American companies keep building surveillance tools that are used to violate human rights; workers who organize protests or refuse to comply deserve protections
American companies continue to build surveillance tools that are used to violate human rights. Workers who refuse to comply deserve protections. Tweets: @gortnacul_house , @supernodal , @supernodal , @privacyproject , @privacyproject , @onlinecrslady , @kongtsunggan , @julianku , @bentarnoff , @sparker2 , and @privacyproject Tweets: @gortnacul_house : That was the military, here is the tech world. A former research scientist at @Google writes how the company told him that they can forgive his politics, as long as he doesn't do something “unforgivable, like speaking to the press.” https://nyti.ms/2ZDetWO Jack Poulson / @supernodal : Dear Readers: Please don't take criticism of @Google as an implication they are worse than others. @Microsoft has been proactively censoring @bing for the CCP for about a decade, @Apple blocks VPN apps for crossing the Great Firewall, etc Just ask experts like @GreatFireChina. pic.twitter.com/VuCnN1fMKA Jack Poulson / @supernodal : The @PrivacyProject was kind enough to publish my call for more whistleblower+organizer protections within tech. See @AINowInstitute's 2018 Report for why we need them: https://ainowinstitute.org/... And @jgriffiths book for history: https://www.zedbooks.net/... https://www.nytimes.com/... @privacyproject : Complaints from a single rank-and-file engineer aren't going to lead a company like Google to act against its financial interests. But history shows that dissenters can sometimes make a difference. http://www.nytimes.com/... @privacyproject : I was a research scientist at Google. I spent a month arguing for the company to clarify its ethical red lines around Project Dragonfly, writes Jack Poulson. http://www.nytimes.com/... Laura Gibbs / @onlinecrslady : Tech Needs More Conscientious Objectors as American companies build surveillance tools that violate human rights https://www.nytimes.com/... quote “dissenters can make a difference. Even if that difference is just alerting the public to what these companies are up to” #DataMongering pic.twitter.com/aeaKwTTKE8 Kong Tsung-gan / @kongtsunggan : Many US companies have complied & cooperated w Chinese govt surveillance & censorship- @thermofisher @Google @Cisco @Yahoo, to name a few. @supernodal calls for ‘an instrument that legally binds businesses to uphold human rights’ & protects whisteblowers. https://www.nytimes.com/... @julianku : “When a prototype circulated internally of a system that would ostensibly allow the Chinese government to surveil Chinese users' queries by their phone numbers, Google executives argued that it was within existing norms.” http://www.nytimes.com/... Ben Tarnoff / @bentarnoff : Respect to @supernodal for smuggling a defense of tech worker organizing into the NYT opinion pages—not a place that has given the movement much of a fair hearing in the past. http://www.nytimes.com/... Stephanie Parker / @sparker2 : This -> 'Direct action from tech workers has been undeniably effective. Human rights orgs must therefore continue to advocate for legal protection of whistle-blowers, including protecting the organizing required for an effective collective action. http://www.nytimes.com/... @privacyproject : This was the parting advice given to me during my exit interview from Google, writes Jack Poulson: “We can forgive your politics and focus on your technical contributions as long as you don't do something unforgivable, like speaking to the press.” http://www.nytimes.com/...