This book offers a criminological analysis of algorithmic control in Australia’s gig economy, revealing how digital labour platforms such as Uber, Didi, Airtasker, and others use opaque algorithms to pursue profitability through digital mechanisms that generate significant social harms. Drawing on zemiology—the study of social harm—alongside ultra-realism and technology harm theory, it exposes the systemic exploitation and precarious conditions faced by gig workers in Australia.

Grounded in original empirical research—including netnography, surveys, and interviews—the book documents the financial, physical, psychological, legal harms and other harms caused by algorithmic labour allocation, account deactivation, and the denial of basic labour protections. It interrogates the limits of existing legal frameworks, focusing on Australia’s Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Act 2024 (Cth) that introduces the new category of “employee-like” workers and the remedy of “unfair deactivation”, showing that these reforms remain insufficient to address the complex harms and power inequalities produced by platform work. Consequently, workers must continue to devise their own strategies for navigating, mitigating and resisting these harms.

By integrating theoretical insight with legal critique and detailed case studies, this book demonstrates the criminogenic potential of emerging digital technologies and calls for harm-informed regulatory approaches that move beyond narrow employment laws. It is essential reading for criminologists, legal scholars, policymakers, and all those concerned with labour justice in the digital era.

Dr. Elvio Anthony Sinopoli is a criminologist, lecturer in law and criminology, researcher, and project manager. His expertise lies in the gig economy in Australia, with a particular focus on the criminogenic potential of algorithms and artificial intelligence. His research aims to examine how emerging technologies may harm vulnerable populations.

In 2023, Dr. Sinopoli completed his Doctorate in Criminology at Flinders University conducting a study centred on social harm within the Australian gig economy. Prior to his doctorate, he obtained a degree in Law from the Università Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria in Italy (2013) and later pursued further academic studies at Flinders University, Australia, obtaining degrees in Laws and International Studies (2018), and Arts (Honours) (2019). In 2025, he was awarded a Master’s in Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, and International Law through the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), offered by the University for Peace (UPEACE) and the Centre of Security and Crime Sciences (Italy) (2025).

Dr. Sinopoli is currently a lecturer in law at Adelaide University, after working at Flinders University and University of South Australia.
His academic portfolio includes peer-reviewed articles, a commissioned for the Australian Government, and a funded research project on the harms faced by women in the South Australian gig economy.

He actively authors governmental submissions on the gig economy presented to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, the Commonwealth Senate and the Government of South Australia, and regularly presents his research outputs at conferences and informative sessions.