Vass Bednar

Companies are going to tell us the NEED a bunch of extra information about us in order to selectively offer special discounts. We shouldn't buy it.

Thank you @BetaKit @tron for the opportunity to contribute an essay to the Most Ambitious mag. And thank you to my colleague James McLeod for being a sounding board. Read the whole issue here 🤓#magazine" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">mostambitious.betakit.com/#magazine

@MikePMoffatt @kemosite @carastern Plus dishwasher tablets … dead giveaway

@kemosite @VassB @carastern Totally. It occured to me about 2 minutes after I posted that I often ask Alexa for the score in the Flames game, so... yeah.

Been thinking about the @VassB and @carastern conversation on surveillance pricing, and then I saw this ad on Amazon this morning. Who in Ottawa would want Calgary Flames merch for Father's Day except... me? And I've never bought any Flames-related gear from Amazon. Spooky.

A Toronto “library audit” helped convince literature professor Ira Wells that modern book banning doesn’t always arrive on the back of outrage—bureaucratic language, equity checklists, and the idea that books must serve a moral purpose all police reading. thewalrus.ca/book-bans-are-…

@MikePMoffatt @carastern On it boss. Thanks for this opportunity!

@VassB @carastern 3? I thought they told you it was 5, like SNL! (I have no doubt you'll be the first to get to 5)

A new, Mike-free episode today. @carastern and @VassB talk about surveillance pricing, consumer protection, and the future of digital markets in Canada. Watch here: youtube.com/watch?v=YGBhsY…

NO SOVEREIGNTY WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY NO SOVEREIGNTY WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY NO SOVEREIGNTY WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY NO SOVEREIGNTY WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY NO SOVEREIGNTY WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY NO SOVEREIGNTY WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY NO SOVEREIGNTY WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY NO SOVEREIGNTY WITHOUT #MOSTAMBITIOUS

@ZephyrTeachout 🥳

I have a book coming out next January, and because I just got my final copy-edits back I will not be seeing all of you until *at least* early June.

Colorado just passed the strongest surveillance pricing bill in the country: ✅ Protects discounts & loyalty programs ✅ Curbs price AND wage discrimination ✅ Prevents individualized AND likeness-based targeting ✅ Preserves the private right of action Sign the bill, @GovofCO!

Buried in the agreement are five articles in Chapter 19, the agreements chapter on digital trade rules, that limit Canada’s ability to regulate Big Tech...these provisions have already been used to block or chill Canadian digital regulation." Important new brief 👇

Intellectual property is a key governance structure for the 21st century digital economy. If Canada is going to meaningfully assert our digital sovereignty, we need a better national IP strategy. Read Chapter 3 of Foundations of Digital Sovereignty: canadianshieldinstitute.ca/latest-updates…

It shouldn't be! And it doesn't have to be.

@owenslindsay1 Really looking forward to this!

Guys…I wrote a book. If you like my work to pull back the curtain on how companies like Google, Delta, Instacart, & more are deploying new technologies to empty your wallet, then you’re not going to want to miss it. This book will send shivers down CEOs’ spines. The mere mention of this book has already caused at least one K-Street lobbyist to blurt out “Oh shit!” in polite company. It is deeply researched, indignant, but also hopeful. And I think you’re really going to like it. Preorder it now (link below) so you don’t miss it in September.

spitting truths

@therundowntvo I can handle it (mix of ego, denial, commitment to the cause) 😉. Thanks very much for the opportunity! I still want to see the dining chairs.

@VassB Thank you for understanding! Humans were never meant to be freeze framed!

Ugh always tough to see screen grabs of your own mug? Vanity be damned, good policy chats ONLY. Tune into the Rundown TONIGHT at 8.00 pm to catch my best "Gen Z stare" at the question: This is all perfectly legal, right?

People are pining for old technologies—CD players, VCRs, Walkmans. What’s behind our longing for inconvenience? newyorkermag.visitlink.me/yP_4qu

Canada’s biggest national security threat may not look like espionage at all. Writer B.E. Rybak examines how Russian networks, US influencers, AI content farms, and leaked voter data are converging around Alberta separatism. thewalrus.ca/alberta-separa…

Video streaming seems like it 'just works' but there's an intricate system of patent pools that make it expensive and complicated for the tech providers behind it. arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/0…