As awful as credit reporting is, the data broker industry makes it look like a paragon of virtue. If you want to target an ad to "Rural and Barely Making It" consumers, the brokers have you covered:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/public-interest-pharma/#axciom

More than 650,000 of these categories exist, allowing advertisers to target substance abusers, depressed teens, and people on the brink of bankruptcy:

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/08/from-heavy-purchasers-of-pregnancy-tests-to-the-depression-prone-we-found-650000-ways-advertisers-label-you

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Equifax's competitors are no better. #Experian doxed the nation again, in 2021:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/30/dox-the-world/#experian

It's hard to overstate how fucking scummy the credit reporting world is. Equifax invented the business in 1899, when, as the #RetailCreditCompany, it used private spies to track queers, political dissidents and "race mixers" so that banks and merchants could discriminate against them:

https://jacobin.com/2017/09/equifax-retail-credit-company-discrimination-loans

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Two pillars of the American surveillance industry are #CreditReporting bureaux and #DataBrokers. Both are *unbelievably* sleazy, reckless and dangerous, and neither faces any real accountability, let alone regulation.

Remember #Equifax, the company that doxed *every adult in America* and was given a mere wrist-slap, and now continues to assemble nonconsensual dossiers on every one of us, without any material oversight improvements?

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/20/equifax-settles-with-ftc-cfpb-states-and-consumer-class-actions-for-700m/

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nostr:npub12wax3urwt7reuq5vctp43l2cnyh60p442rcm7xgl56uc72hwyhrqssrrrm nostr:npub14qsg3uuyk2qehlcamwlsjl4caxrf25h72w4mk0p5ty3vtwg2fnns75qwuh nostr:npub18uz6z3y8pf7k7fg49r5udwy3ra5mrpy9f3c2stxnfntgc7u7w9hq9q7hes Thank you!

nostr:npub1h2af6qkgm4u0gx4qz673h7plzfvdpwj7jm6e04qxtlgxewnu5jaq2jnrpj Thank you!

nostr:npub1vtk9almj43jwz2nm27khs6dte5q8vy9zsh4p22ulc48envrxegqq6sxjvg Yes, it's a hardcover from Verso; you can buy it at any bookstore, or pre-order the hardcover from the Kickstarter.

If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is also ad- and tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "👨🏻‍🦱". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!

Subscribe here: https://mail.flarn.com/mailman/listinfo/plura-list/

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You can also follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!

Here's today's edition: https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/14/hidden-worlds/

--

If you're a nostr:npub1u00djvjjpk6vm09z8vrrkjpnj0s9favacchm00w8qw4ae4ptussq8upzgc subscriber, you can read these essays - as well as previews of upcoming magazine columns and early exclusives on doctorow.medium.com.

My latest Medium column is "Enshitternet: The old, good internet deserves a new, good internet"

https://doctorow.medium.com/enshitternet-c1d4252e5c6b

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Recent appearances:

* New Books Network

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-internet-con

* #HauntedMansion #GhostPost Panel Live From #MidsummerScream

https://dizneycoasttocoast.libsyn.com/haunted-mansion-ghost-post-panel-live-from-midsummer-scream-disney-podcast-episode-1027

* how big tech makes the internet worse (What's Gonna Happen)

https://www.stitcher.com/show/what-s-gonna-happen/episode/how-big-tech-makes-the-internet-worse-with-cory-doctorow-305645071

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Upcoming appearances:

* #SanDiego Union Tribune Festival of Books, Aug 19

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

* #BurningMan Center Camp, 1430h, Aug 29

https://playaevents.burningman.org/2023/playa_events/03/

* nostr:npub1sqfnxau480pnvm0t258kdrj5u2u72zwm2kh7tk3qf6lxtqkwvlmqgn5skr Awards (#SanFrancisco), Sept 14

https://www.eff.org/awards/effawards/2023

* An Evening with #VESchwab (#DesMoines), Oct 2

https://www.thecabinidaho.org/all-events/ve-schwab

* 26th #ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing keynote (#Minneapolis), Oct 16

https://cscw.acm.org/2023/index.php/keynotes/

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My latest book is Red Team Blues, available wherever books are sold!

Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US):

https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2873/Wed%2C_Apr_26th_6pm%3A_Red_Team_Blues%3A_A_Martin_Hench_Novel_HB.html#/

and Forbidden Planet (UK):

https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/

--

My latest nonfiction book is Chokepoint Capitalism (with Rebecca Giblin), nonfiction about monopoly and fairness in creative labor markets.

https://chokepointcapitalism.com

Signed copies available from Book Soup:

https://www.booksoup.com/book/9780807007068

12/

Saturday's threads: Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States; and more!

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/110876931212057594

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#5yrsago UK visitors wait 2.5 hours to get through immigration at Heathrow https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45165222

#5yrsago Hackers find exploitable vulnerabilities in #AmazonEcho, turn one into a listening device https://www.wired.com/story/hackers-turn-amazon-echo-into-spy-bug/

#5yrsago EU resolution aims to comprehensively limit “#PlannedObsolescence” https://www.retaildetail.eu/news/electronics/eu-aims-abolish-planned-obsolescence/

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#5yrsago The platforms control our public discourse, and who they disconnect is arbitrary and capricious https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/beware-the-digital-censor/2018/08/12/997e28ea-9cd0-11e8-843b-36e177f3081c_story.html

#5yrsago None of the Above won the #2016Election https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/08/09/new-data-makes-it-clear-nonvoters-handed-trump-the-presidency/

#5yrsago English and Welsh local governments use “terrorism” as the excuse to block publication of commercial vacancies https://gijn.org/2018/08/14/meet-the-man-who-filed-1400-foi-requests-to-prove-data-acquisition-isnt-terrorism/

#5yrsago nostr:npub1pywzhvxytqee3f630840c9f65cnvsa02pzfecd87cdhtwnuad0fq3cy889'’s “The Million”: a science fiction conspiracy novel of radically altered timescales https://memex.craphound.com/2018/08/14/karl-schroeders-the-million-a-science-fiction-conspiracy-novel-of-radically-altered-timescales/

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#5yrsago #Qanon “codes” are consistent with an English-speaker mashing a QWERTY keyboard https://www.vice.com/en/article/9km87z/qanon-codes-are-random-typing

#5yrsago To rescue journalism, journalists must defend free expression, not merely condemning Trump https://dangillmor.medium.com/dear-journalists-the-war-on-what-you-do-is-escalating-eb584529a271

#5yrsago Leaked #FBI memo warns banks of looming “unlimited ATM cashout” https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/08/fbi-warns-of-unlimited-atm-cashout-blitz/

#5yrsago #PredatoryJournals aren’t just a scam: they’re also how quacks and corporate shills #sciencewash their bullshit https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ky45y/hundreds-of-researchers-from-harvard-yale-and-stanford-were-published-in-fake-academic-journals

8/

#10yrsago Irish government updates its Freedom of Information law with exciting new “Computers don’t exist” provision https://www.mcgarrsolicitors.ie/2013/08/12/the-irish-state-wishes-to-uninvent-computers-with-new-foi-bill/

#10yrsago Cops accidentally record themselves admitting they harassed activist at rodeo owners’ request: “God, we’re gonna get sued” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgSfCxq0hdY

#5yrsago #Disney (yes, Disney) declares war on “overzealous copyright holders” https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/disney-takes-stand-overzealous-copyright-holders-1134645/

7/

#20yrsago #P2P network originates in #Palestinian refugee camp https://www.cnet.com/tech/home-entertainment/in-refugee-camp-a-p2p-outpost/

#15yrsago Man whose US immigration notice was sent to the wrong address is detained with untreated spinal cancer until he dies, denied access to his wife and children https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/nyregion/13detain.html

#15yrsago #FreeCopyrightLicense upheld Fed Circuit Court of Appeals https://archives.lessig.org/index0d61.html?m=200808&paged=2

#10yrsago #Orwell explains Nineteen Eighty-Four https://www.thedailybeast.com/george-orwells-letter-on-why-he-wrote-1984

5/

Hey look at this

* Notes on using a single-person #Mastodon server https://jvns.ca/blog/2023/08/11/some-notes-on-mastodon/ (h/t nostr:npub1rmgy7zshf3ht4fysruuzqu7swum3kdaexk3ddvyjgwy4l8jnt7nq7pv68m)

* The Best Noir Crime Thrillers https://fivebooks.com/best-books/noir-crime-thrillers-cory-doctorow/

* These Women Tried to Warn Us About #AI https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/women-warnings-ai-danger-risk-before-chatgpt-1234804367/

4/

Open Circuits: The hidden beauty of electronics components.

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/110888801839296421

3/

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To #SeizeTheMeansOfComputation," a #BigTech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It's a #DRMFree book, which means #Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

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