Out of sight, out of mind

Bad tech

Silicon Valley firms have been quick to seize opportunities. Palantir – a firm that analyses data to help US immigration enforcement agents identify and plan raids to apprehend undocumented people – has been contracted by the UK government to do data-mining, consolidation and modelling for its National Health Service.

Amazon, the online shopping leviathan, is making a killing, with customers spending a reported $11,000 a second on its products and services. Founder Jeff Bezos’ personal fortune increased by $24 billion in the first quarter of 2020 – equivalent to the GDP of Papua New Guinea, a country of nine million people. The company has refused to allow its workers in California to take even unpaid time off, while reaping profits from public contracts with the US and UK governments to deliver at-home test kits.

Amazon is funnelling some of these profits into developing worker-surveillance software. Whole Foods, which is owned