For an investigation in TechCity, Anibe Idakili uncovered how digital lenders, smartphone ecosystems, data brokers, and artificial intelligence contractors extract money, personal information, and labor from people with limited economic and regulatory power. Interviews revealed a pattern of loan apps weaponizing contact lists, platforms offering weaker consent protections in Nigeria than in the U.S., low-cost phones carrying software with documented security risks, and global technology companies outsourcing dangerous AI work to lower-paid workers. The reporting, with support from the Fund, combined 31 interviews with controlled testing of loan apps and consent flows in Lagos and New York; reviews of regulatory files and court rulings; independent security research; technical documentation; and whistleblower records, intermediary logs and broker catalogs.
With interviews, records and testing of apps, grantee shows how data industry preys on the least powerful
