#PRIVACY

[squirrelstone]

He wants to violate everyone else’s privacy, but he can’t handle his own words said in a semi-public setting being leaked 😂

[classycookiexo]

THIS and for three reasons

1. Evil Eye

2. Keeping some plans close to the chest can safeguard them from unnecessary obstacles

3. Working in silence is just better imo

[krsonmar]

I just saw this over on Bluesky and...

Look, maybe I'm unusual and lucky in my exposure to Holocaust lit in school. Most people don't get well-versed enough in these memoirs and histories and historical novels that they know what's about to happen and "all the ways the bad guys get you" the way horror fans shout at the TV, "No, don't lean over the body to see if he's really dead, poke him with a stick, what are you, *trying* to die?!"

But for god's sake, y'all, does it really take more than plain old common sense to have basic opsec? If you make a list of federal government workers resisting the takeovers happening now "for inspiration for the masses" and send it around social media...who the frick else do you think can see that list? And what might they do *other than* take inspiration from it? If I'm a fascist government goon looking to stifle dissent and make an example to everyone, what a great shortcut you've given me!

And it doesn't even take that; if I'm someone like a garden-variety LibsOfTikTok follower, maybe I get it in my head that going Pizzagate on these people is a patriotic thing to do. Or maybe I just fall back on the basic hyper-online alt-right MO of doxxing and harrassing people to the point that they pack up and leave town or, god forbid, commit suicide.

I should not have had to tell people, during Occupy in around 2012, that announcing your protest on Facebook and asking people to click to say they'd be there is a bad, bad, stupid, baaaaaaad idea. The NSA leaks wouldn't come out until about a year later, but IT SHOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN THAT to understand that compiling a list of people who would be at your protest against the government, with pictures of their faces and their past drunken college escapades along with their workplaces and social affiliations, is a terrible and unsafe way to organize.

This is something that scares me deep in my bones about what's happening: Americans don't understand *how* to mistrust authority anymore. We might have the general sentiment, but we don't know what to do with it in a practical way. Do you think someone who lived under the Stasi for decades or who grew up on stories of their parents barely escaping the Ayatollah or Saddam or Papa Doc's crackdowns and purges would call the concerns people *absolutely have been voicing for at least a good 20 years now* paranoid or overreactive? Our comfort and relative stability have spoiled us into complacency, and now we don't know how to even think about this stuff.

I am begging you: get cynical, guard your privacy (and other people's), and learn not to run your mouth. It is no longer paranoia. It never was, and if we had all understood that for the past two-plus decades, maybe we wouldn't be where we are now.

[netscapenavigator-official]

Hmm. I just noticed something odd: It seems like DuckDuckGo is utilizing AI Summaries for web results, and they don't allow you to turn this off.

In their "AI Features" settings tab, you can only toggle their AI Chat and their AI Quick Answers that occasionally pop up. There is ZERO mention of this feature, despite it being pretty clear (to me anyway) that they're using some type of neural computing to create those result summaries. (Hence the difference in descriptions for the #1 result with and without "fuck" added.)

Maybe something else is going on that I'm not aware of or don't understand, but it's certainly a disappointing amount of non-transparency from DuckDuckGo when they're trying to build a privacy-focused and trustworthy brand identity.

[tourmelion]

Huh

:C

I'm sure tumblr would never, but hey. No sense tempting fate.

[gwydionmisha]

This is terrifying and so very dangerous.

Time Sensitive Action Item. Please stop what you are doing and take action. Tumblr post with Explainer and sample script here:

I did what I could. Please do the same.

[nixcraft]

Literal definition of spyware:

Also From Microsoft’s own FAQ: "Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. 🤡

[cryoverkiltmilk]

[kerkhofbloemen]

Just a small reminder: you don't have to use any of it. Delete your SM and MS accounts. Go open source. Android compatible open source phones are for sale. MS compatible software for PC's exists including the full operation system. Do not use the google or MS app stores because that requires accounts but install apps through apk files. Use proton.mail or similar for your email. Use signal instead of whatsapp. Etcetera.

Just imagine what a populist president who couldn't give a shit about human rights or democracy and who is close buddies with the tech bros that own all your data could do with this. Just a hypothetical scenario, right?

Via @iamdylancurran (Twitter)

[lakecountylibrary]

LIBRARY WRAPPED

You checked out... probably some stuff? Thanks for doing that :)

Used our wifi maybe? For something?

Look we actually don't know what genres you read or how many times you renewed Gender Queer.

We don't want to know.

Our gift to you is privacy.

Take it.

Be free.

[ralfmaximus]

Reminder that twitter is now an informal, unregulated (i.e. warrantless) information source for Trump administration use.

[zuko-always-lies]

From instructions on how to opt out, look at the official staff post on the topic. It also gives more information on Tumblr's new policies. If you are opting out, remember to opt out each separate blog individually.

Please reblog this post, so it will get more votes!

[alasse-earfalas]

Critical PSA for anyone with Android devices!

I got the following email this morning:

Basically Google is rolling out the ability to track you via your android devices even when you're offline and you have to manually opt out of it. Many android devices no longer come with a wired headphone jack, so if you have Bluetooth headphones or a keyboard or anything, your location will be tracked and stored by your device unless you opt out of this.

I tried using the link they gave me in the email to opt out of it, but it didn't really seem to do anything. So I looked up how to opt out and found the following steps, which worked for my phone:

Opting out from the Find My Device network is as simple as tapping a toggle in your phone's settings. 1. On your Android device, go to Settings. 2. Tap the Google setting. 3. Tap the Find My Device setting. 4. Tap the toggle to off next to "Use Find My Device." 5. Confirm with pin, pattern, or biometrics. That's it. Your device is no longer participating in the Find My Device network. To rejoin, just flip the toggle back on.

Please reblog to spread awareness. My husband has the same phone as me and he didn't get any emails about this.

[skeletonclaw]

[alanshemper]