The “Free” Internet That Was Bait For Mass Surveillance

The routers were free, the oversight was missing, and the cameras never stopped rolling.

High-contrast red-and-black graphic of a dense city skyline centered on the Empire State Building, with a large surveillance camera in the upper-right corner overlooking the streets below.

It was billed as one of those warm, city-benevolent gestures: Big Apple Connect, a shiny, feel-good initiative from the Adams administration to finally drag public housing into the 21st century by providing free internet.

โ€œDigital equity,โ€ they called it. Nothing says equity like putting modems next to the radiators in buildings that havenโ€™t had working elevators since the days of Ed Koch.

Red shield logo with three stylized black and white arrows curving outward, next to the text 'RECLAIM THE NET' with 'RECLAIM' in grey and 'THE NET' in red

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