t actually effective in protecting ordinary people’s rights, whether it be privacy, health & safety, to take industrial action, to participate in a democracy that has integrity…

Amanda Reilly@amandareillyinnz.bsky.social · 9mo ago

‪ Why, oh why, do there seem to be so many data breaches in NZ ? “The Privacy Act doesn’t provide sufficient incentives for many organisations to understand or meet even the most basic privacy requirements.” (Michael Webster, Privacy Commissioner, 1 Dec 2025 www.privacy.org.nz/tuhono-conne... )

“If New Zealand wants to be serious about privacy, then organisations need to be held accountable for their failings […] That includes introducing significant fines, and real consequences.” Privacy Act 2020 turns 5 – changes are needed 1-Dec-2025 www.privacy.org.nz/tuhono-conne...

Amanda Reilly@amandareillyinnz.bsky.social · 9mo ago

‪ Why, oh why, do there seem to be so many data breaches in NZ ? “The Privacy Act doesn’t provide sufficient incentives for many organisations to understand or meet even the most basic privacy requirements.” (Michael Webster, Privacy Commissioner, 1 Dec 2025 www.privacy.org.nz/tuhono-conne... )

‪ Why, oh why, do there seem to be so many data breaches in NZ ? “The Privacy Act doesn’t provide sufficient incentives for many organisations to understand or meet even the most basic privacy requirements.” (Michael Webster, Privacy Commissioner, 1 Dec 2025 www.privacy.org.nz/tuhono-conne... )

I wonder to what extent the data from this surveillance technology is/could be used for risk assessment that would lock people out of housing and jobs.

Privacy International@privacyinternational.org · 9mo ago

Intrusive surveillance technology is increasingly used during protests around the world, and is now being used to prosecute activists and peaceful protesters. Read stories from those affected: