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\title{Asymmetry, heteronomy, delegation: what happens when our self-reliance in fact relies on technological providers?}

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\vspace*{20ex}
Many of us benefit from what technological providers have to offer. 

We
use technologies knowing that the applications or the software we rely
upon will increase the power, speed and scale at which we can operate.

As we adopt a technology, we entrust the provider of that technology with some
of our autonomy; in return, we expect that the power of that technology will
further empower us.  However, sometimes things don't work out as expected. The
heteronomy of providers --- that is, the influence providers have over users
--- can give rise to adverse consequences.  Users can discover that they have
been locked out, or they may be dragged along through unwanted changes, or lose
access to their assets.

A key factor behind such problems is that, very often, asymmetries of power
exist between users and providers. These asymmetries are not always obvious,
and sometimes users hand their autonomy over to these heteronomous powers with
little or no awareness of them.

This does not imply that we should reject the usage of digital technologies, or to
say that we should decrease our usage of them, or avoid large technology
companies. But it is to raise the question:\\

\noindent what would it take for users
to leverage the power that technologies have to offer without finding
themselves subject to the adverse consequences which result from such
asymmetrical relationships to providers?\\

\noindent RP.

\newpage
\thispagestyle{empty}
\vspace*{20ex}
Late in December 2024, Bench, a startup whose promise was to automate
accounting for businesses, shut down.

On December 27th, users of Bench found that the login interface used to
access their accounting data and tax documents had disappeared.
Instead, a visit to the site revealed only a single webpage bearing the
following message printed on a plain white background:

\begin{quote}
"We regret to inform you that as of December 27, 2024, the Bench
platform will no longer be accessible. We know this news is abrupt and
may cause disruption, so we're committed to helping Bench customers
navigate through the transition.

``From the entire team at Bench, it has been an absolute privilege to
serve small businesses for the last 13 years. Thank you for being part
of our journey.''\footnote{You can still see that page on archive.org:
	\url{https://web.archive.org/web/20241227223423if_/https://bench.co/}}
\end{quote}

A few days later, an announcement was made that Bench had been acquired
by a company with no experience in running accounting books for
businesses.\footnote{\url{https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/03/inside-the-wild-fall-and-last-minute-revival-of-bench-the-vc-backed-accounting-startup-that-imploded-over-the-holidays/}}
Some users tried to obtain their data or close their accounts, but
couldn't. They were forced to transfer their accounting data to the new
owner.\footnote{\url{https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/10/bench-customers-are-now-being-forced-to-hand-over-their-data-or-risk-losing-it-they-say/}}\textsuperscript{,}\footnote{Thank you to Fabien K. for letting me know about the shutdown of Bench.}

Earlier in 2024, another scandal had broken out: ``tens of thousands of
U.S. businesses and individuals''\footnote{\url{https://apnews.com/article/synapse-evolve-bank-fintech-accounts-frozen-07ecb45f807a8114cac7438e7a66b512}}
found themselves locked out, unable to access their savings.\footnote{\url{https://www.nbcnews.com/buisness/consumer/collapse-fintech-firm-10-million-users-without-access-money-rcna153599}}
This happened because a financial technology company, which was the
backbone of other financial digital applications, shut down. In the
turmoil, the authorities found that the bank balance of these technology
companies did not match the balance of users. \$96 million in funds were
missing.\footnote{\url{https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/22/synapse-bankruptcy-thousands-of-americans-see-their-savings-vanish.html}}
Some users said they were refunded less than 1\% of their
balance;\footnote{We would like to think that users would be refunded in
  this kind of situation, like when a bank goes bust; however, that did
  not happen here, because the deposits at these financial technology
  companies weren't insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance
  Corporation.} a woman was told that she would only get \$500 back from
the \$280,000 she initially deposited, another user said he was offered
81 cents against his \$22,000.\footnote{\emph{Ibid.}}

Some other disruptions are less devastating, yet still show that users
can, without realising it, find themselves in a position where they are
effectively powerless. For example, over the last decade or so, a trend
has emerged for software companies to herd users onto the cloud. That
means that, if users want to utilise an application, they must now
remain tethered to the servers of providers. It also means, most of the
time, that users must store their work on servers belonging to providers,
rather than on their own computers. The problem, though, is that once a
company has locked users in, they can drag them along as they implement
unwanted changes, or decide to use the work of users as input to train
their own technology. For example, Adobe's AI technology scans the work
of all users by default.\footnote{\url{https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/111965550971762920}
  and \url{https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/generative-ai.html}} Along
the same lines, back in 2023 Microsoft allegedly trained their AI
technology on the data of companies storing their work on the servers of
Microsoft.\footnote{\url{https://www.saverilawfirm.com/our-cases/github-copilot-intellectual-property-litigation}}

These are examples showing that the \emph{heteronomy} of providers ---
that is the influence providers can have on users --- can cause adverse
consequences. Once users have come to trust providers with their
autonomy, the heteronomous power of providers can lead to situations
such as the ones described above. Users can get locked out from their
accounts, lose their savings, or be dragged along powerlessly as
providers make unwanted changes.

The implication of all these stories and unwanted
consequences is not that we should abandon the use of technological
applications, cloud infrastructures or artificial intelligence.

Asking someone, be it a company or a technology, to run our accounting books,
keep our money or our data, or run computing tasks, is nothing new. We've been
delegating tasks for a long time: to accountants, to bankers, to lawyers, as
well as to technologies and machines.

However, we usually don't delegate unquestioningly. We know things can go
wrong; we know there is always a chance the other party may mislead us. So when
we delegate, as far as possible we make sure that there are safeguards in
place. For example, we review contracts before signing; we get advice from
lawyers; we make sure the law will protect us; we figure out which pieces of
information, or bits of knowledge, we can risk transferring --- and which we
cannot. We would not sign a contract that allows someone else to lock us in,
or take advantage of our situation, while we remain powerless.

In other words, as the philosopher Daniel Ross tells me:

\begin{quote}
``We take care of the conditions of delegations. What is delegation? It
is the fact that, ever since the dawn of agriculture, when it became
possible to generate large surpluses of food, structures have arisen
relieving some people of certain tasks and designating other people with
other tasks. It is what we call the division of labour, and it usually
also involves the introduction of one or another kind of hierarchy. This
hierarchical division is a delegation. And with the Industrial
Revolution this delegation is extended to machines, to factories, and
then to all kinds of other technological systems, and today to apps,
platforms and so on. All of these delegations involve an interplay of
power and powerlessness. The time we save by delegating grants us
autonomy, the freedom to do other things. But it does so by taking those
tasks out of our hands, and therefore, potentially, out of our control:
autonomy depends on heteronomy, but it comes at a cost. This is why the division of labour, from
the very beginning, brings about new potentials for tension, conflict,
disagreement and war. It is to mitigate those risks that we must always
pay attention to our delegations, to the conditions in which they
operate, and to the rules we establish to ensure that the risks of
delegation are kept to a minimum.''
\end{quote}

But somehow, with digital technologies, we miss something; we do not
seem to have figured out what the \emph{conditions of delegations} are,
or what those conditions ought to be. Most of us have been caught in the
trap.

It's true that the kinds of technologies we are considering here can
initially give users a sense of empowerment: for example, by using
Google Maps, we suddenly realise that we have increased our freedom,
because we can find our way literally anywhere. But then, somehow, over
time, users can become trapped: in the case of Google Maps, we
increasingly realise that, without this navigational delegation, we no
longer know how to find our way around, sometimes even along routes with
which we were formerly familiar. And this is a problem that is not just
individual, but generational: to grow up without ever having learned to
navigate without delegating to Google Maps is another thing again.

It is as if individuals and even generations of individuals can no longer
imagine that alternatives exist. Today, some businesses can no longer exist
without an Instagram account; some people can no longer exist professionally
without a LinkedIn account. And so it becomes a paradox:

\begin{quote}
\emph{Technologies that were first
affording users new possibilities have become the only possibility there is.}
\end{quote}

In short: the systemic asymmetry of these delegations means that their
heteronomous character can fail to foster autonomy in a way users might have
first imagined, but instead, lock them in, or nudge them into situations
sometimes with no way out.

An oft-cited example is how the world wide web first granted, to just about
anyone, the ability to publish information to the world, creating a new global
public, but then, before too many years had passed, this new capacity fell
captive to a consortium of walled gardens\footnote{``A walled garden is a
software system wherein the carrier or service provider has control over
applications, content, and/or media, and restricts convenient access to
non-approved applicants or content.'' Wikipedia} dominated by a few
planetary-scale companies. Within the walls of these gardens, users have no
other choice but to accept the conditions offered to them by the gatekeepers.
And this offer is made on a take it or leave it basis: accept or decline the
heteronomous conditions of access provided by Facebook if you want to keep in
touch with others, by Instagram if you want to conduct marketing, by LinkedIn
if you want to exist on the job market, \emph{et cetera}. Yet, even though most
of us have identified these patterns, most of us still don't know how to avoid
those traps. We come to accept that `there is no alternative'', and we limit
ourselves to adapting to this mantra.

In more recent years, we have observed a similar pattern unfolding in
the way some cryptocurrency companies deal with their users.

For a long time, banks have had custody over people's financial assets; meaning
that the ``owner'' of a bank account, the account ``holder'', does not in any
clear way hold the ultimate power in relation to the release of funds held in
that account. The bank does. For example, in France (and probably in other
countries), if someone wants to withdraw a large sum of money from \emph{their own}
bank account, they have to request permission. While the process is mundane, they still have to fill out a
form, or provide an explanation of their reasons for wishing
to withdraw \emph{their own} funds. They can't just use their funds freely. Sometimes the restrictions can be more drastic:
cases where customers find that they really have no control over \emph{their}
funds, for example when banks freeze accounts, as occurred in Canada in
2022, when 210 bank accounts were frozen by the government without a court
order.\footnote{\url{https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ottawa-protests-frozen-bank-accounts-1.6355396}}
Or worse: when authorities grab funds sitting in bank accounts, as
occurred in 2013 in Cyprus when deposits above €100,000 were used to resolve
the debt of one of the largest local banks, as part of a deal with the European
Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary
Fund.\footnote{\url{https://web.archive.org/web/20130325042059if\_/https://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/25/us-cyprus-parliament-idUSBRE92G03I20130325}}

With some technologies, such as bitcoin, this situation is changing:
individuals can have custody of their financial assets. In saying this,
we do not mean to imply that bitcoin is a panacea for the risk of
account-holders finding themselves deprived of their funds. Other risks
of that kind remain for those who deal in bitcoin. Nevertheless, the
fact remains that no technology provider can lock a user out from
accessing his or her bitcoin funds, as long as users keep their seed
secret. Yet, as we just stated, risks remain, and users can still fall
into one kind of trap or another. Users of cryptocurrencies can
undoubtedly still find themselves the victim of the heteronomy of
providers of technologies related to cryptocurrency management. These
providers might first provide users with tools that facilitate managing or
exchanging cryptocurrencies, but they can also put users in situations where
adverse circumstances can deprive them of access to their funds, locking
them out of their accounts, or even losing the whole value of their
holdings. In short, there is no escape from the need to pay attention to
the conditions of our delegations.

What is it that we are missing, then?

Some readers will shrug their shoulders and think that for one to have
access to the immense power and scale afforded by these technologies,
they simply have to accept the requirement to submit to these
asymmetries of power. That is just the price of doing business: we have
no choice. Other readers might think that for one to be free from these
asymmetries of power, one has to acquire extraordinary skills.

But this is not the case.

Avoiding asymmetries of power is not a question of whether one can write
code, or is some kind of IT wizard. You don't have to be a lawyer to
read and sign a contract, and we are often quite capable of doing so on
our own. We might not know all the intricate details of the meanings of
the clauses and the laws that govern them, but as individuals we still
acquire a set of heuristics (rules) that allow us to detect red flags.
It is the same with the kinds of technologies we are discussing here:
avoiding pitfalls is about having a short checklist in mind of what the
conditions of delegations should be (and what they shouldn't be), so
that when we are faced with using a new technology we can run that
checklist on our own, and give ourselves a pretty good chance to figure
out whether we will fall into a trap leaving us at the mercy of
providers.

Most of us do not want to get ourselves into situations where we would
be forced to ask for permission, jump through a painful set of hoops, or
get into a seemingly endless argument with a digital provider, just in
order to use \emph{our} digital assets. We want to have control over our
digital assets regardless of the deeds and practices of digital
providers.

For example, and here we are looping back to the case of Bench with which we
began, one can choose to use an accounting software whose providers cannot lock
you in. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't delegate the job of running your
accounting software to a provider, or that you have to have your own server.
Not at all. You can still rely on the servers of a third-party provider to run
your accounting system, but you have to take care of the conditions of
delegations, so if you're unhappy with the software, or the provider, you can
quit and carry on using the software \emph{without} the provider. Or if that
proves difficult, you can hire another provider to run that software for you,
which is, of course, still a delegation, but of a different kind, and with
fewer risks.  How all of that is possible is something that will be explained
in more detail in subsequent articles.

For now, my point is simple: one does not just have to accept these
asymmetries.  There are indeed alternatives.  It is possible for the user not
to abandon their autonomy.  Users can have as much power as providers. When the
conditions of delegation are such as to ensure that users keep their power and
autonomy, then, if a provider does something users don't like, users can walk
out with their digital assets, e.g.  accounting books, tax documents, data,
work documents, funds as well as software they have become dependent upon.

It is in no way necessary to put yourself
in a situation where you can get locked out, or where you are obliged to enter
into difficult and painful arguments and negotiations just to win back the
right to use assets that were yours from the outset. In the words of Nassim Taleb:

\begin{quote} ``You do not want to win an argument. You want to
win.''\footnote{\emph{Skin in the Game}, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2018, p.24}
\end{quote}

And so the question we must ask is simple: how does one ``win'' when
using digital technologies?

What is the checklist for these conditions of delegations that you must
keep in mind so that you can leverage the power such technologies have
to offer, yet insulate yourself from the hubris and heteronomic excess
that providers can exert over users?

In a series of articles to come, these questions will be addressed, and exactly
what counts as the conditions of delegation will be discussed and explored in
detail. In other words, our aim will be to provide readers with heuristics they
can use, so that they can avoid falling into asymmetries of power, without
denying that in today's world self-reliance does not mean cutting oneself off
from technology, but rather means knowing how best to rely on new technologies,
and how best to take care of the risks of that reliance.

These technologies
are indeed immensely powerful, and therefore contain inherent threats and
risks. Our reliance upon them must not, and need not, end up making us, the
users of these technologies, powerless and trapped. But for that, we need
knowledge.

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\textbf{\large About}

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