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mariacallous · 8 days ago

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Jack and Fiona wanted to do something, but they didn’t know where to start. For months, the couple had watched as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, then spearheading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), had turned the US into what they thought was “a fascist hellscape.” But they live in a deeply red county in a deeply red state in the South, and were worried that speaking out publicly could mean putting them and their children in danger.

Jack, who requested WIRED use a pseudonym to safeguard his identity, has long been familiar with extremism in the US. He says he was brought to his first KKK meeting at the age of 7. “I have seen the kind of behavior exhibited by MAGA, and know that it's exactly what I saw when I was younger,” he says. “The strain it is putting on society is the same strain that it puts on every single one [of us] who was in that space.”

So Jack and Fiona turned to technology. Searching on platforms like Reddit and Bluesky, Fiona stumbled on Realtime Fascism, a website that uses AI to trawl the internet for news articles featuring keywords linked to fascism. The tool analyzes those stories to produce a score for the threat posed by fascism in the US at any given time. The rating they found when they opened the site in February? CRITICAL.

The couple wanted more people to understand what was happening, so they built their own website called Stick It to Fascists. They bought a $100 thermal label printer, created a QR code linking to Realtime Fascism, and began making stickers.

What began with 500 stickers posted all over their small town “in the heart of MAGA country” quickly grew—with the help of an appeal on Reddit—to a campaign that has so far seen the couple and their children send 750,000 stickers to more than 1,000 people in all 50 states.

Stick It to Fascists is one of countless grassroots efforts that have emerged since Trump took office a second time. Many of them are fueled by technology: printers, QR codes, Reddit, online platforms, encrypted messaging apps like Signal. Across the country, small local groups have used a wide variety of online tools to mobilize their resistance to Trump 2.0 while trying to protect themselves against backlash from the administration. As millions of Americans joined some 2,000 “No Kings” protests last Saturday, these tools were powering the movement.

Spinning up crowdsourced collaborative tools is relatively easy. Maintaining them is much more difficult, however, and without aligned goals or aims, many of them could eventually become digital wastelands. But that is not stopping people who see no other option.

WIRED spoke to more than a dozen people involved in organizing against the Trump administration who all believe that the Democratic Party has not presented a coherent opposition to Trump and DOGE’s dismantling of the government. As a result, the organizers say, they had no choice but to get involved.

“We're doing this now, because in a couple of months, what we're doing may be illegal,” Fiona says. “This administration is already doing everything within their power to limit free speech, and it's extremely important that dissenting voices not be silenced.”

In the early days of Trump's second term, there was concern that an opposition movement against Trump was nowhere to be found.

But the reality is that protest movements this time around are just different than during Trump’s first term. Last time, while groups like the Women’s March and others organized large-scale demonstrations in the early months of his first presidency, this time around opposition is being driven by decentralized groups and individuals focused on a smaller-scale approach.

The change from a top-down movement to a much more decentralized one is key to understanding what’s happening, says Dana Fisher, a professor of sociology at American University and author of American Resistance: From the Women's March to the Blue Wave. “This is what we who study social movements call a moment of tactical innovation, where there are going to be all these innovative ideas about ways to break through and to get people to mobilize and work together in these very dark moments,” Fisher says.

People are still in the streets, as well. Data from the Crowd Counting Consortium, a joint project of the Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Connecticut, shows that in late January and February alone there were over twice as many street protests in the US than in February 2017. The numbers have kept growing.

The protests at Tesla dealerships, for example, began as a grassroots effort that has grown into a nationwide movement. There are also people working together online to combat the disinformation being pushed by Musk and DOGE, in addition to individuals like Jack and Fiona doing what they can. In isolation, these are small-scale protests; viewed as a whole, they show the level of anger that ordinary Americans feel at what has been happening in Washington over the past five months.

The number and scale of the protests has grown significantly, with millions of people turning out at more than a thousand separate protests in all 50 states on April 5. Last Saturday’s No Kings protest, which was organized by dozens of groups, drew over 5 million people to more than 2,100 events across the nation, according to the organizers, though notably not in Washington, DC, where Trump held his military parade to celebrate the US Army’s 250th anniversary.

Many of these calls for protest can be traced back to a single post on a subreddit called 50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement.

Sydney Wilson first learned about the online movement against Trump through this subreddit. Her journey into political activism began in late January while she was idly poking around on Reddit and came across a flyer for an event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at which citizens would be protesting against the Trump administration. Wilson was intrigued, but living 200 miles away, she wondered if there were any events closer to her home in Pittsburgh.

That’s when she found 50501. Though the subreddit had been created just a few days earlier, it was already amassing huge support. It began on January 25 with a single Reddit post calling for citizens to fight back against executive overreach. The idea took hold, and within 10 days, those who signed up had organized protests in 80 cities across the US. Two weeks later, on February 17, they held another set of protests, with thousands of people attending.

Wilson, who had attended political protests in the past but had never been involved in organizing them, joined the group’s Discord channel to help plan.

“Not even in my wildest dreams did I think that my first protest that I organized with another group of Pennsylvanians would have 200 people show up,” Wilson tells WIRED. “Then the next one, I think we had 300 or 400, so I'm optimistic right now. The trick will be to keep this energy going.”

Like Wilson, many of the 311,000 subscribers to the subreddit and the 17,000 members of the group’s Discord have no experience in organizing protests. Still, they felt they had to.

“Democracy needs to be defended, and it's up to us as community members to stand up and do that work, because no one else will do it for us,” Wilson says.

The 50501 group also uses a wide variety of other online platforms to coordinate their efforts, including encrypted messaging apps like Signal and Matrix, which smaller subgroups use for sensitive conversations. Platforms like Mobilize.us allow participants to share information about upcoming protests, while state-level groups come up with ideas for signs and chants on shared Google Docs.

“Everybody's kind of using different strategies to communicate, so it's all over the place,” says TJ Demetriou, the public affairs officer for a 50501 subgroup for veterans. “If you're involved in a couple different groups, it can be confusing.”

Discord is the primary platform for planning and assigning volunteer positions within local groups, but it also serves as a place for the community to vent. Following the group’s protests on March 4, many of the members gathered on the group’s Discord server to watch Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.

The “general chat” channel was quickly filled with anger, not at what Trump was saying but at the response from the Democrats in the chamber, who had decided the best way to confront Trump was to wear pink blouses and hold up tiny signs that no one could see.

“I kid you not, they are holding signs instead of booing,” one member wrote incredulously. “Bunch of spineless fucks,” another added, after no other Democrat came to the defense of representative Al Green of Texas, who was removed from the chamber for heckling Trump.

“Well I'm glad YOU all are protesting because holy shit that was a weak showing from dems with their bitch=ass [sic] paddles and pink shirts and blue ties,” another member wrote.

Though the group has had a lot of successes, some infighting has unfortunately become a distraction.

In April, the person who posted the original 50501 post, known online as Evolved Fungi, locked down the subreddit entirely, claiming that some national groups were seeking to take control of the 50501 group for their own ends. According to a since-deleted post on Reddit, Fungi believed someone had sought to file trademark applications for the 50501 name. A member of the 50501 leadership group subsequently claimed in a Reddit post that there was an attempt to trademark the name and create a 501c4 entity, but that this was done by “a separate, independent group of three people wholly unconnected to the broader 50501 group.

Fungi, who was posting anonymously, says they were doxed and accused of what some felt was inappropriate behavior during a Zoom call with other members of the 50501 group. Some 50501 members circulated a petition calling for them to step down before they finally did so. Fungi declined to comment when contacted by WIRED.

Fungi's departure didn't slow the movement down. By late spring the organization was deeply involved in organizing the No Kings protests on June 14, ultimately helping bring people to protests across the US and bolstering the movement's momentum even further.

The 50501 movement is not the only grassroots effort that began life online. The Tesla Takedown protests began with a single Bluesky post that exploded in large part thanks to social media posts, including protesters’ pictures and videos outside dealerships. These efforts were boosted when celebrities got involved, and Instagram reels went viral from people like Grammy-winning singer Sheryl Crow waving goodbye to her Tesla.

Other movements online, including tools for keeping tabs on the Trump administration, have also sprung up. One online tracker follows how many of Trump's policy actions align with Project 2025's goals. As of this writing, it shows that more than half of them have been completed or are in progress. Another tracker, Spotlight on DOGE, aims to fact-check claims made about the department's savings. The organizer, who asked to remain anonymous, says they recruited more than a dozen professionals, including lawyers and doctors, across the US to help analyze DOGE's actual savings.

But for all the work being done online to organize, educate, and plan, veteran activists who protested the first Trump presidency believe that success this time around will rely on turning that online support and activity into real-world demonstrations.

“I do think that there's a lot of work to do to move people from where we are now to the kind of mass society-wide struggle that it will take to stop this regime,” Sam Goldman, host of the Refuse Fascism podcast, tells WIRED.

“What this is going to require is sacrifice,” he continues. “It is going to require what people did in the Arab Spring, which was, get in the streets, stay in the streets, bring more people into the streets, coming back again and again and again, and not stopping until their demands were met.”

But deciding what those demands are can be difficult, especially in a movement that is so decentralized, and often leaderless. As national groups and bigger names seek to leverage recently activated grassroots activism, conflicts and disagreements are inevitable. This happened among the leadership of the Women’s March, and it’s already happened within the 50501 subreddit.

Last week, as people took to the streets of Los Angeles to protest deportation raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Trump called in the National Guard and Marines over the objections of California governor Gavin Newsom and LA mayor Karen Bass. Protests persisted anyway, as online supporters hit the streets.

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blubberquark · 1 month ago

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The Future

It's always grating to read or listen to random members of the public talk about AI in the media, and it is much more grating to listen to "futurists" or politicians or so-called experts who have absolutely no domain expertise nor background in machine learning talk about things "AI" will be able to do in the future. A lot of the time, they will predict that AI (which means conversational agents based on large language models trained with transformers and attention) will do things in the future that can already be done by humans, and by computers without any AI, machine learning, or large text corpora, back in the 90s. Politicians on the other hand sometimes use "AI" to deflect criticisms of infeasible ideas. How will this work, exactly? AI!

Sometimes using AI as a buzzword is the point. Nobody wants to hear "we will develop another app".

It usually doesn't take extreme forms like "In the future, AI will allow us to transplant human hearts", but I have seen weaker forms like "In the future, technologies like ChatGPT will make genome-wide association studies and automatic drug discovery possible". You don't need large language models for GWAS or drug discovery. The data sets for this are very different, and I doubt a system like ChatGPT could just absorb a large CSV file of medial data if you pasted it into the conversation.

If you look at claims about "the future" from the recent past, you see the same thing said about blockchain, web 2.0 mash-ups and tagging, the semantic web/ontologies, smart homes, and so on. "In the future, we will all have smart fridges" – "In the future you will begin your day by asking Siri what your appointments are and what you should eat for breakfast" – "In the future your PC will print your newspaper at home." – "In the future you will pay for groceries out of your Bitcoin Wallet."

If you push back, and you point out that a this new claim sounds like a bullshit claim about blockchain, smart fridges, and the semantic web, you usually hear "That's what they said about cars. That's what they said about television." Never mind who "they" are. Never mind that they didn't say that about cars, they said that about Bitcoin. Cars are just a massive outlier. Cars were immensely successful, and they were largely unchanged for 120 years, with for wheels and an internal combustion engine that runs on petrol. Cars are noisy, smelly, and dangerous to pedestrians and occupants. For decades, leaded petrol used in cars distributed lead into the air and int the food supply. Cars depend on an infrastructure of asphalt roads and petrol stations. This is different from what they said about CDs or monorail or QR codes or pneumatic tubes. As for TV, it is usually invoked to say "People thought TV would rot our brains, yet here we are". There is no denying that TV had profoundly changed how people spend their time, changed politics, changed how fast the news cycle is, and so on, often for the worse.

It's so easy to refute "that's what they said about cars" that I could probably fill 50 A4 pages with the history of technologies that failed in some way, purely from memory, and then find old newspaper quotes from optimists and futurists that compared the naysayers (correct in hindsight) with car skeptics, and I could fill another 50 pages with ways inventions like cars and TV and the Internet profoundly changed society, and then find quotes from futurists that explain that the Internet is really just a better fax machine, and the car is like a faster horse, so we have nothing to worry about.

There's another way to dismiss skeptics of new technology, and it's harder to refute, even though it operates on the same kind of hindsight bias:

Imagine the year is 1995. What couldn't you achieve if only you knew that computers and the Internet would be big? Imagine you can send a letter to yourself in 1995. Wouldn't you want to tell your former self that the Internet will be the Next Big Thing? Wouldn't you want to tell your former self that by 2015, everybody will have an Internet-connected computer in their pockets?

It's easy to refute the hindsight bias of "that's what they said about cars" with example after example of technologies that didn't catch on for 100 years like cars did.

Where's the error here? If you say something like "Language-model AI is the future! Wouldn't you rather get on the bandwagon sooner than later?" you risk investing your money into a scam just to get in on the ground floor.

But really think it through: Imagine the year is 1985. A time traveller tells you that computers are going to be big. Everybody is going to have one. What do you do? Do you quit your job and work in the computer industry? If not, do you buy a computer? Which one? A C64? An IBM PC XT? Atari ST?

I don't know how much you could really do with this information. Should you invest your savings into Atari? Should you learn to program?

Imagine the year is 1985. A timer traveller tells you that the CD is going to replace vinyl and cassette tapes, then there will be mp3 players, but nothing will really replace mp3 players, and then streaming music from centralised servers will replace mp3 players. Nothing will really replace the CD, but the music industry will be completely different. Nobody will sell music on SD cards, mini discs are better than CDs in terms of technology, but they solve the wrong problem. All the cool indie bands that released free promo mp3s in the 2000s will split up or sell out. "What's an mp3?", you ask.

Imagine the year is 2005. Every pseudo-intellectual Internet commenter seems to think VHS won against BetaMax because of pornography. They are going to produce pornography for HD-DVD. You think Blu-Ray is dead in the water. A time traveller appears, and he tells you that actually, VHS won against BetaMax because the tapes are longer, and it allows you to VCR a long television program. Yes, they are going to produce pornography for the HD-DVD first, but it doesn't matter. Ever since Internet pornography, nobody goes to the sex shop anyway, just to risk coming out of the door with a shopping bag full of HD-DVDs, just as his neighbour's wife is coming out of the liquor store across the street. Still the Blu-ray won't replace DVDs like DVDs replaced VHS, because you can still play a DVD in a Blu-ray player, and it will all be streaming in a couple of years anyway.

What will you do with this information, other than buy a Blu-ray player?

Imagine the year is 1923. A time traveller tells you that cars are going to be big. Really big. Everybody will own one, and a garage. Petrol stations are everywhere already, but soon there will be traffic jams. Cities will be planned for cars, not people.

Should you buy a car now? Should you wait for the technology to mature?

The year is 2025. Somebody tells you that LLMs are going to be big. Bigger than they are. Bigger than ever. Bigger than Jesus. He tells you you're a sucker if you don't use ChatGPT. You think he's right, but you don't work in a job that can be done by ChatGPT. You work at a bakery. Maybe just not yet?

What should you do?

I think the idea that you should get in now, and you will "miss the boat" if you don't learn to use GenAI and conversational agents, that idea is just stupid. It's half special pleading, half Pascal's Wager, and a lot of hindsight bias. You couldn't really "get into" other technologies before they matured. Futurists confidently predicted in 2022 that "prompt engineer" was going to be a job, when obviously companies like Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI had every reason and every incentive to work on making their systems better understand users, to make prompt engineering obsolete. At some point owning a car meant learning to be a car mechanic or having a chauffeur who was your personal car mechanic, and then the technology matured. Cars are more complex now, and harder to repair when something breaks, but they are also more reliable and have diagnostic lights.

So should you use ChatGPT or Claude now, just to get ready for "The Future"? I don't know. All I know is that AI won't be a faster horse.

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darkmaga-returns · 2 months ago

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Thailand is rapidly adopting tools of technocracy, including the introduction of a “robocop” with advanced AI to detect and prevent crime and a “safety” hub of CCTV cameras with AI video analytics and facial recognition tracking.

The use of digital payments via QR code scanning and one-time passwords (“OTP”) is becoming widespread, with OTP codes serving as a form of digital ID by stealth, connecting a person’s identity to their phone number.

The Thai government is implementing biometric systems, including facial recognition and iris scanning, to track and manage migrant workers, and a new SIM card registration system using liveness detection technology is being introduced to prevent malicious registrations.

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pranjj · 1 month ago

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Udaan by InAmigos Foundation: Elevating Women, Empowering Futures

In the rapidly evolving socio-economic landscape of India, millions of women remain underserved by mainstream development efforts—not due to a lack of talent, but a lack of access. In response, Project Udaan, a flagship initiative by the InAmigos Foundation, emerges not merely as a program, but as a model of scalable women's empowerment.

Udaan—meaning “flight” in Hindi—represents the aspirations of rural and semi-urban women striving to break free from intergenerational limitations. By engineering opportunity and integrating sustainable socio-technical models, Udaan transforms potential into productivity and promise into progress.

Mission: Creating the Blueprint for Women’s Self-Reliance

At its core, Project Udaan seeks to:

Empower women with industry-aligned, income-generating skills

Foster micro-entrepreneurship rooted in local demand and resources

Facilitate financial and digital inclusion

Strengthen leadership, health, and rights-based awareness

Embed resilience through holistic community engagement

Each intervention is data-informed, impact-monitored, and custom-built for long-term sustainability—a hallmark of InAmigos Foundation’s field-tested grassroots methodology.

A Multi-Layered Model for Empowerment

Project Udaan is built upon a structured architecture that integrates training, enterprise, and technology to ensure sustainable outcomes. This model moves beyond skill development into livelihood generation and measurable socio-economic change.

1. Skill Development Infrastructure

The first layer of Udaan is a robust skill development framework that delivers localized, employment-focused education. Training modules are modular, scalable, and aligned with the socio-economic profiles of the target communities.

Core domains include:

Digital Literacy: Basic computing, mobile internet use, app navigation, and digital payment systems

Tailoring and Textile Production: Pattern making, machine stitching, finishing techniques, and indigenous craft techniques

Food Processing and Packaging: Pickle-making, spice grinding, home-based snack units, sustainable packaging

Salon and Beauty Skills: Basic grooming, hygiene standards, customer interaction, and hygiene protocols

Financial Literacy and Budgeting: Saving schemes, credit access, banking interfaces, micro-investments

Communication and Self-Presentation: Workplace confidence, customer handling, local language fluency

2. Microenterprise Enablement and Livelihood Incubation

To ensure that learning transitions into economic self-reliance, Udaan incorporates a post-training enterprise enablement process. It identifies local market demand and builds backward linkages to equip women to launch sustainable businesses.

The support ecosystem includes:

Access to seed capital via self-help group (SHG) networks, microfinance partners, and NGO grants

Distribution of startup kits such as sewing machines, kitchen equipment, or salon tools

Digital onboarding support for online marketplaces such as Amazon Saheli, Flipkart Samarth, and Meesho

Offline retail support through tie-ups with local haats, trade exhibitions, and cooperative stores

Licensing and certification where applicable for food safety or textile quality standards

3. Tech-Driven Monitoring and Impact Tracking

Transparency and precision are fundamental to Udaan’s growth. InAmigos Foundation employs its in-house Tech4Change platform to manage operations, monitor performance, and scale the intervention scientifically.

The platform allows:

Real-time monitoring of attendance, skill mastery, and certification via QR codes and mobile tracking

Impact evaluation using household income change, asset ownership, and healthcare uptake metrics

GIS-based mapping of intervention zones and visualization of under-reached areas

Predictive modeling through AI to identify at-risk participants and suggest personalized intervention strategies

Human-Centered, Community-Rooted

Empowerment is not merely a process of economic inclusion—it is a cultural and psychological shift. Project Udaan incorporates gender-sensitive design and community-first outreach to create lasting change.

Key interventions include:

Strengthening of SHG structures and women-led federations to serve as peer mentors

Family sensitization programs targeting male allies—fathers, husbands, brothers—to reduce resistance and build trust

Legal and rights-based awareness campaigns focused on menstrual hygiene, reproductive health, domestic violence laws, and maternal care

Measured Impact and Proven Scalability

Project Udaan has consistently delivered quantifiable outcomes at the grassroots level. As of the latest cycle:

Over 900 women have completed intensive training programs across 60 villages and 4 districts

Nearly 70 percent of participating women reported an average income increase of 30 to 60 percent within 9 months of program completion

420+ micro-enterprises have been launched, 180 of which are now self-sustaining and generating employment for others

More than 5,000 indirect beneficiaries—including children, elderly dependents, and second-generation SHG members—have experienced improved access to nutrition, education, and mobility

Over 20 institutional partnerships and corporate CSR collaborations have supported infrastructure, curriculum design, and digital enablement.

Partnership Opportunities: Driving Collective Impact

The InAmigos Foundation invites corporations, philanthropic institutions, and ecosystem enablers to co-create impact through structured partnerships.

Opportunities include:

Funding the establishment of skill hubs in high-need regions

Supporting enterprise starter kits and training batches through CSR allocations

Mentoring women entrepreneurs via employee volunteering and capacity-building workshops

Co-hosting exhibitions, market linkages, and rural entrepreneurship fairs

Enabling long-term research and impact analytics for policy influence

These partnerships offer direct ESG alignment, brand elevation, and access to inclusive value chains while contributing to a model that demonstrably works.

What Makes Project Udaan Unique?

Unlike one-size-fits-all skilling programs, Project Udaan is rooted in real-world constraints and community aspirations. It succeeds because it combines:

Skill training aligned with current and emerging market demand

Income-first design that integrates microenterprise creation and financial access

Localized community ownership that ensures sustainability and adoption

Tech-enabled operations that ensure transparency and iterative learning

Holistic empowerment encompassing economic, social, and psychological dimensions

By balancing professional training with emotional transformation and economic opportunity, Udaan represents a new blueprint for inclusive growth.

From Promise to Power

Project Udaan, driven by the InAmigos Foundation, proves that when equipped with tools, trust, and training, rural and semi-urban women are capable of becoming not just contributors, but catalysts for socio-economic renewal.

They don’t merely escape poverty—they design their own systems of progress. They don’t just participate—they lead.

Each sewing machine, digital training module, or microloan is not a transaction—it is a declaration of possibility.

This is not charity. This is infrastructure. This is equity, by design.

Udaan is not just a program. It is a platform for a new India.

For partnership inquiries, CSR collaborations, and donation pathways, contact: www.inamigosfoundation.org/Udaan Email: [email protected]

#InAmigosFoundation #ProjectUdaan #UdaanByInAmigos #InAmigosForChange #WomenWithInAmigos

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panashifzco · 3 months ago

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Discover the future of self-service with Panashi’s latest kiosk designs – where cutting-edge technology meets sleek aesthetics.

Our newest range of kiosks is crafted to deliver a seamless user experience across industries, from banking and retail to healthcare and hospitality. Designed with a modern, minimalist touch, these kiosks feature responsive touchscreens, high-resolution displays and intuitive interfaces for faster and more engaging interactions.

Customizable to match your brand identity, they come in a variety of finishes and colors, blending effortlessly into any environment. Built for durability and performance, our kiosk machines support advanced features like biometric authentication, QR code scanning, contactless payments and even AI-driven recommendations. Whether you’re streamlining customer service or enhancing operational efficiency, Panashi’s kiosks are engineered to exceed expectations. Step into the future with kiosks that don’t just work — they impress. Experience innovation, elegance and reliability – all in one powerful solution.

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quickpay1 · 3 months ago

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Best Payment Gateway In India– Quick Pay

In today's digital era, businesses of all sizes need a reliable, secure, and efficient payment gateway to process online transactions. Whether you're running an e-commerce store, a subscription-based service, or a brick-and-mortar shop expanding to digital payments, choosing the right payment gateway can significantly impact your success. Among the many options available, Quick Pay has emerged as one of the best payment gateways in the industry.

This article explores the features, benefits, security measures, and why Quick Pay is the preferred choice for businesses worldwide.

What is Quick Pay?

Quick Pay is a cutting-edge payment gateway solution that facilitates seamless online transactions between merchants and customers. It offers a secure and user-friendly interface, allowing businesses to accept payments via credit cards, debit cards, mobile wallets, and bank transfers. Quick Pay supports multiple currencies and integrates with various e-commerce platforms, making it a versatile choice for businesses operating locally and globally.

Key Features of Quick Pay

1. Multi-Channel Payment Support

One of the standout features of Quick Pay is its ability to support multiple payment channels, including:

Credit and debit card processing (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, etc.)

Mobile wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, etc.)

Bank transfers and direct debit

QR code payments

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services

This flexibility ensures that businesses can cater to customers' diverse payment preferences, thereby enhancing the checkout experience and improving sales conversion rates.

2. Seamless Integration

Quick Pay offers seamless integration with major e-commerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and BigCommerce. Additionally, it provides APIs and plugins that allow businesses to customize payment processing according to their specific needs. Developers can easily integrate Quick Pay into their websites and mobile applications without extensive coding knowledge.

3. High-Level Security & Fraud Prevention

Security is a top priority for any payment gateway, and Quick Pay excels in this area with:

PCI DSS compliance (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)

Advanced encryption technology to protect sensitive data

AI-driven fraud detection and prevention mechanisms

3D Secure authentication for an extra layer of security

By implementing these security measures, Quick Pay minimizes fraudulent transactions and enhances customer trust.

4. Fast and Reliable Transactions

Speed and reliability are crucial in online payments. Quick Pay ensures that transactions are processed swiftly with minimal downtime. It supports instant payment processing, reducing wait times for merchants and customers alike. Businesses can also benefit from automated settlement features that streamline fund transfers to their bank accounts.

5. Competitive Pricing & Transparent Fees

Unlike many payment gateways that have hidden charges, Quick Pay provides transparent pricing models. It offers:

No setup fees

Low transaction fees with volume-based discounts

No hidden maintenance or withdrawal charges

Custom pricing plans for high-volume merchants

This cost-effective approach makes Quick Pay a preferred choice for startups and large enterprises alike.

6. Recurring Payments & Subscription Billing

For businesses offering subscription-based services, Quick Pay provides a robust recurring payment system. It automates billing cycles, reducing manual efforts while ensuring timely payments. Customers can set up autopay, making it convenient for them and improving customer retention rates for businesses.

7. Multi-Currency & Global Payment Support

In an increasingly globalized economy, accepting international payments is vital. Quick Pay supports transactions in multiple currencies and offers dynamic currency conversion. This allows businesses to cater to international customers without dealing with complex exchange rate issues.

Benefits of Using Quick Pay

1. Enhanced Customer Experience

Quick Pay ensures a smooth checkout experience by providing multiple payment options and a user-friendly interface. Faster payment processing reduces cart abandonment and boosts customer satisfaction.

2. Improved Business Efficiency

With automated invoicing, seamless integration, and real-time transaction tracking, businesses can streamline their payment operations, saving time and resources.

3. Higher Security & Reduced Fraud Risk

With its state-of-the-art security measures, Quick Pay minimizes risks associated with fraud and data breaches. This enhances business credibility and customer trust.

4. Increased Sales & Revenue

Supporting multiple payment options and international transactions helps businesses tap into a broader customer base, leading to higher sales and revenue growth.

How to Set Up Quick Pay for Your Business?

Setting up Quick Pay is a straightforward process:

Verify Business Details – Submit the required business documents for verification.

Integrate Quick Pay – Use APIs, plugins, or custom scripts to integrate Quick Pay into your website or app.

Configure Payment Options – Select the preferred payment methods you want to offer customers.

Go Live – Once approved, start accepting payments seamlessly.

Why Quick Pay Stands Out Among Competitors

While several payment gateways exist, Quick Pay differentiates itself with:

Superior security measures compared to standard gateways.

Faster payouts than many competitors, ensuring businesses receive funds quicker.

Customer-friendly interface making it easier for both merchants and users.

Scalability, accommodating businesses from small startups to large enterprises.

Conclusion

Quick Pay is undoubtedly one of the best payment gateway in India available today. Its blend of security, efficiency, affordability, and ease of use makes it an ideal choice for businesses across various industries. Whether you run an e-commerce store, a SaaS business, or a global enterprise, Quick Pay ensures smooth, secure, and hassle-free payment processing.

By choosing Quick Pay, businesses can enhance customer experience, reduce fraud risks, and boost revenue. With seamless integration, multi-currency support, and advanced features, Quick Pay is the go-to payment gateway for modern businesses looking for a reliable and future-proof payment solution.

Are you ready to streamline your payments and take your business to the next level? Sign up for Quick Pay today!

#finance #online payments #payments #branding #economy

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abuddyforeveryseason · 1 year ago

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This s the Buddy for March 27th. It looks a bit cursed, right?

I used the symmetry tool to draw most of it, the face, ears and donkey jacket, then turned it off to do the hair and shadows.

Today's Buddy's somewhat based on AI. On one hand, I'm no fan of AI art. But, on the other hand, I'm not a fan of human-made art nowadays either. A lot of online art and webtoon stuff already looks so glossy, generic and overprocessed, it felt like was algorithm-generated even before AI was a thing.

And AI is also very dependant on aping other people's styles. I think that's one of the reason's porn art sites ended up being flooded by AI - they were already ripping off other people's art, they just found a way to automatize that garbage.

And it sucks for artists who draw comissions. Clients want fan-art of their favorite characters, and now they can get it from some piece of shit AI engine instead. It's sad, but it's an unfortunate consequence of the art community we have now.

But, maybe I'm just being a luddite. Maybe AI art is the wave of the future. Like telemarketing, software as a service, QR code menus, drop shipping and targeted advertising, it's a new technology that's here to stay. It'll make everyone's life worse, but it's here to stay. Wanting things to be better, not worse, somehow makes me a troglodyte, right?

#ab4es #drawing #AI #AI art #Anti AI #Anti AI art #Fuck AI #Donkey jacket #firealpaca #symmetry tool

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forabeatofadrum · 2 years ago

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5 & 40 for the writer’s ask!

Hi Christina!

5. How many wips do you have? What fandoms/pairings are they for?

Cue laughter.

I have too many of them. From the top of my head, I have the time travelling Zimbits fic and a Zimbits fic about Instagram, I have Matt Christopher Davis commenting on Snowbaz, I have Ljubim te, and there is the Glee/CO crossover, oh and there is a Solangelo fic somewhere, and a Zelda fic, and a Class fic, and an Under the Whispering Door fic. Then there is the Sense8/Glee crossover, and I was talking about the character study about Glee's Asian characters. OH of course there is the SJAEU.... A lot of stuff.

40. What is your favorite world that you’ve created for a fic?

It's a tie between two fics: Myosotis series and Paradiso series.

For Myosotis, I was able to play around with a technological future. For the ones who do not know, the fic takes place in 2028, but Kurt's lost his memories from 2012 and onwards, so for him, there is a sudden 15 year time jump. There is a lot of personal shit that's changed, but it also give me a chance to show how the world has changed, because guys, we're in 2023, we can all agree the world is different from 2012.

I wrote Myosotis in 2019, so I was aiming for a "near technological future" that wasn't an utopia or a dystopia, because that's what's been done, to be honest. I wanted to create a plausible future with compromises and also a sense of false security, as in, yes, you can opt out, but you will be rendered useless. So I have mandatory tracking on all electronic devices BUT only in certain wired areas (started in 2021), I introduced personal AI BUT these aren't inheritely for profit, I killed Google BUT replaced it with a new mega cooperation (Springo co., started in 2016). But these changes happened gradually, so everyone adapted to them. For Kurt, who has a 15 year gap, it's all a big change, but no one else sees it that way and I think that's realistic. 10 years ago we didn't have 5G and QR codes and paying with your phone, but we do now, and it doesn't seem like a huge pivotal change, but a logical progression.

And for Paradiso, I've said multiple times that I am besotted with these versions of Simon and Baz. I love my little Italian boy who's grown up with a loving mum. Simon is so carefree and open and sweet. I think that if he meets his canon self, he wouldn't know what to do. And I love Lucy. I think I wrote an amazing mum. The Humdrum never existed, but the Mage does, so Baz is more alike to his canon counterpart, but without having a certain someone that reflects everything his family is against, I also think he's had an easier time. There was less pressure on him to hate someone. The politics are in tact, but Baz was more removed from it, and it made it easier to leave. And of course, OF COURSE, Paradiso has the love of my life: Rosemary Snow.

#ask #facewithoutheart #oh and unrelated but i also killed barbara streisand in 2026 in myosotis so apollo for gods' sake look away

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sushidynasty · 11 days ago

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I was just having a conversation w/ my partner re: the uselessness of gen ai for daily tasks.

I could use google’s ai to search the internet for me but then I would spend twice as long verifying the sources/credibility of the answer.

I could have ChatGPT write me an email but typing out the prompt would take just as long, let alone any editing and/or copy/pasting that needs to be done.

I could use Co-pilot to summarize an article or study for me but they are LLM’s and incapable of analysis (and therefore incapable of understanding the relation of one argument/point to another); I would have to fact check the summary by…reading the article in the first place. Also, the abstract and conclusion exists for a reason!

Generate me a citation? The information I would have to provide takes longer to compile than just typing it out myself.

If you are a standard person with basic highschool-level communication/analytical skills, it doesn’t really add anything to your life. This feels like when QR codes were being adopted everywhere as a technological advancement, when really, they were only applicable in select cases.

I think we have yet to hit the height of this adoption bell-curve but when we do, the drop will be steep.

those ads for ai integration on phones are so funny bc it seems like they cant. come up with that many use cases that arent already on a phone? "ask gemini to give you recipes when youre cooking!" "use our AI assistant to find the perfect gift for your girlfriend" yeah or i could just like. google it. you've spent millions on a slightly fancier version of an alexa. good job man.

#sushi.txt

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xaltius · 4 days ago

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Top Phishing Scams and How to Protect Against Them in 2025

It's June 2025, and while the digital world continues to advance at breakneck speed, so too do the tactics of cybercriminals. Phishing, the art of tricking individuals into revealing sensitive information or performing malicious actions, remains the single most common entry point for cyberattacks. Gone are the days of easily spotted typos and poorly designed emails; today's phishing attempts are sophisticated, personalized, and disturbingly effective, often powered by advanced technologies like AI.

The New Faces of Deception: Top Phishing Scams in 2025

Phishing isn't just about email anymore. Attackers are diversifying their channels and leveraging cutting-edge technology.

AI-Driven Voice Cloning Scams (Vishing/Deepfake Audio): This is perhaps the most alarming trend. Cybercriminals are using AI to clone voices with uncanny accuracy. You might receive an urgent call from what sounds exactly like your CEO, a family member, or a close colleague, demanding an immediate wire transfer or urgent action. These deepfake audio attacks are incredibly hard to detect without extreme caution.

The Lure: Emotional manipulation, urgency, and the apparent authenticity of a trusted voice.

Sophisticated Multi-Channel Phishing (Smishing, Quishing, and Beyond):

Smishing (SMS Phishing): Text messages impersonating banks, parcel delivery services (e.g., "Your package has a pending fee, click here to resolve"), or even government agencies are highly common. Links often lead to fake login pages.

Quishing (QR Code Phishing): As QR codes become ubiquitous, scammers embed malicious QR codes into emails, posters, physical flyers, or even seemingly legitimate documents. Scanning them can lead to phishing sites or malware downloads.

Social Media & Collaboration Platform Phishing: Attacks aren't confined to email or SMS. Scammers are actively using platforms like WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Slack, and Microsoft Teams to impersonate colleagues, IT support, or trusted brands to gain your trust and steal credentials or information.

AI-Generated Phishing Emails with Flawless Grammar and Personalization: The days of phishing emails being betrayed by obvious grammatical errors are largely over. Generative AI enables cybercriminals to craft highly convincing, personalized emails that mimic legitimate communications with alarming accuracy. They might analyze your public social media profiles or past communications to make the email seem even more credible.

The Lure: Perfect language, contextually relevant content, and precise impersonation of known entities.

Credential Phishing for Cloud Services: With almost everyone using cloud platforms like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or various SaaS applications, credential theft remains a primary goal. Attackers create extremely realistic fake login pages for these services, hoping you'll enter your username and password, giving them direct access to your accounts.

The Lure: Mimicking trusted login portals for services you use daily.

MFA Fatigue Attacks: Attackers repeatedly send multi-factor authentication (MFA) push notifications to your device at odd hours, hoping you'll eventually approve one out of frustration or exhaustion. Once approved, they gain access.

The Lure: Annoyance and the human tendency to want to stop repeated notifications.

Employment Scams & Headhunter Phishing: Targeting job seekers, these scams offer fake job opportunities via email or social media. They might ask for personal information early in the process or demand fees for "training" or "background checks."

The Lure: The excitement of a new opportunity and the desire for employment.

Your Shield in 2025: How to Protect Yourself

The key to defense in 2025 is a combination of skepticism, smart tech habits, and continuous awareness.

Verify Before You Click, Respond, or Act:

Always Confirm Requests: If you receive an urgent request (especially financial or sensitive data-related) via email, text, or even a call, do not act on it within that channel. Verify it independently using a known, trusted method (e.g., call the person back on their known phone number, use an official company communication channel you trust).

Inspect URLs Carefully: Before clicking a link, hover over it (on desktop) or long-press (on mobile) to reveal the actual URL. Look for subtle misspellings, extra words, or unusual domains. Even if it has "HTTPS," the site itself could be malicious.

Question Unexpected Communications: If you weren't expecting an email, text, or call, be immediately suspicious. Does it match the sender's usual behavior? Is the timing strange?

Enable and Harden Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA):

Use MFA Everywhere: Enable MFA on all your important accounts (email, banking, social media, cloud services).

Prioritize Phishing-Resistant MFA: Where possible, opt for app-based authenticators (like Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator) or physical security keys (like YubiKey) over SMS-based MFA, which can be vulnerable to SIM-swapping. MFA is a critical barrier, even if your password is stolen.

Think Context, Not Just Grammar:

Be Skeptical of AI-Generated Content: Assume that flawless grammar and perfect branding can still be a scam. Focus on the context of the message. Is it asking for something unusual? Is it trying to create panic or urgency?

Don't Fall for Urgency/Threats: Scammers thrive on emotional manipulation. Messages that threaten immediate account closure, legal action, or massive fines are almost always scams.

Keep All Software Updated:

Patch Relentlessly: Ensure your operating system (Windows, macOS, Linux), web browsers, antivirus software, and all applications are always updated to the latest versions. Updates often include critical security patches against known vulnerabilities.

Invest in Robust Security Software:

Use reputable antivirus and anti-malware solutions with real-time scanning capabilities.

Consider advanced email security solutions that use AI to detect sophisticated phishing attempts before they reach your inbox.

Regular Security Awareness Training (for everyone!):

Organizations should conduct frequent, interactive security awareness training sessions and phishing simulations. This helps build "muscle memory" for identifying and reporting suspicious activity.

Report Suspected Phishing:

If you spot a phishing attempt, report it to your IT department (if at work), your email provider, or relevant authorities. You can report cybercrimes. This helps others and contributes to tracking malicious actors.

Phishing will continue to be a dominant threat in 2025 and beyond. By understanding the latest tactics and adopting a proactive, skeptical mindset, you can significantly reduce your risk of becoming a victim. Stay informed, stay vigilant, and stay safe online!

#technology #artificial intelligence #ai #cybersecurity #phishing #phishing attack

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mariacallous · 4 months ago

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Scan the online brochures of companies who sell workplace monitoring tech and you’d think the average American worker was a renegade poised to take their employer down at the next opportunity. “Nearly half of US employees admit to time theft!” “Biometric readers for enhanced accuracy!” “Offer staff benefits in a controlled way with Vending Machine Access!”

A new wave of return-to-office mandates has arrived since the New Year, including at JP Morgan Chase, leading advertising agency WPP, and Amazon—not to mention President Trump’s late January directive to the heads of federal agencies to “terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person … on a full-time basis.” Five years on from the pandemic, when the world showed how effectively many roles could be performed remotely or flexibly, what’s caused the sudden change of heart?

“There’s two things happening,” says global industry analyst Josh Bersin, who is based in California. “The economy is actually slowing down, so companies are hiring less. So there is a trend toward productivity in general, and then AI has forced virtually every company to reallocate resources toward AI projects.

“The expectation amongst CEOs is that’s going to eliminate a lot of jobs. A lot of these back-to-work mandates are due to frustration that both of those initiatives are hard to measure or hard to do when we don’t know what people are doing at home.”

The question is, what exactly are we returning to?

Take any consumer tech buzzword of the 21st century and chances are it’s already being widely used across the US to monitor time, attendance and, in some cases, the productivity of workers, in sectors such as manufacturing, retail, and fast food chains: RFID badges, GPS time clock apps, NFC apps, QR code clocking-in, Apple Watch badges, and palm, face, eye, voice, and finger scanners. Biometric scanners have long been sold to companies as a way to avoid hourly workers “buddy punching” for each other at the start and end of shifts—so-called “time theft.” A return-to-office mandate and its enforcement opens the door for similar scenarios for salaried staff.

Track and Trace

The latest, deluxe end point of these time and attendance tchotchkes and apps is something like Austin-headquartered HID’s OmniKey platform. Designed for factories, hospitals, universities and offices, this is essentially an all-encompassing RFID log-in and security system for employees, via smart cards, smartphone wallets, and wearables. These will not only monitor turnstile entrances, exits, and floor access by way of elevators but also parking, the use of meeting rooms, the cafeteria, printers, lockers, and yes, vending machine access.

These technologies, and more sophisticated worker location- and behavior-tracking systems, are expanding from blue-collar jobs to pink-collar industries and even white-collar office settings. Depending on the survey, approximately 70 to 80 percent of large US employers now use some form of employee monitoring, and the likes of PwC have explicitly told workers that managers will be tracking their location to enforce a three-day office week policy.

“Several of these earlier technologies, like RFID sensors and low-tech barcode scanners, have been used in manufacturing, in warehouses, or in other settings for some time,” says Wolfie Christl, a researcher of workplace surveillance for Cracked Labs, a nonprofit based in Vienna, Austria. “We’re moving toward the use of all kinds of sensor data, and this kind of technology is certainly now moving into the offices. However, I think for many of these, it’s questionable whether they really make sense there.”

What’s new, at least to the recent pandemic age of hybrid working, is the extent to which workers can now be tracked inside office buildings. Cracked Labs published a frankly terrifying 25-page case study report in November 2024 showing how systems of wireless networking, motion sensors, and Bluetooth beacons, whether intentionally or as a byproduct of their capabilities, can provide “behavioral monitoring and profiling” in office settings.

The project breaks the tech down into two categories: The first is technology that tracks desk presence and room occupancy, and the second monitors the indoor location, movement, and behavior of the people working inside the building.

To start with desk and room occupancy, Spacewell offers a mix of motion sensors installed under desks, in ceilings, and at doorways in “office spaces” and heat sensors and low-resolution visual sensors to show which desks and rooms are being used. Both real-time and trend data are available to managers via its “live data floorplan,” and the sensors also capture temperature, environmental, light intensity, and humidity data.

The Swiss-headquartered Locatee, meanwhile, uses existing badge and device data via Wi-Fi and LAN to continuously monitor clocking in and clocking out, time spent by workers at desks and on specific floors, and the number of hours and days spent by employees at the office per week. While the software displays aggregate rather than individual personal employee data to company executives, the Cracked Labs report points out that Locatee offers a segmented team analytics report which “reveals data on small groups.”

As more companies return to the office, the interest in this idea of “optimized” working spaces is growing fast. According to S&S Insider’s early 2025 analysis, the connected office was worth $43 billion in 2023 and will grow to $122.5 billion by 2032. Alongside this, IndustryARC predicts there will be a $4.5 billion employee-monitoring-technology market, mostly in North America, by 2026—the only issue being that the crossover between the two is blurry at best.

At the end of January, Logitech showed off its millimeter-wave radar Spot sensors, which are designed to allow employers to monitor whether rooms are being used and which rooms in the building are used the most. A Logitech rep told The Verge that the peel-and-stick devices, which also monitor VOCs, temperature, and humidity, could theoretically estimate the general placement of people in a meeting room.

As Christl explains, because of the functionality that these types of sensor-based systems offer, there is the very real possibility of a creep from legitimate applications, such as managing energy use, worker health and safety, and ensuring sufficient office resources into more intrusive purposes.

“For me, the main issue is that if companies use highly sensitive data like tracking the location of employees’ devices and smartphones indoors or even use motion detectors indoors,” he says, “then there must be totally reliable safeguards that this data is not being used for any other purposes.”

Big Brother Is Watching

This warning becomes even more pressing where workers’ indoor location, movement, and behavior are concerned. Cisco’s Spaces cloud platform has digitized 11 billion square feet of enterprise locations, producing 24.7 trillion location data points. The Spaces system is used by more than 8,800 businesses worldwide and is deployed by the likes of InterContinental Hotels Group, WeWork, the NHS Foundation, and San Jose State University, according to Cisco’s website.

While it has applications for retailers, restaurants, hotels, and event venues, many of its features are designed to function in office environments, including meeting room management and occupancy monitoring. Spaces is designed as a comprehensive, all-seeing eye into how employees (and customers and visitors, depending on the setting) and their connected devices, equipment, or “assets” move through physical spaces.

Cisco has achieved this by using its existing wireless infrastructure and combining data from Wi-Fi access points with Bluetooth tracking. Spaces offers employers both real-time views and historical data dashboards. The use cases? Everything from meeting-room scheduling and optimizing cleaning schedules to more invasive dashboards on employees’ entry and exit times, the duration of staff workdays, visit durations by floor, and other “behavior metrics.” This includes those related to performance, a feature pitched at manufacturing sites.

Some of these analytics use aggregate data, but Cracked Labs details how Spaces goes beyond this into personal data, with device usernames and identifiers that make it possible to single out individuals. While the ability to protect privacy by using MAC randomization is there, Cisco emphasizes that this makes indoor movement analytics “unreliable” and other applications impossible—leaving companies to make that decision themselves.

Management even has the ability to send employees nudge-style alerts based on their location in the building. An IBM application, based on Cisco’s underlying technology, offers to spot anomalies in occupancy patterns and send notifications to workers or their managers based on what it finds. Cisco’s Spaces can also incorporate video footage from Cisco security cameras and WebEx video conferencing hardware into the overall system of indoor movement monitoring; another example of function creep from security to employee tracking in the workplace.

“Cisco is simply everywhere. As soon as employers start to repurpose data that is being collected from networking or IT infrastructure, this quickly becomes very dangerous, from my perspective.” says Christl. “With this kind of indoor location tracking technology based on its Wi-Fi networks, I think that a vendor as major as Cisco has a responsibility to ensure it doesn’t suggest or market solutions that are really irresponsible to employers.

“I would consider any productivity and performance tracking very problematic when based on this kind of intrusive behavioral data.” WIRED approached Cisco for comment but didn’t receive a response before publication.

Cisco isn't alone in this, though. Similar to Spaces, Juniper’s Mist offers an indoor tracking system that uses both Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth beacons to locate people, connected devices, and Bluetooth tagged badges on a real-time map, with the option of up to 13 months of historical data on worker behavior.

Juniper’s offering, for workplaces including offices, hospitals, manufacturing sites, and retailers, is so precise that it is able to provide records of employees’ device names, together with the exact enter and exit times and duration of visits between “zones” in offices—including one labeled “break area/kitchen” in a demo. Yikes.

For each of these systems, a range of different applications is functionally possible, and some which raise labor-law concerns. “A worst-case scenario would be that management wants to fire someone and then starts looking into historical records trying to find some misconduct,” says Christl. "If it’s necessary to investigate employees, then there should be a procedure where, for example, a worker representative is looking into the fine-grained behavioral data together with management. This would be another safeguard to prevent misuse.”

Above and Beyond?

If warehouse-style tracking has the potential for management overkill in office settings, it makes even less sense in service and health care jobs, and American unions are now pushing for more access to data and quotas used in disciplinary action. Elizabeth Anderson, professor of public philosophy at the University of Michigan and the author of Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives, describes how black-box algorithm-driven management and monitoring affects not just the day-to-day of nursing staff but also their sense of work and value.

“Surveillance and this idea of time theft, it’s all connected to this idea of wasting time,” she explains. “Essentially all relational work is considered inefficient. In a memory care unit, for example, the system will say how long to give a patient breakfast, how many minutes to get them dressed, and so forth.

“Maybe an Alzheimer’s patient is frightened, so a nurse has to spend some time calming them down, or perhaps they have lost some ability overnight. That’s not one of the discrete physical tasks that can be measured. Most of the job is helping that person cope with declining faculties; it takes time for that, for people to read your emotions and respond appropriately. What you get is massive moral injury with this notion of efficiency.”

This kind of monitoring extends to service workers, including servers in restaurants and cleaning staff, according to a 2023 Cracked Labs’ report into retail and hospitality. Software developed by Oracle is used to, among other applications, rate and rank servers based on speed, sales, timekeeping around breaks, and how many tips they receive. Similar Oracle software that monitors mobile workers such as housekeepers and cleaners in hotels uses a timer for app-based micromanagement—for instance, “you have two minutes for this room, and there are four tasks.”

As Christl explains, this simply doesn’t work in practice. “People have to struggle to combine what they really do with this kind of rigid, digital system. And it’s not easy to standardize work like talking to patients and other kinds of affective work, like how friendly you are as a waiter. This is a major problem. These systems cannot represent the work that is being done accurately.”

But can knowledge work done in offices ever be effectively measured and assessed either? In an episode of his podcast in January, host Ezra Klein battled his own feelings about having many of his best creative ideas at a café down the street from where he lives rather than in The New York Times’ Manhattan offices. Anderson agrees that creativity often has to find its own path.

“Say there’s a webcam tracking your eyes to make sure you’re looking at the screen,” she says. “We know that daydreaming a little can actually help people come up with creative ideas. Just letting your mind wander is incredibly useful for productivity overall, but that requires some time looking around or out the window. The software connected to your camera is saying you’re off-duty—that you’re wasting time. Nobody’s mind can keep concentrated for the whole work day, but you don’t even want that from a productivity point of view.”

Even for roles where it might make more methodological sense to track discrete physical tasks, there can be negative consequences of nonstop monitoring. Anderson points to a scene in Erik Gandini’s 2023 documentary After Work that shows an Amazon delivery driver who is monitored, via camera, for their driving, delivery quotas, and even getting dinged for using Spotify in the van.

“It’s very tightly regulated and super, super intrusive, and it’s all based on distrust as the starting point,” she says. “What these tech bros don’t understand is that if you install surveillance technology, which is all about distrusting the workers, there is a deep feature of human psychology that is reciprocity. If you don’t trust me, I’m not going to trust you. You think an employee who doesn’t trust the boss is going to be working with the same enthusiasm? I don’t think so.”

Trust Issues

The fixes, then, might be in the leadership itself, not more data dashboards. “Our research shows that excessive monitoring in the workplace can damage trust, have a negative impact on morale, and cause stress and anxiety,” says Hayfa Mohdzaini, senior policy and practice adviser for technology at the CIPD, the UK’s professional body for HR, learning, and development. “Employers might achieve better productivity by investing in line manager training and ensuring employees feel supported with reasonable expectations around office attendance and manageable workloads.”

A 2023 Pew Research study found that 56 percent of US workers were opposed to the use of AI to keep track of when employees were at their desks, and 61 percent were against tracking employees’ movements while they work.

This dropped to just 51 percent of workers who were opposed to recording work done on company computers, through the use of a kind of corporate “spyware” often accepted by staff in the private sector. As Josh Bersin puts it, “Yes, the company can read your emails” with platforms such as Teramind, even including “sentiment analysis” of employee messages.

Snooping on files, emails, and digital chats takes on new significance when it comes to government workers, though. New reporting from WIRED, based on conversations with employees at 13 federal agencies, reveals the extent to Elon Musk’s DOGE team’s surveillance: software including Google’s Gemini AI chatbot, a Dynatrace extension, and security tool Splunk have been added to government computers in recent weeks, and some people have felt they can’t speak freely on recorded and transcribed Microsoft Teams calls. Various agencies already use Everfox software and Dtex’s Intercept system, which generates individual risk scores for workers based on websites and files accessed.

Alongside mass layoffs and furloughs over the past four weeks, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has also, according to CBS News and NPR reports, gone into multiple agencies in February with the theater and bombast of full X-ray security screenings replacing entry badges at Washington, DC, headquarters. That’s alongside managers telling staff that their logging in and out of devices, swiping in and out of workspaces, and all of their digital work chats will be “closely monitored” going forward.

“Maybe they’re trying to make a big deal out of it to scare people right now,” says Bersin. “The federal government is using back-to-work as an excuse to lay off a bunch of people.”

DOGE staff have reportedly even added keylogger software to government computers to track everything employees type, with staff concerned that anyone using keywords related to progressive thinking or "disloyalty” to Trump could be targeted—not to mention the security risks it introduces for those working on sensitive projects. As one worker told NPR, it feels “Soviet-style” and “Orwellian” with “nonstop monitoring.” Anderson describes the overall DOGE playbook as a series of “deeply intrusive invasions of privacy.”

Alternate Realities

But what protections are out there for employees? Certain states, such as New York and Illinois, do offer strong privacy protections against, for example, unnecessary biometric tracking in the private sector, and California’s Consumer Privacy Act covers workers as well as consumers. Overall, though, the lack of federal-level labor law in this area makes the US something of an alternate reality to what is legal in the UK and Europe.

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act in the US allows employee monitoring for legitimate business reasons and with the worker’s consent. In Europe, Algorithm Watch has made country analyses for workplace surveillance in the UK, Italy, Sweden, and Poland. To take one high-profile example of the stark difference: In early 2024, Serco was ordered by the UK's privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), to stop using face recognition and fingerprint scanning systems, designed by Shopworks, to track the time and attendance of 2,000 staff across 38 leisure centers around the country. This new guidance led to more companies reviewing or cutting the technology altogether, including Virgin Active, which pulled similar biometric employee monitoring systems from 30-plus sites.

Despite a lack of comprehensive privacy rights in the US, though, worker protest, union organizing, and media coverage can provide a firewall against some office surveillance schemes. Unions such as the Service Employees International Union are pushing for laws to protect workers from black-box algorithms dictating the pace of output.

In December, Boeing scrapped a pilot of employee monitoring at offices in Missouri and Washington, which was based on a system of infrared motion sensors and VuSensor cameras installed in ceilings, made by Ohio-based Avuity. The U-turn came after a Boeing employee leaked an internal PowerPoint presentation on the occupancy- and headcount-tracking technology to The Seattle Times. In a matter of weeks, Boeing confirmed that managers would remove all the sensors that had been installed to date.

Under-desk sensors, in particular, have received high-profile backlash, perhaps because they are such an obvious piece of surveillance hardware rather than simply software designed to record work done on company machines. In the fall of 2022, students at Northeastern University hacked and removed under-desk sensors produced by EnOcean, offering “presence detection” and “people counting,” that had been installed in the school’s Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Complex. The university provost eventually informed students that the department had planned to use the sensors with the Spaceti platform to optimize desk usage.

OccupEye (now owned by FM: Systems), another type of under-desk heat and motion sensor, received a similar reaction from staff at Barclays Bank and The Telegraph newspaper in London, with employees protesting and, in some cases, physically removing the devices that tracked the time they spent away from their desks.

Despite the fallout, Barclays later faced a $1.1 billion fine from the ICO when it was found to have deployed Sapience’s employee monitoring software in its offices, with the ability to single out and track individual employees. Perhaps unsurprisingly in the current climate, that same software company now offers “lightweight device-level technology” to monitor return-to-office policy compliance, with a dashboard breaking employee location down by office versus remote for specific departments and teams.

According to Elizabeth Anderson’s latest book Hijacked, while workplace surveillance culture and the obsession with measuring employee efficiency might feel relatively new, it can actually be traced back to the invention of the “work ethic” by the Puritans in the 16th and 17th centuries.

“They thought you should be working super hard; you shouldn’t be idling around when you should be in work,” she says. “You can see some elements there that can be developed into a pretty hostile stance toward workers. The Puritans were obsessed with not wasting time. It was about gaining assurance of salvation through your behavior. With the Industrial Revolution, the ‘no wasting time’ became a profit-maximizing strategy. Now you’re at work 24/7 because they can get you on email.”

Some key components of the original work ethic, though, have been skewed or lost over time. The Puritans also had strict constraints on what duties employers had toward their workers: paying a living wage and providing safe and healthy working conditions.

“You couldn’t just rule them tyrannically, or so they said. You had to treat them as your fellow Christians, with dignity and respect. In many ways the original work ethic was an ethic which uplifted workers.”

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