Sean Martin McDonald
@seanmartinmcdonald.bsky.social
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I help people build things that realize their purpose. Partner at Digital Public.
This has been happening at Strava for years. From 2018:
www.ictworks.org/strava-data-...
From 2025:
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
Now all you have to do is find a data broker.
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about 3 hours ago
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In all fairness, they call it what it is.
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about 4 hours ago
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Jason Koebler
about 6 hours ago
New: Regretful cities are literally covering their Flock cameras with black trash bags because they cannot figure out how to immediately exit their surveillance contracts or get the cameras taken down:
www.404media.co/cities-are-c...
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Cities Are Covering Flock Cameras With Trash Bags
Regretful cities aren't sure how to cancel their surveillance contracts, so they are literally covering their cameras.
https://www.404media.co/cities-are-covering-flock-cameras-with-trash-bags/
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Econ Analytica
about 21 hours ago
Immigration and Customs Enforcement inked a new contract to teach agents how to pull data from encrypted Apple products like iPhones & Macbooks, a newly published contract reveals. ICE awarded a $211,618 contract to the Delaware-based Sumuri for classes and software to break Apple encryption.
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POLITICO Pro: ICE signs contract for extracting data from Apple devices
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026/05/ice-signs-contract-for-extracting-data-from-apple-devices-00932012
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Dare Obasanjo
about 19 hours ago
A Google engineer made $1.2M on Polymarket betting on who would be announced as the most searched person of the year was just arrested for insider trading. People need to realize only government officials get away with that blatant a degree of insider trading.
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DOJ charges Google staffer over Polymarket trades netting $1.2 million
It's the second known case of the federal government filing criminal charges against someone who allegedly used insider information to make a large profit on a prediction market site.
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/27/nx-s1-5836659/google-polymarket-insider-trading-doj-charges
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This is the way
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about 5 hours ago
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Frosted Poptart
about 22 hours ago
I think about this a lot.
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Don Moynihan
about 11 hours ago
This is an extraordinary story, and like a lot of extraordinary stories about wrongdoing and corruption, will become much harder to report if the Trump administration succeeds in requiring NDAs of all federal employees.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/trump-want...
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👇🏻
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about 9 hours ago
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Chantal James
1 day ago
To be clear, DC is a living community on the periphery of the headquarters of the federal government where not even a majority of people are white. We are severely oppressed & denied autonomy by this government. DC isn't the feds, so quit identifying them with our community. We're real people.
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Carlos Noreña
1 day ago
MIT (endowment: $27B) shuttering three of its four main libraries is one of those news items that just knocks you off balance, auguring, as it does, profound and permanent changes to the entire institutional apparatus of higher education in this country.
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This IS great…
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about 21 hours ago
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Zack Whittaker
1 day ago
NEW: UK Visa Portal, a website that lets people apply for a UK visa, spilled thousands of applicants' passports, selfies, and location data online. The data exposure is now fixed, but not before it sent attorneys and a public relations firm our way — which is very weird! My updated story:
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UK Visa Portal exposed thousands of applicants’ passports and selfies — then called the lawyers on us | TechCrunch
The third-party website exposed passports, selfies, and the location data of applicants who submitted their documents as part of the U.K. visa application process. Instead of fixing the issue, the web...
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/uk-visa-portal-spilled-thousands-of-applicants-passports-and-selfies-online-and-hasnt-fixed-the-leak/
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Sarah G.
1 day ago
Looking at CALICON agenda and
@misseli.bsky.social
wins for best session title that I've heard in a long while.
2026.calicon.org/sessions/if-...
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"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning" - teaching legal AI literacy with real-life court filings | CALIcon 2026
https://2026.calicon.org/sessions/if-you-cant-be-good-example-then-youll-just-have-be-horrible-warning-teaching-legal-ai-0
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The metaphor is awfully loud.
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1 day ago
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Ariana Gic
1 day ago
Striking an embassy in an act of war under international law. The use of armed force against a foreign embassy is an act of aggression. Medvedev's post is evidence Russia is prepared to make such strikes.
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Radley Balko
1 day ago
They’re going to start arresting attorneys who defend immigrants.
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Anchorage Man
2 days ago
So,
@edzitron.com
ate his Wheatties this morning
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Erin Kissane
2 days ago
Exactly this. Every statement from almost every institution is kneecapped waaay before it begins by the unspoken but unilaterally understood requirement to first accept/protect the interests of the investor class. Without capitulation, you cannot be taken seriously. But the Pope can just go for it.
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Zack Whittaker
6 days ago
Oh no! BASED APPAREL, the online store run by FBI director Kash Patel, was hacked to serve ClickFix attacks (🎻). Website visitors see a fake Captcha-style screen and are then tricked into hacking themselves by copying and pasting malware code. How this works:
this.weekinsecurity.com/clickfix-att...
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Anna Zivarts
7 days ago
"Nearly 4 in 10 Americans surveyed by Lending Tree, or 39%, said a car is a luxury they cannot afford."
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Car ownership costs are causing financial strain for Americans
Car ownership is becoming a luxury for many Americans as rising costs for vehicles and insurance outpace income growth.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2026/05/18/car-ownership-affordability-costs/90049044007/
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Literal Ham
7 days ago
HOLY FUCKING SHIT
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Guardian US
7 days ago
The Department of Homeland Security has circulated a “Be on the Lookout” alert to law enforcement nationwide, targeting a comedian whose satire of US immigration enforcement went viral,
@aurabogado.bsky.social
of
@injusticewatch.org
reports.
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US homeland security put out alert on comedian who created parody ICE tip website
DHS issued ‘Bolo’ for Ben Palmer, whose videos of calls with members of the public who thought they were reporting immigrants went viral
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/21/dhs-bolo-ben-palmer-parody-ice-tip-website?CMP=us_bsky&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Bluesky#Echobox=1740769161-1
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#digitalpolitik
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7 days ago
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Who doesn't love to get pardoned for future crimes?
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7 days ago
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David Gura
8 days ago
The New York Times editorial board: “Americans should be cleareyed about what the president is doing. He is taking their money and showering it on criminals.”
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Opinion | There Has Never Been an Example of Presidential Corruption Like This
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/opinion/trump-doj-slush-fund-criminals-corruption.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
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👻
7 days ago
"Bluesky Says Kremlin Is Hacking Its Platform to Spread Propaganda The company said it was fighting Russian efforts to hijack real users’ accounts to post fake content, an apparently novel tactic." 🎁 article
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Bluesky Says Kremlin Is Hacking Its Platform to Spread Propaganda
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/business/bluesky-russia-hacking-accounts.html?unlocked_article_code=1.kFA.EndN.WvJSkcxIv5DR&smid=url-share
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Don Moynihan
8 days ago
Not the sheriff: taxpayers. I genuinely think there is a broader trend of institutions not feeling bound by fiduciary duties; they prefer to do what the want, and deal with the lawsuits and compensation.
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#digitalpolitik
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9 days ago
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warrior cop
10 days ago
I GET LOGGED OUT. BUT I LOG IN AGAIN
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FactPost
10 days ago
Here is Elon Musk bragging about how he "accidentally" canceled all Ebola prevention efforts (DOGE never fully restored the canceled contracts)
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10 days ago
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Bobby Kogan
10 days ago
The way the Judgment Fund is being used for the Trump “settlement” creates a profound loophole in the Appropriations Clause, allowing an administration to fund any program it wants without an appropriation. Sort of thing the Court needs to stop.
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Tech Policy Press
10 days ago
State media is a component of LLM training data. A new Nature study says this material is laundered into what presents as objective chatbot text. LLMs also give more pro-regime answers when prompted in the official language of low-press-freedom countries than in English.
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Language Models Trained on State Media Sources Launder Propaganda
Tech Policy Press is a nonprofit media and community venture intended to provoke new ideas, debate and discussion at the intersection of technology and democracy. We publish opinion and analysis.
https://buff.ly/oaSsVbS
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Tom Hilton
10 days ago
Reminder: THERE IS NO SETTLEMENT. There can't be a settlement because Trump voluntarily dismissed the case before any notice of settlement was filed. No lawsuit, no settlement. Any news article that refers to a "settlement" is not telling the truth.
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Kevin Collins
10 days ago
My local elementary school PTO is hosting an online auction with over 170 different items, from restaurant gift cards to summer camp scholarships to vacation home rentals. If you're anywhere in the DC area, there are some incredible items on offer
takomapto.betterworld.org/auctions/202...
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2026 Takoma Elementary School PTO Online Auction — Takoma Elementary School PTO
2026 Takoma Elementary School PTO Online Auction
https://takomapto.betterworld.org/auctions/2026-takoma-elementary-school-pt
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Rachel Maddow
12 days ago
"“It’s possible that we’re starting to see the consequences of severe and sudden cuts to global health programs that have eroded surveillance and allowed deadly viruses to spread undetected...”
www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/w...
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Large Ebola Outbreak Is Declared in Congo
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/world/africa/congo-ebola-outbreak.html
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Bi King Gent 👑 💖💜💙
13 days ago
Weird how so many Fun New Ways To Use ChatGPT also seem to line up with granting a massive corporation access to some of your most sensitive personal information...
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Sean Martin McDonald
Ambassador Ken Fairfax (ret)
14 days ago
TrumpMobile is now evidently shipping a two-year old Chinese-made phone, the T-Mobile REVVL 7 Pro 5G, to MAGA die-hards who ordered the $500 Trump phone. The T-Mobile REVVL 7 Pro 5G is available on Amazon for about $125 and sells in wholesale quantities for $40 to $50. Grifters gotta grift.
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Don Moynihan
14 days ago
My guess is that the percentage of Americans who are aware that we are blockading and immiserating a neighboring country is in the single digits. Its not an invasion, but involves the use of American military force with the intent of collapsing the government.
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This may be the greatest evidence I’ve seen (yet) for the “rewilding the Internet” frame.
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13 days ago
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Sean Martin McDonald
14 days ago
"The governance of R&D priority-setting, who shapes the agenda and whose interests get reflected, also remains largely unexamined, and we think it is important to start exploring it and encourage more research on this"
www.innovationgrowthlab.org/blog/unpacki...
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Unpacking the social impact of R&D investments
Governments invest billions in R&D every year, but understanding whether that investment has a social impact turns out to be a hard question to answer
https://www.innovationgrowthlab.org/blog/unpacking-the-social-impact-of-rd-investments
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At this point, if the "first hit, er grant, is free," logic fools these essential sectors into building dependence on "AI", well, fool me twice, can't get fooled again.
www.anthropic.com/news/gates-f...
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Anthropic forms $200 million partnership with the Gates Foundation
Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.
https://www.anthropic.com/news/gates-foundation-partnership
14 days ago
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Sean Martin McDonald
WeRateDogs
14 days ago
This is Natty. He's the first official team dog for the Washington Nationals. He makes his big-league debut on Friday and will learn basic skills and socialization with the team before he goes on to formal service dog training with Canine Companions. 13/10
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*definitely surveilling you
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14 days ago
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Sean Martin McDonald
14 days ago
Creating effective governance structures is undoubtedly the aspect of the environmental knowledge commons that will require the most care, experimentation, patience, and goodwill
issues.org/environmenta...
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Constructing a New Knowledge Infrastructure
A knowledge commons could support evidence-based policymaking, but it will require coordination with the communities monitoring pollution.
https://issues.org/environmental-knowledge-commons-dosemagen-ottinger/
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Liability sponge is more accurate than human-in-the-loop
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14 days ago
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Sean Martin McDonald
chiller
15 days ago
Absolutely fuck you, Amazon. When I bought this device there was no mention of my purchase being time limited at your discretion. It does not require software updates, so the only "support" necessary is that kindle books are available in a format that can be sent to it. This shouldn't be legal.
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We have ironically miserable language for how important (and complex) shared sense-making is to virtually everything we hold dear.
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14 days ago
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Bill
15 days ago
I’m a broken record, but it’s facially insane that the SCOTUS’s position is that the interest of a political party—an entity with no special constitutional protection—in gerrymandering is more important than black people’s right to vote, which we have several constitutional amendments addressing
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