@madmackley.bsky.social
phd student in information policy @ university of toronto
thinking through public data governance
thinking through public data governance
Pinned
Vermont is my ideal state bc it aligns w/ my interests in dairy, nature, co-ops, and freaky art
i hope my iphone mini will last forever <3
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/h... "please, buy new phone. the economy is dying" is an incredible gaslight
Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it's costing economy
Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever before, and while it may be consumer smart, it comes at a cost to work productivity and the U.S. economy.
www.cnbc.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:05 PM
i hope my iphone mini will last forever <3
a few months ago i started cancelling monthly subscriptions to platforms like Spotify etc. and began diverting those funds into recurring donations to Skipping Stone
A good time to donate to Skipping Stone, an organization that supports trans folks of all ages in Alberta.
Donate — Skipping Stone
With your support, Skipping Stone leads the way in providing affirming care to trans and gender diverse youth, adults, and families.
www.skippingstone.ca
November 19, 2025 at 12:03 AM
a few months ago i started cancelling monthly subscriptions to platforms like Spotify etc. and began diverting those funds into recurring donations to Skipping Stone
Reposted
Alberta just introduced Bill 9, which exists for one and only one purpose: deleting the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as it pertains to trans kids, denying them the right to life and stripping their healthcare away.
This is cruel, anti-democratic and anti-constitutional.
This is cruel, anti-democratic and anti-constitutional.
November 18, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Alberta just introduced Bill 9, which exists for one and only one purpose: deleting the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as it pertains to trans kids, denying them the right to life and stripping their healthcare away.
This is cruel, anti-democratic and anti-constitutional.
This is cruel, anti-democratic and anti-constitutional.
great work by the cool & effective ai haters!!
November 17, 2025 at 10:32 PM
great work by the cool & effective ai haters!!
me, on the job market: yes I <3 AI
November 7, 2025 at 11:19 PM
me, on the job market: yes I <3 AI
oh hell ya!!!
Lina Khan, as she is announced as being part of Zohran Mamdani’s transition team:
“I think what we saw last night was New Yorkers not just electing a new mayor, but clearly rejecting a politics where outside corporate power and money too often.”
“I think what we saw last night was New Yorkers not just electing a new mayor, but clearly rejecting a politics where outside corporate power and money too often.”
November 5, 2025 at 5:14 PM
oh hell ya!!!
Reposted
This is a labour *movement*. Solidarity with teachers in Alberta!
Unbelievable. Chills.
Tens of thousands of teachers converging downtown just outside where Danielle Smith is addressing an audience.
I’ve never seen anything like this.
Time to listen up, Premier.
Time for a fair deal.
We stand with teachers.
❤️✊
Tens of thousands of teachers converging downtown just outside where Danielle Smith is addressing an audience.
I’ve never seen anything like this.
Time to listen up, Premier.
Time for a fair deal.
We stand with teachers.
❤️✊
October 16, 2025 at 9:09 PM
This is a labour *movement*. Solidarity with teachers in Alberta!
Reposted
The gleeful doxing of someone cheating in public is bad even if they are a CEO and even if they are a Coldplay fan. It's bad because this kind of thing is happening to random people on TikTok for such crimes as "sitting silently on a plane" or "being attractive"
www.404media.co/the-astronom...
www.404media.co/the-astronom...
The Astronomer CEO's Coldplay Concert Fiasco Is Emblematic of Our Social Media Surveillance Dystopia
Facial recognition and crowdsourced social media investigations are constantly being used not just on cringe CEOs, but on random people who are simply existing in public.
www.404media.co
July 17, 2025 at 6:59 PM
The gleeful doxing of someone cheating in public is bad even if they are a CEO and even if they are a Coldplay fan. It's bad because this kind of thing is happening to random people on TikTok for such crimes as "sitting silently on a plane" or "being attractive"
www.404media.co/the-astronom...
www.404media.co/the-astronom...
Reposted
I am sure everyone will look the other way, but the guy who just won the Democratic mayoral primary in NYC _ran on expanding access to trans healthcare._
Hormone vending machines lfg drive.google.com/file/d/1pMQh...
June 25, 2025 at 5:08 AM
I am sure everyone will look the other way, but the guy who just won the Democratic mayoral primary in NYC _ran on expanding access to trans healthcare._
i am currently in the process of "de-googling" - super easy to switch browsers (right now, mozilla+duckduckgo search) and email (proton)! still looking for a replacement for google docs & sheets for easy & secure collaboration...
I’ve begun my journey to reduce my reliance on US tech, so it’s time for an update on how it’s all going!
No surprise, some services are far more easy to replace than others. Email and streaming are low-hanging fruit; maps and messaging can be more difficult. But we should still make the effort.
No surprise, some services are far more easy to replace than others. Email and streaming are low-hanging fruit; maps and messaging can be more difficult. But we should still make the effort.
Getting off US tech is no easy task
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make the effort
www.disconnect.blog
June 25, 2025 at 4:49 PM
i am currently in the process of "de-googling" - super easy to switch browsers (right now, mozilla+duckduckgo search) and email (proton)! still looking for a replacement for google docs & sheets for easy & secure collaboration...
thinking about this in QC, AB's recent book-ban & wave of anti-trans legislation.. really emphasizes the need for local journalism and opportunity for CDNs who are appalled by Skrmetti to mobilize& respond 2 bad govt (e.g., ppl who are not 'typically' 'politically engaged' or unaware of policy dev.)
For Canadians paying attention to trans rights: bad news in QC for incarcerated trans people! Seems to come via the Comité des sages report.
(The answer is no prisons, not trans-affirming prisons, I know, but this will hurt people NOW so it's worth fighting against!)
www.quebec.ca/nouvelles/ac...
(The answer is no prisons, not trans-affirming prisons, I know, but this will hurt people NOW so it's worth fighting against!)
www.quebec.ca/nouvelles/ac...
June 19, 2025 at 10:47 PM
thinking about this in QC, AB's recent book-ban & wave of anti-trans legislation.. really emphasizes the need for local journalism and opportunity for CDNs who are appalled by Skrmetti to mobilize& respond 2 bad govt (e.g., ppl who are not 'typically' 'politically engaged' or unaware of policy dev.)
high stakes data breach! over 62 million students across the US and Canada from the past three decades! what will PIPEDA do!!!
The TDSB's PowerSchool platform promised months ago that stolen student data had been deleted — now it is revealed that the data was not destroyed, despite a ransom being paid, and the TDSB is now receiving new extortion threats.
May 30, 2025 at 1:42 AM
high stakes data breach! over 62 million students across the US and Canada from the past three decades! what will PIPEDA do!!!
three years ago, i signed up to join the waitlist for a tennis club in Toronto. Today, I finally made it..
May 29, 2025 at 7:54 PM
three years ago, i signed up to join the waitlist for a tennis club in Toronto. Today, I finally made it..
reading up on critical policy theory/methods and going: hell ya!!!! [am clearly in the throes of thesis proposal writing]
March 28, 2025 at 10:59 PM
reading up on critical policy theory/methods and going: hell ya!!!! [am clearly in the throes of thesis proposal writing]
developing a MLM scheme but it’s for promoting the library
February 22, 2025 at 8:26 PM
developing a MLM scheme but it’s for promoting the library
great news for the secretly conservative who like to claim “social liberal but fiscal conservative”
February 20, 2025 at 4:16 PM
great news for the secretly conservative who like to claim “social liberal but fiscal conservative”
Reposted
I've obtained 328 pages of government records about the drafting of Canada's AI & Data Act through an access to information request.
Breakdown of what's in the release package: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Link to read & download the full release package in the replies 👇
Breakdown of what's in the release package: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Link to read & download the full release package in the replies 👇
Inventory of Records from ATIA Request - ISED AI Legislation
docs.google.com
February 19, 2025 at 8:53 PM
I've obtained 328 pages of government records about the drafting of Canada's AI & Data Act through an access to information request.
Breakdown of what's in the release package: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Link to read & download the full release package in the replies 👇
Breakdown of what's in the release package: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Link to read & download the full release package in the replies 👇
Reposted
“No amount of normalisation and ‘validation’, however, can alter the fact that AI imagery looks like shit. But that, I want to argue, is its main draw to the right. If AI was capable of producing art that was formally competent, surprising, soulful, then they wouldn’t want it.”
AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism
It's embarrassing, destructive, and looks like shit: AI-generated art is the perfect aesthetic form for the far right.
newsocialist.org.uk
February 15, 2025 at 1:18 AM
“No amount of normalisation and ‘validation’, however, can alter the fact that AI imagery looks like shit. But that, I want to argue, is its main draw to the right. If AI was capable of producing art that was formally competent, surprising, soulful, then they wouldn’t want it.”
Reposted
I submitted comments to the government in 2023 about their Generative AI Code of Conduct recommending they include guidance on copyright protection for developers
The government ignored my recommendation & Cohere was an early signatory to that Code
www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...
The government ignored my recommendation & Cohere was an early signatory to that Code
www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...
Media companies sue Toronto AI firm Cohere over alleged copyright infringement
In a complaint filed with a New York court, the publishers allege Cohere has infringed on copyright by scraping copies of their articles from the internet without the publishers’ permission or compens...
www.theglobeandmail.com
February 13, 2025 at 8:43 PM
I submitted comments to the government in 2023 about their Generative AI Code of Conduct recommending they include guidance on copyright protection for developers
The government ignored my recommendation & Cohere was an early signatory to that Code
www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...
The government ignored my recommendation & Cohere was an early signatory to that Code
www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...
Reposted
A little context if you're not sure what all this is about: www.jphilll.com/p/its-time-t....
It’s time to take down Tesla
Links and picket locations at the end
www.jphilll.com
February 13, 2025 at 9:48 PM
A little context if you're not sure what all this is about: www.jphilll.com/p/its-time-t....
Reposted
Reposted
1. Today, the New York Times Editorial Board published a piece titled "Trump's Shameful Campaign Against Transgender Americans."
I criticize the paper's attempt to wash away the paper's own culpability in ushering in an era of eradication-based policies.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
I criticize the paper's attempt to wash away the paper's own culpability in ushering in an era of eradication-based policies.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
NYT Hypocrisy: Outlet Criticizes Trump's Attacks On Trans People That They Helped Usher In
The New York Times Editorial Board today released an opinion piece calling Trump's attacks on transgender Americans "shameful." The paper has been influential in fueling those attacks.
www.erininthemorning.com
February 9, 2025 at 6:14 PM
1. Today, the New York Times Editorial Board published a piece titled "Trump's Shameful Campaign Against Transgender Americans."
I criticize the paper's attempt to wash away the paper's own culpability in ushering in an era of eradication-based policies.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
I criticize the paper's attempt to wash away the paper's own culpability in ushering in an era of eradication-based policies.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
Reposted
Microsoft Research: GenAI can inhibit critical engagement with work and can potentially lead to long-term overreliance on the tool and diminished skill for independent problem-solving.
Microsoft: *sells GenAI aggressively into the Education 365 packages*
Microsoft: *sells GenAI aggressively into the Education 365 packages*
Microsoft's own research confirms something that was already pretty obvious: relying on a text generating machine to come up with answers erodes critical thinking, and is a method favoured by those who never liked doing critical thinking in the first place
advait.org/files/lee_20...
advait.org/files/lee_20...
advait.org
February 9, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Microsoft Research: GenAI can inhibit critical engagement with work and can potentially lead to long-term overreliance on the tool and diminished skill for independent problem-solving.
Microsoft: *sells GenAI aggressively into the Education 365 packages*
Microsoft: *sells GenAI aggressively into the Education 365 packages*