Description

Mark Hurst discusses how you can better protect yourself from Big Tech. Among other things, Mark produces Techtonic, a one-hour weekly radio show about technology syndicated for Pacifica and for the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), a non-profit platform for digital distribution and licensing of radio programs, originally designed for National Public Radio (NPR). The show originates with WFMU in East Orange, New Jersey. Topics discussed include Big Tech surveillance, government takeover, other negative features of artificial intelligence (AI) including how the public pays for Big Tech data centers, "Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream",1 protests against smartphones, and alternatives to gmail, WhatsApp, Google search, Google Docs, Instagram, Windows, macOS, iPhone, and Android, among others. Mark holds bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from MIT. He has published two books:

• Customers Included (2015), and
• Bit Literacy (2007).

And he created "Good Reports", which recommends alternatives to many popular Big Tech platforms. Mark insists that the alternatives he recommends do not show the "shocking lack of respect for users and communities" that is a feature of Big Tech. He is interviewed by Spencer Graves, recorded on 2025-12-05. More details and a moderated discussion of issues raised in this interview are supported in the Wikiversity article on “You can better protect yourself from Big Tech” with a video and podcast of excerpts when available. ______ 1. Megan Greenwell (2025). Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream (William Morrow). Copyright 2025, Mark Hurst and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.