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.
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.