DL 407

Building Archipelagos in Surveillance Seas

Published: October 12, 2025 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Digitally Literate 407.

Last week in DL 406, we watched companies call guardrails "competitive disadvantages." This week revealed what happens when people fight back—and win. Germany blocked EU mass surveillance. California protected AI whistleblowers. Morocco's youth organized through Discord, evading state monitoring. Meanwhile, police converted public housing internet into surveillance dragnets, and Texas used 83,000 cameras nationwide to hunt a woman after an abortion.

The pattern is clear: surveillance infrastructure expands quietly until resistance forces it into the light. But this week also showed something else. People are building alternatives. Small communities. Trusted networks. Digital archipelagos where human connection matters more than algorithmic engagement.

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🔖 Key Takeaways

• Surveillance expands where we don't look: Public housing internet became police cameras. License plate readers became abortion surveillance. "Help" programs became monitoring systems.
• Organized resistance still works: Germany blocked EU mass surveillance after citizen protest. California passed four privacy laws. Community organizing stopped what seemed inevitable.
• People are building alternatives: From Discord organizing in Morocco to Switzerland's public AI to federated app stores, communities are creating infrastructure they control.

📚 Recent Work

This week I published the following:

• How I Wrote This With AI - Behind the scenes of AI-assisted writing and what it means for authorship
• When Your Campus ID Moves to Your Phone - What happens when convenience becomes a data collection system
• Privacy Isn't Optional - The expanding data dragnet in K-12 and higher education
• Why I Built a Homelab - Taking back control of your digital infrastructure, one server at a time

🚨 The Surveillance Sea: When "Help" Becomes Monitoring

Your free internet is actually 24/7 police surveillance

New York City's Mayor Adams marketed "Big Apple Connect" as bridging the digital divide. Free internet for public housing residents. What residents didn't know: the NYPD was simultaneously wiring thousands of surveillance cameras directly into their live monitoring system.

Why this matters: Any public benefit can now be secretly repurposed for surveillance. The digital divide remains, but now crossing it means consenting (without knowing) to constant monitoring. Officials lied until caught, showing they knew residents would object. Any public benefit program can now be secretly repurposed for surveillance.

Police used 83,000 cameras in all 50 states to hunt abortion seekers

The nightmare scenario privacy advocates warned about has arrived. New documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation revealed a Texas sheriff's department used Flock Safety's network of 83,000+ automated license plate readers, including cameras in states where abortion is legal, to track a woman in an abortion investigation.

Why this matters: Systems built to find stolen cars now hunt women who get abortions. State sovereignty becomes meaningless when surveillance infrastructure crosses borders invisibly. You can't avoid these cameras. They're mounted on telephone poles, in parking lots, at intersections. Every time you drive past one, your location goes into a database.

Oracle's Larry Ellison gets the keys to TikTok, and he's not hiding his surveillance dreams

The world's fourth-richest person isn't hiding his authoritarian dreams. Larry Ellison's vision of AI-powered mass surveillance: "Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times" and "citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on."

Those year-old comments gained "fresh relevance" when Oracle emerged as the key player managing TikTok's U.S. operations. The same week, Oracle secured a $300 billion contract with OpenAI and joined the $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure project.

Why this matters: This isn't theoretical anymore. The person building AI surveillance infrastructure is the same person saying "we are constantly recording and reporting everything." When tech billionaires tell you their plans, believe them.

✊ Resistance Movements Score Real Victories

Germany blocks EU mass surveillance, because citizens fought back

In a tremendous victory, Germany announced it will vote against the EU's "Chat Control" regulation, effectively killing the proposal. Chat Control would have mandated scanning all private digital communications, including end-to-end encrypted messages on Signal and WhatsApp, to detect child abuse material.

Here's the part that reveals everything. EU politicians exempted themselves from the scanning requirements under "professional secrecy" while demanding surveillance for everyone else.

Why this matters: Citizen resistance stopped mass surveillance even when governments and law enforcement pushed hard. Your private messages remain private, for now. The proposal would have meant AI scanning every message you send without your consent. When politicians exempt themselves from surveillance they mandate for you, they know it's not about safety.

California protects AI whistleblowers with first-in-nation law

California Governor Newsom signed the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act (SB 53), creating the first U.S. law specifically protecting AI company whistleblowers. The law responds to reports that OpenAI used "extremely restrictive" agreements to silence critics.

SB 53 prohibits AI developers from stopping employees from reporting "catastrophic risks" to the Attorney General, regulators, or managers. Workers need only "reasonable cause" to believe in risks to receive protection. The law also requires frontier AI companies to publish safety frameworks and report critical incidents.

Why this matters: Workers can now speak about AI safety concerns without losing their jobs or equity. As 32 of the world's top 50 AI companies are in California, this effectively sets the U.S. standard. When companies need extreme legal pressure to let employees talk about safety, what are they hiding?

Morocco's youth organized protests through Discord, and authorities couldn't track them

Morocco experienced its largest protests since the Arab Spring, organized entirely through Discord, a gaming chat platform authorities weren't monitoring. The "GenZ 212" movement exploded from 3,000 to over 200,000 members within weeks, coordinating demonstrations across multiple cities without traditional leadership structures.

Young Moroccans used Discord's decentralized architecture to debate demands, vote on protest times, and organize logistics while evading surveillance. The Discord organizing model is spreading globally (similar tactics in Nepal and Madagascar), demonstrating how Global South youth innovate strategies that bypass traditional surveillance. Even relatively stable states must grapple with digitally-native movements that can't be controlled through conventional internet restrictions.

On October 10, King Mohammed VI addressed parliament calling for accelerated reforms, acknowledging the movement's impact.

Why this matters: This represents a new paradigm in digital resistance. Protesters moved to gaming infrastructure state security forces didn't monitor. The Discord organizing model is spreading globally. Even stable states must grapple with movements that can't be controlled through conventional internet restrictions. Young people are innovating strategies that bypass traditional surveillance.

🤔 Consider

The Internet is the most liberating tool for humanity ever invented, and also the best for surveillance. It's not one or the other. It's both.

― John Perry Barlow

The idea of archipelagos of trust came up initially from Ben Werdmuller as he was reflecting on this post from Tony Haile about AI and journalism.

When mainstream platforms become surveillance infrastructure, people find alternatives. When public spaces become monitoring zones, communities build private ones.

This creates a challenge. How do we build communities of trust without amplifying existing social biases? How do we maintain the openness that allowed marginalized voices to be heard while creating the safety that makes real conversation possible?

I don't have complete answers. But I think this week's stories point to some principles:

• Build alternatives, don't just critique existing systems.
• Trust people over platforms.
• Sustained organizing works.
• Small, trusted communities enable big, coordinated action.

The surveillance sea is rising. But archipelagos are forming. The question isn't whether to take a side, systems have already chosen theirs. The question is: which archipelago are you building?

⚡ What You Can Do This Week

• Ask uncomfortable questions: When your school, workplace, or city offers a "free" digital service, ask what data is collected, who can access it, and whether law enforcement is involved.

• Join or build a trusted community: Find one Discord server, Signal group, or local meetup where real conversation happens. Contribute meaningfully. Trust people over platforms.

• Document and share: When you see surveillance expansion or resistance victories, make them visible. Screenshot. Archive. Share in your trusted communities.

• Practice building: Whether it's a homelab, a community garden, or a mutual aid network—building alternatives teaches you how systems work and makes you less dependent on systems that don't serve you.

🔗 Navigation

Previous: DL 406 • Next: DL 408 • Archive: 📧 Newsletter

🌱 Connected Concepts:

• Trusted Archipelagos – Small communities of practice replacing open platforms
• Surveillance Infrastructure – How "help" becomes monitoring
• Organized Resistance – Collective action that stops surveillance expansion
• Building Alternatives – Community-owned infrastructure and tools
• Digital Non-Alignment – The Global South forging independent tech futures