Fining a company like Meta only $1.4 billion is like fining a regular person $0.0001 for something they should be going to jail for.

I have, and when it happens, the company responsible loses my business.

If you’re on the sidewalk in public, you have no expectation of privacy.

Under normal context, that’s correct.

But if you are purposely being filmed as part of a movie, project, “prank” or anything else that makes you the “talent”, it moves into a commercial licensing/permit/consent realm.

I’ve been to loads of public events where I’ve had to sign a release form acknowledging that my photo may be captured and that those images may be used in marketing/social media posts, etc. That’s because being at the event makes me the subject. While this wouldn’t be a concern if other people in the group are taking photos/video for their own personal use, the fact that those images may be used for commercial purposes changes the context.

If social media asshats want to use someone’s photos or video for their own commercial purposes, they should be following the same rules as any other professional.

For clarity, we aren’t talking about randos being filmed while on a walking tour of a city; we’re talking about specific people being targeted and recorded as the main subject without consent and with the explicit purpose to use their video for commercial content.

Nearly every country has laws protecting people from having their images used for commercial purposes without consent.

Generally speaking, it is “OK” if you happen to capture people on video while you are recording a public space.

However, the article is referring to situations where people are being video recorded, without their knowledge, as the main focus of the video.

In this case, it should be treated like any TV or movie set, where consent must be given.

I see it as video recording for commercial use, so permits should also be required by these social media degenerates, before a single frame is captured.

LOL. Yeah, sometimes, answers can be very much “I’m winging it today”, but certain prompts, especially for story ideas, can be very interesting and usable.

I’ve always said that if you know a lot about a subject, you can easily spot how AI generally tries to fake it until it makes it.

But if you have no idea about something, the answers you get are certainly better than what your buddy might tell you 😂

But to my point, it comes up with long form content so fast that you wonder how the hell it actually processed the question that quickly.

It still amazes me just how quickly these models can spit out complex answers pretty much instantly.

Google recklessly violated privacy laws to spike ad profits

And they will continue doing so because the “risk” is worth the consequences.

Here’s an idea: Fine them the value of all that ad revenue + 20%. Then see how willing they are to break privacy laws.

If they can’t profit from doing illegal stuff, they won’t do illegal stuff.

It sounds like these use cases would be better served if this feature was a specific, opt-in available in an enterprise version or a separate, third-party product (i.e. screen capture software that will ONLY record what you do in the software in question, when you want it to).

But baked into a consumer OS (not the business version) seems excessive. Who knows, maybe people will find good uses for it at home. I’m cynical and don’t believe that M$ designed this for the user’s benefit.

On the positive side (at least for now), this is a local-only, encrypted data feature.

Not defending M$, but this sounds pretty much like a browser history feature, but for your desktop. Since most people are using their browser for 90% of the tasks they perform on their computer, this probably won’t phase them.

Still, if this feature hits my laptop, it’s going to be disabled. I have never needed to know what specifically I was doing on my computer three weeks ago on Wednesday around 2pm.

What’s the use case for something like this?

This feature sounds like something an employer would want to use, if they aren’t already, to spy on their employees.

Fair enough. I don’t know much about how money is added into Monero to say whether it can be traced or not. Cryptocurrency is pretty broad, so there may be exceptions to my original statement.

No more complex than opening a bank account, and finding a way to get cash to put in it, whether that’s getting a job, prostitution, selling things, etc.

I don’t want to keep arguing, but I disagree. Even the most simple person in the world can open a bank account and put money in it. “Tap to pay” and e-transfers are as easy as they get, and cash withdrawal is something that anyone can do anywhere in the world.

Talking about “fiat money” and “XMR” and “coins”, isolates like 99% of the population.

Someone working at McDonalds can easily get paid and withdraw that money to use in a real store they can walk into. How does one even attempt any of that with Monero? Can you pay your mortgage or electrical bill with Monero? What about paying someone to fix drywall?

Monero may be a fine option for some, but it’s nowhere close to being a mainstream option for ordinary people.

After you install a wallet, you need to get some Monero. There are multiple ways to acquire some coins to spend, like mining or working in exchange for Monero, but the easiest way is to use an exchange and convert your fiat money into XMR. Many exchanges, centralized and decentralized, list Monero (XMR).

This sounds crazy complex for most people.

Cash -> Prepaid credit card (all still real money) is best, with the caveat that it may not be accepted everywhere. But then again, Monero is hardly accepted anywhere.

That’s crazy. Don’t they want money? LOL

Monero

I know of Monero, but haven’t used it. How are funds added to the Monero account?

Crypto isn’t as private as you might think.

But I do agree with what you’re saying.

Using a prepaid credit card, which was paid for using cash, is probably your best bet.

0% AI detected.

It does rate on a scale, so it’s not always 100% or 0% (sometimes it is). But it has been very reliable in the tests I’ve done. Apparently, false positives are something like 0.2%.

I’ve tested quite a few, and they seem extremely accurate. Even when fragments of text have been AI generated, they point those out.

I mean, some websites I’ve visited seem AI generated, and the verification sites simply confirm my suspicions.

For sure, fair point. But we’re still talking millions, and far more than the guy was making at his previous, full-time job. In an interview, he said all he needed was $100 / day in sales to quit his full-time job… obviously, he exceeded that. LOL

So, not a great revenue stream for the developer

For context Nova Prime has over 5+ million paying users, and it’s $6 when I check the Play Store.

The dev was just a single guy, who later hired someone to help with support and artwork. But if $30 million in revenue wasn’t good enough, I’m not sure what else you could expect.

It pisses me off that apps I’ve paid for become tainted like this.

What @LWD@lemm.ee said, but I do think it would be about profiling (for whatever reason), and the less they know, the better.

Each known user has a profile, which contains all known aliases, pronouns, connected accounts to other platforms such as Steam and GitHub, Discord servers joined, and public messages.

If you didn’t connect to those other platforms, used unique email and username, and lied about your pronouns and other info (i.e. age), how damaging could this be?

I’m forced to use discord, unfortunately, but none of the data they have on me would match my actual identity or other accounts (which all have unique emails and usernames anyway).

I’m on your team, but how long do you think it’ll be before all cars (and ebikes) are “connected”?

I can’t see myself buying a 90s car in 20 years.

which generates consumer risk profiles for the insurers

Brutal, and I’m not even sure how that’s legal. But at the same time, would this have a positive effect on insurance rates? Discounts for good drivers, etc.?

I’m on a pay-as-you-go insurance plan, and they do have my location data when I drive. They stipulate that data gathered from the device would NOT negatively impact my premiums.

Either way, it was something I was willing to consent to because my premiums are dirt cheap. I almost never drive, so my insurance for two people for the entire year is less than $300 Canadian. 😂

But the difference is that I can simply remove the device if I no longer want the insurance and/or share my driving location with them. If it was built-into the car, I wouldn’t buy the car.

EDIT: Now that I think about, I’d actually be OK with these cars reporting to insurance for dangerous/unskilled driving, provided that the driver is aware of this. I want to see safer roads, and a lot of that starts with how people drive.

OP, what your asking for might be a test of frustration. You’ll either end up with poor hardware or lacklustre software.

But I guess it depends on your goal. For years, I used a pebble smartwatch via gadgetbridge for a fully offline experience, but it was so limiting.

I ended up with a Garmin instinct solar and couldn’t be happier.

The Mozilla foundation gives Garmin top marks for privacy and transparency, saying:

Garmin has been on our Best Of list for a number of years. And we’re pleased to say, in 2023, it seems they’ve gotten even better (which is amazing when so many other companies are getting worse) SOURCE

I do use a Garmin bike computer, too, so I’m acutely aware that my ride location data is being sent to Garmin. But for my use case, I’m OK with that.

I mean, basic users really wouldn’t need anything outside the Microsoft store. And modern users tend to use their browser more than anything else (fortunately or unfortunately).

It’s got pretty much everything covered, barring some very specialized software. Heck, even stuff like Firefox and OpenOffice are there, but obvious M$ would prefer you use their own browser and office suit.

Certainly games are probably easier through the Xbox app in windows (or the store directly), and the play pass Microsoft offers makes it really easy to play without having to install a third party game store.

If someone wants a Linux experice on Windows, I’m saying that it’s quite possible.

Now, I won’t for a second defend all the telemetry, ads, bloat, and forced Microsoft crap. For that, Windows is indeed worse.

As long as you keep your packages up to date, don’t install random packages found online, and don’t run random scripts, desktop Linux is very secure.

Same with windows, Android, iOS, etc.

On the other hand, Windows users almost have to install software from the wider internet.

Not sure when you last used windows, but there’s a built in store for most mainstream software, and I’m sure most games come from steam.

Yes, you can download your random exe files, which will trigger warning prompts when you try to run them.

So, failing all warnings, it’s possible to install malware on windows. The same could be said for any OS.

If you want to keep Windows secured like Linux, you would create a non-admin user account, which will not install or change system settings/files, without the admin (root) access.

That said, I don’t disable the built-in antivirus or firewall in Windows. 😬

That makes sense. It seems so much more intuitive than the pop-up!

Very nice! Seems to work well, but it does need to be enabled in the Bitwarden settings (not on by default).

When I’m asked for a security question, I let my password manager generate gibberish and use those as answers.

I can’t honestly think of a less secure way to “secure” an account, than being asked questions that anyone you know would be able to answer with little effort.

I’d like to hear how you simplified things

I quit social media and use YouTube through a proxy (invidious).

On Firefox, I compartmentalize accounts in their own container, and only log into websites using an account if it’s required for me to make a purchase, pay a bill, etc.

I also try to use websites over apps, and always with an adblocker with strong ad/tracker filters.

I’ve switched most of my apps over to FOSS, which often don’t have trackers in them, and are generally more privacy-friendly.

And I also self-host a lot of stuff that would otherwise require a data-mining corporation to hold my data hostage, host.

But do you trust a large corporation with your data over Mozilla?

Before using the Adguard Temp Mail service, check to see if your own email provider offers the same.

I’m with Mailbox, and they offer temp emails, email aliases, and email extension (“+” to separate email addresses.

Side note, as a paying Adguard customer, I’m salty that they got rid of their active support forum. I will not go to Reddit or some third-party site to ask questions. Their support forum was really helpful for many years, and removing it is a massive step backwards.

Microsoft will insert their left-leaning propaganda into the Windows start menu, innocently pretending it’s just trending news. Brainwashed Democrats don’t even realize that it’s normalizing an authoritarian society through unquestioned acceptance of government authority. In fact, Democrats are so shielded from criticism…

That political venom came out of nowhere! 😂😂😂

What’s the porn site going to do when AI determines that a 15 year old is over 18?

“Judge, I swear the AI said she was 18!”

I want to thank the Automakers for giving me more reasons to ride a bike! 🤗 🤗

I have two (paid) Mailbox.org accounts running for the last several years. No problem at all and they include several features that I use on a regular basis like email aliases (not just a + email, but unique emails), disposable email, contacts and calendar that I can easily sync to my phone, etc.

One uses a custom domain name and the other is just a mailbox.org address.

Also, Adguard lifetime subscriptions are often dirt cheap on Stacksocial.

Yubikeys or something else?

That would make more sense! Kind of.

I don’t have an Apple device that I use on a regular basis. Does this mean that hardware 2FA won’t work?