Earlier this month, New York City (where I’m currently based) crossed into uncharted territory in the US’ fight against Covid-19 and its frustratingly determined variants. …

In a sense, Apple’s recent privacy debacle surrounding the company’s decision to add new child sexual abuse media (CSAM for short) scanner to its products began a long time ago. Though the news made a splash last week, the features were reportedly being designed for months. These new features, which…

A little over a month ago, the United States collectively tuned in to an event without comparison. A crowd of hundreds, some brandishing signs and others adorned with face paint and covered in animal pelts marched their way toward the United States capitol building. You know the rest of the…

Abdo Fayed was getting ready for sleep when he must have heard the slamming at the door. Not long before, the 31-year-old Giza native had taken to Facebook to write about an artist he’d known who, like thousands of other Egyptians, had lost their lives to Covid-19. Abdo was dismayed…

By now, just about anyone you know as probably told reminded you that 2020 royally sucked. …

Imagine this: you sit down at your home desk, palms still perspiring over the stress of your upcoming test. You’ve studied and planned and drilled your brain into oblivion, but finally the moment has come to measure your academic worth. Only now, rather than squirm among peers in a college…

What is your privacy worth? That’s a broad, general question that underpins the heartbeat of this newsletter. Worth, in that sense can be answered through the traditional capitalist lens (how much are you willing to spend on “privacy’), and it can also be answered on moral grounds, of how much…

Is Facial Recognition Dead? Hi again everyone. This issue of the newsletter was supposed to come out last Friday, but due to some developments that…mack.substack.com As the dust settles and the hordes of chanting protesters slowly disentangle themselves from the streets of major cities, the world is preparing to enter a new, and pivotal stage of a historic demonstration. Now, post burning Target’s and crowd filled bridges is when legislators and societal leaders are tasked…

This post was originally featured in my newsletter, The State of Surveillance, which you can subscribe to below. The State of Surveillance Welcome back everyone, and hello to all the new readers. Today marks the first issue of Volume II here at the State of…mack.substack.com On Tuesday I felt the Earth shake. It rumbled, not from a sudden shifting of tectonic plates, but from the mass chorus of thousands of masked men and women shouting words of…