Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one
Joined Aug 2019
I think words are not my native language. People often ask me, what language do I dream in. I just realized: not words. Imagery, emotions, feelings, sounds, actions.
I have the feeling I'm permanently lost in translation 😉
Wow the #enshittification cycle in #AI companies like #OpenAI and #Meta is going fast. Now they're going into dependence-inducing adult content and "sensual" chatbots for kids. How low will they go?
https://x.com/AskPerplexity/status/1978492956869828613
It seems y'all are really missing the point of the FSF in general and its librephone project. They are working to replace binary blobs with free software. I recommend reading their project description:
Why on earth are big #copyright companies so shitty? #Sony #MPAA etc etc. They think they are totally justified to just hit internet service providers with mostly wrong #AIslop infringement notices and have those ISPs do mass service cancellations. All because they need to defend their outdated broken business model that is hostile to digital media and the internet
#Cox is also a pretty bad company, but I'm very happy to support them as they are fighting this in court
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
When we say #OpenSource, we mean business. That's why ALL Tuta apps are published on @fdroidorg
While Google & Apple monitor all push notifications, your data is safe when choosing Tuta Mail. 🔒
➡️ Learn why Tuta Mail is the only email provider app on F-Droid: https://tuta.com/blog/open-source-email-fdroid
Dear tech media, could we please stop using GrapheneOS as the judge on what's secure? I respect very much what GrapheneOS has built, but their stance that free software is not important to security is very short sighted. They literally are willing to call binary blobs secure because someone told them they are? They have no other standard to go on, since they can't inspect them.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/15/fsf_librphone_vs_proprietary_binary_blog/
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
'The people who make our lives more difficult arrive in private jets, not dinghies.'
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
🇺🇦
@matthew_d_green A lot of that discussion is currently happening in scope of the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW) framework. Most people in these discussions are acutely aware of the far-reaching effects of all the associated nuances, with many of them remaining hard to predict. So we are pushing hard for the most privacy-preserving architecture we can come up with.
I'd love to hear your thoughts, e.g. on pseudonyms and the properties they should have: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.05419v1
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
@me @fsf @fsfe This is important work, and a key piece of the puzzle for freeing our mobile devices. The other key is making it a right to unlock the bootloader and replace the operating system on devices that we own. Without that, all those users are still stuck on Android even if a perfect alternative exists. We believe this should be the next thing that the #DigitalMarketAct (#DMA) addresses.
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Free the last bits of "anything Android"?
My positive thought about this is that #PostmarketOS and #MobileLinux in general will profit from any public knowledge about hardware it could run on.
If I understood correctly the money for doing the work on the #Android blobs is donated by John Gilmore. His Money, his decision where to put it. And there is a positive effect, but there is also a negative one:
Android is based on ideas by #Google. To free it we'd need to fork it and adopt it to different ideals and goals. Android is designed to maximize the profit of Google.
It is not designed with the users well-being and interests as the primary goal.
Just replacing blobs in Android keeps the ecosystem the same, promotes Google and their goals and leaves the control over design decisions for Android in Googles hands.
Once a device is freed by hard work of a few engineers it will be old, it will be uninteresting for people looking at Android and the latest shiny hardware running it.
But still - Mobile Linux will make good use of those devices as free OSes in general do when it comes to hardware left behind by commercial OSes.
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Having fun with #googleplay support. I'd like them to remove my developer profile so that I don't get policy emails I don't need, but they won't because I am non-compliant! To comply I have to send them a scan of my ID (not happening) then somehow bring an ancient app into compliance with a policy it allegedly violated. The violation? Having the same content as another app. That other app is v2.0 of the same thing; some users complained about the changes so I left v1.0 around for them. ...
When building software, I believe it is important to work in public. Software can give small groups of developers immense power over lots of people. Like how governments work in public and corporations have to be more public than private company, developers should be transparent not only with their source code, but also the discussions and processes while building it. This can be hard to get used to, but not bad once used to it. Great examples of this are #Debian #GitLab and IMHO #FDroid
And now #OpenAI is going full #BigTech #SurveillanceCapitalism surprise surprise. Yeah, the world really needs AI driven by #engagement driven by #Ads.
https://www.adweek.com/media/openai-chatgpt-ads-job-listing-marketing-platform/
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Step 1: Remove all public #water fountains.
Step 2: Redesign #bathrooms with water taps so low people cannot drink from them.
Step 3: Sell bottled water for 5€ per bottle.
As much as most people do not like how services like #Spotify and #YouTube Music abuse both listeners and artist, they use them because they are easy and friction-free. For alternatives to gain anything but a tiny following, the software behind them also must be easy. That requires a chunk of work, but it is achievable by a small team. There are already options: #subsonic #funkwhale #ampache and more
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/12/spotify-boycott-artists
#Boycott #AI #DeathToSpotify #music #streaming #FOSS #FreeSoftware
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
@eighthave
That's pretty much what (rate limiting) pseudonyms can do as well, with perfect unlinkability if we get ZKP presentations into the implementation: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.05419
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
"As the sole gateway for app distribution on iOS devices, Apple’s App Store is a key pillar of its market power" sounds eerie familiar to #FDroid.
Can somebody discover why and tell us? 🤷
Here's the link to the full text: https://www.amnesty.org/latest/news/2025/08/why-are-big-tech-companies-a-threat-to-human-rights/
Thanks for any clues!
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
You can defeat #googles AI Age Verification by using https://thispersondoesnotexist.com
Just tested it myself
#google #ai #aiverification #ageverification #hack #it #itnews
Ever more websites are using #Cloudflare to block #AI scrapers. Cloudflare is still a man-in-the-middle #MITM attack on the web, but I do think people should have the ability to block the AI crap. So I now have some sympathies for using Cloudflare. What if we had real gov #eID that could be used for captchas? This requires privacy-respecting services that only see the data they need, e.g. "are you a human with an eID? yes/no". There are concerns with eIDs but in implementations not the core idea
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Honey, I invested $100 billion in AI, and all I got was 1 + 2 + 3 = 15
Joined Aug 2019
