Ad-tech targeting is an existential threat: Targeting people with chronic illnesses, parents of sick kids, military personnel with gambling problems, seniors with dementia, and national security decisionmakers.

mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11403782…

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Cory Doctorow

2025-02-20 19:18:49

The commercial surveillance industry is almost totally unregulated. Data brokers, ad-tech, and everyone in between - they harvest, store, analyze, sell and rent every intimate, sensitive, potentially compromising fact about your life.

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/02/20/pri…

1/

Pluralistic: Ad-tech targeting is an existential threat (20 Feb 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

^{pluralistic.net}

Hey look at this

* Elon's DOGE Claimed It Saved $8 Billion. The Real Figure Was $8 Million. gizmodo.com/elons-doge-claimed…

* HP deliberately adds 15 minutes waiting time for telephone support calls theregister.com/2025/02/20/hp_… (h/t Peter Sayer)

* My Favorite Bit maryrobinettekowal.com/journal…

4/

#20yrsago Intelligent Design’s stupid designer nytimes.com/2005/02/20/magazin…

#10yrsago Revenge porn shitweasel pleads guilty, admits he hacked victims’ accounts nbcnews.com/news/us-news/reven…

#5yrsago Adding 2 inches of tape to a road-sign induces sudden 50mph acceleration in Teslas pluralistic.net/2020/02/20/plu…

#5yrsago Uber driver/sharecroppers drive like maniacs to make quota pluralistic.net/2020/02/20/plu…

5/

#5yrsago Bernie Sanders leads in 10 out of 10 polls pluralistic.net/2020/02/20/plu…

#10yrsago Bloomberg: kids only like Sanders because they're stupid pluralistic.net/2020/02/20/plu…

#5yrsago Barclay's bankers forced to endure nagging work-computer spyware pluralistic.net/2020/02/20/plu…

#1yrago Pluralistic is four pluralistic.net/2024/02/20/for…

6/

Yesterday's threads: Pluralistic is five; and more!

mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11403244…

7/

Cory Doctorow

2025-02-19 20:29:26

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Pluralistic is five; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2025/02/19/gim…

#Pluralistic

1/

Pluralistic: Pluralistic is five (19 Feb 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

^{pluralistic.net}

My last nationally bestselling novel was "The Bezzle," an ice-cold revenge story of high-tech finance crime starring the forensic accountant Martin Hench.

us.macmillan.com/books/9781250…

Signed copies from Chevalier's Books:

chevaliersbooks.com/product-pa…

--

My latest nonfiction book is "The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation" from Verso Books:

seizethemeansofcomputation.org

Signed copies available from Book Soup:

booksoup.com/book/978180429124…

Both are national bestsellers!

8/

Book details - Macmillan Publishers

New York Times bestseller Cory Doctorow's The Bezzle is a high stakes thriller where the lives of the hundreds of thousands of inmates in California’s pris...

^Macmillan

My ebooks and audiobooks (from Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."

craphound.com/shop/

9/

Upcoming appearances:

* #Toronto: Picks and Shovels at Another Story, Feb 23
eventbrite.ca/e/picks-shovels-…

* #Toronto: Ursula Franklin Lecture, Feb 24
eventbrite.ca/e/2025-ursula-fr…

* #NYC: Picks and Shovels with John Hodgman, Feb 26
eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow…

10/

Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* #PennState: Picks and Shovels, Feb 27
bellisario.psu.edu/assets/uplo…

* #Doylestown, PA: Picks and Shovels at the Doylestown Bookshop, Mar 1
eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow…

* #Baltimore: Picks and Shovels with Maximillian Alvarez, Mar 2
redemmas.org/events/cory-docto…

* #DC: Picks and Shovels with Matt Stoller, Mar 4
loyaltybookstores.com/picksnsh…

11/

Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* #Richmond, VA: Picks and Shovels with Lee Vinsel, Mar 5
fountainbookstore.com/events/1…

* Virtual: With Great Power Came No Responsibility: How Enshittification Conquered the 21st Century and How We Can Overthrow It (Indiana University), Mar 7
events.iu.edu/mediaiub/event/1…

* #Austin: Picks and Shovels at First Light Books, Mar 10
thethirdplace.is/event/cory-do…

* Europa Park: Cloudfest, Mar 17-20
cloudfest.link/

12/

Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Virtual: Picks and Shovels at Imagine! Belfast, Mar 24
eventbrite.co.uk/e/cory-doctor…

* #Chicago: Picks and Shovels with Peter Sagal, Apr 2
exileinbookville.com/events/44…

* #Chicago: ABA Techshow, Apr 3
techshow.com/

* #Bloomington: Picks and Shovels at Morgenstern, Apr 4
morgensternbooks.com/event/202…

* #PDX: Teardown 2025, Jun 20-22
crowdsupply.com/teardown/portl…

* #NewOrleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12, 2025
contraflowscifi.org/

13/

Recent appearances:

* Picks and Shovels with Yanis Varoufakis and David Moscrop (Jacobin)
youtube.com/watch?v=xkIDep7Z4L…

* Forthright Radio
forthright.media/2025/02/14/co…

* The Writer's Voice
writersvoice.net/2025/02/black…

14/

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

Here's today's edition: pluralistic.net/2025/02/20/pri…

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pluralistic.net/feed/

15/

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel *Picks and Shovels*.

Catch me in TORONTO on SUNDAY (Feb 23) at Another Story Books:

eventbrite.ca/e/picks-shovels-…

And in NYC on WEDNESDAY (Feb 26) with JOHN HODGMAN:

eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow…

More tour dates here:

martinhench.com

eof/