#Corporate Internet

[virtueisdead]

i feel like a lot of people would benefit from what i did, being just deleting all apps that use algorithms and only using privacy frontends. like you can't use corporate apps and expect not to get subjected to the corporate ground spikes that are attempts at subliminal influence and surveillance marketing. you kinda just gotta make the call to get rid of it or get with it. and i know which one im picking

like i just stopped using any official youtube client because the algorithmic sludge is so insufferable. i just use newpipe and invidious because they just do what i fucking ask. search something? heres results. look at the feed? heres a chronological list of the latest uploads by every channel youre subscribed to. also have an extremely useful and simple download button and all sorts of other shit in the simplest easiest to use package ever. highly recommend stopping using platforms that algorithmically suggest AND deliver content. i would recommend either not using the former at all or keeping them strictly seperate.

[ladymordecai]

I WANT NO BACK

No doesn't exist digitally anymore. It's been replaced by Not Now or Maybe Later or Snooze Tumblr Live for the next 7 days or Sign In To Continue or We'll show you less like this (lie) or Schedule your restart otherwise we force it in 10 minutes. And I hate it all with the heat of the sun.

[smallseoagency]

The leading (ISP) Internet Service Provider in Mumbai Ring Networks, Offers internet connection Solutions for Individual Homes, Offices, and Companies.

[sciderman]

well - webtoons is over, gang

[werewolf-kat]

Was about to write in tags, but there’s actually quite a lot I do want to add onto this for educational purposes. Stuff that more people should be aware of if they don’t keep up with how technology is used and what companies or those in power seek out of it.

I’ll say upfront: it won’t matter if you individually don’t believe this is happening or think it’s paranoid to believe it’s happening at a mass scale. (I see this expressed a lot when news like this comes out, and people want to be “not scared” about it.)

Companies with access to user data genuinely collect as much as they can because it makes them money. They can target key words in your posts - private or not - to put into their algorithms for advertising. A lot of specific data can be pretty much saved or traded around forever because it’s valuable like gold for companies involved with tech or social media. I have to emphasize again: our personal information makes bank regardless of political leanings or moral standings. Names, addresses, interests, hobbies, job history, and so on.

This is an open secret among anyone who has worked or trained under companies with internet/tech-based connections. If you want to do your due diligence in looking at the sources, here are many proven/discovered cases of data that was collected and saved by companies for whatever “use” they have for it. This includes information taken from literal children despite laws like COPPA here in the US.

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

More on Google in particular.

And a whole thing about data brokers (by some guy selling courses for this shady stuff).

Anyone making a website can use Google-created advertising code quite easily. This is why lots of sites might feel shady or without filters for their ads. It’s just there in the wild, being wild. The website may not get your data for the ads, but it sure is feeding Google more this way.

On top of this, any average person with some bucks to spare can buy data they’re looking for too. Whatever’s linked to your online alias, or emails you’ve used in accounts... Those can be found behind a paywall. I don’t want to share those sites here, but they’re terrifyingly easy to find if you search some basic terms for them.

Also beware that some aspects of user information stored on servers won’t be secure against malicious hackers. There are malicious hackers who break into this user data, take it hostage, and put bounties on their own unlawful collections. The basis of our information (emails, names, passwords, etc.) being of value, extends to these internet “rogues” as well.

Security for any server costs HUGE money to maintain and truly prioritize. The experience and knowledge needed from each employee and the mere importance of their role will demand massive pay. You can’t even trust a company as big as Google from the occasional security breach when they let their guard down. In the situation I linked, Google kept that particular breach a secret from the public for as long as they could. They weren’t transparent about it.

Now, when it comes to terrible laws and power trips that cops are happy to enforce, they can very often request social media companies to hand over any “evidence” and data that’s needed for police investigations. This can be helpful for truly important cases (sexual assault, murder, etc.); but it can be used for criminalizing people under laws of “moral righteousness” like this anti-abortion nightmare the U.S. is in right now.

It’s not a matter of how much of your data can be read by humans. You think humans are doing the reading anyways? Everyone agrees that’s impossible. That’s why it’s done by programmed systems.

I’m moderately experienced in JavaScript, but even in that language I’m aware of “Reg-Ex” (Regular Expression) and string/integer matching. All programming languages - to my knowledge - are capable of searching for key words. That’s what I meant earlier by algorithms that target “key words.” The company can give a list to their developers for words to include in the program, and then the program will do the searching. At an advanced level, these go into algorithms that are always “learning” and in-taking related words that come up as a pattern related to what was first entered in by the human programmers.

Not to mention, it’s not limited to text. At my lower level of programming, I’ve already tinkered with speech recognition API for personal projects (which Google unfortunately runs that API for JavaScript). It was fairly good - albeit not perfect either - at picking up what words I’m saying after the sentences complete. It screws up when my voice is too slurred due to my weird mouth muscles I guess? (My pronunciations can be real loose at times...)

There’s accessibility software where you speak into it, and it outputs text for you on a digital device such as computers. That’s been around a LONG time. The technology has been there for ages. It’s used in automatic Closed Captioning that you may see plugged onto live Twitch streams too, for example. And it’s good for accessibility!

But greedy/creepy companies use this for teaching their algorithms too. You still gotta look out for what you say around your own phones, laptops with built-in mics you can’t physically unplug, your Amazon Echoes, Google Homes, and so on.

There isn’t realistically some shady voice-listening center or any group of humans that can access/read through the data collected from millions of people in different languages and countries. We can all agree on that to an extent, I hope.

What is realistic, is that they have shady algorithms programmed to do it for them.

So don’t settle on “you’re paranoid if you think humans can keep up with all this information.” We’ve been in a technological era for a few decades now, and it advances faster than we can protect against these days.

Before recommending encrypted services, however, there’s more I should add:

You gotta research the company and any ties it may have to other companies or governments in the background. Just because something’s encrypted, doesn’t mean it’s actually safe and trustworthy.

Here’s a video on the early history of encryption (cryptography/ciphers) and how a government agency had a choke-hold on it during wars and disputes:

There’s also this article about powerful encryption that can be requested to be purposefully weakened for the sake of criminal investigations. It’s a mixed bag of helpful and harmful effects of encryption that really can’t be touched easily if at all.

It would be helpful to dig into a proven murderer’s messages or other data that they wanted to hide. This will provide a strong case in their court trial (based in what I know generally about the US legal system) when evidence is needed for their motive, or a possible premeditation level of heinous acts.

But it can also do harm in places where the law (or power-tripping cops) want to target marginalized, “inferior” groups of people.

Communicating online or around internet-connected devices with microphones, it’s nearly impossible to avoid grabbing the attention of those in power who see marginalized people as threats. If you’re seeking abortion and need help getting one, please don’t immediately trust any encrypted service you see. The same goes for anyone in a state that’s taking away their rights to medical care (such as the threat to trans health and freedom).

I understand the situation is beyond stressful; and it’d be mentally taxing as well as time consuming to find something with the lowest risk of being a target by police agencies. You still matter and your safety matters. Tread your path among these oppressive landscapes carefully.

Some “support groups” might even have one or be made entirely of undercover cops wanting to rat people out. Just, you really can’t know people out there.

I don’t quite feel qualified to give any specific advice, though. This is the best I can confidently give. I hope the information here gives direction in your own research and the resources you seek out. Wishing you safety and comfort out there.

Facebook and google are helping cops prosecute people seeking abortion. Be very careful in this new era people.

[werewolf-kat]

I really want this video to get around. Hello Future Me is a wonderful channel for writers and other creatives - and has released this HUGE video that's worth going through the 2hrs.

I personally would love if this were a go-to video on AI generation and the serious ethical and legal issues it presents in its current mainstream state. Much like The Line Goes Up for NFTs that rightfully went viral a while ago.

[robotpussy]

"BREAKING: The Internet Archive has lost its appeal in Hachette v. Internet Archive, the long-running, closely watched copyright case over the scanning and lending of print library books. Full story to follow."

Internet Archive Responds to Appellate Opinion in Hachette v. Internet Archive

"We are disappointed in today’s opinion about the Internet Archive’s digital lending of books that are available electronically elsewhere. We are reviewing the court’s opinion and will continue to defend the rights of libraries to own, lend, and preserve books."

-Chris Freeland, director of library services

The Internet Archive has set up a petition to ask publishers to restore access to the 500,000+ books removed from their library.

[brattyratgirl]

This is a PSA to other goldfish enthusiasts.

Baby Goldfish contain 7.2 Oz compared to regular Goldfish containing only 6.6.

They cost the same, don’t get played.

Pls share with ur local goldfish enthusiasts 🙏

[virtueisdead]

tumblr is the only corporate social im willing to use at this point, purely because of how vastly different it is from its contemporaries, structurally and culturally, but they're very clearly doing something that is quickly turning me away. for lack of less sensitive term, staff is practically gentrifying the platform. (forcing shit from other socials that tumblrs lack of were the only reason i still used it)

given i use spacehey daily, im sure youre already aware that im not a big fan of the contemporary concept of the "social media". i wont go on my whole pedantic/esoteric rant about distinguishing the definition of a social media and a social network because thats a whole other essay for another time and its not worth the argument given im already trying to discuss something else at the moment. (ive literally written a research paper about this because i seriously am that obnoxious about the subject)

so; one of the most substantial changes that happened to social websites in general over the past 2 decades was the introduction of algorithmic feeds. for those unaware, tumblr is in fact the very last major social platform that still doesnt operate (primarily) off of algorithmic content, and this is direly important to the continued use it receives from older bloggers. the majority of people who regularly use tumblr today and have for years are still here because it is the last bastion of chronological dashboards. this also plays a huge role in why theres such a dramatically different atmosphere on tumblr compared to other platforms.

reblogs are literally the only way that things can "go viral". posts do not ever spread if people dont actively decide "i want to share this with my friends" and hit the reblog button, as well if their friends dont think the same. whats especially important is that this system is entirely end-viewer-oriented; it does not particularly favor reactionary content like an algorithm does. on a platform like twitter, any kind of engagement at all (replies, likes, qrts, etc) will be taken by the algorithm as an indication that the post is likely to resonate with people in some way, regardless of whether the post in question is receiving positive or negative engagement, and regardless of whether or not it is thoughtful or warrants that- not to mention how this problem is even further exacerbated by the character limits on microblogging social media platforms like twitter.

so people love tumblr for the fact that posts that you wouldnt share with your friends simply will not garner any popularity most of the time. this fosters a far more unique and interesting community and types of viral content, but youll notice that a little while ago, tumblr quietly added the "for you" page. realistically, nobody who actually has used tumblr since before that tab was added would ever even touch it because it is a spit in the face of what makes people love the platform. but they they knew most people dont vocally give a shit like i do.

the first problem arises when you consider that new users from places like tiktok and twitter will naturally assume the tab was always there and likely use it as their primary means of discovery. they wont learn or understand the way that the proper system tumblr uses of follows and reblogs actually works, which is steadily creating an enormous and frankly insurmountable divide between new and old users of the platform. its already fostering the kinds of passive interaction from people who dont understand tumblr's mechanics that is honestly genuinely harmful to the community overall. people misusing the tools that the platform has due to not understanding their function or assuming similarity to things they already know from other platforms. honestly, this in itself would not even be that much of an issue because we could simply ignore the new users who refuse to make the effort to understand how to use the app and fall for the advertising trap that is the for you page...

but the problem is getting way bigger as tumblr is slowly but surely pushing the "for you" page onto other dashboards. youll see posts with a little "based on your likes" banner at the top crop up more and more. theyre quite literally trying to subtly force an algorithm into place where there wasnt one before. (ive been made aware you actually can turn this off from within an entirely seperate settings menu from the regular one that you open on the notifications screen for some reason?? the fact that i didnt even know this after using tumblr for this long is wild, but it doesnt invalidate my argument in that they turned it on automatically without asking or telling users) its not egregious enough to make me leave yet but its definitely been happening more and more frequently to the point that i am seriously doubting if i should consider continuing to use the website/app. this is the biggest structural issue, but its not the only example of what im talking about where tumblr is trying to pretend to be like other contemporary social medias in order to lure in new users without teaching them how things work so that they can use them as advertising guinea pigs.

another example would be the abrupt and frankly pointless introduction of tumblr live, which is entirely unnecessary and has received near unanimous criticism from older users. but a bigger one is something that a lot of people, especially newer users, mobile only users, or those straight other platforms have probably not even noticed- the completely silent removal of subdomain urls. (which is why people here call usernames urls in the first place) this one is way more apparent of an issue as far as my questionable use of the term 'gentrification' goes.

if i asked you the question "what is tumblr?" what would you say? more than likely, you would answer that its a social media- and to be clear, you would certainly not be incorrect in that assessment, but thats not the important part. as far as i can see, thats the first thing that comes to mind when they think of what tumblr "is" in its contemporary state. but if i asked somebody that a decade ago, they would likely give a completely different answer; they would say its a "blogging site". that's because fundamentally, that's what tumblr actually is and is supposed to be. a social blogging host platform. the dashboard and tumblr.com screen was always only half of it as far as the functionality went.

everyone used to have a personal website for their blogs, and people would often hook their tumblr blog up with its own custom domain as well. tumblr was first and foremost simply a blogging platform with social elements. while that subdomain (personal website) functionality does still exist, and you can see it on my blog because i customized my blog's css themes, they actually completely silently added a switch that gets rid of it, and they automatically turned it off for anyone that hadnt fully configured that page already which slowly consolidates everybody towards the exact same uniform tumblr-blog style like what you see on the mobile site. it forces a uniform visual aesthetic and functionality, which is one of the things i hate the most. in the first place, the enormous number of people who hadnt set up their page properly is largely because tumblr has for a few years now actively discouraged, hidden, or obfuscated the 'personal website' aspect of the service for whatever reason they may have using a method ill get into in a moment. it may be because they thought it was too convoluted for newer internet users who dont understand, or it may have been a more calculated effort to abandon older infrastructure and replace it with replicas of more contemporary systems like are used in other social medias, but it doesnt make a difference to me.

blogging is all about self-expression, and restricting that defeats the point so fucking hard. on the mobile app, my page will look something like this.

though this screenshot is taken on desktop. the url here is "https://www.tumblr.com/virtueisdead". this is an entirely separate and pretty recently added functionality called the profile view, which is entirely different from how the website used to operate, which is demonstrated for clearly by the fact that this is not what my blog is actually supposed to look like. in fact, you cant even see what blogs are supposed to look like on the mobile app at all. if you open your browser and go to my actual blog url, "https://virtueisdead.tumblr.com/", you can see the intended design, which is very similar to my spacehey profile.

im honestly not unconvinced that they intend to eventually completely distinguish the old blogging system (akin to wordpress and blogger) from the social media aspect of the site entirely, though thats more of a crack theory. the fact remains that they began to silently get rid of people's actual blog pages, slowly forcing uniformity with the mobile app. (this is less important, but another part of that that drives me up the fucking wall is that i cant even use the tumblr website in my main browser anymore. they made it so it only works in certain browsers, and im sure i dont need to explain why that is absolutely insufferable behavior)

tumblr is absolutely trying to mimic other social media platforms like tiktok and twitter in order to attract users from them or give them a more 'familiar experience' and its absolutely a detriment to the experience for people who use tumblr specifically because it isnt like other corporate social platforms. this is a separate gripe, but...

ive said before and will say again, twitter users should not look for an alternative to twitter, they should just stop fucking using it. thats like going from smoking a cigarette brand that uses slave labor to one that doesnt. youre a more ethical person but youre still giving yourself lung cancer.

[peachdoxie]

If there isn't already, there should be a term for when corporations make such radical changes to a social network/media website that it effectively destroys the culture(s) that grew there. Like all the changes to Livejournal that erased entire fandom communities with NSFW purges, and the worries that fanfiction.net is one day going to do the same. It happened to large parts of Tumblr when the porn ban happened in 2018, and we've been witnessing it happen with Twitter. Now Reddit is facing the same thing. As long as corporations own the websites and servers, the death of internet cultures is always going to be a phenomenon, and I think it deserves a name.

[rh0mbus0fruin]

game theory

[dragonwolfcrane]

I use Newpipe on my phone which is available on f-droid appstore n its sooo much better than the official youtube frontend. One thing im sure any tumblrina would appreciate is chronological feed! Not a dumbass recommended screen that is channeling the vibes of the content i have viewed, just the uploads from the channels i subscribe to in order of release date. This means i dont get stuck in a loop of scrolling through uninteresting bs then reloading to scroll through a new selection of crap. Either there is interesting content on the feed, or there is no interesting content. So freeing!

It also has everything that youtube premium offers but free, background play, downloads, etc.

I bet most frontends have these features, so check out all of the things that people are recommending to see what you like!

[jensorensen]

Big Fryer is Watching

This cartoon refers to a study by a British consumer rights group called Which? (that's their name), that examined unnecessary data harvesting by "smart" devices, including air fryers. Certain brands wanted permission to record audio on users' phones and track precise location, and one brand connected its app to trackers from Facebook and Tiktok. None of this digital access is actually necessary for the fryer to function.

Receive my weekly newsletter and keep this work sustainable by joining the Sorensen Subscription Service! Also on Patreon.

[legbootlegit]

In unrelated news, the CEO of MGA Entertainment deleted his Twitter in 2020 after bullying a creator whose likeness they allegedly plagiarized for a toy

[genericpuff]

What is the “Wayback Machine” that you mentioned bey ??

The Wayback Machine is an archiving crawler tool designed and hosted by The Internet Archive to document sites throughout their lifetime. It's not 100% reliable as how often a site gets crawled typically comes down to how frequently it updates and / or how much it's visited (and it doesn't store images / videos as well as just general text), but it's often what I use for my own research and investigating when I need to access information that may no longer be available on live sites (like old blogs, galleries, news articles, etc.) It's definitely my go-to when I need to go on my rabbithole dives, for better and for worse LOL

[kiraleighart]

me explaining how online works so y'all can be gay do crimes fuck corporate:

Business wants to flatten human-online engagement for business aims. This is the algorithm's prime function—not delivering you the content you want, when you want it.

So, the solution is to up the ante. Send backwash chaotic metrics. Do big loud gay throttle. You can literally choose to go against the online grain anytime you want.

Example: You love tea. OK. Identify indie tea brand that's super ethics. Put them on blast as hard possible online and in search. Get 5 friends (who get 5 friends) to do this. This helps them.

But also, bidnid ppl do competitive analysis. big shitty tea brand says "huh, why is trending?" big tea brand go "how can i do that. wait."

and if you picked the right indie tea brand, only logical answer for bigboi is "consumer like ethical tea. i...oops." and when big brand tries to only LOOK like tiny tea brand, you call bullshit no buy

you do not give social media signals to big bad mean tea brand. you screencap if you gotta and use asterisk or whatever. all the while, applying pressure to uplift cool indie tea brand and cool little guys like them.

this is legit how online commerce and digital analytics works.

1 person uplifting cool indie ethical brand becomes 2. then 10. then 100. then 1000. then 100,000 until big bidnid fucks have to go "and i oop." if they want market share, they will have to evolve or you will ignore them like an annoying bug.

pls prove to me that normies are able to grasp what im saying: you have all the power. you're just not using it.