For Facebook, Amazon and Google, we have traded our privacy for something we find useful and put on hold our support for ethical shopping in exchange for the ease of low (or no) price and almost-instant gratification. This month’s magazine looks at just how far down the line we are and asks how deeply exploitative and anti-democratic is this new ‘surveillance capitalism’ under which we now live. This month’s contributors include security expert Bruce Schneier, psychologist Robert Epstein and engineer and software activist Prabir Purkayastha.
July 2016, Issue 494
Each month we publish some of the best stories from New Internationalist magazine.
Does it matter that these titans are so successful? Vanessa Baird examines what their domination means for all of us.
Research psychologist Robert Epstein on how the new technologies invisibly shape public opinion – and what we must do about it.
Few can resist the tech titans. Prabir Purkayastha tells the story of Indians who went into battle against Facebook, for freedom – and won.
Why bother with aid agencies? To ‘do good’ all you need is a phone and Google Maps. Amy Hall takes a closer look at the rising trend in ‘direct giving’.
You can take action at a practical and technological level – and a political one.
Kelsi Farrington on the truth behind the holiday-brochure images.
The dictator’s victims are still waiting to see their torturers on trial – and time is running out. By Mira Galanova.
Roxana Olivera talks to Goldman Environment Prize winner Máxima Acuña.
The story is a complex web of deceit, connecting the ruling elite, royalty, investment banks and offshore tax havens. Nithin Coca reports.
Mark Engler bemoans the corporate colonization of public space.
This month's guest cartoonist is Payam Boromand from Iran.
Our pick of the recent releases.
Louise Gray's pick of the latest releases.
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PLUS: Marc Roberts’ Only Planet cartoon.
EU referendum irrelevant; kick fossil fuels out of the arts; and Tasmania's tree threat.
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