Rebecca Williams
@rebeccawilliams.info
Tech policy, civics, art. Privacy @ACLU.org · Board @MuckRock.com · Teaching @PrattiSchool.bsky.social rebeccawilliams.info · rebecca.411 on Signal
After attending my first @hope.net conference, I think they’d primarily sit in the “Remake tech” camp, but of course there is a lot of overlap across approaches.
Rebecca Williams@rebeccawilliams.info · 5d agoI started writing about the Summer of Ludd and ended up writing about all the ways tech has grabbed power and all the ways we can take it back. (The secret is: politics). There's a good chance I cited your work in this piece – there are links for days. rebeccawilliams.info/unwinding-th...
the Trump Admin really is just trying to get local data (for ICE, for voter fraud) constantly gothamist.com/news/a-tussl...
A tussle over driver's license data that could affect NY, NJ commutes
Wary of immigration enforcement, states are looking to shield commercial drivers' data from the feds.
gothamist.com
we heard you hate AI, so at LFP we've been making resources for turning off AI features across the web. but we also don't think AI problems can be solved at an individual level, so we included some of our fav tools for community resistance as well. more to download free at libraryfreedom.org
New from 404 Media: Meta just published a patent showing what it might use for its AI smart glasses. Patent is to use facial recognition to identify specific people, record them, make a highlight reel of your night. Example given is clips from a dinner party. www.404media.co/meta-patents...
Meta Patents AI Glasses to Use Facial Recognition to Identify People, Make Highlight Reels of Your Dinner Party
A new Meta published Thursday says a system, like its AI glasses, would use facial recognition to identify people, current a series of video clips, then provide you with a highlight reel of your night...
404media.co
got introduced as “the level headed lawyer in the chat” today I said “me?” they said, “yeah when others say the sky is falling you always have the 10 specific systematic causes for why the sky is falling & what to do” to be seen wow
thinking a lot about infrastructure & workers at HOPE
Hackers On Planet Earth 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️@hope.net · 3w ago
Incredible. When E—n M—k & his crew obliterated USAID in a weekend, they deleted a vast trove of publicly-funded knowledge: the Development Experience Clearinghouse. A Canadian high school student (!) happened to have downloaded the entire thing for a project. AidData has now posted it for all.
Before reimagining development data, remember what we’ve learned
Why we’re publishing a free, searchable, and ungated archive featuring a quarter-century of USAID evaluation reports.
aiddata.org
I started writing about the Summer of Ludd and ended up writing about all the ways tech has grabbed power and all the ways we can take it back. (The secret is: politics). There's a good chance I cited your work in this piece – there are links for days. rebeccawilliams.info/unwinding-th...
Unwinding the Great Tech Power Grab
Movements to reclaim power over technology are springing up, from Neo-Luddism to Permacomputing to Rewilding the Internet. Alongside these approaches, we must discuss how tech has atrophied the exact ...
rebeccawilliams.info
@rebeccawilliams.info hit on some of this last November. www.techpolicy.press/mayor-elect-...
Mayor-Elect Mamdani Can Build a Tech Agenda for New York and a Model for the Country
By resisting surveillance, extraction, and exploitation, Mamdani can show how technology truly serves the people, writes Rebecca Williams.
techpolicy.press
This is important, and in some way may foreshadow whether there is any hope at all of Democrats dismantling the DHS surveillance state. If Mamdani can't eventually find the will in NYC, it won't bode well.
Edward Ongweso Jr@edwardongwesojr.com · 5d agoMamdani inherited a sprawling surveillance state. What is he going to do with it? Wrote about the gang database, NYCHA surveillance cameras, Domain Awareness System, the POST Act, and more for @nymag.com
Rebecca Williams@rebeccawilliams.info · 5d agoI started writing about the Summer of Ludd and ended up writing about all the ways tech has grabbed power and all the ways we can take it back. (The secret is: politics). There's a good chance I cited your work in this piece – there are links for days. rebeccawilliams.info/unwinding-th...
i've been thinking about the turning away from the social internet as, at the least, creating space for a better sociality, and rebecca points to what some of those opportunities look like.
Rebecca Williams@rebeccawilliams.info · 5d agoI started writing about the Summer of Ludd and ended up writing about all the ways tech has grabbed power and all the ways we can take it back. (The secret is: politics). There's a good chance I cited your work in this piece – there are links for days. rebeccawilliams.info/unwinding-th...
This is thoughtful.
Rebecca Williams@rebeccawilliams.info · 5d agoI started writing about the Summer of Ludd and ended up writing about all the ways tech has grabbed power and all the ways we can take it back. (The secret is: politics). There's a good chance I cited your work in this piece – there are links for days. rebeccawilliams.info/unwinding-th...
I started writing about the Summer of Ludd and ended up writing about all the ways tech has grabbed power and all the ways we can take it back. (The secret is: politics). There's a good chance I cited your work in this piece – there are links for days. rebeccawilliams.info/unwinding-th...
Unwinding the Great Tech Power Grab
Movements to reclaim power over technology are springing up, from Neo-Luddism to Permacomputing to Rewilding the Internet. Alongside these approaches, we must discuss how tech has atrophied the exact ...
rebeccawilliams.info
I wouldn’t say woke 1 was crazy, I’d say woke 2 needs to get crazier
Mamdani inherited a sprawling surveillance state. What is he going to do with it? Wrote about the gang database, NYCHA surveillance cameras, Domain Awareness System, the POST Act, and more for @nymag.com
Mamdani’s Surveillance State
The mayor inherited a vast network of cameras, databases, and tracking tools. Now he has to decide what to do with it.
nymag.com
Well well well, if it isn’t the predictable consequence of every decision that got us here. newbedfordlight.org/new-bedford-...
New Bedford police officer accused of using Flock cameras to track and follow ex-romantic partner - The New Bedford Light
Officer Emily Pacheco faces an internal affairs investigation. She was served an abuse prevention order Monday after a judge’s ruling.
newbedfordlight.org
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada has sued the Metropolitan Police Department over what it called excessive fees on public records requests. buff.ly/2rgDmlW
ACLU of Nevada sues Las Vegas police over public records fees
The lawsuit alleges that the Metropolitan Police Department violated the Nevada Public Records Act by purposefully overcharging for access to public records.
reviewjournal.com
Join us for FOIAFriday: FOIA, environmental disasters, and the human impact behind the records. We’ll explore how reporters and analysts track environmental impact through public records, and how those documents can help surface leads, timelines and key actors involved. buff.ly/rCjaUtF
FOIAFriday
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: FOIAFriday. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
buff.ly
NEW: Private intelligence firms are selling dossiers about critics of artificial intelligence and the data centers powering them, including trying to peddle them to federal regulators. It's the latest effort to cash in on spying on those who dissent from government action. Dan Boguslaw reports:
Private Intelligence Firms Are Selling Dossiers on AI and Data Center Critics - The American Prospect
Along with federal law enforcement agencies, private companies are now surveilling opponents of Big Tech.
prospect.org
Final day to apply for my Tools for Creativity class at the School for Poetic Computation! 5 weeks, online, scholarships available. Learn to make things which encourage other people to make things! sfpc.study/sessions/fal...
School for Poetic Computation
The School for Poetic Computation is an experimental school in New York City supporting interdisciplinary study in art, code, hardware and critical theory. It's a place for learning and unlearning.
sfpc.study
[some-subscribed-rss] New Post: Europe’s Privacy Paradox: Fort Knox for Search Data, a Checkbox for Your Phone, by Dirk Auer https://truthonthemarket.com/2026/07/23/europes-privacy-paradox-fort-knox-for-search-data-a-checkbox-for-your-phone/
So American! The next quote in this thread too connecting MAHA rhetoric to the carceral state is dead on.
David Wallace-Wells@dwallacewells.bsky.social · 8mo ago“MAHA is a seductive process because it speaks to real pain—the pain of being abandoned. But it offers no solidarity only self management, not justice only blame, not transformation only cruelty disguised as wellness.”
I’ve definitely been using em dashes more since the introduction to ChatGPT, because I see it everywhere constantly, but now I’ve become a problem just putting it in any time I want a run on sentence, not just in formal writing also texts, I love this new tool to just go on and on
lol, when money or digital harassment don’t seem to be working, triple down on it
Tressie McMillan Cottom@tressiemcphd.bsky.social · last wk.but don't worry. there's a plan. www.wunc.org/2026-07-12/p...
Public records requests are piling up. But instead of hiring more FOIA staff to clear the backlog, the White House chose to hire more ICE officers. The Trump administration is quietly gutting the public's right to know. Watch @laurenleharper.bsky.social explain.
