I found the video “The Last Kilometer, The Last Chance” incredibly insightful, especially considering it was filmed in 2016 but so accurately anticipates the technological landscape of 2024/2025. It predicts the control, addiction, and monetization that data and technology now exert over people’s lives. While watching, this raised a crucial question: how do we reconcile the global expansion of internet access—often seen as a tool for educational and economic empowerment—with the growing evidence that this expansion primarily fuels corporate and state surveillance?

While free software offers an alternative, many people—despite the simplicity of the switch—remain reluctant to make the change. The root of this reluctance is the poison of convenience. Even when confronted with the realities of data collection, location tracking, and constant privacy breaches, people continue to use iPhones, MacBooks, and other “smart” devices. Why? Because it’s convenient.

As Professor Moglen explains in the video, we missed the opportunity to build the internet we wanted: one that fosters individual agency and protects privacy. Instead, we are left grappling with an internet we do not want—one that treats users as subjects for behavioral experiments, continuously tracked and manipulated by algorithms.

Given the stranglehold that convenience has on society, starting at a young age, can technological development ever remain neutral? Or does it inevitably reflect the interests of those in control? Ultimately, are we complicit in the very systems we seek to resist?

-- ZoieGeronimi - 25 Sep 2024