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 Building a Second Contact-Tracing App, This One Using the Platform Provided by Apple and Google — It seems they are positioning it as a backup for now, when “option A”, their in-house app, fails to show the required adoption rate. Sadly this was entirely predictable given the technological constraints. Read (FT $)
Meanwhile, India’s Contact-Tracing App Saw 100 Million Users in 1.5 Months — The rapid adoption is driven in no small part because use of the app is mandated to use the rail network and in some cities. Moreover, there are serious privacy concerns with the system. While mandating the use of an app looks like a straightforward way to drive adoption, if the public has low trust in it they will automatically look for ways to circumvent it, and the system will still fail to meet its purpose… Read (TechCrunch)
On the Other Hand, despite High Adoption Rates, Iceland Doesn’t See Contact-Tracing Apps as Fundamental to Easing the Lockdown — Contact-tracing itself is instrumental to control the spread, but it relies more on old-fashioned, human-driven investigative work than technology. Of course, Iceland’s experience may not be that relevant, given the totally different scale and demographics. Read (MIT Technology Review)
The FT echoes the finding that effective contact tracing requires human interviewers who can add context to electronic encounters. “Contact tracing is a human activity,” according to one data scientist quoted in the article. - Read (FT $)
Twitter Told Employees They Can Work from Home “Forever” — With a non-negligible section of office workers everywhere worried about infection, this seems inevitable. More companies will follow suit, with significant implications for things like transport and commercial real estate. On the downside, maybe this will also lead to an erosion of the status of employees, which should be countered where possible. Read (BuzzFeed)
Facebook Announced Twenty Names That Will Sit on Its Global Oversight Board - The appointees cover a wide range of political views, geographies and languages, but they will have their work cut out for them, trying to police a platform the size of Facebook. Moreover, the whole global oversight board organisation sounds very heavy and formalistic, in contrast to Facebook’s “fast and loose” style. Inevitably it leads to wonder whether this is all not just a PR exercise. Read (Politico)
Telegram Abandoned Its Huge Crypto Project in the Face of Stiff Opposition from the SEC - Telegram’s was one of the most high-profile of all the token sales that sprang up a couple of years ago, and it now looks like we can bury this money-raising mechanism. - Read (Decrypt)
Context
In trying to organise workers without their employer interfering or retaliating, tech labour leaders are having to build their own platforms, instead of using Facebook or Zoom—very interesting read. Read (OneZero)
Wired has a fascinating look “inside the weird, get-rich-quick world of dropshipping.” Basically Western expats living in Bali selling cheap avocado slicers to “soccer moms” in the US on Facebook, without ever seeing the product. Read (Wired $)
That’s it for this week’s edition. As always, thanks for reading and please forward this to anyone who you think might be interested, it would be much appreciated.