keverets @keverets@librem.one

I love my smart TV. I love the way it takes a long time to boot up because it's trying to refresh the advertisements on the home screen. I delight in the way it randomly restarts because it's downloaded an update without asking me, each of which makes the TV slower and slower with every subsequent install. I adore the way it buries the apps that I want to use, and that I use without fail every single time, below the apps that it's being paid to promote and which I have never touched in my life and would never use without the cold metal of a glock pressed hard against my sweating temple. I am infinitely thrilled by the way the interface lags constantly, due to the need to have one thousand unnecessary animations rendered on hardware ripped wholesale from a ten year old phone. I feel myself borne aloft on wings of pure joy when I am notified that my data will be collected and analysed to determine my useage patterns. Even now I am writing this from a field of beautiful flowers and soft luscious grass as I lie and look up happily at the bright blue sky, smiling happily to know that this is the future of technology

Amazing review in WIRED: "Ring cameras are cheap and ubiquitous, but contributing to a just society is also a factor in keeping your family safe." https://www.wired.com/story/why-we-do-not-recommend-ring/

Turns out you on a #Librem5 you can install android in a container and it runs at native speed. The android window shows as an app, so I can just use an android app if I find a native version lacking, neat!

Mozilla's new report on the data privacy of modern cars is nightmare fuel. Enshittification has definitely hit the car industry: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft

These are the first 6 companies designated as ‘gatekeepers' under the Digital Markets Act.

They have 6 months to ensure their core platform services comply with our rules, including:

✔ Allowing users to unsubscribe and remove pre-installed services
✔ Allowing the download of alternative app stores

❌ Banning tracking outside of their services without consent
❌ Stopping ranking their products more favourably

➡ https://europa.eu/!NbfBbn

#DMA

Today many devices have add internet connection and rebranded as “smart”, where smart is actually a euphemism for collecting and selling your data. Smart TVs are big offenders here but new cars are just as bad.

VW collects your driving behaviors such as your seatbelt and braking habits and pairs that with info such as age and gender for targeted advertising.

Mozilla found brands including BMW, Ford, Toyota, Tesla, and Subaru similarly collect data about drivers.

https://gizmodo.com/mozilla-new-cars-data-privacy-report-1850805416

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7s-BgfcFXw

What they said.

This may be obvious, but I recently started routinely adding "-youtube" to google searches. This eliminate most pages with links to garbage YouTube-monetized videos that try to attract people looking for basic instructions on how to do simple things. Greatly improves the quality of search results.

#Covid19

For the NoScript/uBlock/uMatrix gang

Anybody confused why people still listen to turntables or CD players forget that they never:

- stop working because they can't connect to WiFi
- stop working because they need a firmware update
- stop working because the manufacturer dropped support
- say "if you like Bach you might like Taylor Swift"
- play ads
- recommend "turntable premium"

#Jitsi remains committed to privacy, but now you need to sign up for a Google or Facebook account in order to use their public hosted instance.

https://jitsi.org/blog/authentication-on-meet-jit-si/

What a joke.

Zoom now wants you to focus on Section 10 of their ToS which they've changed today to say they won't use your calls and other data to train their AI models. Instead, focus on Section 15. Zoom (like most Big Tech ToSs) can change those terms at any time.

They laughably say you should "regularly check" their legal pages for those notices and if you don't but keep using the services you've agreed to the changes. These services are unethically deployed technology at their most fundamental level.

Regular reminder: if your site or app doesn’t work in Firefox, it’s broken.

I lived through the “this site requires and/or is best in IE” era, and I’d rather burn it all down than return to that.

Pro-tip: Firefox does most things better anyway. Give it a spin and enjoy a less-tracked web.

As ever, disregard what a company says publicly and focus on what the legal documents says you are agreeing to when you use their product.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/7/23822907/zoom-train-ai-models-user-data-customer-consent

When you think, do you have an internal dialogue that includes words?

Boost if you're interested.

Ages when you’re in your prime: 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, 101, 103, 107, 109

Zoom's terms of service now include training GenAI with no ability to opt out

Check section 10.2 Service Generated Data; Consent to Use.

https://explore.zoom.us/en/terms/

When reviewing apps, F-Droid takes the user’s point of view, first and foremost.

Various apps have features that are not in our users' interest but that don't make them ineligible for inclusion, like tracking or using non-free network services. Which is why we clearly mark apps that have these "Anti-Features", so that users are able to make an informed choice whether they find those acceptable or not.

The latest version of the F-Droid client is now able to show a description explaining why an app has a specific Anti-Feature, so users don't need to find that information elsewhere to make an informed decision.

And thanks to the hard work of @IzzyOnDroid over the last few days, we now have those descriptions for many apps in our repository, so the client actually has something to show the user.

#FDroid

https://f-droid.org/docs/Anti-Features/