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

On Censorship, Friction, and John Perry Barlow

Why wanting a little tech friction != equal censorship.

May 16 • 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

Most Popular

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

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

May 4 • 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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AI

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

In Defense of Smart Weirdos: What I Learned at an AI Safety Law-a-Thon

I forgot just how much I miss that kind of crazy nerd energy.

Oct 28, 2025 • Carey Lening

Recent posts

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

Mythos, Leverage, and Tech Extensity

Mythos is the leverage that Anthropic will use to get Trump to TACO out

Apr 19 • Carey Lening

Ring and Flock are Trying to Create a Sensorveillance State

Free and subsidized doorbell cameras and facial recognition systems leave everyone less free in the end.

Apr 15 • Carey Lening

Why I'm 78% Confident that the EU Will Reform the AI Act

... But probably not before August 2, 2026

Mar 25 • 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

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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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