Blogs

Many of us have seen the recent headlines about Zoom using audio and video content from calls to train its Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. Some aspects of this story are familiar, but there are a two angles that are worth considering more carefully. The first is access. Can zoom access our conversations? Despite Zoom’s best marketing effort in 2020 claiming they are rolling out end-to-end encryption, the truth is that virtually none of our zoom meetings are end-to-end encrypted.

Can we build alternatives to corporate technology?

in general

May 1, 2023

May First Movement Technology has released a report: “Politics and practices of an autonomous technology: voices from the May First membership.” Based on extensive interviews, the report explores why and how social justice movement organizers and activists are building a sustainable and powerful alternative to corporate technology. According to Alice Aguilar, executive director of Progressive Technology Project and one of the authors of the report: It’s not possible to have a truly collective approach to technology without cultivating a radically inclusive space that is representative of our movements.

Don’t [let your devices] talk to cops

in general

March 21, 2023

A Joint Statement from Progressive Technology Project and May First As part of the mass mobilization to protest the creation of Cop City, a huge police training facility in Atlanta, 23 more protesters have been charged with domestic terrorism. This latest round brings the total number of Cop City protesters facing this dangerous charge to 42. Make no mistake: by charging political protesters with a crime that carries a sentence of up to 35 years in prison, the police are resorting to desperate measures to stop dissent.

Progressive Technology Project is leaving Twitter

in general

December 12, 2022

PTP is happily joining the migration from Twitter to non-corporate alternatives! Many of you have already launched your new home in the fediverse and we invite you to follow us on Mastodon here. For those of you still using Twitter, we invite you to learn about the alternatives by signing up for an account on one of the many fediverse instances (see below for more information on what the fediverse is and how to join it).

Get the Tech Off My Body! Recording and resources

June 27, 2022

Overturning Roe v. Wade in the United States and restricting access to abortion throughout the Americas is part of a strategy of repression that is focused on our bodies. The strategy not only targets reproductive justice, but also transgender rights, the mobility of poor people and people of color, and access to health care and other critical services. On June 21st, 2022, together with May First and the National Network of Abortion Funds, the Progressive Technology Project organized a webinar to discuss the relationship between the struggles for reproductive justice, privacy, autonomy, and freedom from surveillance, asking ourselves: How can our campaign to re-envision technology based on consent and liberation contribute to our movement’s struggle for reproductive justice?

Powerbase not affected by log4j but...

in general

December 17, 2021

Let’s start with the good news: Powerbase is not affected by the recently discovered vulnerability in the log4j software package that is getting publicity these days. Powerbase is not affected because the vulnerable software is written in the Java programming language and Powerbase is written in the PHP and JavasSript languages (JavaScript, despite having a similar sounding name, is entirely different then the Java programming language). Now, the bad news: the odds are high that some server in the world holding your personal data or providing some useful service to you is vulnerable and may be exploited.

AMC 2020 Session - Who's Internet? Our Internet!

in general

July 24, 2020

What is the relationship between our movement and technology? It’s been complex, challenging and enormously productive. It’s now also being threatened at the very moment when its potential is greatest. To protect it from the attacks against it and to realize the potential of our relationship with technology, we need to study how this relationship got to this place and what that means for our movement and for technology. At the 2020 Allied Media Conference over 50 activists came together online to build a collective timeline documenting this relationship - the past, present and even the future.

We See You. We Stand With You. Black Lives Matter.

in general

June 5, 2020

We at the Progressive Technology Project stand in solidarity with Black-led protests in Minneapolis and other cities around the country in response to the murder of George Floyd by police. We stand with movements rising up to resist police and state violence. We stand in solidarity in the fight for the lives and liberation of Black people…Indigenous peoples…and People of Color Communities. We believe that change comes from the grassroots, through movements led by people of color from the global majority who have been systematically excluded from the power and wealth that they have produced.

Beyond COVID 19 and Disaster Capitalism: Why We Need Sustainable, Secure Left Tech Infrastructure for Social Justice Movements

in general

May 6, 2020

by Jeremy Saunders, Co-Executive Director of VOCAL-NY and Board Chair of Progressive Technology Project, and Alice Aguilar, Executive Director of Progressive Technology Project Image credit: “Photogamer — Jan 22, 2008” by RedRaspus is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Covid-19 has exposed the failures of our health, economic, and emergency response systems. Our priorities now are to take care of ourselves and one another, creating communities of care. Front-line movement groups are organizing to respond to the immediate needs of their communities, while struggling to move much of their on-the-ground organizing work online.

Amazon and Palantir feel the heat

in general

July 12, 2019

Progressive Technology Project staff joined many Powerbase using organizations this week to protest both Palantir and Amazon’s contracts and complicity with ICE. Over a hundred people showed up monday morning in front of Palantir’s office. Several days later, hundreds more protested Amazon’s annual developers conference at the Javitz Center in New York. Over the last several years, corporate technology’s true colors have been emerging: Facebook’s pathological disregard for privacy, Google’s employment of over 120,000 temp and contract workers (more than half their total workforce), and Yahoo’s security breach exposing 3 billion accounts just to name a few.

Is it important to control our communication tools today? What about tomorrow?

Can we build alternatives to corporate technology?

Don’t [let your devices] talk to cops

Progressive Technology Project is leaving Twitter

Get the Tech Off My Body! Recording and resources

Powerbase not affected by log4j but...

AMC 2020 Session - Who's Internet? Our Internet!

We See You. We Stand With You. Black Lives Matter.

Beyond COVID 19 and Disaster Capitalism: Why We Need Sustainable, Secure Left Tech Infrastructure for Social Justice Movements

Amazon and Palantir feel the heat

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