Archive • Surveilled • Buttondown

Surveiled 93 — AI and the Management Singularity

My EV nightmare before Christmas

December 27, 2024

A bit late, but I nonetheless wish you all a happy festive season and all the best for 2025! My EV nightmare before Christmas ‘KER-Chunk’, went the car,...

Surveilled 92 — Apple Kremlinology and industrial policy

October 30, 2024

Can Apple Kremlinology help us design successful industrial policy? At the start of the year, the “state of the iPad” was a hot topic among Apple...

Surveilled 91 — How Physics and Geopolitics Collide: Chris Miller's "Chip War"

Greetings from a typical Belgian summer, propitious to spending time indoors and reading. Hence, no surprise that this month's edition is another book...

Surveilled 90 - The Power Behind the Works: Robert Caro’s “Working”

The Power Behind the Works: Robert Caro’s “Working” Working, Robert Caro, 2019 I first became aware of Robert Caro when we lived in the US and Master of the...

Surveilled 89 — How the World Really Works book review

February 14, 2024

Shocker! Good policies are based on facts How the World Really Works, Vaclav Smil, 2022 Over the last few years, climate change has come to dominate the...

Surveilled no. 88: Standard Chartered takeover; the limits of ML; managing a team on a creative project

February 6, 2023

Just a quick list of five interesting items that I came across this week. First Abu Dhabi bank is/was considering a takeover of Standard Chartered, in what...

Surveilled No. 87 - Enter the Fediverse

January 29, 2023

It seems there are two big overarching story arcs in tech right now. One of them is the Twitter saga. Blow-by-blow accounts of Musk’s careening takeover may...

Surveilled no. 86 - success factors for e-government

January 5, 2023

Happy new year, dear reader! I wish you all the best for 2023 and thank you for being a subscriber. Close-up: notes on e-government A couple of weeks ago, at...

Surveilled No. 85 – On Apple's App Tracking Transparency

August 21, 2022

With the summer holidays still in full swing, the tech industry seems to be in a holding pattern of sorts, although there are stirrings here and there. The...

Surveilled No. 84 – crypto sanctions, Ethereum's big merge, leaky 5G

August 15, 2022

Quite a few interesting things that popped up on our radar over the last week, so let’s get to it without further ado. The week in crypto Three thoughts on...

Surveilled #83 – (Late) Summer Reads

(Late) Summer Reads The summer holiday season is already more than halfway, but if you’re still looking for an easy, yet intelligent and thought-provoking...

Surveilled #82 – More on the crypto crash

This iteration of Surveilled is shorter and more of a link list. From now on I’m going to worry less about the format about the newsletter, and instead just...

Surveilled #81 – is the 2022 crypto crash an ending or a beginning?

Back in December of 2017, my fellow commuters on the bus to work were glued to their phones, looking at the balance of their crypto portfolios and excitedly...

Surveilled #80: the invisible arms race in our digital realm

Hi, Frederik here with *gasp* a new issue of Surveilled. The last one was eons ago, and I’m very grateful that you remained subscribed all this time. If this...

Surveilled #79 — A weekend project: test your phone NSO’s Pegasus tool

My archives tell me it’s slightly more than a month since the last issue of Surveilled, although it feels like it was decades ago to me. Pandemic fatigue...

Surveilled #78 – Police stings, Basel and crypto, and Apple's new privacy features

It was Apple’s WorldWide Developers’ Conference last week, so the rest of the tech world was pretty quiet. Hence, only five links instead of six this week....

Surveilled #77 – Bitcoin’s energy use, nuclear secrets flashcards and ZenBooths

The last few issues have seen somewhat more developed “Six Links” stories, and this issue is no exception. It allows for more context, but perhaps it’s also...

Surveilled #76–More ransomware, crypto, super apps and dystopia!

Issue 76 Very short issue today, since it seems that most of what happened this week was a continuation of previous stories. Recap in bullet form below....

Surveilled #75 – A ransomware pandemic, crypto volatility and Appucinos

Issue 75 Another issue without a column, although the first item in the Six Links section almost graduated to that level. As a result, there are way more...

Surveilled #74 – Facebook Oversight Board's long-awaited decision, YouTube, and 32-bit integers

Issue 74 Six Links Facebook’s Oversight Board upheld the company’s decision to ban Trump from the platform–Calling this decision highly anticipated would be...

Surveilled #73 – Apple and antitrust, biometrics and unboxed AI algorithms

Issue 73 The tech news cycle was dominated mostly by earnings reports last week, which overall were very good for the industry. Others do a much better job...

Surveilled #72–Apple as bellwether, Google's FLoC, lessons from The Wire

Issue 72 The trend is to keep it short and crisp lately, so here is another attempt to give a comprehensive overview of what happened during the week in six...

Surveilled #71 – WhatsApp attacks, Big Tech vs antitrust worldwide and Zwift pros

Surveilled Issue 71 Another “links only” issue this week, due to feverish activity on a professional project. Hopefully more time for Surveilled next week....

Surveilled #70–Another Facebook leak, AI bias and dark patterns

Issue 70 Another shorter issue this week, I didn’t come across anything that seemed to warrant the “one big story” treatment, although there are a couple of...

Surveilled #69–what happened to contact tracing?

One Big Story: what happened to contact tracing? Nearly a year ago, I wrote an opinion piece with the title “Does Big Tech hold a key to restarting the...

Surveilled #68–Cybersecurity and semiconductor geopolitics, risky default domains and remote working

Surveilled Issue 68 A shorter issue this week, I didn’t come across anything that seemed to warrant the “One Big Story” treatment, but still six interesting...

Surveilled – Issue 67: GFC flashbacks, Chinese ad tracking, SMS hacking

Surveilled Issue 67 A weekly summary of what I’ve found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. One Big Story The last couple...

Issue 66–NFT’s, Microsoft Exchange hack, deepfake Tom Cruise

Issue 61 A weekly summary of what I've found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Hey friends, after a couple of months...

Surveilled — Goodbye for now 👋

December 28, 2020

Surveilled is taking a break It’s an understatement to say that 2020 has been a challenging year. Apart from the pandemic that has affected everyone, my...

Surveilled — Issue 64: a "middleware" solution?

December 6, 2020

Surveilled Issue 64 A weekly summary of what I’ve found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Big Stories Facebook and...

Surveilled—Issue 63: US elections, Bitcoin and AI bias

November 26, 2020

Surveilled Issue 63 A weekly irregular summary of what I've found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Apologies for the...

Surveilled — Issue 62: Bitcoin lives on, GDPR's effects and all Covid-19 apps analysed

October 30, 2020

Surveilled Issue 62 A weekly summary of what I've found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. From Elsewhere I spoke to...

Surveilled — Issue 61: Section 230, App Store Wars, and Excel Bugs

October 16, 2020

Surveilled Issue 61 A weekly summary of what I’ve found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Big Stories Politics vs...

Surveilled — Issue 60 - Big Tech monopolies, Uber for evictions, and GPT-3 bots in the wild

October 8, 2020

Surveilled Issue 60 A weekly(-ish!) summary of what I've found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Big Stories Big Tech...

Surveilled — Issue 59

October 2, 2020

Surveilled Issue 59 A weekly(-ish!) summary of what I've found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Big Stories...

Surveilled #58—TikTok, Apple, Facebook vs Politics, and a history of custom ringtones

September 16, 2020

Surveilled Issue 58 A weekly(-ish!) summary of what I've found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Big Stories By design,...

Surveilled #57 — Exposure notifications, Amazon’s labour relations, and circumventing internet censorship

September 3, 2020

Surveilled Issue 57 A weekly summary of what I've found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Apologies for the irregular...

Surveilled #56 — US WeChat ban, return of contextual advertising and a cold-war bunker

August 18, 2020

Surveilled Issue 56 A weekly summary of what I've found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Shorter edition this week as...

Surveilled #55 - GPT-3, unpredictable complexity and an animated GIF botnet

Surveilled Issue 55 A weekly summary of what I’ve found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. A shorter edition this week, as...

Surveilled #54 — My First-Hand Contact Tracing Experience

Surveilled Issue 54 A weekly summary of what I’ve found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Surveilled has been on an...

Surveilled — Issue 53

Surveilled Issue 53 A weekly summary of what I’ve found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Headlines The EU Estimates GDPR...

Surveilled — Issue 52

Issue 52 A weekly summary of what I’ve found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Headlines Apple’s App Store Rules Suddenly...

Surveilled — Issue 51

Surveilled Issue 51 A weekly summary of what I've found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Headlines Norway Pulls Its...

Surveilled — Issue 50

Surveilled Issue 50 A weekly summary of what I've found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Headlines Citizen Lab Offers a...

Surveilled — Issue 49

Surveilled Issue 49 A weekly summary of what I've found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Headlines The American Civil...

Surveilled — Issue 48

Surveilled Issue 48 A weekly summary of what I’ve found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Headlines Contact Tracing and...

Surveilled — Issue 47

Surveilled Issue 47 A weekly summary of what I've found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Our Covid-19 contact tracing...

Surveilled — Issue 46

Surveilled Issue 46 A weekly summary of what I’ve found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Headlines The UK’s NHS Started...

Surveilled — Issue 45

Surveilled Issue 45 A weekly summary of what I’ve found interesting at the intersection of economics, finance and technology. Headlines Covid-19 Contact...