Why should public institutions use Free Software?
🔓 Freedom to use & share
👀 Transparency & adaptability
🛠 No vendor lock-in
💰 Public funds = public benefit
Public Money? Public Code! #publiccode #freesoftware
https://publiccode.eu/
🔓 Freedom to use & share
👀 Transparency & adaptability
🛠 No vendor lock-in
💰 Public funds = public benefit
Public Money? Public Code! #publiccode #freesoftware
https://publiccode.eu/
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Surely nothing will go wrong with this... nothing dystopian or privacy harming about this at all.
If your open source project is using Discord as its real-time chat, support, and/or development communication platform *please* reconsider:
https://gizmodo.com/discord-begins-testing-facial-scans-for-age-verification-2000590188
If your open source project is using Discord as its real-time chat, support, and/or development communication platform *please* reconsider:
https://gizmodo.com/discord-begins-testing-facial-scans-for-age-verification-2000590188
Gizmodo
Discord Begins Testing Facial Scans for Age Verification
Some countries have passed strict new laws dictating youth access to digital platforms.
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L’AGCOM ha approvato un nuovo sistema per la verifica dell’età sui siti internet
Leggi tutto: https://ilpost.link/HD3FM3ULBa
informapirata@mastodon.uno ildisinformatico@mastodon.uno
Leggi tutto: https://ilpost.link/HD3FM3ULBa
informapirata@mastodon.uno ildisinformatico@mastodon.uno
Il Post
L’AGCOM ha approvato un nuovo sistema per la verifica dell’età sui siti internet
L’Autorità garante delle comunicazioni (AGCOM) ha approvato delle nuove regole che i siti internet visibili in Italia dovranno usare per verificare l’età dei propri utenti, se ospiteranno contenuti vietati ai minorenni. In sostanza, d’ora in poi la verifica…
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The web is broken, IMHO
So there is a (IMHO) shady market out there that gives app developers on iOS, Android, MacOS and Windows money for including a library that sells users network bandwidth. Infatica [1] is just one example, there are many more.
I am 99% sure that these companies cause what effectively are DDoS attacks that many webmasters have to deal with since months. This business model should simply not exist. Apple, Microsoft and Google should act.
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[1] https://infatica.io/sdk-monetization/
So there is a (IMHO) shady market out there that gives app developers on iOS, Android, MacOS and Windows money for including a library that sells users network bandwidth. Infatica [1] is just one example, there are many more.
I am 99% sure that these companies cause what effectively are DDoS attacks that many webmasters have to deal with since months. This business model should simply not exist. Apple, Microsoft and Google should act.
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[1] https://infatica.io/sdk-monetization/
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L'#IA è ora in grado di analizzare le immagini caricate riconoscendo dettagli minuscoli che potrebbero sfuggire all'occhio umano.
La capacità di identificare con precisione luoghi da immagini casuali facilita pratiche come il doxing, la diffusione pubblica di informazioni private, in particolare relative all'ubicazione o alla residenza di una persona. Questa pratica, spesso motivata da intenti malevoli, mira a dirigere attenzioni indesiderate verso le vittime designate.
https://www.tomshw.it/hardware/chatgpt-identifica-i-luoghi-dalle-foto-mettendo-a-rischio-la-privacy-2025-04-20
La capacità di identificare con precisione luoghi da immagini casuali facilita pratiche come il doxing, la diffusione pubblica di informazioni private, in particolare relative all'ubicazione o alla residenza di una persona. Questa pratica, spesso motivata da intenti malevoli, mira a dirigere attenzioni indesiderate verso le vittime designate.
https://www.tomshw.it/hardware/chatgpt-identifica-i-luoghi-dalle-foto-mettendo-a-rischio-la-privacy-2025-04-20
Tom's Hardware
ChatGPT identifica i luoghi dalle foto mettendo a rischio la privacy
ChatGPT, con i suoi nuovi modelli o3 e o4-mini, difatti, ha rivelato capacità straordinarie nell'identificare luoghi geografici precisi da semplici foto.
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tbh the people that reject things like GPL or AGPL offer zero alternatives other than "get fucked"
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I recently came across two videos by this Jules on YouTube about how the current state of the internet is not only devoid of any humanity, but it also abuses our minds in ways that most people don't realize. What is talked about is not even the same kind of argument regurgitated by a hundred other videos, it goes much deeper, and I think more people should watch them.
Gen Z's Unique Oversocialisation: https://youtu.be/V5m2oKe9-sE
State of The Dead Internet: https://youtu.be/GELgKl_Wow8
Gen Z's Unique Oversocialisation: https://youtu.be/V5m2oKe9-sE
State of The Dead Internet: https://youtu.be/GELgKl_Wow8
YouTube
Gen Z's Unique Oversocialisation
In this one I talk about how mass media has made Gen Z insecure in themselves and their perception of each other, how we are adapting to unnatural circumstances, how people strangely blame it on the individual and where this is all going.
Chapters:
0:00…
Chapters:
0:00…
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[1/2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/lyft-conversation-transcribed-1.7508106
Canadian friends riding in a Lyft car found that their conversation had been recorded and sent in the form of text to the phone of one of them. This is supposed to be illegal, but Lyft says it shouldn't have been possible and it doesn't understand what happened. I can't draw any specific moral conclusions about Lyft from these fragments of understanding, but it is clear that microphones in cars are
Canadian friends riding in a Lyft car found that their conversation had been recorded and sent in the form of text to the phone of one of them. This is supposed to be illegal, but Lyft says it shouldn't have been possible and it doesn't understand what happened. I can't draw any specific moral conclusions about Lyft from these fragments of understanding, but it is clear that microphones in cars are
CBC
She was chatting with friends in a Lyft. Then someone texted her what they said | CBC News
A Toronto woman is raising concerns about her privacy being breached after she received a text message trannoscript of her conversation with her roommates during a Lyft ride last month.
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glad we're at the stage of our cyberpunk hell-timeline that we have corporate botnets DDoSing the free software communities that they rely on, leading to an arms race between the biggest companies in the world and a virtual anime person developing a proof-of-work proxy with an anime girl mascot that's now deployed by the united nations
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Everything you say to #Alexa now becomes training material for #AI, and no, you cannot opt out
https://adguard.com/en/blog/your-voice-alexa-ai-training-material.html
#privacy #Amazon
https://adguard.com/en/blog/your-voice-alexa-ai-training-material.html
#privacy #Amazon
AdGuard
Everything you say to Alexa now becomes training material for AI, and no, you cannot opt out
Amazon has removed the "Do Not Send Voice Recordings" option for several Echo devices. This change means that all voice commands — and effectively everything your Echo hears — will now be transmitted to and processed in Amazon’s cloud.
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"yea bro you can host your own relay" yeah i can, and i can host my own appview and my own pds. congrats. im no longer using bsky but my own atproto network i am hosting. this isn't decentralization. i don't have to host an entire fediverse to talk to my friends lol
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bluesky is decentralized if you decide that you want to host an entire bsky network. no more questions
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Web Browser telemetry - 2025 edition
"An article about which browser has the most connections after a fresh install."
https://sizeof.cat/post/web-browser-telemetry-2025-edition/
"But I do believe that’s a huge amount of connections for some of the browsers since it’s actually the first start after installing."
#webdev
"An article about which browser has the most connections after a fresh install."
https://sizeof.cat/post/web-browser-telemetry-2025-edition/
"But I do believe that’s a huge amount of connections for some of the browsers since it’s actually the first start after installing."
#webdev
sizeof.cat
Web Browser telemetry - 2025 edition - sizeof(cat)
Testing various web browsers to see what network connection they open by default on the initial start.
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@davidbisset@phpc.social I'm a bit confused about some of the article though. Like they show some such as LibreWolf making only three connections on initial install, but then go down to list a bunch of connections, most of which are obviously extensions making the connection.
They also say they're not talking about what is good or not, but then explicitly declare that making connections is bad and I must strongly disagree when some of those connections clearly shown are for uBlock Origin to download its blocklist (that's a minimum standard! You should never browse the Web without an ad blocker in 2025!) It's good for you to start off with a bare minimum safety margin, otherwise even just that quick lookup of something before initial setup is dangerous.
They also say they're not talking about what is good or not, but then explicitly declare that making connections is bad and I must strongly disagree when some of those connections clearly shown are for uBlock Origin to download its blocklist (that's a minimum standard! You should never browse the Web without an ad blocker in 2025!) It's good for you to start off with a bare minimum safety margin, otherwise even just that quick lookup of something before initial setup is dangerous.
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We don't talk anywhere near enough about how the tech industry is fucking with the general public's understanding of consent.
Fairly often I will opt out of something that would have been obviously reasonable a few years ago, and people will look at me like I drove a truck through the room.
Things like:
- I won't be appearing on camera today
- I don't wish to speak on a recording to be published on the University website
- I won't be giving my personal details to an overseas third party just to use a notepad tool in one meeting
I see this seeping through into attitudes about consent in other everyday life contexts. People are so used to being walked all over by their tech that they're increasingly shocked by boundaries.
Fairly often I will opt out of something that would have been obviously reasonable a few years ago, and people will look at me like I drove a truck through the room.
Things like:
- I won't be appearing on camera today
- I don't wish to speak on a recording to be published on the University website
- I won't be giving my personal details to an overseas third party just to use a notepad tool in one meeting
I see this seeping through into attitudes about consent in other everyday life contexts. People are so used to being walked all over by their tech that they're increasingly shocked by boundaries.
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Good story why permissive licenses like MIT should not be encouraged, especially for larger projects: https://philiplaine.com/posts/getting-forked-by-microsoft/
Edit: seems microsoft even breaks the permissive licenses. Anyway, muting the convo, have fun i guess
Edit: seems microsoft even breaks the permissive licenses. Anyway, muting the convo, have fun i guess
Philip Laine
Getting Forked by Microsoft
Three years ago, I was part of a team responsible for developing and maintaining Kubernetes clusters for end user customers. A main source for downtime in customer environments occurred when image registries went down. The traditional way to solve this problem…
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END OF 10
"Support for Windows 10 ends on October 14, 2025.
Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer.
But what if you could make your current one fast and secure again?
If you bought your computer after 2010, there's most likely no reason to throw it out. By just installing an up-to-date GNU/Linux operating system you can keep using it for years to come.
Installing an OS may sound difficult, but you don't have to go it alone! With any luck, there are people in your area ready to help!"
https://endof10.org/
#Microsoft #Windows #Windows10 #Windows11 #Linux #FOSS
"Support for Windows 10 ends on October 14, 2025.
Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer.
But what if you could make your current one fast and secure again?
If you bought your computer after 2010, there's most likely no reason to throw it out. By just installing an up-to-date GNU/Linux operating system you can keep using it for years to come.
Installing an OS may sound difficult, but you don't have to go it alone! With any luck, there are people in your area ready to help!"
https://endof10.org/
#Microsoft #Windows #Windows10 #Windows11 #Linux #FOSS
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Follow-up: Two weeks ago I asked about how Firefox' new AI chatbot integration fares regarding privacy.
By accident I found information on it in Mozilla's knowledge base [1] and a related article by them on privacy and chatbots [2].
Short answer: Mozilla does not read conversations, but some metadata is collected. Chatting with chatbots has the usual implications.
Some answers in the FAQ [1] I found particularly helpful, see screenshot.
[1] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-chatbot
[2] https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/how-to-protect-your-privacy-from-chatgpt-and-other-ai-chatbots/
By accident I found information on it in Mozilla's knowledge base [1] and a related article by them on privacy and chatbots [2].
Short answer: Mozilla does not read conversations, but some metadata is collected. Chatting with chatbots has the usual implications.
Some answers in the FAQ [1] I found particularly helpful, see screenshot.
[1] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-chatbot
[2] https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/how-to-protect-your-privacy-from-chatgpt-and-other-ai-chatbots/
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