iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 10/03/2026

A core tenet of enshittificatio: the terrible stuff we're subjected to in our digital lives is the result of foreseeable (and foreseen) policy choices, which created the enshittogenic policy environment in which the worst people's worst ideas make the most money: pluralistic.net/2025/09/10/s... 1/

Times Square, lit up by night. Every ad sprouts a giant CCTV bubble. A green smoke crawls over the landscape.

Image:
Jakub Hałun (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Times_Square,_New_York_City,_20231006_1916_2338.jpg

CC BY 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

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Myotus (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vandal_dome_style_security_camera_in_parking_garage.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

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Lewis Clarke (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tiverton_,_CCTV_Camera_-_geograph.org.uk_-_7103690.jpg

CC BY-SA 2.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 10/03/2026

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: pluralistic.net/2026/03/10/i... 2/

pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow – No trackers, no ads. Black type, white background. Privacy policy: we don't collect or retain any data at all ever period.

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 10/03/2026

Take commercial surveillance. Google didn't *have* to switch from content-based ads (which chose ads based on your search terms and the contents of webpages) to surveillance-based ads (using dossiers on your searches, emails, purchases and physical movements to target ads to you personally). 3/

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