cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1342185/meta-files-patent-for-facial-recognition-automatic-recording-of-people

Both the UK & AU have passed legislation in which they aim to “ban” social media for kids -16 (or that’s the excuse they’re using) when its the catalyst for mass surveillance (unfortunately, even if you tell them the truth: it’s either people including your own family consider you paranoid or a conspiracy theorist). To avoid that, one must gather sufficient evidence debunking or dispelling the lies being shoved into the masses via media.

The common defense for this is “think of the children” from either lazy parents or Christian conservatives as that’s the easiest lie ever told besides social media or internet usage (you heard that from games, movies or music restrictions in the past). IMO, “banning” SM outright or trying to reinforce AV towards everyone creates more hassle for both sides (users and companies) as SM companies can face large fines for non-compliance.

If you look at the larger picture: it treads on one’s liberties such as freedom of speech & expression as what appears to be “no SM for -16” soon morphs into a 1984-esque dystopia where people will be detained for speaking their mind or the truth. This is what digital privacy advocates fear, basically saying that internet anonymity will cease or be deemed illegal if people lack critical thinking or can’t see through the fog.

Even though the laws have passed in both countries: it does nothing as people (kids and adults) can still access SM. They know VPN’s exist, banning or trying to lock that under AV will make them look stupid. SM is toxic due to the slop and demographic, but IMO should remain up to the individuals or families rather than the government (all MSM side with the state using “no SM for -16” omitting mass surveillance in the headlines).

Saw the top post today about Nitter getting a cease and desist. Not surprised, but it hit a nerve.

Last winter I finally moved my family off Google Photos. Not for ideology, just tired of paying for One that gets more expensive every year.

Old Dell Optiplex 7040 in the closet, Immich for photos, Nextcloud for docs, Matrix for family chat. It was messy. I forgot to set up proper backups and almost lost a month of kid photos in January. My wife still brings it up.

Before that I thought privacy was about picking a better provider. Nitter was part of that logic too - use a private frontend for a bad platform. But frontends die. Nitter, Invidious, all of them. One letter and it’s gone.

Self-hosting didn’t solve everything, but at least my photos don’t depend on someone else’s frontend staying alive. The problem now is family. My server is in my closet, but my sister is still on Messenger, my mom on iCloud. My setup doesn’t protect them.

Curious how you handle this part. When the frontend you rely on disappears, do you try to move family to Signal/Matrix or just accept you can only protect your own node?

You should know that you can request your home be blurred from Google Street View.

[If] you prefer your home, vehicle or full body not be shown, you can request it to be blurred. Only the home owner or tenant is eligible to request a house blur.

the blur is permanent. We also ensure that the newly blurred Street View image is excluded from generative AI prompting from that point onward, honouring your privacy choice.

Mozilla recently announced a partnership with the AI company Exa. They say:

Firefox is investing in partnerships with companies like Exa.ai to bring deep expertise in specific areas while sharing our commitment to user choice, privacy, and transparency.

They continue:

We’re picking partners for the same reason each time: people who think AI in a browser should work for you, not the other way around.

This is a little ironic when Exa’s CEO describes it differently:

We’re organizing the world’s knowledge, but this time for AI

…But I digress. Mozilla promises three things above.

1. User choice
2. Privacy
3. Transparency

I’ll be looking into privacy exclusively (and leave the fact Exa is an undisclosed member of the Andreesen Horowitz portfolio for another day).

A Privacy Audit

Exa’s privacy policy is short and troubling. It starts with an entitled attitude towards private data that might be available online:

Although publicly available data is not considered “personal information” under certain data privacy laws, we have nevertheless described how we collect, use and disclose such information…

This is an appeal to technical legality: common sense would dictate that a publicly leaked database of social security numbers would be personal information, but apparently the possibility that it’s not explicitly enumerated under some (unnamed) privacy laws irks the AI company.

Not a great start, but maybe things get better…

When you use or access the Services, we collect certain categories of information about you from different sources. In addition to the specific uses discussed below, we may use this information to provide and improve the Services and to maintain our business relationship… and protecting our rights and the rights of our employees, users or other individuals.

What other individuals need this company’a protection? How will information be used to “improve” their product? These questions are unanswered. But we do get told a bit more about sources:

We and third parties also automatically collect certain information about your interactions with the Services, including through cookies, pixels or other tracking technologies. This information is collected and used to better understand user interactions with the Services, run analytics, monitor and improve performance, measure engagement and to tailor and enhance user experience. Such information includes:

• Device information, such as device type, operating system, unique device identifier, and internet protocol (IP) address.

• Location information, such as approximate location based on IP address.

• Other information regarding your interaction with the Services, such as browser type, log data, date and time stamps, clickstream data (e.g., page requests, page views, how much time is spent on a page, content viewed or interacted with, text entered, etc.), interactions with marketing emails

That’s a ton of data!

Exa describes how they refuse to honor requests not to track you.

Your browser settings may allow you to transmit a “Do Not Track” signal when you visit various websites. Like many websites, our website is not designed to respond to “Do Not Track” signals received from browsers.

Exa admits they knowingly collect personal data by default, and it’s unclear how or if Firefox Smart Window uses can steer clear of the privacy problems.

On default plans, we use anonymized data…

[You can] opt out of Exa’s collection of brokered personal information, opt out of its database, or out of its certain sale of data customers…

Opt out of certain, but not all, sales.

Exa has a second privacy page that describes its compliance with requests to delete private data or opt out of selling it. It received 50 total requests to delete or opt out of selling private data, and “complied”, which can include incomplete compliance for some reason, with only 5 of them. That’s a 10% compliance rate.

[new] Exa monetized “finding” individual people

I just found out about another skeleton in Exa’s closet: the stalkerish People Search that scraped and started publicizing work information. From a LinkedIn post:

I can pull entire staff lists for companies. I can [get] an individual’s work history. I can pull lists of people with a particular job title in a geographical area. I can also combine all this with richer company information and web search data…

Exa are very brave as I can’t imagine LinkedIn likes it very much.

Does this fit Mozilla?

On privacy alone: no.

Mozilla promises a commitment to user privacy, and promises to only work with companies that share that commitment. Exa demonstrates hostility towards user privacy.

Maybe the New, AI-First Mozilla has abandoned this charter, but their website still says:

Individuals’ security and privacy on the internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional.

I wrote a blog post about the hidden ways your location is being tracked without your knowledge.

mirror in case the video doesn’t load: files.catbox.moe/u0rj1d.mp4

By admin console, I mean a blank profile with nothing but stock Graphene apps on it. No Gplay store, no F droid, nothing. Its main job is to control esim, profile creation, duress pass, wifi…etc.

Or just a normal daily Main, with secondary profiles OR private spaces?

What i currently have: main profile with main Google (unfortunately), all sensitive in separate profile.

Hello self-hosters! :) I’d like to tap into your experience

tl;dr: Is it really a bad idea to use MariaDB with data over NFS?

My setup

• RAID NFS NAS on RPi4
• “CPU machine”, just an old laptop for now

The idea is that NAS stores the data and RAID mitigates single point of failure. Laptop is only for running the stuff, all docker-compose are under git, uploaded elswhere. Laptop fails - I buy a new refurbished one and put everything back together from data on NAS and git

Problem

But Nextcloud uses DB. ATM it sits on the laptop. And I’m thinking how to somehow move that data to the NAS.

At the beginning NAS was just for NC files, connected as NC “external storage” over SFTP. But there were issues with this setup and NFS4 turned out to not require Kerberos to work.
Since NFS docker volumes have been working quite fine, I thought about just moving the data to the NAS. But then I read this:

Generally, we recommend not to use NFS (Network File System) with MariaDB, for these reasons:

• MariaDB data and log files on NFS volumes can become locked and unavailable for use. Locking issues may occur in cases where multiple instances of MariaDB access the same data directory, or when MariaDB is shut down improperly, for instance, due to a power outage. In particular, sharing a data directory among MariaDB instances is not recommended.

• Data inconsistencies due to messages received out of order or lost network traffic. To avoid this issue, use TCP with hard and intr mount options.

And I feel discouraged

• I could move whole DB (I mean including the process) to the NAS, but then operating the DB becomes NAS’ burden and breaks the responsibility separation
  I’m not a fan of this idea
• I could treat NAS as first stage of backup for that DB data and just send the data to NAS once a day
  Also a bit meh. Getting back up from server failure will require copying the data
• Maybe it’s not that bad to use MariaDB with NFS?
  If there is a problem with server-NAS connection, I actually don’t want Nextcloud to work at all. It should fail, so I know I need to fix something

So, what are your experiences? Is running the DB on one machine, using the data from another machine over NFS a shot in the foot?

While in the first installments of the game trilogy, the character of Miller was a fictional synthesis of various traits, in the final chapter — Metro Exodus — a real person named Pyotr Sherekin became the prototype for the colonel’s refreshed appearance.

In real life, Pyotr Sherekin is the Kyiv-based chairman of the Interregional Association of Special Forces Veterans and a USSR Master of Sports in hand-to-hand combat. He has real-world combat and service experience, which in many ways helped him become the perfect visual prototype for the rugged Colonel Miller.

Sherekin, much like Miller with his “Sparta,” was at the very roots of creating an elite formation. In the early 1990s, within the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of independent Ukraine, the Republican Special Purpose Detachment — ROSPRIZ — was being formed. Pyotr Sherekin became its first commander.

Later, this unit became the foundation for the creation of the famous Ukrainian “Berkut” in January 1992. However, during major political changes and personnel reshuffles within the ministry at the time, Sherekin left the service and fully dedicated himself to training bodyguards, the veteran movement, and running his own business.

Note: The Ukrainian ROSPRIZ (much like the later “Berkut”) is conceptually very close to American regional SWAT or State Police tactical units. This provides a better picture of the type of formation Pyotr Sherekin both founded and commanded.

The Firefox update is finally on the way! This release adds support for Firefox’s new requirements. I expect version 4.0.5 to pass Mozilla’s review within a week, bringing the long-awaited Firefox update. Firefox 140 or newer is required.

What’s changed

• YouTube Shorts: Fixed missing dislike counts and stale controls when scrolling between Shorts, with better support for newer YouTube layouts and navigation between regular videos and Shorts.

• New: Hide clutter buttons. Enable it in the extension settings to keep Like and Dislike visible. Share, Save, Thanks, and other optional actions remain available in YouTube’s three-dot More menu. Off by default.

• Fixed action buttons clipping, wrapping, or flickering on narrow video pages.

• Improved dislike-count and ratio-bar updates when navigating between videos without reloading.

• New: GitHub contributor sign-in. Contributors can now sign in with GitHub to access premium features.

In 2020, Microsoft announced that Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions would include unlimited access to its new Xbox Cloud Gaming service (then still known as Project xCloud). Now, that kind of streaming buffet service is coming to an end, as Microsoft announced strict new limits on how much streaming is included in its various Game Pass subscriptions.

Starting in November, Game Pass subscriptions will include the following monthly limits on game streaming time:

•Game Pass Ultimate ($23/month): 15 hours

•Game Pass Premium ($15/month): 10 hours

•Game Pass Essential ($10/month): 5 hours

Subscribers who use up their monthly streaming allotment will be able to buy additional time, Microsoft said, without sharing specific pricing or availability for that streaming time. Access to downloadable versions of games included in a Game Pass subscription remains unaffected.

Players who don’t subscribe to Game Pass will also be able to purchase timed access to streaming versions of “eligible games they own on supported devices,” Microsoft said. In June, Microsoft also began testing a free “stream with ads” option for players to access their cloud libraries at no additional cost.

Sony currently offers streamable versions of select PlayStation games—without time limits—only to subscribers of its top-tier, $20 per month PlayStation Plus Premium plan. Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming PC games service currently limits the length of a user’s individual play sessions, ranging from one-hour sessions on the free ad-supported tier to eight-hour sessions on the $20 per month Ultimate tier. GeForce Now users can start as many sessions as they want in a day, however, and can purchase single-day passes for limited-time streaming access to over 2,000 streamable titles.

Who pays?

While Microsoft acknowledges that its new streaming limits will result in a “higher cost” for some customers, the company says the change will only impact “4% of Game Pass subscribers.” That ratio suggests that about 1.2 million of the estimated 30 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers are currently using streaming often enough to require additional payments under the new structure.

TL;DR this is a huge overhaul of the popular open-source audio editing app. The UI specifically has been the biggest overhaul, making it a lot more modern and friendly to use.

Hopefully, one day, GIMP will get some kind of update like this.

Today’s game is some more Pokemon Platinum. I actually slowed down to do the math on what all I need to play to complete the Pokédex for everything. I cut FRLG out because it’s on switch. I probably won’t buy it, and especially any time soon with the price, but if I want to commit to the challenge of a Native Gen 1-7 Pokédex (or more appropriately now Gen 2-7) it’s probably something I’ll have to do to make it by the deadline I set for myself. Anyways. So. I’ll need to do:

• HGSS
• Platinum (Already working on)
• XY
• USUM

Since I already did Emerald a while ago, that lets me knock out ORAS too, though I love OR so maybe I’ll go back and play it. I’ve also done BW so I don’t need to worry about that, though if I have extra time I want to try and squeeze B2W2 in, I think it’d be fun.

Anyways. I did a competition. I entered Dillon (my Bibarel) into it. She was doing great until nds-bootstrap’s menu crashed and I had to restart. Besides that though great. I think she would have won.

I honestly don’t ever mess with the contest mechanics. Usually I skip them but I’ve been wanting too for Platinum for some reason so I thought I’d give it a try. Still don’t have an understanding of what it is I’m doing but I’m having fun.

I got the 3rd gym badge too. It gave me a bit of trouble but I got some TMs and had a way better time. I like looking at the case, especially because tapping on the badge makes a fun little metallic sound.

Playing all these has made me realize though, I don’t really care for how ‘Meta’ the newer games are. Like, I enjoy them and respect them. But there’s an aspect to now I feel like where they feel almost self aware they’re an RPG and give you easy access to EXP grinding. Like the raid battles and stuff. I’m not necessarily saying it’s a bad thing, but I guess it feels a lot less diegetic to me. It makes it feel a lot less like the journey the older games had to.

Anyways. I just wanted to talk about this since I made some progress. As I’m writing this I’m running around the woods looking for a Clefairy. So basically I’m really enjoy playing this, so I hope I’m not going to let this go to the bin

It seems opinions are most polarized when it comes to some of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s unique gameplay “obstacles.” According to Oyama, players in Japan and Asia tend to be quite vocal about what they perceive as “inconveniences,” while players in Europe and North America are more likely to view these same game elements as “friction” and welcome them. While the developers don’t cite any specific examples, they do describe travelling by foot and Dragonsplague as some of the “inconveniences” the game throws at players earlier in the interview.

The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) measures the skills of 15-year-olds in reading, maths and science. It has been carried out every three years since 2000.

In reading, mathematics and science, last year’s results show the lowest scores ever measured for Germany since the first study.

hasan piker (guy on the right) does not represent the left and is not worthy of your attention.

he is actively making abdul el-sayed’s chances at election worse and i am frustrated about it given the stakes so i made this meme.

because like. my absolute BESTIE abdul el-sayed is out here working miracles at home trying to keep poc, migrant, low-income, queer, etc. people alive and doing the actual work of building a coalition, including making real inroads with his Jewish constituency, while being explicitly pro-Palestinian and rejecting AIPAC money.

hasan piker has made a handful of appearances with both abdul and zohran, but now abdul is getting viciously smeared for hasan’s own words, with fox news literally turning things hasan said into attack-ad material against him. and hasan just will not read the room and step back.

this is the same BOZO hasan piker who wears mao outfits, plays literal terrorist propaganda videos for his friends and goes “they’re just very musical people,” denies the Uyghur genocide, supports the invasion of Tibet, lies about queer rights in China while going on tours, and has said enough insane shit that even my OTHER bestie zohran mamdani disavowed him months ago. and the room is STILL unread and some people are trying to tell me i have to fall on the sword for piker.

do i have to beg ;;;;;;

i just want candidates who aren’t evil to win :’(

Looks like the ram and storage prices are hitting the Google TV Streamer now as well.

cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/71085747

The box is the kingdom for now, and the pad is the throne. The stare is the tiny ruler’s only foreign policy, and negotiations open at dawn. Terms: unlimited tribute.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1379783/microsoft-collects-massive-amounts-of-info-from-k-12-students-without-parental-consent-c

cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/51474958

Musk denied he was aware Grok ever produced ‘any naked underage images’

A survivor of child sexual abuse has sued Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, alleging that its chatbot used pictures of her abuse to generate new illegal pornographic images that depict her.

“Using real images of Plaintiff and class members, Grok generated child pornography depicting Plaintiff and class members,” states the complaint, which was filed last week in a US district court in California.

Attorneys for the plaintiff, who is listed as Jane Doe in the case to protect her identity, accuse xAI of both generating CSAM of their client and of ingesting child sexual abuse images depicting her into the company’s datasets after new images were publicly posted.

(TikTok screencap)

transcription: bouncer: “id please” me: “okay here” bouncer: “this is just a recipt for some heelys you bought” me: has already heelied past him bouncer: under breath “fuck that was so cool”

The Threadripper Halo is an ultra-high-performance workstation equipped with up to two terabytes of system memory, up to 576 gigabytes of high bandwidth memory (HBM3E), along with 96 cores of Threadripper Pro, two MI350P data centre accelerators, all supported by liquid cooling.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/65577152

The European Parliament’s rapporteurs on the proposed Industrial Accelerator Act are closing the EU market to Chinese investment in sectors where Beijing is dominant, going further than what the European Commission suggested.