StrypeyMay 12

"It led to criticism from several MPs, who said that it raised yet more questions about the UK’s portfolio of contracts with the company. Palantir has built up more than £500m in contracts in Britain, including a £330m contract with the NHS, as well as deals with the police and Ministry of Defence."

#AishaDown, #RobertBooth, 2026

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/21/palantir-manifesto-uk-contract-fears-mps

So now that Palantir has publicly announced its obvious textbook evil, MPs rush to performatively denounce it.

(1/?)

#Palentir #GovtIT

Palantir manifesto described as ‘ramblings of a supervillain’ amid UK contract fears

Alarm caused by posts of Alex Karp, tech firm’s CEO, championing US military dominance and of AI weapons

The Guardian
StrypeyMay 1

Most of the NZ Parliament web pages consist of text, links and... that's it;

https://bills.parliament.nz/v/2/fbbb3fcc-4eb6-4d7f-39a8-08dea63eeea9

Except for the logos of 4 predatory social media platforms (which should never have been there), there's not even much in the way of images. This could and should to be a simple static site; HTML and CSS, no JavaScript required.

Instead, it's not only serving a bunch of JS from its own domain, but also 2 Goggle domains, a CDN, and unpkg.com. Why?

#MakeJavaScriptOptional! Especially in #GovtIT

Members’ bills ballot for Thursday, 30 April 2026

House

Show threadStrypeyApr 24

Especially shocking that citizens using official Parliament sites to petition the govt are being exposed to Goggle, a DataFarming corporation run by technofascists;

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-026-02862-9

... currently working with the genocidal regime in control of Israel;

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250904-google-under-fire-for-45m-deal-with-netanyahus-office-to-spread-gaza-genocide-propaganda/

... as well as the would-be dictator in control of the US Executive;

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/01/09/google-trump-inauguration-donation/

How do we get public agencies to remove these dependencies on openly antidemocratic corporations?

(2/2)

#GovtIT

Technofascism: AI, Big Tech, and the new authoritarianism - AI & SOCIETY

The rapid development of digital technologies, including AI, is having a significant impact on the social, economic, and political life. Yet, while presented as milestones in innovation and progress, these technological transformations have also introduced mechanisms of control, forms of organization, and ideological patterns that bear striking resemblances to historical fascist phenomena. Moreover, in parallel and increasingly intersecting with this development is a broader political context of fascist ideologies and strategies, populism, authoritarianism, and (other forms of) illiberalism in the West. Drawing from the classic philosophical and political theory literature on fascism, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism, this paper argues that and how features of contemporary digital technologies, their governance, and their political context mirror features of fascism. It concludes with a call to resist these new, anti-democratic forms of governance and domination, and make more systemic changes to both the development of technologies and the governance of tech and society.

SpringerLink
StrypeyApr 16

Kia ora kiwis, how do we feel about RealMe these days? A decade ago @thomasbeagle gave a speech about RealMe, raising concerns about overzealous data collection and and data matching, and uploaded a copy here;

https://techliberty.org.nz/speech-about-realme-and-big-data/

(1/?)

#RealMe #GovtData #GovtIT #privacy

Speech about RealMe, big data & power

Edited text of a speech given by Thomas Beagle at the launch of What If – “an education and action campaign working to stop data collection and sharing by the NZ State and private corpo…

Tech Liberty NZ
StrypeyMar 4

Another corporatised medical record platform widely used in our public health system, another data breach and resulting outage;

"Health NZ is aware that MediMap, a privately owned and operated medication management platform, has taken its platform offline after identifying unauthorised activity within its system."

https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/news-and-updates/medimap-health-nz-statement

(1/2)

#PublicHealth #GovtIT #MediMap

MediMap - Health NZ statement - Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora

Health New Zealand is aware that MediMap, a privately owned and operated medication management platform, has taken its platform offline after identifying unauthorised activity within its system.

Show threadStrypeyFeb 11

As @lightweight pointed out in an excellent blog post on this a decade ago;

"As such, the governments and businesses of the world are, in effect, subsidiaries of the Microsoft Corporation. This compromises their sovereignty and ability to make the best decisions on behalf of their citizens.'

https://davelane.nz/new-zealand-dependence-microsoft-corporation

#DigitalSovereignty #GovtIT #Microsoft

@aimee @AdminKirsty @artnacrea

New Zealand: dependence on the Microsoft Corporation | Dave Lane

Anyone in business should be familiar with an old truth: if you build your business so that it depends on a single supplier's product, that you can't get anywhere else, you don't actually have a business. Your business is effectively a non-voting subsidiary of your supplier. At the very least, you have a potentially catastrophic dependence. The supplier could choose, at any time, to

StrypeyFeb 10

The Labour website policy page lists only what they've announced as flagship election policies

https://www.labour.org.nz/our-policies/

I had to dig around the site to find their full policy platform, via a link half way down their party information page;

https://www.labour.org.nz/party_info

... which links to a PDF in a Goggle Drive;

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1grZhXiJNoRyoatvp2IOtnU2bu33UyvgK/view

(1/3)

#NZPolitics #GovtIT #NZLabour

Our Policies

NZ Labour Party

Show threadStrypeyNov 29

"One thing, it's just going to take a while. These old girls, they've got old software. OK? It's just because that's what the government buys, they go for the cheapest software, that's why everything's crap, and that's why the government's so inefficient. LOL.

Don't quote me on that."

Jeremy, 'Nobody WINZ', 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH23qYXKo-s

#HatTip to @bigblen for the short film link. It's a bit surrealist, but it perfectly captures the Kafkaeque feeling of dealing with WINZ.

#WINZ #GovtIT

Nobody WINZ

YouTube
StrypeyAug 24, 2025

I just finished binging the 2024 UK mini-series Mr Bates vs The Post Office. It's based on true events, and I have so many thoughts!

(1/?)

#TV #UK #drama #BasedOnATrueStory #MrBates #GigEconomy #OutSourcing #AI #GovtIT

StrypeyAug 8, 2025

OMG someone said the quiet part out loud! I wonder how much money the public of Aotearoa gave BorgSoft over the last 5 years? How much we will fork over during the course of the next 5? How much of our sensitive government data is stored in systems that are legally obliged to give the US government full access on request?

The strategy laid out towards the end of the linked article is bang on.

https://mastodon.social/@glynmoody/114992197954697319

#PublicService #GovtIT #MicroSoft