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samantha floreani

@floreani.bsky.social
1.2K followers 654 following 311 posts

digital rights advocate / writer / PhD candidate researching tech + housing justice 🏠 surveillance isn't safety xoxo samanthafloreani.com

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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
absolutely losing the plot today hearing people in the media be like oh no! a "rogue AI agent hacked" medicare! if it were a human it would be a criminal offense! but WHOMST could we possibly hold accountable for this??? guys be so for real.
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
having a totally Normal Time today trying to imagine what the Australian government's response would be if literally any other kind of foreign company gained unauthorised access to our public healthcare infrastructure. but alas they are thirsty thirsty thirsty for that AI/data centre investment
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kat @kgt.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Journalists stop ascribing agency to large language models 2026 challenge
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I'm in @theconversation.com this week sharing findings from RentTech research that @chandnigupta.bsky.social and I worked on together for @cprc-research.bsky.social Dark patterns, vague privacy policies, dodgy personality quizzes + reward programs are just some of the things renters deal with!
theconversation.com
Personality tests, dodgy reward programs, AI bots: how rent tech platforms make renting a ‘dehumanising’ experience
Rent tech is an unavoidable part of modern renting – and renters have little control over what data they have to give up and what happens to it afterwards.
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kat @kgt.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I’m making a game 💖 Project Worl is in the latest round of the Emerging Gamemakers Fund. It’s a vibey liminal rhythm game where your movements are reflected in the environment and the soundscape, where sound reflects Country and Country holds memory. www.screenaustralia.gov.au/screen-austr...
Screen Australia funds games projects in every state and territory as Screen Currency 2026 points to sector growth
Screen Australia has today announced over $2.1 million in games funding across 41 projects that showcase the depth of talent...Screenshot of a 3D cel shaded game. A brown and pink spaceship flies through an environment filled with native flora and clouds, on a peach pink background.
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
any stupid shit in my thesis is MINE ok!!!!
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
no fr I love to be able to write this (all by myself, because I'm not a baby)
a screenshot of text that reads: "GENERATIVE AI STATEMENT No generative AI was used in any part of this PhD research."
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
lmk if you wanna tell me all about it for my research (:
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
stoked to be alongside you in this edition! I loved your essay
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kat @kgt.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Happy NAIDOC 🖤 we're out here making games. I had a really lovely chat about making a rhythm game that honours Country, and working with Wali Studios on Wyrmspace Tactics.
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
well well well if it isn't me eating, slurping, gobbling up my words
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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been posting much the last three months: My paper on the future of Australia’s games industry — and what the government can do to avoid another Crash wiping — is out today. drive.google.com/file/d/1Hnr_...
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 10/06/2026
I cannot state strongly enough that data centre overdevelopment and the shockingly toxic technology of generative AI should be both be intensely opposed, rather than welcomed on the grounds that they're taxed. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
If Australian data centres are going to power the AI revolution, we deserve a fair return | David Pocock
We cannot afford to make the same mistake as we did with gas. If tech companies are going to use our land, energy and water for AI, they must pay their fair share of tax
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Ariel Bogle @arielbogle.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Today we launched a dive into the "less lethal" weapons some police are using against crowds in Australia—and about which very little is publicly known. These are projectiles that release powder designed to burn the eyes and throat. Flashbang grenades. Teargas. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Revealed: the ‘less lethal’ weapons Australian police don’t want you to know about
Launchers that shoot ‘bullet-like missiles’, chemical irritants and stinger grenades: experts say these weapons can cause serious injury or even death. But they are deployed by police against crowds w...
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
there's a certain artistic vision to rental listing photography that many cannot appreciate
a photo from a rental property real estate listing that shows mostly blank wall and a bit of curtain, in the bottom portion of the frame there is the upper part of a single bed on a weird angle
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
hear hear!!
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
served notice to vacate and once again thinking about the challenge of building renter power - not just for lack of capital and influence but also if you're forced to move regularly, often to different municipalities, it's much harder to get/stay involved in local politics, community building etc.
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CAMERON WILSON @cameronwilson.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Australia's government has signed $60m of Palantir contracts. It owns $160m of Palantir shares. But what does the pro-Trump company actually do for us? Internal documents shows how an agency uses it to analyse 42 million call records, messages and other data points
crikey.com.au
Calls, messages, police records: How Palantir helped an intelligence agency analyse 42 million data points on Australians
Internal and public government records reveals how the federal government has spent $60 million on contracts with the Trump-aligned company, bought a stake worth more than $160 million, but has never considered if it is a responsible investment.
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Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
I have been reporting on the rent tech space for a bit and it's good to see this decision - and also the commissioner specifically pointing out the power imbalance between renters and real estate agents in a housing crisis. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Rental platform unnecessarily collected the data of millions of Australians, privacy commissioner finds
2Apply’s over-collection of personal information adds to the power of the real estate industry in the competitive rental market, Carly Kind says
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
wake up babe the Australian privacy commissioner just published a determination that online rental application platform, 2Apply, undermined renters' privacy by collecting too much personal information, and doing so by unfair means. we love to see it classic.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth...
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Jathan Sadowski @jathansadowski.com · 14/04/2026
Really happy to see this new article out now with @floreani.bsky.social. We offer an in-depth analysis of major trends in RentTech / Landlord Tech markets and show how they are shaping the financialisation of housing, assetisation of data, and moral economic evaluation of renters.
journals.sagepub.com
Platforming landlords: A critical trend analysis of rental housing technology in Australia and beyond - Samantha Floreani, Jathan Sadowski, 2026
This article advances a critical analysis of digital technologies in rental housing by drawing out five trends in the Australian ‘RentTech’ market and placing t...
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
"If policymakers wish to genuinely reduce harm to young people online, they must take seriously the task of challenging models based on behavioural advertising, profiling and problematic algorithm-driven feeds." My latest for The Guardian on the news that the ban, unsurprisingly, isn't working
theguardian.com
Australia’s teen social media ban is a flop. But there’s no joy in ‘I told you so’ | Samantha Floreani
Around seven in 10 children remain on major platforms. Who could possibly have predicted that this wasn’t going to work? Well, lots of people
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
horrified and completely unsurprised is how I've felt the entire time researching (and living) this, for sure
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
the good folks at @drwaus.bsky.social have launched an AI harms register! they're collecting stories from people in Australia who have experienced AI-related harms to track the way AI is causing harm, and to pressure the govt to act. submit here: digitalrightswatch.org.au/ai-harms-reg...
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kat @kgt.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
I feel like Sir Ian McKellan breaking down over the profound loneliness of filming The Hobbit in a CGI booth. I don't want to talk to robots, I want to collaborate with people.
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
"Within the refusal of tech, we can find alternative imaginations of the future. Not anti-progress, only refusing a particular, narrow idea of what “progress” should look like."
restofworld.org
Why refusing AI is a fight for the soul
Author Thomas Dekeyser explains why modern resistance to Big Tech is a deeply sane response to a narrow vision of humanity.
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Purplepingers ☭ @purplepingers.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
The average landlord being like why do these rentoids get mad at me when I feel entitled enough to pass on the full cost of my investment to them (whilst simultaneously increasing the cost of housing and also benefitting from massive tax discounts purely because I own multiple homes)
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
what I will say though is that charli xcx's album is a great musical pairing to the book - the kind of thing you can listen to accompany the text and feel more from both
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
making healthcliff white and a hero and making nelly a villainous person of colour was certainly A Choice
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
the only way Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" makes sense to me is if it's read as deranged Heathcliff fan fiction
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
and if you're a property manager and use an online application platform or property management app in your work - now's a great time to scrutinise the tech you're using, get in contact with them, and ask them what they're doing to make sure that they have proper security controls are in place
theguardian.com
Real estate agents in Australia using apps that leave millions of lease documents at risk, digital researcher says
Exclusive: ‘This is a blatant and disturbing disregard for the law and for people’s security,’ digital rights advocate says
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
if you're a renter and have had to use an online application platform or a property management app - now's a great time to reach out to your property manager, link them this article, and ask them what they're doing to make sure that the tech they're using is keeping your data secure
theguardian.com
Real estate agents in Australia using apps that leave millions of lease documents at risk, digital researcher says
Exclusive: ‘This is a blatant and disturbing disregard for the law and for people’s security,’ digital rights advocate says
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Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
On the platforms used by real estate agents for renters, documents are exposed and accessible without any form of login, according to research. I was able to view applications and lease agreements among other docs exposed. Most of the platforms didn't respond. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Real estate agents in Australia using apps that leave millions of lease documents at risk, digital researcher says
‘This is a blatant and disturbing disregard for the law and for people’s security,’ digital rights advocate says
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
This is off the back of reporting from @joshtaylor.bsky.social. Also big kudos to the anonymous security researcher who discovered these vulnerabilities and - at no small personal risk - raised the alarm with the companies, the OAIC and later, the media.
theguardian.com
Real estate agents in Australia using apps that leave millions of lease documents at risk, digital researcher says
Exclusive: ‘This is a blatant and disturbing disregard for the law and for people’s security,’ digital rights advocate says
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
News came out today of serious security vulnerabilities in seven popular Australian ‘RentTech’ platforms, leaving millions of documents containing renter personal information exposed. Renters often have no choice but to use these apps in order to secure housing. I wrote about it for the Guardian:
theguardian.com
Why should renters like me have to trade away our privacy just to get a roof over our heads? | Samantha Floreani
The rise in real estate tech means renters often hand over huge amounts of revealing information to digital third parties – at great risk
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
rent tech platforms looking at the hoards of renter data they collect like
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Jathan Sadowski @jathansadowski.com · 02/02/2026
"An analysis of seven rent platforms ... revealed millions of leasing documents could be accessed by threat actors." Thanks to negligent privacy practices, it is easy to access troves of highly sensitive information stored on rental management platforms www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Real estate agents in Australia using apps that leave millions of lease documents at risk, digital researcher says
Exclusive: ‘This is a blatant and disturbing disregard for the law and for people’s security,’ digital rights advocate says
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
"Across the country, renters are living in properties with no insulation, poor sealing, broken or inadequate fans or no cooling options at all. Others technically have air conditioning, but they are in such extreme rental stress they can’t afford to turn it on."
theguardian.com
Australia’s heatwaves are getting deadlier – and renters are paying the price | Maiy Azize
Some are trapped in a vicious cycle: rising rents, rising energy bills and falling standards. But this is not inevitable
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
'my apartment is my friend' because it gives me those sweet rent payments
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
lmaoooooooo very good
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
far less jogging and pared back dancing but honestly, yeah! I was super impressed with his voice and energy
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
had to laugh at the Gen Xers around me at the david byrne gig getting excited about the anti-fascist and revolutionary spirit as footage of police and protest played behind 'Life During Wartime'. SUSAN I heard your pre-show chat, the only thing you're protesting is threats to negative gearing
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
ahhh yes I didn't go down this line, but glad you enjoyed it anyway, thanks kristin :)
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Dr Linda McIver @lindamciver.adsei.org · 16/01/2026
brilliantly spicy take on ai and automation from the always on point @floreani.bsky.social
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
thank you linda ☺️
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
get in girlies, we're talking surveillance! we're talking the fantasy of automation propped up by humans! we're talking unfulfilled promises of tech to reduce household labour! we're talking funwashing of robots made for warfare!
theguardian.com
Aside from creepy surveillance, what are ‘consumer-ready’ service robots actually for? | Samantha Floreani
For A$30k you could have a remote employee see inside your home via a walking, talking machine with a chilling blank face. Count me out
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Asher Wolf @asherwolf.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has begun spot compliance audits, checking that real estate businesses are properly applying their privacy policies www.cyberdaily.au/digital-tran... cc @floreani.bsky.social
cyberdaily.au
Peak real estate body issues warning over compliance audits
One of Australia’s peak real estate bodies has issued a warning that the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has begun spot compliance audits, checking that real estate businesses...
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
hey Victorian renters! if you've used 'RentTech' (think online application platforms, rent payment apps, property management portals), please spend ~5 minutes to share your experience in this survey to contribute to important @cprc-research.bsky.social research: cprc.limesurvey.net/594888?lang=en
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Jathan Sadowski @jathansadowski.com · 08/01/2026
“Each of these acts may be insignificant, but an orientation toward friction is really the only defense we have against the life-annihilating suction of technologies of escape.” www.thecut.com/article/broo...
thecut.com
In 2026, We Are Friction-Maxxing
In the face of technologies that sell us escapism at every turn, we need to build up tolerance for “inconvenience.”
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Ben Eltham @beneltham.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Bendigo Writers Festival, Meanjin, now Adelaide Writers … powerful vested interests would rather destroy the cultural institutions they are supposedly responsible for than allow certain voices to be heard
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