Category Archives: we are building big brother

IBM, Now Serving Precrime (We Are Building Big Brother #2)

By David Golumbia | Published: April 19, 2010

From Jeffrey Warren via nettime-l CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SPSS, an IBM (NYSE: IBM) Company, today announced that the Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice selected IBM predictive analytics software to reduce recidivism by determining which juveniles are likely to reoffend. Identified at-risk youth can then be placed in programs specific to the best course of treatment to […]

Also posted in surveillance, what are computers for | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Draft for Comment: ‘Playing with Rules’

By David Golumbia | Published: March 23, 2010

The Electronic Book Review kindly published an in-depth review of The Cultural Logic of Computation (and of Mark McGurl’s The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing, both Harvard UP 2009) by Brian Lennon titled “Gaming the System.” The editors of the journal ask all reviewed authors to respond; after far too […]

Also posted in cyberlibertarianism, google, information doesn't want to be free, revolution, rhetoric of computation, surveillance, what are computers for | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Constrain ‘Absolute’ Freedom

By David Golumbia | Published: March 12, 2010

Just in case anyone was still wondering whether the internet inherently “dissolves state borders” or makes “information free,” the UK “Biting the Hand that Feeds IT” blog The Register today reports on that well-known authoritarian country, New Zealand, applying state-level filters in a manner that can at least be called “quiet”: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/12/new_zealand_internet_filter/. I have no […]

Also posted in privacy, surveillance | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fuchs on “The Empire of Economic Surveillance”

By David Golumbia | Published: February 16, 2010

The brilliant Christian Fuchs reflects on Google buzz in a posting distributed today on nettime-l and [idc] titled “Google Buzz: Economic Surveillance – Buzz Off! The Problem of Online Surveillance and the Need for an Alternative Internet.” Among the more interesting observations including what is becoming for me one of many indications that Eric Schmidt […]

Also posted in "social media", google, privacy, surveillance | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Searching Every Text Message (We Are Building Big Brother #1)

By David Golumbia | Published: January 20, 2010

It’s long been rumored that US intelligence agencies are capable of monitoring every form of electronic communication. In recent stories about Chinese internet and wireless surveillance, it’s become clear that this technology exists and is widely used. Is it used just to prevent “terrorist attacks,” however we define that? thanks to the national security state, […]

Also posted in "social media", materality of computation, privacy, surveillance | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Facebook Intelligence Agency

By David Golumbia | Published: January 7, 2010

Via John Haltiwanger, posting on nettime-l Twitterati and other netizens should already know that their Internet musings are public and could potentially become fodder for intelligence analysts. But now U.S. spy agencies have officially invested in a software firm that monitors social media and half a million web 2.0 sites daily. Wired has the breakdown […]

Also posted in "social media", cyberlibertarianism, surveillance | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Claritas PRIZM Marketing Segments (What Are Computers For? #X-7)

By David Golumbia | Published: March 9, 2007
Claritas PRIZM image

Long gone from the servers, company itself swallowed several times, preserved for later analysis (see the discussion on pages 131-142 of The Cultural Logic of Computation). This is only the marketing literature for a program that was far more detailed and targeted than even this may appear; it demonstrates fairly clearly how racial and economic […]

Also posted in materality of computation, privacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

One Generation Is All They Need (What Are Computers For? #4975)

By David Golumbia | Published: December 14, 2006

This nightmare scenario appeared as news in the Toronto Star recently, despite being pretty much just an op-ed. Some of the things he says strike me as not off the mark, and not quite what anyone else has said recently (though look at what the kids are up to in 1984… for some similar concerns, […]

Also posted in cyberlibertarianism, materality of computation, privacy, rhetoric of computation, surveillance, what are computers for | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment