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Aaron Martin

@sixfouronea.net
886 followers 343 following 173 posts

Assistant Professor of Data Governance at UVA About me: sixfouronea.net Project: digitalsovereigntyobservatory.org

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Reposted by Aaron Martin
Ryan Mac 🙃 @rmac.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Next week, Google is set to launch an experimental satellite to test the feasibility of data centers in space and it's doing it on a SpaceX rocket. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/t...
The work was part of an ambitious effort from Google called Project Suncatcher, which aims to put artificial intelligence data centers into space and to harness the sun’s energy to power them. On Oct. 1, the satellite from the San Francisco lab — which Google has named MVP — is set to become the first step toward that goal by a major tech company. It will be loaded onto a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at the Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara, Calif., and then launched into orbit.

Google provided The New York Times with the first inside look at the project, which seemed like a science-fiction dream just a year ago.
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 24/09/2026
📣 We're hiring an open rank tenured/tenure track prof. in 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 If you work on the governance of data and AI, we'd love for you to consider joining @uvadatascience.bsky.social ❤️ Details in the job advert: apply.interfolio.com/191214
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 23/09/2026
"There’s a special place in hell for people who steal from the poor" Criminals exploit a well-known flaw in the cards most low-income Americans use to get aid: magnetic-stripe tech. Few states have switched to the [more secure] chip cards that distribute welfare funds. www.wsj.com/us-news/how-...
wsj.com
How Romanian Crime Rings Are Draining U.S. Welfare Accounts
Thieves have exploited antiquated magnetic stripes on benefits cards to steal hundreds of millions of public dollars.
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 15/09/2026
"To the extent that Miami represents what's happening in the greater US, we have only the rickety scaffolding of the panopticon; it's not yet fully constructed. We still have time to decide whether or not we actually want to build it." — @kashhill.bsky.social's 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘍𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘜𝘴 (2023, p. 236)
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 27/08/2026
"In this book, we make the case that the technology sector has an affirmative obligation to support the state that made its rise possible." (pp. 10-11) techrepublicbook.com
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 24/08/2026
Indeed policyreview.info/articles/new...
IPR op-Ed
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 22/08/2026
"Kick rocks and don’t come back." www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-d...
wsj.com
The ‘Country Hicks’ Who Refused $26 Million from an AI Data Center
A Kentucky mother and daughter turned down a life-changing offer for their farmland. The ensuing drama has left the town divided.
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 22/08/2026
FT editorial board: "Rather than fighting rearguard court actions, tech firms would be best advised to heed the changing political & legal mood. They should redouble their efforts to run safer, privacy-preserving services that serve the public interest & consumers’ needs." www.ft.com/content/105b...
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 15/08/2026
"Remarkably, little of the domestic critique [about Aadhaar] appears to have shaped how the system is described to the rest of the world. This is worth a closer look, not b/c digital identity is a bad idea, but b/c Aadhaar embodies one particular design choice." www.techpolicy.press/aadhaars-suc...
techpolicy.press
Aadhaar's Success Story Deserves a Closer Look
Remarkably little of the domestic critique appears to have shaped how the system is described to the rest of the world, writes Subhashis Banerjee.
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 10/08/2026
'Surveillance sprawl' is a nice concept "Greg Walton, a cybersecurity researcher, said the exposure wasn't an anomaly. It's a consequence of China's surveillance sprawl, which is fueled by an expanding ecosystem of vendors, contractors and public security agencies." www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/w...
nytimes.com
How China Keeps Tabs on Foreigners
An unsecured police dashboard was a rare window into how the authorities track foreigners by collecting and aggregating vast amounts of private data.
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 07/08/2026
"The rapid adoption of AI has fueled a wave of legal disputes over the unauthorized use of people’s likenesses. The city-level Guangzhou Internet Court has heard approximately 700 AI-related face theft cases over the past three years."
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 01/08/2026
'The math superpowers of quantum computers are likely to help in only a few areas like making possible rigorous digital simulations of complex physics & chemistry. In one area, though, they're certain to make a world of destructive difference: cracking encryption.' www.economist.com/leaders/2026...
economist.com
It is past time to upgrade to post-quantum encryption
When the quantum breakthrough comes, data being harvested today will be exposed
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 30/07/2026
From @wfp.org's statement following its recent cyber incident: "Recent reports indicate the [humanitarian] sector is now the second most targeted globally with increasingly sophisticated attacks." docs.wfp.org/api/document... [pdf] Does anyone know where this data originates from?
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 30/07/2026
"Two companies—Guowang & Thousand Sails—are each planning to deploy 10k+ satellites in space, putting them in direct competition w/ SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. This comes as China is pushing to build LEO broadband networks w/ dual civilian & military applications." www.ft.com/content/fedc...
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 29/07/2026
"Imagine an employee inside an American company who was smart and hard-working and whose goal in life was to promote the interests of a foreign government. We would call that person a foreign agent. We are now hiring millions of them through the use of Chinese AI." 🤔 www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Hidden Cost of China’s Free A.I.
Whoever supplies the world’s A.I. will shape how the world thinks.
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 29/07/2026
The silence from WFP is, frankly, deafening
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 29/07/2026
Great stuff! Just added it to my the fall syllabus on tech regulation.
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 29/07/2026
"As of early this month, SpaceX’s Starlink alone comprised about 65% of all active satellites in low-Earth orbit—over 10,700 out of around 16,200 operational satellites—giving a single firm a near-monopoly presence beyond the stratosphere." phenomenalworld.org/analysis/orb...
phenomenalworld.org
Fulya Apaydin | Orbital Enclosure
How the US's long push to deregulate outer space led to SpaceX's dominance of the skies
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 29/07/2026
👾
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Reposted by Aaron Martin
The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Outer space has emerged as a new frontier of intense commercial activity, with SpaceX now commanding much of the low-Earth orbit launch and satellite market. Our essay of the week examines the deregulation of outer space. By @fulyaapaydin.bsky.social in @phenomenalworld.bsky.social buff.ly/uOx1akP
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 27/07/2026
To add: why would humanitarian actors sacrifice their values by using his satellite connectivity?
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 27/07/2026
"I didn’t want to talk about Claude. I wanted to talk about the user, about addiction & dehumanization, about power & accountability. But there was resistance. I worried that behind this wish to draw attention to Claude’s “status” there was a hope for a kind of baptism." www.ft.com/content/bdb3...
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 24/07/2026
"Nobody can be sure how fast or how far AI will reshape society, but behaving as if the game is up is both a counsel of despair and a misdirection that seeks to convince others who might wish to get involved of the futility of trying."
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 24/07/2026
"His largely institution-free regulatory proposal is flimsy and self-serving. Although the urgency is welcome, he wants a technology that he expects to determine the future of humanity to lie in the hands of a few people like him, each with their own values."
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 24/07/2026
From this week's @economist.com: "Mr. Musk thinks the best way to ensure that the technology is safe is for AI pioneers such as himself to keep tabs on one another, with the government as a back-up." www.economist.com/leaders/2026...
Is this co-regulation?
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 23/07/2026
Very interesting that China's "unified regulatory framework" is cited as one of the reasons Chinese tech talent prefers to return home to launch AI start-ups www.ft.com/content/0c77...
ft.com
Why the US is losing Chinese AI stars
More entrepreneurs from China believe there are now greater opportunities at home than in Silicon Valley
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 16/07/2026
Just lost 300+ Safari tabs. Life goes on, right?
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 15/07/2026
"As some trusts make greater use of the Palantir platform, more data flows onto it, leaving the NHS more reliant on the firm. If the contract were to be terminated, NHS staff would lose access to everything. Even supporters admit this 'vendor lock-in' is problematic." www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Peter Geoghegan and Lucas Amin · ‘This looks absolutely rubbish’: Palantir and the NHS
A decade ago Palantir was largely unknown in the UK. It now holds public contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds...
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 15/07/2026
“It’s increasingly clear that in places like Virginia, AI is an inflationary pressure. That’s one reason why people are worried about this.” — @adamtooze.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/5DwR...
open.spotify.com
The AI Arms Race
Ones and Tooze · Episode
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Reposted by Aaron Martin
LSE Inequalities @lseinequalities.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Resistance to data centres – which are vital for AI – is growing. But these social justice efforts mostly operate at a local level. So what happens if data centres are put into space? Quito Tsui & @sixfouronea.net explore in our latest blog post #LSEInequalitiesBlog
blogs.lse.ac.uk
What the AI space race means for inequality on earth
Resistance to data centres is rising due to intense resource demands, pollution and wider social impacts. What happens, then, if data centres are put into space?
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Reposted by Aaron Martin
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 10/07/2026
We just launched a new pilot for Assured Enrollment in our BSDS program here at the University of Virginia School of Data Science. More info: datascience.virginia.edu/degrees/bsds...
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 10/07/2026
"Many [Anthropic] engineers run several Claude Code agents simultaneously, giving them tasks to complete overnight so that someone — human or machine — is always on the clock. They muse about the postwork future while pulling 80-hour workweeks." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/o...
nytimes.com
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 24/06/2026
"An essential quality of money is singleness—meaning a dollar must always equal a dollar no matter when, where or with whom it's used. By contrast stablecoins move through proprietary, fragmented infrastructures. They don’t exhibit singleness." www.wsj.com/finance/curr... h/t @margchee.bsky.social
wsj.com
Stablecoins Are Private Money. That’s Why They’re a Risk to the Economy.
Financial innovations often lead to upheaval and instability. Despite new regulations, those risks persist with stablecoins.
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 24/06/2026
"Unlike Palantir’s contract with the UK’s NHS, [which] has prompted unionized, legal, political and patient oriented organizing by multiple groups – WFP's partnership has so far largely escaped sustained mobilization – despite it being the 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥." techforbad.com
techforbad.com
Homepage - Tech For Bad
End big Aid complicity with big tech world food programme: drop palantir Palantir and the World Food Programme: The egregious partnership at the heart of the world´s largest humanitarian supply chain....
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 24/06/2026
The antithesis of #scale... "After withdrawing from the WHO and losing access to its global network that tracks and combats disease outbreaks, the US is attempting to obtain the information necessary to address potential pandemics through a patchwork of deals..." www.propublica.org/article/trum...
propublica.org
“Digital Colonialism”: U.S. Demands to Access Africans’ Data Raise Privacy, Sovereignty Concerns
The United States is requiring access to health data as part of lifesaving aid deals with African countries. The U.S. says the data will be aggregated and anonymized, but privacy experts fear the info...
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 24/06/2026
📖 @emryss.bsky.social and I have written about the data protection implications of this "convergence" in the @icrc.org and @unhcr.org 𝘋𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 edited volume, building on the critical work of @kerenweitzberg.bsky.social and others www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-...
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 24/06/2026
"The move signals the growing convergence of humanitarian protection and national digital infrastructure, as gov'ts are realizing that excluding refugees from the formal digital economy creates long-term dependency, while including them can reduce the shadow economy and allow for better planning..."
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 24/06/2026
"As part of the registration, the refugees have their face, fingerprint and iris biometrics captured as the government aims to build a centralized biometric database that will facilitate identity verification for access to a multiplicity of public services." www.biometricupdate.com/202606/rwand...
biometricupdate.com
Rwanda’s digital ID rollout expands access for refugees | Biometric Update
Refugees are being enrolled alongside citizens as Rwanda expands digital ID, reflecting a broader push for inclusion in national identity systems.
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 24/06/2026
"[Rwanda's] immigration service, with the support of the Ministry in charge of refugees and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, is currently conducting a [biomretric] registration campaign in all refugee camps as well as in urban centers." www.sosmediasburundi.org/en/2026/06/1...
sosmediasburundi.org
Rwanda : the biometric card that could change refugees' lives - SOS Médias Burundi
SOS Médias Burundi Mahama, Rwanda, June 16, 2026 – Rwanda is continuing its digital transformation with the gradual rollout of a new biometric identity card for all its citizens and residents. This la...
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Reposted by Aaron Martin
Zack Whittaker @zackwhittaker.com · 22/06/2026
In a new privacy policy, Anthropic says Claude will soon require you to upload your driver's license or passport for a variety of reasons. The ID checker is Persona, a firm funded by Trump ally Peter Thiel. As a U.S. company, Persona is also subject to gov't demands for people's verification data. 👀
techcrunch.com
Anthropic says Claude may want to see your ID | TechCrunch
Claude's chatbot may ask to verify your age and identity "in certain circumstances," such as with a passport or driver's license, according to a privacy policy change.
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Reposted by Aaron Martin
Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
“Humanitarian organizations need to rethink their relationship to tech, be less deferential to corporate execs pitching their wares, and recover their duties as a platform for human dignity.”
publicbooks.org
Undoing Platform Humanitarianism - Public Books
If humanitarian aid organizations embrace tech, they will only be powering the surveillance empire opposed to their goals.
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Reposted by Aaron Martin
Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
This week, as the UN holds its annual Humanitarian Affairs Segment in New York, Aaron Martin (@sixfouronea.net) & Quito Tsui urge humanitarian organizations to break away from their reliance on private technology.
publicbooks.org
Undoing Platform Humanitarianism - Public Books
If humanitarian aid organizations embrace tech, they will only be powering the surveillance empire opposed to their goals.
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 18/06/2026
ᴜɴᴅᴏɪɴɢ ᴘʟᴀᴛꜰᴏʀᴍ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴɪᴛᴀʀɪᴀɴɪꜱᴍ A critical reflection qua book review on the state of datafication and digital dependence in the humanitarian sector Written with Quito Tsui for @publicbooks.bsky.social 📚 www.publicbooks.org/undoing-plat... Thanks to @monasloane.bsky.social for the opportunity ❤️
publicbooks.org
Undoing Platform Humanitarianism - Public Books
If humanitarian aid organizations embrace tech, they will only be powering the surveillance empire opposed to their goals.
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 18/06/2026
Original report here: www.interface-eu.org/publications...
interface-eu.org
Data bought, rights ignored: European intelligence services' use of commercially sourced data
interface (formerly Stiftung Neue Verantwortung) emerges as Europe's premier Think Tank for cutting-edge tech policy. Our expert team navigates AI, cybersecurity, and more, shaping the continent's dig...
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 18/06/2026
"Commercially gained bulk intelligence, ADINT (advertising intelligence), is now one of the major sources of government surveillance, according to a survey of 11 European intelligence agency regulators by German security academics." www.ft.com/content/758a...
ft.com
Home - Financial Times
News, analysis and opinion from the Financial Times on the latest in markets, economics and politics
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Reposted by Aaron Martin
Access Now @accessnow.org · 17/06/2026
We strongly condemn the cyberattack on the World Food Programme (WFP) exposing the personal data of 600,000 Palestinian households in Gaza, putting vulnerable people at further risk. We call on the WFP to be transparent and act NOW to prevent further harm. ⬇️ www.accessnow.org/press-releas...
accessnow.org
Access Now - Surveilled, targeted, and now hacked: WFP must protect Palestinians in Gaza after massive data breach
The undersigned civil society organizations and experts, condemn in the strongest possible terms the cyberattack on the World Food Programme
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 17/06/2026
“There’s evidence that WFP and Palantir staff cooperate closely… Knowledge transfer, from WFP’s global humanitarian operations, to Palantir, is indicated by the movement of [at least two former WFP] staff… and through the description of Palantir roles that interface with WFP.” techforbad.com
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 16/06/2026
Unfortunate acronym
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 16/06/2026
"Sovereign power came from controlling hydrocarbons, but in the 21st century, it will be from increasingly controlling compute..." restofworld.org/2026/uae-qui...
restofworld.org
The UAE’s OPEC exit frees up oil wealth as it bets big on AI
More oil revenue means deeper pockets for the UAE’s AI investment funds, and more gas means more electricity for its data centers.
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Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 12/06/2026
"Regardless of how Big Tech dreams of space data centers end, the prospect should generate greater scrutiny of what precisely resistance movements are trying to target." My op-ed with Quito Tsui in @policyr.bsky.social policyreview.info/articles/new...
policyreview.info
The earthly limits of data centre resistance
Whether or not data centres make it to space, the possibility itself exposes the limitations of resistance hinged only on proximate material experience, thus beckoning a wider and deeper movement.
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