Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

Episode 57: F-Droid (featuring Sylvia van Os & Hans-Christoph Steiner!) https://fossandcrafts.org/episodes/057-f-droid.html

F-Droid, a repository of free software on your Android device! @cwebber interviews F-Droid developers @SylvieLorxu and @eighthave@social.librem.one alongside chair of the F-Droid board... @mlemweb!!!

Let's be clear: $1.8b for "AI" translates to ~$1.8b handed to Big Tech companies to license infrastructure, data, and APIs.

AI is a corporate technology.

This is a subsidy to the richest companies in the world, justified via rewarmed cold war imaginaries.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-17/china-military-ai-use-raises-alarm-for-congress-ex-google-ceo?leadSource=uverify%20wall

Putin’s energy blackmail has failed.

One year after presenting #REPowerEU, we have reduced our dependency on Russian gas by three-quarters.

Everyone has played their part in building a more independent 🇪🇺 and we are more united and stronger than ever in preparing for next winter.

again: paying for travel and lodging is nice, but traveling abroad and talking at a conference is *work* - I can't work for free. Especially if your conference charges >1000 USD entrance fees.

Mullvad VPN and the Tor Project today present the release of the Mullvad Browser.

A privacy-focused web browser designed to be used with a trustworthy VPN instead of the Tor Network.

Read the full story and download the browser here.

https://mullvad.net/browser

Tik Tok ist zwar lustig, kann aber zum echten Sicherheitsrisiko werden, wenn man die User:innendaten aggregiert & analysiert. Thomas Lohninger war dazu in der ZIB 1:

https://youtu.be/J2UvvISWJxQ

@jr @mynacol @Foxboron

Which means, you can only use that if your app's minSDK is >= Android 9. (At least that's what I remember from when this feature was originally introduced)

Wireguard's minSDK is Android 5.0.

F-Droid might start to look into this though, it's only a few years off until this can can be reaslistically used in the wild.

The Wireguard android app is now Reproducible and distributed with Jasons own signing key.

https://lists.zx2c4.com/pipermail/wireguard/2023-April/008045.html

Pretty cool.

#Wireguard #ReproducibleBuilds

#WhatsApp implementing #KeyTransparency is pretty nice, and definitely an excellent step in the right direction against shadow accounts and the service provider trust problem. However, without the client being #OpenSource, it is not that meaningful. Yes, of course somebody could implement an independent monitor for the transparency log to check keys registered for an identity, but what percentage of the user base will actually do that when the only realistic way to use the service is to rely on the #proprietary client, which can still be used to maliciously target (groups of) users to break #E2EE?

Secure messenger clients should both use identity security protections like #KeyTransparency and have a *default* implementation that is #OpenSource and, ideally, be distributed with #BinaryTransparency and verified through #ReproducibleBuilds. Oh, and allow other identifiers than just phone numbers (still looking at you, @signalapp - which is otherwise ticking a lot of the right checkboxes).

@Gargron @fdroidorg That is incorrect and the GitHub issue shows it. The F-Droid team asked for .apk files of the Google Play build as it was compliant with F-Droid policy. Not a new flavor.

Mastodon made a change to the version they provided to F-Droid (the GitHub version) that broke policy. F-Droid even went out of their way to tweak policy in Mastodon'a favour to not require complete removal of the in-app updater, just a good explanation.

Help needed: are there any graphic designers who could help create matching #FDroid category images for missing categories? My "quick hack" doesn't really fit: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/merge_requests/13059

Thanks in advance!

PS: if the same could be done for the additional categories in the #IzzySoftRepo that would be great

@iThreepwood @fdroidorg this whole drama actually went down exactly because F-Droid distributed the developer signed version at the beginning, but for this to work, F-Droid needs a reference APK that complies with F-Droid policy, which then in turn became to much work for the Mastodon team to upload, so they asked to get switched to the F-Droid owned signing key.

In other words: F-Droid tries their best, but sometimes upstream developers won't/can't cooperate

Truly disturbing information. You certainly should not trust any large tech companies, but #ByteDance makers of #TikTok is emerging as just about a worst-case scenario. Support #decentralization

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/05/tiktok-spied-on-me-why/

🤔 What are your favorite #OpenSource / #FreeSoftware projects on the #Fediverse that we should collectively try to convince to move away from mastodon.social and toward other instances, so more people can easily see and interact with them?

📋 Give them an @-mention in this thread!

#Mastodon #decentralization

Guten Morgen meine Damen und Herren, wir begrüßen Sie zur tagesschau!

Last year we announced we would be joining Mastodon to explore an alternative to today's social media. 



We’re excited to announce we’re expanding Mozilla.social to a private beta, with hopes to open to the public soon.

This is just the beginning. Read more about the launch of our instance, including how to join the public waitlist. https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-social-mastodon-private-beta-announcement/