Hi everyone, Inge Snip here, Coda Story’s Production Editor. In this week’s Authoritarian Tech newsletter, I’ll be exploring the price of convenience in our digital age. I’ll also examine how apps have helped create a world with more traffic jams, eroded labor rights while increasing inequality.

"The gig economy resembles the early industrial age"

I am writing this newsletter from a beautiful Airbnb in Brussels. I ordered myself an Uber from the airport to get here, and I used Google Maps to find the nearest restaurants and grocery shops. 

Ten years ago, I would have stayed in an overpriced hotel or cramped hostel and used paperback copies of Lonely Planet travel guides to find out how to take a bus. Remember the stress of wondering whether or not you are on the right bus in a country where you don't speak the language? I do.

Today, from the gig-economy to infrastructure, to digitized bureaucracy: with one simple click we can make money as freelancers, avoid traffic jams, and navigate all aspects of modern life.