Happy Hump Day, Shit Givers.
Depending on which headline you read this week, AI is either going to take your job, write your eulogy, or become sentient and decide humanity was a rough draft. Maybe!
But while everyone is debating the robot uprising, there’s a much more immediate problem happening now: your data is being bought, sold, and used against you, mostly by people.
This week we’re focusing on getting some of that control back, from who gets to hold your data to who’s watching to how the AI systems making more and more decisions about your life actually work.
Let’s go.
— Willow
APL Positions covered this week:
🤖 AI literacy education in all states
🕵 End warrantless government purchase of personal data
Mind your business
There’s some personal data that should just stay personal, and not one data breach or subpoena away from being used against you.
Here’s what you can do:
Lock it down
You can’t out-legislate every bad actor this week, but you can make yourself a harder target starting today.
Here’s what you can do:
Switch to Signal for conversations that actually stay private (go).
Use Proton’s encrypted email and tools to keep your inbox out of ad networks (go).
Get a password manager that isn’t a sticky note with 1Password (go).
Hide your IP and browsing from your ISP with Mullvad VPN (go).
Check whether your data’s already been leaked with Mozilla Monitor (go).
Think of the kids
Kids are test subjects for a lot of new tech before anyone’s figured out the guardrails. There are AI tools grading their essays, apps tracking their screen time, and platforms designed to keep them scrolling. It’s worth teaching the next generation to question the machine.
Here’s what you can do:
Rein in Big Tech’s foothold in the classroom with a Schools Beyond Screens chapter near you (go).
Teach students about AI, bias, and machine learning ethics with The Tech Interactive (go).
Back youth-led efforts to build a fairer future for AI with Encode (go).
Join a global network building AI that’s safe, fair, and humane with the Ethical AI Network (go).
Who’s watching
Surveillance is in our faces, parked on your street corner, running in the background of an app, or sitting in a government contract you’ve never heard of.
Here’s what you can do:
See what surveillance tech your local police department already owns with EFF’s Atlas of Surveillance (go).
Lock down your devices and accounts with EFF’s Surveillance Self-Defense toolkit (go).
Know your digital rights before crossing the border with EFF’s Border Search Pocket Guide (go).
Organize against license-plate surveillance in your community with Flock Out (go).
Support Consumer Watchdog’s fight to protect your digital rights (go).
That’s it for this week.
Thank you — as always — for giving a shit.
— Willow
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