Privacat Insights | Carey Lening | Substack

How Big Tech Becomes Ungovernable

Big Tech companies like Google, SpaceX, and Meta aren't just monopolies—they're becoming ungovernable through tech extensivity. Why €4B in fines went…

Feb 17 • Carey Lening

Can LLMs Unlearn? Part 3: The Technical Complexity of it All

This is part of my machine unlearning series. Since it's so long, I have broken this up into sections.

Nov 14, 2024 • Carey Lening

The Ladder to Nowhere: How OpenAI Plans to Learn Everything About You

ChatGPT Health is a small part of a much larger plan to learn everything about you. In this post, I talk about what's driving them and how they might…

Jan 25 • Carey Lening

One Weird Trick for Opting Out of Pangram on Substack

I explain why the AI slop detector potentially violates Article 22 GDPR, and what you can (possibly) do about it if you're in the EU/UK.

Jul 23 • Carey Lening

How Brussels can avoid becoming a digital vassal to US Big Tech

An export-control order in June exposed the real problem—and why Europe's regulatory toolkit can't fix it.

Jul 14 • Carey Lening

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One Weird Trick for Opting Out of Pangram on Substack

Jul 23 • Carey Lening

The Ladder to Nowhere: How OpenAI Plans to Learn Everything About You

Jan 25 • Carey Lening

Privacy Disasters: A Depressingly Regular Series

Mar 19, 2024 • Carey Lening

18,000 words. Four Questions. Much Delegation. Little Guidance

Dec 20, 2024 • Carey Lening

privacy disasters

We Should Not Have to Prove We're Human to Sam Altman

Worldcoin, Sam Altman, privacy, and why I hate being right sometimes.

Apr 21 • Carey Lening

Agentic AI Browsers are Privacy Disasters

Researchers expose the privacy disaster that is Agentic AI Browsers. I break it all down.

Nov 4, 2025 • Carey Lening

Using Microsoft Recall? Welcome to Hell

Microsoft never reads my blog posts, but really they should, because Recall is a Privacy Disaster

May 2, 2025 • Carey Lening

Dear Tech Companies: Please Stop Stepping on Your Own Dicks

Forcing users to decipher what you do with their data is a terrible idea.

Feb 1, 2025 • Carey Lening

Privacy Disasters: The Privacy CESspool

So many terrible ideas, so little time to rant about CES 2025.

Jan 8, 2025 • Carey Lening

Privacy Disasters: Microsoft Keeps Stepping in It

Microsoft releases the Torment Nexus v. 2.

Dec 17, 2024 • Carey Lening

Privacat Insights

Privacat Insights

I explore what happens when big tech companies, billionaires, and the systems they create become too entangled to regulate or unwind. This is a blog about tech extensity, surveillance, power, and policy.

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How Brussels can avoid becoming a digital vassal to US Big Tech

An export-control order in June exposed the real problem—and why Europe's regulatory toolkit can't fix it.

Jul 14 • Carey Lening

Did AI Kill Publius? Replicating Kelsey Piper's Anonymity Experiment

Re-identification of a pseudonym isn't new. It's just become frictionless.

May 4 • Carey Lening

How I Vibe-Coded Myself Into a Better Researcher

I improved on my AI-powered research assistant to handle the toil while I focus on the insights. Here's what I learned along the way.

Mar 17 • Carey Lening

Anthropic Will Probably Survive Trump's Tantrum, For All the Wrong Reasons

I like Anthropic a lot, but I worry about whether its extensity makes it too big to govern.

Mar 9 • Carey Lening

Technology Is Destroying Friction.

And That's a Huge Problem

Nov 1, 2025 • Carey Lening

Recent posts

Why 'Provable Data Erasure' Is Really Hard

Alternatively, why people probably shouldn't ask me for advice unless they're willing to hear the unvarnished truth.

Jul 13 • Carey Lening

Is the United States Becoming a Techno Banana Republic?

The Trump administration banned Anthropic's Fable and Mythos models for a vulnerability GPT 5.5 also has. This isn't governance—it's competitors…

Jun 16 • Carey Lening

Last Week, Everyone Agreed Something Must Be Done About AI. That's a Tell.

Last week the EU, the White House, OpenAI, and Anthropic all moved on AI governance. Every proposal protects the incumbents. Here's why that convergence…

Jun 11 • Carey Lening

7 Things I Learned at EAG London

I attended my first Effective Altruism Global event last weekend. Here are a few of my thoughts as a EAG virgin.

Jun 1 • Carey Lening

I'll Be in London For a Week

Also, a few thoughts on what I'm thinking and writing about

May 24 • Carey Lening

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I explore what happens when big tech companies, billionaires, and the systems they create become too entangled to regulate or unwind. This is a blog about tech extensity, surveillance, power, and policy.

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Privacat Insights

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