I just wrapped up a terrific few days in Montreal at the ATTENTION 2026 conference, where I moderated a panel on “Anti-Democratic Powers” featuring Jason Stanley (author of How Propaganda Works) and Gil Duran (author of The Nerd Reich). It was a great conversation about the outrageous beliefs of those who hold the reins of tech power, and what we can do to stop them.

As an international group of experts spoke about “technology and democracy,” my sense is we often get this backwards. That order implies a direction of influence—-as if the democratic threats we feel arising from tech are the result of some external force. But we build technologies ourselves. When we say “Democracy and Technology” instead, it reminds us that we have more of a say in the matter. That democractic systems can and do shape technologies, and that we have other options.

Even though many of the technologies we see sapping away at our democratic institutions today (I’m looking at you, “AI”) arise from and contribute to democratic decline more generally, this also means that we have the power to fix our circumstances. We can build and choose otherwise, strengthen and rebuild the world we want to see. Opting out of toxic tech, is opting in to technologies that bring us together in better ways.

In other Opt Out News:

• My talk from GEL 2026 is online! Check it out, and see what small change it inspires you to make this week…

• Sometimes we have to use Big Tech’s tools for work or some other reason. You can if you have to, just minimize your exposure by not giving them everything! Learn more about the flexibility technique I call “Render to Caesar” on the Opt Out Project blog this week …

Elsewhere in Opt Out News from around the web:

• Google will now (according to its privacy policy change) access your Gmail, photos and Drive to develop targeted advertising and help train its AI. It’s so easy to switch! See here for my tips on leaving Google services, lists of alternative email providers, or downloading all your Google documents and mail. Here are instructions on switching from Google from Fastmail, and Proton via Easy Switch…

• My colleague Alex Rosenblat truly goes to the ends of the earth to prootect her health care data from moving! And what she learns along the way — well, it probably won’t surprise you how little responsibility companies take for our health data, but spread the word to make sure everyone knows to demand change …

• Meta’s “Muse” (AI) is getting a lot of attention, but early on, hackers demonstrated it was utterly vulnerable by asking it politely to spit out its entire code base. That’s how they found Muse’s main job is (again, few surprises here) to build up your user advertising profile…

• Meanwhile, Ayoships shows how simple phone games make millions of dollars by snooping on you to sell advertising data…

• The good folks at Framework have a new computer — and you can choose a cool color this time! Check out my Linux tips to help choose a great system for your new, repairable, sustainable computer.

Keep your data close, friends!