I'm in @theconversation.com this week sharing findings from RentTech research that @chandnigupta.bsky.social and I worked on together for @cprc-research.bsky.social Dark patterns, vague privacy policies, dodgy personality quizzes + reward programs are just some of the things renters deal with!

Personality tests, dodgy reward programs, AI bots: how rent tech platforms make renting a ‘dehumanising’ experience

Rent tech is an unavoidable part of modern renting – and renters have little control over what data they have to give up and what happens to it afterwards.

theconversation.com

I’m making a game 💖 Project Worl is in the latest round of the Emerging Gamemakers Fund. It’s a vibey liminal rhythm game where your movements are reflected in the environment and the soundscape, where sound reflects Country and Country holds memory. www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-austr...

no fr I love to be able to write this (all by myself, because I'm not a baby)

Happy NAIDOC 🖤 we're out here making games. I had a really lovely chat about making a rhythm game that honours Country, and working with Wali Studios on Wyrmspace Tactics.

ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 3mo ago

First Nations creators tell Indigenous stories through video games

well well well if it isn't me eating, slurping, gobbling up my words

samantha floreani@floreani.bsky.social · last yr.

maybe a faux pas to say this but I keep being pleasantly surprised by how fun doing a phd is. countless people warned me about how hard, awful, soul crushing it is, but no one warned me it could be a good time

If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been posting much the last three months: My paper on the future of Australia’s games industry — and what the government can do to avoid another Crash wiping — is out today. drive.google.com/file/d/1Hnr_...

I cannot state strongly enough that data centre overdevelopment and the shockingly toxic technology of generative AI should be both be intensely opposed, rather than welcomed on the grounds that they're taxed. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

If Australian data centres are going to power the AI revolution, we deserve a fair return | David Pocock

We cannot afford to make the same mistake as we did with gas. If tech companies are going to use our land, energy and water for AI, they must pay their fair share of tax

theguardian.com

Today we launched a dive into the "less lethal" weapons some police are using against crowds in Australia—and about which very little is publicly known. These are projectiles that release powder designed to burn the eyes and throat. Flashbang grenades. Teargas. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Revealed: the ‘less lethal’ weapons Australian police don’t want you to know about

Launchers that shoot ‘bullet-like missiles’, chemical irritants and stinger grenades: experts say these weapons can cause serious injury or even death. But they are deployed by police against crowds w...

theguardian.com

there's a certain artistic vision to rental listing photography that many cannot appreciate

served notice to vacate and once again thinking about the challenge of building renter power - not just for lack of capital and influence but also if you're forced to move regularly, often to different municipalities, it's much harder to get/stay involved in local politics, community building etc.

Australia's government has signed $60m of Palantir contracts. It owns $160m of Palantir shares. But what does the pro-Trump company actually do for us? Internal documents shows how an agency uses it to analyse 42 million call records, messages and other data points

Calls, messages, police records: How Palantir helped an intelligence agency analyse 42 million data points on Australians

Internal and public government records reveals how the federal government has spent $60 million on contracts with the Trump-aligned company, bought a stake worth more than $160 million, but has never considered if it is a responsible investment.

crikey.com.au

I have been reporting on the rent tech space for a bit and it's good to see this decision - and also the commissioner specifically pointing out the power imbalance between renters and real estate agents in a housing crisis. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Rental platform unnecessarily collected the data of millions of Australians, privacy commissioner finds

2Apply’s over-collection of personal information adds to the power of the real estate industry in the competitive rental market, Carly Kind says

theguardian.com

wake up babe the Australian privacy commissioner just published a determination that online rental application platform, 2Apply, undermined renters' privacy by collecting too much personal information, and doing so by unfair means. we love to see it classic.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth...

Really happy to see this new article out now with @floreani.bsky.social. We offer an in-depth analysis of major trends in RentTech / Landlord Tech markets and show how they are shaping the financialisation of housing, assetisation of data, and moral economic evaluation of renters.

Platforming landlords: A critical trend analysis of rental housing technology in Australia and beyond - Samantha Floreani, Jathan Sadowski, 2026

This article advances a critical analysis of digital technologies in rental housing by drawing out five trends in the Australian ‘RentTech’ market and placing t...

journals.sagepub.com

"If policymakers wish to genuinely reduce harm to young people online, they must take seriously the task of challenging models based on behavioural advertising, profiling and problematic algorithm-driven feeds." My latest for The Guardian on the news that the ban, unsurprisingly, isn't working

Australia’s teen social media ban is a flop. But there’s no joy in ‘I told you so’ | Samantha Floreani

Around seven in 10 children remain on major platforms. Who could possibly have predicted that this wasn’t going to work? Well, lots of people

theguardian.com

the good folks at @drwaus.bsky.social have launched an AI harms register! they're collecting stories from people in Australia who have experienced AI-related harms to track the way AI is causing harm, and to pressure the govt to act. submit here: digitalrightswatch.org.au/ai-harms-reg...

I feel like Sir Ian McKellan breaking down over the profound loneliness of filming The Hobbit in a CGI booth. I don't want to talk to robots, I want to collaborate with people.

"Within the refusal of tech, we can find alternative imaginations of the future. Not anti-progress, only refusing a particular, narrow idea of what “progress” should look like."

Why refusing AI is a fight for the soul

Author Thomas Dekeyser explains why modern resistance to Big Tech is a deeply sane response to a narrow vision of humanity.

restofworld.org

The average landlord being like why do these rentoids get mad at me when I feel entitled enough to pass on the full cost of my investment to them (whilst simultaneously increasing the cost of housing and also benefitting from massive tax discounts purely because I own multiple homes)

the only way Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" makes sense to me is if it's read as deranged Heathcliff fan fiction

if you're a renter and have had to use an online application platform or a property management app - now's a great time to reach out to your property manager, link them this article, and ask them what they're doing to make sure that the tech they're using is keeping your data secure

Real estate agents in Australia using apps that leave millions of lease documents at risk, digital researcher says

Exclusive: ‘This is a blatant and disturbing disregard for the law and for people’s security,’ digital rights advocate says

theguardian.com

On the platforms used by real estate agents for renters, documents are exposed and accessible without any form of login, according to research. I was able to view applications and lease agreements among other docs exposed. Most of the platforms didn't respond. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Real estate agents in Australia using apps that leave millions of lease documents at risk, digital researcher says

‘This is a blatant and disturbing disregard for the law and for people’s security,’ digital rights advocate says

theguardian.com

News came out today of serious security vulnerabilities in seven popular Australian ‘RentTech’ platforms, leaving millions of documents containing renter personal information exposed. Renters often have no choice but to use these apps in order to secure housing. I wrote about it for the Guardian:

Why should renters like me have to trade away our privacy just to get a roof over our heads? | Samantha Floreani

The rise in real estate tech means renters often hand over huge amounts of revealing information to digital third parties – at great risk

theguardian.com

rent tech platforms looking at the hoards of renter data they collect like

Jathan Sadowski@jathansadowski.com · 8mo ago

"An analysis of seven rent platforms ... revealed millions of leasing documents could be accessed by threat actors." Thanks to negligent privacy practices, it is easy to access troves of highly sensitive information stored on rental management platforms www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

"An analysis of seven rent platforms ... revealed millions of leasing documents could be accessed by threat actors." Thanks to negligent privacy practices, it is easy to access troves of highly sensitive information stored on rental management platforms www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Real estate agents in Australia using apps that leave millions of lease documents at risk, digital researcher says

Exclusive: ‘This is a blatant and disturbing disregard for the law and for people’s security,’ digital rights advocate says

theguardian.com

"Across the country, renters are living in properties with no insulation, poor sealing, broken or inadequate fans or no cooling options at all. Others technically have air conditioning, but they are in such extreme rental stress they can’t afford to turn it on."

Australia’s heatwaves are getting deadlier – and renters are paying the price | Maiy Azize

Some are trapped in a vicious cycle: rising rents, rising energy bills and falling standards. But this is not inevitable

theguardian.com

had to laugh at the Gen Xers around me at the david byrne gig getting excited about the anti-fascist and revolutionary spirit as footage of police and protest played behind 'Life During Wartime'. SUSAN I heard your pre-show chat, the only thing you're protesting is threats to negative gearing

brilliantly spicy take on ai and automation from the always on point @floreani.bsky.social

samantha floreani@floreani.bsky.social · 8mo ago

get in girlies, we're talking surveillance! we're talking the fantasy of automation propped up by humans! we're talking unfulfilled promises of tech to reduce household labour! we're talking funwashing of robots made for warfare!

get in girlies, we're talking surveillance! we're talking the fantasy of automation propped up by humans! we're talking unfulfilled promises of tech to reduce household labour! we're talking funwashing of robots made for warfare!

Aside from creepy surveillance, what are ‘consumer-ready’ service robots actually for? | Samantha Floreani

For A$30k you could have a remote employee see inside your home via a walking, talking machine with a chilling blank face. Count me out

theguardian.com

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has begun spot compliance audits, checking that real estate businesses are properly applying their privacy policies www.cyberdaily.au/digital-tran... cc @floreani.bsky.social

Peak real estate body issues warning over compliance audits

One of Australia’s peak real estate bodies has issued a warning that the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has begun spot compliance audits, checking that real estate businesses...

cyberdaily.au