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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 17/02/21 9:32 am, Renate Ferro
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:BE1ECFDE-F29A-4E84-A760-387C1054A8B2@cornell.edu"><span
style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">if
you all think we can go back to before Covid existance without
webcams, zoom, and tracking surveillance. </span></blockquote>
<p>at the same time as we have seen the overthrow of
capitalism--governments finding again that lever that was being
hidden from them, that in large part they hid from themselves, and
switching off the economy--we see an explosion of all sorts of
data-gathering and surveillance. This is now seen as the ally of
governmentality. And, it follows, financialising data is regarded
as the basis for political economy. Newly, that is, paradigmatic.<br>
</p>
<p>At my own place of work, a public library, where I am a part-time
worker, kiosks have been installed with finger-vein scanners, so
that workers can clock-in, and -out. <br>
</p>
<p>The library is run by Auckland City Council and the new Time and
Attendance model, as it is called, is being rolled out by a
private company, HumanForce, who are charged with taking care of
the biometric data gathered by their machines. </p>
<p>One detail is striking, considering the application of these
kiosks at a library: subcutaneous finger-vein scanning is the
preferred mode of identifying individuals <i>because workers
hands can be dirty </i>making fingerprinting difficult. <br>
</p>
<p>It's all those dirty books!</p>
<p>Best,</p>
<p>Simon<br>
</p>
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