Resistance Update #7: Reader survey time

A chance to share your thoughts, my analogue success stories and a song about a bar... that won't sell you a feckin' beer without a QR code

Times are good over here at Offline Rights, with a flurry of new subscribers over the last few days. Even better, I know for a fact that at least some of you aren’t bots! So, I’d like to welcome all the new humans who have joined this community - and also say thanks to those who have been around from the start. The moment is now ripe to get to know you better and hear your ideas - it’s time for our first reader survey!

There are ten questions, but feel free to skip any you don’t feel like answering. And you’re welcome to respond in whatever language you prefer.

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News to get us thinking…

• I’m hearing whispers about employees uniting and saying ‘NO’ to two-factor authentication apps on their personal smartphones. I’m hunting down more details and will report properly on this next time, but for now let me say it gladdens the heart! If workers the world over stand together against the idea that one cannot function in society without a personal smartphone, then YIKES this will get the message across! The powers-that-be¹ will quite simply be forced to back down.
  
  Is resistance like this happening at your workplace too? Should it be? Remember, you should always be able to leave your private, personal phone, computer, etc at home. Or not even own such things if you choose not to. Unless you are freelance (guilty!) or have signed a silly contract to supply your own equipment (yup, I’ve made that mistake…), tools and technology to do your work must be supplied by your employer. Period.

  
  

• Got this through my letterbox the other day. It’s from my state fire department here in Austria. Headline story in their annual newsletter? You don’t need to be a German speaker to understand this one…

  

  What has that got to do with the right to an analogue life? Well, if blackouts are a thing - and they already are - then we should be considering how smart our smartphone payments are going to look when there’s no power to run the necessary hardware or charge the phone. It’s one reason why keeping cash might not be so Luddite.
  
  I could go on and cite other between power outages and life essentials being online-only, but you get the drift. You could also say that the fire department has an agenda. We might end up arguing. So I’ll just point out that I am not the only one thinking about our over-reliance on electricity, and leave it there.

• It looks like I may have started something when I included Rainhard Mey’s thought-provoking old song in Resistance Update #6… because I’ve got another musical interlude I couldn’t not share. But hey, artists and musicians can capture absurdity in a way words sometimes can’t. And what is digital coercion if not the height of absurdity?

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Things I’ve done

• I went to my first Netzpolitischer Abend in Vienna. After spending so much time behind a keyboard, wondering if I am the only one worried about the technological madness going on around us, it was magnificent to introduce this movement to the room and share a few drinks with like-minded people. Among many other things, I also learned some amusing (but sobering) stuff about the crappy LLMs used by Austria’s unemployment office (AMS) and the Carinthian state government. Read more about the Netzpolitische Abende here.

• I’m using paper tickets to travel on Vienna’s public transport system - and saving money by doing so! That’s because I bought a stash of them in 2025, before the price took a huge and almost hyperinflationary hike on the 1st of January. This price freeze only works in the analogue world². I’m cashing in while it lasts: once the grace period for old tickets ends in June, financial punishment for paper ticket users will resume with no loopholes. As in so many places, offline purchases in Vienna are penalised with higher prices³. A widespread discriminatory practice I would fight in court tomorrow if I could afford a lawyer⁴.

  

• Regular readers will recall that I recently submitted my tax return on a paper form in protest against two-factor authentication. I’m delighted to report that the plan worked perfectly! Within around three weeks, I received postal confirmation that I had done everything right and that there was nothing to pay.

  

  Sure, they split the information into three different envelopes, all sent on the same day. All the envelopes went to my old address as the tax people continue to rely on some outdated database despite what I had filled out on the form⁵. But despite these fine examples of ‘digital efficiency’ squarely defeating human capability, the job is done! Will you join me with an analogue tax return?
  
  

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Things YOU have done

A few of you have joined the party as new subscribers! And I had civilised, considered, open-minded chats with a few of you at the Netzpolitischer Abend too. These things don’t sound like much, but they keep me going. This newsletter doesn’t write itself, and motivation comes in the form of feedback and communication from people like you. So, thank you!

As for the more concrete resistance actions I’d like to report in this space, all I need is for you to tell me about them! For more on what I’m talking about, check out this post.

If nothing specific springs to mind at the moment, you can also let me know about general principles you follow as you protest digital coercion.

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What can YOU do?

• Write something. Offline Rights is open for guest posts! Sadly they can only be voluntary…unless you’re bringing me a rich patron of course!

• See “Things I’ve done” above, as well as my previous updates via the website/archive! These are not meant to be diary entries. They’re meant to be concrete, real-world action ideas you can flagrantly copy.

• Make a Substack account and/or get the app! Yeah, I know, big contradiction! But given my current resources, using ready-made platforms like Substack and making their algorithms like me is the best way I can think of to reach an audience. I wholeheartedly share your account/password allergy, but sometimes we have to work within the system to change the system.

• Send me news I can share in the next newsletter! Be my eyes and ears. Stay on the lookout for digital coercion and people fighting it.

• If you haven’t already subscribed, please do so here. Subscribing doesn’t mean spending money (you can skip the stuff about pledging if it pops up), or even signing up for an account. It just means you get my articles by email.

• Send me ideas for The Boycott List and The Good Guys list - especially now that we can review them too! Look outside your window, or scan your inbox, and you’ll probably get one or two ideas right away. Snap a picture if you can. Sending me a message can take mere seconds.
  

1. This might be one of the most useful phrases for our times! Because it’s not always the governments setting the rules of the game. Big tech companies - hardware and software - are also effectively doing so.

2. It’s not the first time this year that I have saved handy chunks of money by using old-fashioned ticket purchase methods on public transport. For more, see my report on digital coercion in Canada.

3. The regular price of €3,20 becomes €3,00 for forward-thinking digital people who are cool with never being able to leave the house without a smartphone. Here’s the link to the shameless discrimination: https://www.wienerlinien.at/einzelfahrten#das-ndert-sich-bei-einzelfahrten

4. Are you a kind-hearted lawyer looking for some pro bono work that will allow you to make a lasting positive impact on the world? Of course you are! Just hit that ‘Contact’ tab so we can start work!

5. After logging into the online system to double-check, I can confirm that I updated my address in my profile years ago. It’s a remarkable feat that they keep pulling out the old one.