Technology Topics du Jour

Everyone treats their smartphone like a handy little butler, but it behaves more like an informant. The microphone is “off”, yet adverts echo conversations you only muttered over dinner. Apps you barely use quietly swap location data, contact lists, and browsing habits in the background. 

None of this is technically illegal: it lives in the grey sludge of unread terms and conditions. The real trick is psychological. Once you accept constant tracking as normal, you stop noticing it. By then, the phone in your pocket knows more about your fears, desires, and weaknesses than most of your closest friends combined.

Carole Cadwalladr is warning that we are entering an age of digital dictatorship, where the real power is no longer held by governments alone but by tech platforms that harvest data, track behavior, and shape what billions of people see each day. She argues that these companies have moved beyond being communication tools. They now function as political actors with the ability to influence elections, destabilize societies, and decide what counts as truth.

She points to moments like the Cambridge Analytica scandal as proof that this is not theory. Data has already been weaponized to manipulate voter behavior and tilt the outcomes of major democratic events. What once seemed like isolated abuses are in fact part of a global system of surveillance capitalism, where privacy is traded away for profit and control.

Cadwalladr believes that democracies are unprepared for this shift. Laws and regulations lag behind, while individuals often surrender personal information without realizing the cost. She calls for red lines: clear rules on how data can be collected, transparency on how algorithms work, and accountability for the role these platforms play in shaping politics and society.

Her question is stark but urgent. If technology has become the most powerful political force in the world, how do we stop democracy from being hollowed out from within?

See here.