Rebecca Williams
@rebeccawilliams.info
11K followers 3.1K following 1.7K posts
Writer, lawyer, artist exploring how technology and power shape one another. Privacy @ACLU.org, Board @MuckRock.com, Teaching @Pratt.edu. 🌐 rebeccawilliams.info Signal: rebecca.411
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rebeccawilliams.info
I am pretty sure FaceTec is going to haunt me for years to come, there are plenty of ID companies to worry about, but my gut is like this one is gonna haunt you
rebeccawilliams.info
the way I shop now is so mediated by "the digital layer" - I do it online, I search by dimension & lookup dupes in forums, post lots of pandemic trial & error my eye for texture via photos has developed, I validate assumptions w/ reviews, I think will this item photograph well for my online persona?
rebeccawilliams.info
if The Man wanted me to be as productive as possible, he wouldn't give me coffee, he would give me a rainy day, a clear and rested mind, and then some coffee, & he has
rebeccawilliams.info
there’s anti-doomer in the “let’s get activated” way & there’s anti-doomer in the “I can’t afford to feel worse rn” way & there’s anti-doomer in the “*I* seem fine” way & there’s anti-doomer in the “idk what’s going on” way & there’s anti-doomer in the contrarian way, & I only like 1 of them
rebeccawilliams.info
lovely
katerosebee.bsky.social
Held our first digital security study hall, sent out to all assorted lefty organizing groups in our area and it was so much fun! People installed Signal, worked on their to-do lists, and taught each other.
Gonna try to do this at least 2x a month. Feel like the social aspect is what makes it work.
rebeccawilliams.info
oh look another id verification related breach
404media.co
BREAKING: A catastrophic breach has impacted Discord user data including selfies and identity documents uploaded as part of the app’s verification process, email addresses, phone numbers, approximately where the user lives, and much more.

🔗 www.404media.co/the-discord-...
The Discord Hack is Every Users’ Worst Nightmare
A hack impacting Discord’s age verification process shows in stark terms the risk of tech companies collecting users’ ID documents. Now the hackers are posting peoples’ IDs and other sensitive informa...
www.404media.co
rebeccawilliams.info
During the George Floyd protests I was living in a group house in DC and my international housemate who was listening to Joe Rogan in a curious international way told me that antifa was a violent gang & I said no no I’m pretty sure I’m antifa and she got wide-eyed for a second.
rebeccawilliams.info
I believe debating rhetoric on its face is just as worthy or perhaps more worthy than discussing related material outcomes, because ideas lead to actions, and eventually, down the line,
material outcomes. A bad idea should not be allowed to fester, even if nothing has happened yet.
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
rebeccawilliams.info
One of my students called it "a surveillance necklace," another said it was like "bugging yourself."
rebeccawilliams.info
I will say nyc has an active digital security community w/ many groups & activities folks can participate in (I keep learning about more post burner phone event), it’s really encouraging and is a zillionth reason to love this city
rebeccawilliams.info
this was like me w/ old film cameras in high school but more encompassing & consequential, really beautiful 🙏
rebeccawilliams.info
❤️
aclu.org
ACLU @aclu.org · 13d
A reminder that anything recorded on a device like this AI "friend" could be used against you — by hackers, private companies, or the government.

This technology isn't a friend, it's surveillance.
AI startup Friend spent more than $1M on all those subway ads | TechCrunch
If you’ve been on the New York subway recently, you’ve probably seen stark white ads promoting a wearable AI device called Friend.
techcrunch.com
rebeccawilliams.info
trump is papering over where public services used to be using gov tech infrastructure
fed-us-domain-bot.bsky.social
🚀 NOTICE: Federal US website newly registered.
https://trumprx.gov

Action taken by the Executive Office of the President at or around 2025-10-06 06:13:44.
trumprx.gov
Federal US website registered. Content may not be visible yet.
trumprx.gov
rebeccawilliams.info
I want to read a little history of asking the computer questions; ask jeeves -> ask.com -> gai chatbots (etc)

It's very different than going through the card catalog.
rebeccawilliams.info
I was walking through the subway today & I was like wow none of the other ads are defaced just friend & some friend ads just have a half-hearted cross out, just anything at all -- but then I kept walking & I saw "AI" carved on the face of an AI model for sketchers, beautiful, consistent, anti-AI art
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
abbyhiggs.bsky.social
Imagine hating me and I’m just at home climbing onto my own countertop to get into a cupboard
rebeccawilliams.info
this does look like my end of twitter experience
rebeccawilliams.info
beautiful
olivia.science
@irisvanrooij.bsky.social made this due to my final metaphor in doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

AI is like a ouija board: promoting & enabling mysticism, pseudoscience, & pseudo-intellectualism; hiding the human-in-the-loop, the user & the creators of the data, who do the intelligence & provide the inputs.
AI technology is much
more akin to a ouija board than anything else: promoting and enabling mysticism, pseudoscience, and
pseudo-intellectualism (section 2: Marketing, hype, & harm); obfuscating the human-in-the-loop,
which includes the user and the creators of the data, who do most of the ‘intelligence’ and provide all
the inputs (subsection 3.4: Anthropomorphism and other circular reasoning). And combining all the
above, tricking and scamming us because we do not recognise that it merely reflects our own collective
intelligence back at us in distorted and damaging forms. AI technology is much
more akin to a ouija board than anything else: promoting and enabling mysticism, pseudoscience, and
pseudo-intellectualism (section 2: Marketing, hype, & harm); obfuscating the human-in-the-loop,
which includes the user and the creators of the data, who do most of the ‘intelligence’ and provide all
the inputs (subsection 3.4: Anthropomorphism and other circular reasoning). And combining all the
above, tricking and scamming us because we do not recognise that it merely reflects our own collective
intelligence back at us in distorted and damaging forms.
rebeccawilliams.info
this example of gov borrowing from tech anti-labor tactics is fascinating
darakerr.bsky.social
This is a classic tactic Uber and Lyft have used when threatened by things like minimum wage laws for drivers --overlaying their apps and websites with company messaging.

Shocking to see the federal government doing it now
Justice Department website on October 1, 2025, saying "democrats have shut down the government" Screenshot of Uber app with a message from Uber pushing a ballot measure campaign that restricted drivers' labor rights