#like if this is gonna be an “everyone is bad” story then why are all their rough edges softened. why won't they let them just be unlikeable

[kwop-kilawtley]

ALLLL OF THIS. When I say twilight is a horror story… this is truly what I mean… and not in a good way. So many people think that team Jacobs take issue with the “morally grey” aspect of the Cullens. That we are purists or some shit. Lmao. No, no, you’re simply misunderstanding. (Smeyer is the one who wrote the purist shit with some dark themes so it just feels disjointed imo) THE ISSUE IS THAT in this fandom yall praise the Cullens to the HEAVENS and shit on Jacob and ANYONE who is team Jacob/team Wolfpack. The double standards perpetuate this fucked up shit that Smeyer has written. Do I actually give a fuck if Edward stalked Bella? WELL BC THEY ALL SAY JACOB IS THE ENEMY. Also in my eyes I see the cullens as predatorial white billionaires and, like, not in the hot way. They’ll say Jake is the “bad guy” in the series. The issue is the double standard and also, *how* these books were written. Since when do you mfers give a fuck about morals…oh right.. only when it comes to the native characters that the author legitimately DRAGGED THROUGH THE MUD.

Twilight is legit a horror story tragedy and it’s not cuz “we hate fun” and “we’re purists who don’t like moral greyness” uh no lolol. First off the cullens are boring as fuck… but that’s besides the point. You need to understand WHAT twilight is. It’s a YA fantasy written by a Mormon with HEAVY themes of racism & classism. Skill issue if you didn’t at least pick up on this yet as an adult.

My thing is like if you wanna totally disregard all of this and enjoy your nostalgic fantasy book, you literally have to stop making anyone who critiques the cullens or smeyer feel unwelcome in the fandom. Like maybe instead of going on and on about how problematic Jacob is, you can use that energy to talk about the actual problematic shit with the series.. which is everything stated above that Meyer did. I know media literacy is like dead but cmon.

Basically EVERY ISSUE that I have with twilight and twilights plot and the relationship between exb starts with all of what was mentioned above. It was the way it was written is WHY there are problems. It all starts at the foundation of what Smeyer wrote and who the Cullens are. I can read actual stalker romances and toxic shit and allll the morally grey vampires (not that I even group twilight in with this stuff… bc it’s like written to be a fairytale pure romance…) but sorry I’m not gonna like how it ended and will take issues w it if the fucking plot hinges on racist Mormon bs that’s message is basically “no sex b4 marriage, a baby will fix you, no consequences 4 ur actions, fuck your dreams/goals, go for the white guy who is like heroin to u over the native guy who is the actual love of ur life, trash treatment of everyone other than the perfect alabaster billionaires”

“It’s just fiction” ok but she used a real tribe

“It’s just fiction” she made one of ur faves a confederate soldier. Which is a real thing.

“It’s just fiction” they use very thinly veiled slurs throughout the saga

“It’s just fiction” it’s disrespecting a REAL culture

Etc.

Not only is that harmful but it’s just not a particularly interesting ending? To me anyway

I don't know how people can look at smeyers writing and have people explain to them how she's racist and demonized a native American tribe that actually exists in real life, made a character a Confederate soldier, had native characters fall in love with babies, had her white characters hurl racism at the natives, demonize the only Latina character, and traumatise the 2 native women in her stories and then insist that she isn't racist.

"I don't see her as racist" well that's a you problem then isn't it. if you're going to ignore everything that the POC in the fandom have said, get the fuck out of it

[sturniololuvz]

Can you do one where the triplets find the little sisters spam account and she’s like on a boys lap, and in other vids she’s sneaking out with her friends

“Private Story, Public Problem”

Nick was the first to find it.

He wasn’t snooping—not really. He’d just been tagged in a random video by a mutual friend. Curiosity led to clicking, which led to scrolling, which led to _“@yn.privvvv”—a spam account that definitely wasn’t public.

And definitely wasn’t supposed to be found.

He stared at the screen for a solid ten seconds, heart rate climbing with every clip. There was a blurry video of you at a party, dancing. A shot of you and your friends running through the streets late at night. And then—one that made his stomach drop—you on some guy’s lap, hoodie zipped halfway down, laughing like you didn’t have three older brothers with functioning Wi-Fi.

“Matt,” Nick said flatly, walking into the living room and shoving his phone in Matt’s face.

Matt squinted, then blinked. “Is that—? No way. Scroll back. Scroll back.”

They stopped on the lap video.

Chris, hearing the commotion, came in with a bag of chips. “What’s going on?”

Nick didn’t even look up. “Your little sister is out here acting like she doesn’t have a family who will literally kill for her.”

Chris leaned in, saw the post, and choked on a chip. “Is she—on a guy’s lap? Who the hell is that?”

“No idea,” Matt muttered.

“What account is this?” Chris demanded.

“Her spam.”

“We didn’t even know she had one!”

“Oh, we know now.”

Cut to ten minutes later: you walked into the apartment from Target, headphones in, absolutely oblivious—until three very silent triplets stared at you from the couch.

You froze. “…What?”

Chris held up his phone. “So. ‘yn.privvvv.’ Want to explain?”

Your stomach dropped. “How did you—”

“Not the question we’re asking,” Matt snapped. “Who is that guy? And why are you out at 2 a.m. sneaking around like you’re in a damn coming-of-age movie?”

You opened your mouth. Closed it. Nick was still silent, which was somehow scarier.

“I—It’s not what it looks like, okay?”

“Oh really?” Chris raised an eyebrow. “Because it looks like you’re out breaking every rule we’ve ever set and laughing while doing it.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Matt asked, voice lower now. “If you wanted more freedom or whatever—why lie?”

You swallowed hard. “Because I knew you’d overreact. Like you’re doing now.”

Nick finally spoke. “Overreact? You’re fifteen. You’re sneaking out. Sitting on some guy’s lap. And we’re just supposed to act like that’s normal?”

“I didn’t do anything bad—”

“You didn’t tell us,” Chris said, softer now. “That’s what’s bad.”

The room went quiet.

You looked at them—three overprotective, annoying, fiercely loyal older brothers who were only mad because they cared.

“I’m sorry,” you muttered.

Nick sighed, walking over and ruffling your hair. “We’re not mad because you’re growing up. We’re mad because we love you and we’re scared someone’s gonna take advantage of that.”

Matt nodded. “Please just… don’t lie next time.”

Chris added, “Also, if we find out who that guy is—he’s dead.”

You rolled your eyes but smiled a little. “I deleted the account.”

“Good,” all three said in unison.

You sat with them on the couch, and even though you were still grounded for a week, you couldn’t help but feel a little lucky—annoyed, yes—but lucky.

Because some people had older brothers.

But not everyone had three who’d go to war for you over a spam account.

⸻

[fishymom-art]

HELLO!! tis wonderful to be in the ask box with an oc design again :]

this is Rose Water Cookie!! the other holder of Sanctified Powder's (Celestial Powder but corrupt) Soul Jam. His kingdom is on the coast, so I wanted to go with some lighter clothing, and some sandals, since he'd be around sand a lot. I got the idea from my friends in vc when i was banging my head against the wall to go for a swimsuit-esque look, so I think I'll be doing that for the normal citizens and such. It'd be really neat for them to just have their own themed swimsuits, like some have butterfly themed ones, some have flower themed ones, some have plain ones, etc. Someone on the Discord server also gave me the idea to give him bioluminescent hair like some oceans at nighttime!! Anyways, his character! Hes the Holder of Redemption, believing that anyone and everyone can change if they truly desire it, and truly try to achieve it. He first learned of this philosophy when one of his biggest bullies in school became one of his lifelong friends, the first citizen of his kingdom, and his first captain. (He's passed on by now, but its fiiiine, Rose is fine :]) I don't know how he got his Soul Jam yet, but I'd like to think that it had something to do with some sort of threat to Crispia, and he continuously tried to reach out to said source of danger, offering friendship, not stifling them in redemption. Just friendship. Not wanting them to think that he saw them as a project or anything. No matter if others told him that it was dangerous, or that he shouldn't be doing something so pointless. He kept on going. Eventually, this plan worked, and the threat was neutralized. He's kind of like PV in the sense that he Has No Enemies. Someone who once tried to usurp his throne is now his most loyal advisor, and royal wizard. (And crush,,, Peppercorn,,,) He's very kind, gentle, and will always listen if you need an ear. But he's also not weak, being a decently powerful summoner in the support class, and not being naive, either. He'll be able to tell if your lying to him, or just being fake. He also has a bad habit of overworking himself, especially nowadays after his story chapters, mainly out of guilt. The other Ancients, and Peppercorn, have tried to get him out of this habit, but to no avail.

Speaking of story chapters! Very proud of this story. Basically, after PV seemed to sacrifice himself, Rose crashed out. Especially after hearing about everything else going on in the world, and everything with his dearest friends. He couldn't bear the thought of losing anyone else. So, he devised a plan. He threw a celebration one day, and everyone was invited. Everyone got a day off. Some were confused as to why he was throwing a celebration Now of all times, but didn't question it. Everyone was happy, everyone was joyous. And so, that's when he cast a spell that put the kingdom in a bubble, and into a timeloop of that day. Of that one, joyous day. (I was originally gonna bs something about him finding a spell to do it, but then I realized that Golden Cheese literally made an Entire virtual city with the power of her Soul Jam, so I. kinda thought that wasn't necessary. /silly) And he himself, he replaced with a body double, who was essentially an empty puppet that just acted like him, and was put into an almost eternal slumber, reliving his happiest memories.

To make a long story short, the puppet was told to do anything at all to keep this time loop going and keep people none the wiser, but Peppercorn immediately caught on that this puppet wasn't Rose, no, he knew him too well. (fruity,,,) But the puppet kicked Peppercorn out of the loop, sending him out to the world in the middle of the war. Peppercorn is really strong, and damn stubborn, so he managed to survive. He also found an amulet that allowed him to stay crispy, and not die of old age, so he could find a way to save Rose, and the kingdom. He eventually got in contact with Pure Vanilla when he found out he was Back and Alive, and so after some shenanigans, PV, DC, GC, and Hollyberry got Rose and the kingdom out of the loop. Many were bitter, of course, but were thankful to not be in the war anymore, and knew he had good intentions. Some left the kingdom, which he would never blame them for, but he's working towards making the kingdom better, safer, and reinstating it in this era. But he will never, ever get over the guilt of what he did, no matter his intentions. The Paragon of Redemption still doesn't see Himself worthy of redemption. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this essay on my ancient oc!! I also have some stuff on his Beast Yeast chapter, like Powder literally just using global warming on his kingdom to get him to come to Beast Yeast, and putting him on trial for everything he's done, but he learns to move on from what he did when he awakens. I'm not sure who I'll be working on yet, maybe Peppercorn or one of the Cherry's? But I hope you enjoy this for now :] (It took a lot of banging my head against the wall /pf)

YIPPEEEEEEEEE ELAUEHDLGIAUEHLGIAUEHLGIAUE I LOVE IT!!!!!

[tommygotwrittenoff]

i literally do not care about big emergencies on abc's 911. i want to see my characters talk to each other and have stories that are parallels to small, everyday (everyday for first responders) emergencies

[paldogangsaan]

the most frustrating part abt the scene with alicent and rhaenyra (other than it being ridiculous) is the attempt at portraying alicent as a passive victim with zero agency (TO BE CLEAR she's a victim of both otto and viserys, that's not a question, she had no choice there. she did, however, have a choice in other moments and those are what i'm talking abt in this post). the writers essentially made her go "oh i thought he was talking about MY aegon. well, it's too late. i am a tragic figure who never wanted war. oh no" like ?? some of us have eyes and can see that alicent has been actively trying to gain power, undermine rhaenyra, and divide the family even before the time skip. she shows up to rhaenyra's wedding late and wearing green, she sows discord between their kids, spreads rumors of rhaenyra's children being bastards despite knowing it could get them killed (+ in the book the only ppl yapping abt them being bastards were alicent and criston cole bc the point of spreading rumors was to undermine and hurt both them and rhaenyra, if it was true or not was irrelevant), and she literally hits aegon and insists that rhaenyra will kill him to cement her claim to the throne even when there's been no indication that she would. alicent did not have to do any of those things, she actively chose to

and rhaenyra was willing to leave all that in the past by marrying helaena and jace thus ending the (then metaphorical) war between their sides of the family, but alicent refused bc she wanted power and for rhaenyra to not have any, so she made active choices to ensure that, and didn't care for the consequences. now her son is the king, she never prepared him for it so he's shit at it, she can't control him, she has no power, and the only person surprised is her (and otto). but again, these are choices SHE made or helped make. making an enemy of rhaenyra, and everything that came bc of that, was a choice. she would've helped put aegon on the throne whether viserys quoted the prophecy to her or not, be it usurpation (which it was) or not. that was a choice alicent made. stop portraying her as a passive victim of the dance when that role belongs to helaena

[xanams]

Someone being extremely annoying in the replies of my flowey and clover gif and I'm running out of patience 😭

[lixbf]

i was so productive in bg3 today fjsvcjdhd

[untoterxhund]

either gonna remake again in the future and hand out the url privately or gonna clean out the followers list again me'thinks. so if you wanna stay mutuals and plan on writing w/ me in the future when I can actually dedicate time to doing so w/out any stressors or anxiety spikes then please, slap that heart real quick for me.

if not, it was a pleasure to write and talk for a bit and wish y'all good luck on your future endeavors 'n stuff.

[lesbiansanemi]

Like I love to criticize jjk as much as the next person but all these really annoying ppl who are saying the series is bad because characters are dying…… 1. Grow up. 2. Why in fresh fucking hell did you EVER think everyone was gonna make it to the end of this series

[alligaytorswamp]

c4 baizhu haver checking in - read all of his stories and voice lines - am screaming crying throwing up etc

[faithisland]

if they'd just released it as life is strange: double exposure part 1, genuinely it would've had a WAY better reception and wouldn't have all this backlash. saving that info for the end in an open way, so you have to look up information online to find out more, leaves the average player frustrated at all the loose strings and plot holes, rather than theorizing for themselves how it can all be resolved.

literally, one. CHANGE.

[loverboybrightsideghost]

started watching trap and tbh i mildly wanted to see it after i saw the trailer cuz i was like hm sort of interesting premise, i wonder if there's more to it. there is not 👍🏼

[connormoving]

read asoue to weeman as a bedtime story he liked it YAYYYY

[aria0fgold]

Okay one veeery small hater moment from me but it isn't really much of a hater moment but more of a disappointment irritation moment for a manwha genre that I've been chillin deep into it's rabbit hole, aka Otome Isekai (shortened to oi) is when I found this manwha that I already forgot the title of out of pure irritation that I somehow just blacked it out. The premise was basically like: I got trapped in a dating sim I played in my past life for 3 years when my first playthrough turned out a fail and I got sent back to the past to retry until I get a good ending for the character I possessed that's a side character of the game. And I'm so tired of failing, I don't need love to get my happy ending!

Like-- from the description alone it was pretty generic. And I, being the veteran that I am with generic oi manwha, already Knew what I'm about to get once I go in there, but I was like: "Maaaybe it'll turn out okay, I should check the comments." And there was a TON of comments with 4-5 star ratings, all of em praising the writing and everything and sayin that "it's far better than what the description says," so I was like: Oh okay that's good then! Time to check!

So I read through chapter 1, what the fuck is going on. The description made the story seem more interesting ngl, like I thought the fl has been going at it for 3 years with how it was worded, like she's just been met with several failures cuz of how the actual description made it seem how tired she's been but no. The story starts with her SECOND PLAYTHROUGH. So I'm like: "??? Maybe this is just the prologue" so I kept going until chapter 2.

What The Fuck Is Going On. The description also made it seem that she won't be going after any of the guys btw but by the end of chapter 1 and the start of chapter 2, she's already thinking of going after ANOTHER guy to achieve her happy ending and I'm like: "HUUUH???" cuz apparently the first guy she wanted to get together with in her first playthrough was your average "irredeemable trash" in an oi so like OKAY??? WHY WAS THE DESCRIPTION WORDED LIKE THAT.

And I remember keeping going until like-- chapter 3? chapter 4? or whatever, cuz the comments kept saying that "oh this story is soo good it's such a breath of fresh air from the other ois" And I got so blindsided by that one scene in a chapter titled "Ten Days" (hey aria how come you can remember that but not the manwha title or chapter number? cuz wait for it--) THE FL HAS BEEN UNCONSCIOUS FOR TEN DAYS!!! AND SHE JUST WALKED OUTTA BED LIKE NOTHIN!!! TEN DAYS!?!!? orz... that chapter bewildered me so much it's like it wiped the entire memory I've had of that manwha from before I read through it cuz wHAT THE FUCK???

Her family (which was the typical "neglectful family but is redeemable after getting a wake up call when the fl started ignoring em so now they're trying to make amends") was sittin by her bedside along with the typical "maid that's always on the fl's side no matter what and she's bubbly" and they were all distraught, the maid crying and everything and when the fl just stood outta bed with no consequences to the fact that she's just been laying there FOR TEN! DAYS! and everyone not even batting an eye at the fact that she's already up and at em when she's been unconscious FOR TEN DAYS!-- I'm never letting that go-- I was like: Holy stars this story is... people are blind-- And clicked outta that thing so fast it just got yeeted from my memory until I remember bout the ten days again.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Amazon annihilates Alexa privacy settings, turns on continuous, nonconsensual audio uploading

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in SAN DIEGO at MYSTERIOUS GALAXY on Mar 24, and in CHICAGO with PETER SAGAL on Apr 2. More tour dates here.

Even by Amazon standards, this is extraordinarily sleazy: starting March 28, each Amazon Echo device will cease processing audio on-device and instead upload all the audio it captures to Amazon's cloud for processing, even if you have previously opted out of cloud-based processing:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/everything-you-say-to-your-echo-will-be-sent-to-amazon-starting-on-march-28/

It's easy to flap your hands at this bit of thievery and say, "surveillance capitalists gonna surveillance capitalism," which would confine this fuckery to the realm of ideology (that is, "Amazon is ripping you off because they have bad ideas"). But that would be wrong. What's going on here is a material phenomenon, grounded in specific policy choices and by unpacking the material basis for this absolutely unforgivable move, we can understand how we got here – and where we should go next.

Start with Amazon's excuse for destroying your privacy: they want to do AI processing on the audio Alexa captures, and that is too computationally intensive for on-device processing. But that only raises another question: why does Amazon want to do this AI processing, even for customers who are happy with their Echo as-is, at the risk of infuriating and alienating millions of customers?

For Big Tech companies, AI is part of a "growth story" – a narrative about how these companies that have already saturated their markets will still continue to grow. It's hard to overstate how dominant Amazon is: they are the leading cloud provider, the most important retailer, and the majority of US households already subscribe to Prime. This may sound like a good place to be, but for Amazon, it's actually very dangerous.

Amazon has a sky-high price/earnings ratio – about triple the ratio of other retailers, like Target. That scorching P/E ratio reflects a belief by investors that Amazon will continue growing. Companies with very high p/e ratios have an unbeatable advantage relative to mature competitors – they can buy things with their stock, rather than paying cash for them. If Amazon wants to hire a key person, or acquire a key company, it can pad its offer with its extremely high-value, growing stock. Being able to buy things with stock instead of money is a powerful advantage, because money is scarce and exogenous (Amazon must acquire money from someone else, like a customer), while new Amazon stock can be conjured into existence by typing zeroes into a spreadsheet:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/06/privacy-last/#exceptionally-american

But the downside here is that every growth stock eventually stops growing. For Amazon to double its US Prime subscriber base, it will have to establish a breeding program to produce tens of millions of new Americans, raising them to maturity, getting them gainful employment, and then getting them to sign up for Prime. Almost by definition, a dominant firm ceases to be a growing firm, and lives with the constant threat of a stock revaluation as investors belief in future growth crumbles and they punch the "sell" button, hoping to liquidate their now-overvalued stock ahead of everyone else.

For Big Tech companies, a growth story isn't an ideological commitment to cancer-like continuous expansion. It's a practical, material phenomenon, driven by the need to maintain investor confidence that there are still worlds for the company to conquer.

That's where "AI" comes in. The hype around AI serves an important material need for tech companies. By lumping an incoherent set of poorly understood technologies together into a hot buzzword, tech companies can bamboozle investors into thinking that there's plenty of growth in their future.

OK, so that's the material need that this asshole tactic satisfies. Next, let's look at the technical dimension of this rug-pull.

How is it possible for Amazon to modify your Echo after you bought it? After all, you own your Echo. It is your property. Every first year law student learns this 18th century definition of property, from Sir William Blackstone:

That sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in total exclusion of the right of any other individual in the universe.

If the Echo is your property, how come Amazon gets to break it? Because we passed a law that lets them. Section 1201 of 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it a felony to "bypass an access control" for a copyrighted work:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/24/record-scratch/#autoenshittification

That means that once Amazon reaches over the air to stir up the guts of your Echo, no one is allowed to give you a tool that will let you get inside your Echo and change the software back. Sure, it's your property, but exercising sole and despotic dominion over it requires breaking the digital lock that controls access to the firmware, and that's a felony punishable by a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine for a first offense.

The Echo is an internet-connected device that treats its owner as an adversary and is designed to facilitate over-the-air updates by the manufacturer that are adverse to the interests of the owner. Giving a manufacturer the power to downgrade a device after you've bought it, in a way you can't roll back or defend against is an invitation to run the playbook of the Darth Vader MBA, in which the manufacturer replies to your outraged squawks with "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

The ability to remotely, unilaterally alter how a device or service works is called "twiddling" and it is a key factor in enshittification. By "twiddling" the knobs and dials that control the prices, costs, search rankings, recommendations, and core features of products and services, tech firms can play a high-speed shell-game that shifts value away from customers and suppliers and toward the firm and its executives:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

But how can this be legal? You bought an Echo and explicitly went into its settings to disable remote monitoring of the sounds in your home, and now Amazon – without your permission, against your express wishes – is going to start sending recordings from inside your house to its offices. Isn't that against the law?

Well, you'd think so, but US consumer privacy law is unbelievably backwards. Congress hasn't passed a consumer privacy law since 1988, when the Video Privacy Protection Act banned video store clerks from disclosing which VHS cassettes you brought home. That is the last technological privacy threat that Congress has given any consideration to:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

This privacy vacuum has been filled up with surveillance on an unimaginable scale. Scumbag data-brokers you've never heard of openly boast about having dossiers on 91% of adult internet users, detailing who we are, what we watch, what we read, who we live with, who we follow on social media, what we buy online and offline, where we buy, when we buy, and why we buy:

https://gizmodo.com/data-broker-brags-about-having-highly-detailed-personal-information-on-nearly-all-internet-users-2000575762

To a first approximation, every kind of privacy violation is legal, because the concentrated commercial surveillance industry spends millions lobbying against privacy laws, and those millions are a bargain, because they make billions off the data they harvest with impunity.

Regulatory capture is a function of monopoly. Highly concentrated sectors don't need to engage in "wasteful competition," which leaves them with gigantic profits to spend on lobbying, which is extraordinarily effective, because a sector that is dominated by a handful of firms can easily arrive at a common negotiating position and speak with one voice to the government:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

Starting with the Carter administration, and accelerating through every subsequent administration except Biden's, America has adopted an explicitly pro-monopoly policy, called the "consumer welfare" antitrust theory. 40 years later, our economy is riddled with monopolies:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/17/monopolies-produce-billionaires/#inequality-corruption-climate-poverty-sweatshops

Every part of this Echo privacy massacre is downstream of that policy choice: "growth stock" narratives about AI, twiddling, DMCA 1201, the Darth Vader MBA, the end of legal privacy protections. These are material things, not ideological ones. They exist to make a very, very small number of people very, very rich.

Your Echo is your property, you paid for it. You paid for the product and you are still the product:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Now, Amazon says that the recordings your Echo will send to its data-centers will be deleted as soon as it's been processed by the AI servers. Amazon's made these claims before, and they were lies. Amazon eventually had to admit that its employees and a menagerie of overseas contractors were secretly given millions of recordings to listen to and make notes on:

https://archive.is/TD90k

And sometimes, Amazon just sent these recordings to random people on the internet:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/20/amazon-alexa-user-receives-audio-recordings-stranger-through-human-error/

Fool me once, etc. I will bet you a testicle* that Amazon will eventually have to admit that the recordings it harvests to feed its AI are also being retained and listened to by employees, contractors, and, possibly, randos on the internet.

*Not one of mine

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/15/altering-the-deal/#telescreen

Image: Stock Catalog/https://www.quotecatalog.com (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexa_%2840770465691%29.jpg

Sam Howzit (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SWC_6_-_Darth_Vader_Costume_(7865106344).jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[kavehayati]

AURGHH I KEEP FLASHBACKING TO THE AWKWARD SITUATION TODAY