This is about Microsoft, a corporation so giant and unaccountable that
it's able to hide behind complexity. The OP's email issues may even be
a non-malicious expression of that complexity. Nonetheless, the result
is opaque power, from which European tech must rapidly divest
dependency.
But there is a larger pattern to acknowledge here. It's about
unaccountable digital privilege and the ability to wield technology
for capricious harm.
This week I've been interviewing US government tech workers about the
misuse of the SSA "master death file". If you're in this file you're
digitally "deleted from society", after which all credit cards are
automatically cancelled, bank accounts frozen, so one cannot get paid,
see a doctor, travel or function in US society. DOGE are actively
working to consolidate and centralising systems to make it "easier" to
nudge undesirables to "self-deport".
In order to do this, huge amounts of illegal activity are already
afoot, but most people, including judges, are not technically able to
comprehend what is being done or what technofascism looks like.
If we want a "Bill of Bytes", it is going to need some very wise and
far sighted thinkers who understand the nature of digital harms, and
it will need to apply as much to governments and individuals as to
private enterprise.
Existing "cyberlaw", including things like "computer misuse" are
looking decidedly stone-age in the face of 21st century "layer-8/9"
threats.
> …”the SSA "master death file". If you're in this file you're digitally "deleted from society", after which all credit cards are automatically cancelled, bank accounts frozen, so one cannot get paid, see a doctor, travel or function in US society.”
That is the general idea and working theory, but in practice experience has taught me that the MDF doesn’t actually reliably perform this function. As always, it comes down to implementation.
I’ve handled the estates of multiple deceased members of my family, and in that capacity I have witnessed that the result of your death being reported to SSA varies wildly even across businesses in the same industry.
My favorite is ISPs. At least two of the major national ones don’t actually seem to close accounts upon death, even if notified, with no services active and the account settled to $0.
I still receive bills even after notifying the sender of the account holder’s death. There are still financial services accounts with no activity that seem never to close.
I assume that many businesses are just using open accounts they know belong to dead people in order to artificially inflate their customer counts.
The federal government and its agencies very quickly update their databases with additions to the death file, and that seems to stick. Private sector is a crap shoot.
Praise inefficiency! It actually seems a really useful garbage
collection mechanism. And such a lame tool to abuse, if indeed the
points made about "weaponising" it are accurate. I'll post link to the
episode here when it's out.
As promised, here's an interview with Alt US Digital Service (AKA "We
The Builders") with some eye opening talk about misuse of digital
systems to harry and bully US citizens into "self-deportation".
But there is a larger pattern to acknowledge here. It's about unaccountable digital privilege and the ability to wield technology for capricious harm.
This week I've been interviewing US government tech workers about the misuse of the SSA "master death file". If you're in this file you're digitally "deleted from society", after which all credit cards are automatically cancelled, bank accounts frozen, so one cannot get paid, see a doctor, travel or function in US society. DOGE are actively working to consolidate and centralising systems to make it "easier" to nudge undesirables to "self-deport".
In order to do this, huge amounts of illegal activity are already afoot, but most people, including judges, are not technically able to comprehend what is being done or what technofascism looks like.
If we want a "Bill of Bytes", it is going to need some very wise and far sighted thinkers who understand the nature of digital harms, and it will need to apply as much to governments and individuals as to private enterprise.
Existing "cyberlaw", including things like "computer misuse" are looking decidedly stone-age in the face of 21st century "layer-8/9" threats.