@PierceTheBubble@lemmy.ml

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• If you leave them to choose between WhatsApp and Signal, they’ll pick what they already have and what they’re familiar with. I deleted WhatsApp after they introduced MetaAI, and told people close to me, that they could only message me using Signal going forward. Just make sure you support people that have difficulty installing and using the app. When removing malware from my grandma’s smartphone, I also made sure to install Signal, and she now comfortably contacts me through it for minor things. It’s not like you’re inconveniencing them much: it’s just an app installation and basic setup, while the workflow is nearly identical; especially if you allow them to find you through your phone number (which I have disabled).

  on Should i give up on signal? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 5d ago

• And how exactly do you plan on curbing addressing through cryptographic hashes, instead of IP addresses directly, where client and server are separated through intermediary nodes? If the site exists on an anonymizing network (like I2P or TOR), it becomes a lot harder to identify the IP address of centralized services, and impossible where decentralized. Well, unless you go fully authoritarian, and only allow weakened encryption standards: exploited by authorities, and others aware of ways to exploit the weaknesses.

  But I suppose this further disincentivizes ordinary, less tech-savvy, would-be “pirates”, that need the clear-web for torrent links… Which we should make our responsibility, to enrich the knowledge of said persons, so that they can bypass regulations of governments, that fundamentally act against their best interests. It’s time for people to rediscover torrenting, like many households did in the 2000’s, instead of giving away their freedoms to subscriptions, purely for the sake of short-term convenience.

  on Republican bill would order ISPs, DNS providers, and VPNs to block piracy sites in c/technology@lemmy.world · 6d ago

• I’ve found documents, which alongside all the flowery language of protecting the children, states in section 2.3 that providers are obliged to perform age verification upon account creation, relying on “the age verification tool” (which I assume is the EU Digital Identity Wallet).

  So if these hypocrites could just pause patting themselves on the back, and for once, explain that the default experience, for at least large online platforms, is one that is also considered “appropriate” for children of all ages; and therefore extremely limiting for adults. Well, unless you just integrate your government issued ID into a wallet, that (at least locally) creates links between it and your accounts (you might want to keep anonymous).

  There’s also a lot of decent points that are being made, but which could easily be viewed separate from the identity-gating of the “open” internet. An age-bracket, based on a local, self-reported, password-protected ‘date of birth’ field, would be more than sufficient, but instead the EU chooses to fundamentally distrusts its citizens, while asking for unreasonable levels of trust in return. And similar to Google’s reCAPTCHA, I don’t even have, nor have desires to have, an iOS or Android smartphone that supports the application.

  on Ursula Leyen - State of the European Union speech - EU Kids Act in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 16 Sep 2026

• At least for WhatsApp and Signal, it appears the user is required to open the messenger app, navigate to the linking setting, authenticate themselves, and scan the QR code on the device that is to be linked (or one that corresponds to it, but hiding in a malicious e-mail). I can’t find any flow that allows for a QR code to link directly to the authentication mechanism, and provide the authentication code to it, while bypassing user authentication.

  on Secret documents show German police don't need to break the encryption of chat apps, they have been systematically adding their own device to the messenger accounts of people under investigation. in c/technology@lemmy.world · 16 Sep 2026

• So again by linking accounts to a device operated by police or customs in this case. Which for SMS confirmations, I understand can be intercepted and confirmed by authorities, but the QR exploit seems farther fetched (because who in their right mind would open a messenger and scan a random QR?); and of course if you have access to a target’s unlocked device, it becomes trivial.

  on Secret documents show German police don't need to break the encryption of chat apps, they have been systematically adding their own device to the messenger accounts of people under investigation. in c/technology@lemmy.world · 16 Sep 2026

• Once again… Because Chinese models keep forcing US AI companies to prematurely release their backstock of “future” iterations, meant to sustain the hype train: leading to plateauing, decreases in investor confidence, and ultimately the demise of the AI bubble. And are we referring to Sam Altman as “OpenAI boss” now? Because people might otherwise stop reading after: “Sam Altman says…”

  on OpenAI boss and Elon Musk back calls to put brakes on ‘reckless’ AI development in c/technology@lemmy.world · 13 Sep 2026

• I really can’t stand the “Not now”, where “services” (including Google’s backup service) prey on the user accidentally agreeing one day.

  on Backflip: Apple now wants to train AI models with user data after all in c/technology@lemmy.world · 13 Sep 2026

• I’m not familiar with UK legislation in particular, but considering approaches taken by other legislative bodies, their works effectively require online services to serve “age-appropriate experiences” based on age signals; which includes websites, applications and application stores. So unless an adult is content with just experiences deemed “appropriate” for all users (even children under 10), the user is extremely limited in their access. So I don’t think “bricked” is necessarily an overstatement.

  on Anyone else seeing that unhinged "UK phones require digital ID or get child-locked" screenshot making the rounds? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 10 Sep 2026

• Maybe because now it’s Google Gemini under the hood?

  on Siri Might Actually Be Good Now. Or Maybe It Was Just That Bad Before. in c/technology@lemmy.world · 3 Sep 2026

• It’s Apple buying goodwill, for both itself and the Trump administration, while only marginally benefiting the average US citizen, if at all.

  on Internal revolt as 'nuts' Apple execs appease Trump: 'There is not a soul who is for it' in c/technology@lemmy.world · 3 Sep 2026

• I’m not saying it isn’t pathetic, but Apple has a track record of gobbling Trump’s marbles for business, so it should be expected they aren’t risking anything over the name of a lake in their mapping service.

  on Internal revolt as 'nuts' Apple execs appease Trump: 'There is not a soul who is for it' in c/technology@lemmy.world · 3 Sep 2026

• What did you expect from a Trillion dollar corporation, that gifted Trump a 24k gold and glass statue, made a $100B commitment to US manufacturing, and being among the “donors” of the White House ballroom? But changing the name of a lake? Too far…

  on Internal revolt as 'nuts' Apple execs appease Trump: 'There is not a soul who is for it' in c/technology@lemmy.world · 2 Sep 2026

• The parallels with the EU’s Digital Services Act are just remarkable, both in terms of timing and substance (down to the phrasing). But on the bright side, when Facebook prompted my mom to choose between a subscription, and her being the product, it first-handedly confronted her with the platform’s policies. And knowing that she believed a selfie video to be disproportionate, even in context of changing a banking app setting, she will be even more reluctant to submit it to a social media platform; especially since her joy in using the platform has also decreased over time. So perhaps this might be yet another friction point, that could lead users to stop using the platform altogether. But the sad reality is that this won’t be restricted to Facebook, but also extend to platforms that are a net-positive to society.

  on Meta's $17 Billion Settlement is a Bad Deal for Teens and All Social Media Users in c/technology@lemmy.world · 2 Sep 2026

• Come on guys, have a little faith in the Union… If we would all just give up on privacy, and blindly trust an international intelligence apparatus with our most intimate data, perhaps then they’d finally have enough privileges; at least for another year. We shouldn’t take steps to protect ourselves, instead the Union will act in our best interest and do it for us!

  on European Commission Revives Push for Encryption Backdoors in ProtectEU Strategy, Framing Mass Surveillance as “Lawful Access” in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 30 Aug 2026

• Citizens must not be forced to identify themselves to access lawful online content or services unless strictly necessary, proportionate and provided by law.

  Are you not aware of the Digital Services Act? This piece of legislation alone, provides all the incentives for service providers to do exactly that; unless they change their business-model, which is rather unlikely. By default, users should be treated as adults and therefore unrestricted in their access; rather than children unless proven otherwise.

  If the EU would simply mandate operating systems sold within the jurisdiction, to allow specification of an optional ‘date of birth’ field, which is local and purely on a trust-basis (no external verification required); this should be more than sufficient for signaling an age-bracket to a service, which may then serve an “age-appropriate experience”.

  A digital identity wallet should be strictly reserved for matters that already required personal identification. Using such heavy-handed measures for controlling access to adult content, or even social media, is complete and utter overkill. I’m not interested in more empty, technical, server-side “trust me, bro” promises, for something that is fundamentally disproportional.

  on Stop Killing The Internet: No Digital ID & No Age Verification | European Citizens' Initiative in c/technology@lemmy.world · 28 Aug 2026

• Did you really get raped, or did the roofie I put in your drink do its job?

  on US Politician on privacy rights: “You can’t have your privacy violated if you don’t know your privacy was violated” in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 27 Aug 2026

• It’s sad enough to resort to consumption for happiness, but to play shopping simulators because you can’t afford to, is outright depressing. And spreading awareness is fine, but it feels somewhat condescending, when (over)consumption is the coping mechanism here. These people are likely struggling to find long-term happiness, and can only afford short-term dopamine hits instead.

  on You can't buy anything on these food delivery and shopping sites. Here's why that's the point | Simulated shopping sites offer the thrill of buying without spending a cent in c/technology@lemmy.world · 25 Aug 2026

• Humanizing and accustomizing

  on Chinese humanoid robots smash human records in 100m sprint and high jump at Beijing robot games in c/technology@lemmy.world · 23 Aug 2026

• Right on, same here. :)

  on One In Five Drivers Switches Off The Safety Tech Meant To Save Their Lives in c/technology@lemmy.world · 23 Aug 2026

• The study found 58.3 percent of buyers say they couldn’t live without Bluetooth connectivity

  Strange, when smartphones no longer come with 3.5 mm sockets… The consumer never asked for the majority of these “features”: they already had access to most of them (through their smartphone or other standalone device), or was easily and cost-effectively installed as an aftermarket gadget. All of these “safety” features, that coincidentally also happen to constitute a (future) privacy-nightmare, were pushed for by: legislators, insurance companies, and the automotive industry itself. Consumers effectively got conned into buying a duplicate of products they already owned, but which are instead subject to terms and conditions dictated by aforementioned stakeholders.

  on One In Five Drivers Switches Off The Safety Tech Meant To Save Their Lives in c/technology@lemmy.world · 23 Aug 2026

• Imagine going after those seeking to protect their works from being stolen by AI, instead of the AI scrapers that caused this entire shit show to begin with. Put the blame where it makes sense, and don’t try to guilt trip those that are victim of intellectual property theft, into believing they are the ones responsible for the web becoming an accessibility-nightmare; not for just the disabled, but everyone (locking content behind: a login, PoW challenges, and CAPTCHAs). Awful defeatist take.

  on Anti-AI fonts are useless and harmful in c/technology@lemmy.world · 21 Aug 2026

• Practically all modern vehicles are privacy nightmares on wheels. They have identifying sensors all over the vehicle, on both the exterior and interior. And all ECUs (monitoring and controlling sensors and actuators from a vehicle’s particular subsystems) are (indirectly) connected to a cellular modem, which is likely to support ‘vehicle to everything (V2X)’ communications: where the vehicle exchanges sensory data with external networks (primarily the manufacturer’s), road infrastructure and other road users nearby.

  Your most effective remedy is to hamper the functioning of the modem, that is if the manufacturer doesn’t throw an error code as a result of it. If that isn’t an option, check if it allows you to physically disable sensors (taping off, or limiting the FOV of cameras, or unplugging microphones). And lastly, if even that isn’t an option, disable as many “features” as you can; even though some may require you to manually re-disable them, every time you restart your vehicle…

  Keep in mind that in doing so, you might also disable actual features (ones you might find genuinely useful). Mozilla’s somewhat outdated reports of manufacturer’s privacy statements might give you some idea, of which brands could be considered the lesser of evil. But these are subject to constant change, as are the over-the-air updates of vehicles in their fleet, and their dynamic user manuals…

  on New car suggestions in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 21 Aug 2026

• All the time. There’s occasionally even websites that outright block me without challenge, run many iterations on my machine, or present a tiresome amount of CAPTCHAs (Waymo machine vision must be trained pretty well, from me labeling goddamn traffic lights, motorcycles and stairs throughout the day). Especially CAPTCHAs that load new pictures with an infuriatingly slow fade animation drive me up the wall; one of which possibly not even sufficient.

  But I take it as a compliment, as it might mean my browser profile is minimal enough to trip these systems into thinking it’s a headless browser (typically used for bot traffic).

  on Question: searching and browser randomly injecting Cloudflare etc. "checks" in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 21 Aug 2026

• Authentication of users seems to be outsourced to ‘identity providers (IdPs)’ (primarily: Google, Facebook, Apple, etc.: “login with…”); that manage access to a service’s resources, which are increasingly distributed throughout various cloud-based services. A service’s chat application might be hosted at provider X, whereas its website at provider Y; so managing access to these resources from a centralized identity pool is convenient. Well, unless you value you privacy, but that’s the end-user’s problem…

  At least that is the impression I’ve gotten from my limited research on Amazon Cognito: required for contacting my doctor’s office through their forced chat application (automatic account creation, no longer a phone line for uses outside of emergencies). And yes, to anyone wondering: I am going to look for alternatives, because this should not be acceptable, at least for a doctor’s office of all places.

  on Google account & Social account needed to join in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 20 Aug 2026

• Audio fingerprinting works because small differences in browser versions, operating systems, audio libraries, and hardware can produce slightly different results from the same generated signal. It is not necessarily enough to uniquely identify a device by itself, but it becomes much more useful when combined with canvas, WebGL, hardware, timing, and interaction data.

  The gaining happens after retrieval of the results it seems: so it’s just silent for the end user. And perhaps they do both fingerprinting, and ensure audio devices remain awake.

  on AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint in c/technology@lemmy.world · 20 Aug 2026

• Yeah, I understand (as an ex-GOS and current pmOS user). It just feels hypocritical to crutch on monopolies for “child protection”, while in the same breath criticizing monopolistic practices… The EU should pick their poison

  on Apple announces changes for apps in the European Union in c/technology@lemmy.world · 19 Aug 2026

• How about requiring Apple to provide an option for the device “owner” to disable Apple’s “protections”? If I want to choose freedom over “security”, I should have the option to do so. But the EU seems more interested in app signatures and app distribution through centralized channels controlled by the very same monopolists (as a similar approach can be observed on Android). But everything to protect the children, right?

  on Apple announces changes for apps in the European Union in c/technology@lemmy.world · 19 Aug 2026

• Every social media platform, having a business model where the customer is the product, will put measures into place to avoid liability on the basis of hypocritical, age-dependent requirements (additional protections for children in case of the GDPR or DSA for example). So although ordering the platforms to “age”-gate might be unconstitutional, forcing them to choose between abandoning their business-model or age-gating their platform, likely results in the latter while bypassing said constitutional protections. But on a national level this should be considered a (temporary) win.

  on Thanks For Joining the Movement: French Constitutional Council Strikes Down Kids’ Social Media Ban - Michael Geist in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 19 Aug 2026

• Interesting that Chart 1 a only shows data up to 2023, while data up to 2026 shows an even closer resemblance to the dot-com bubble and 2008 financial crisis; in terms of steepness of the growth. So the more linear growth seen since the 2008 financial crisis, really should be attributed to other (more legitimate) forces in the market; while this article should’ve really focused on the growth since 2022 (which it just barely does).

  on The AI Bubble Warning Just Came From Europe’s Central Bank in c/technology@lemmy.world · 19 Aug 2026

• So after butchering the like/dislike ratio, the view-count will also become utterly useless… What’s next, automatically subscribing users to inflate subscriber-count too? All these universally liked videos (no dislikes), views/exposure (zero engagement), advertiser-friendly content (threatened (shadow)banning or demonetization)! Now the only red flag to any malinformed advertiser might be a low subscriber-count; so just do it already. Well, alongside the lackluster performance of the ads themselves of course (which can only be measured after the transaction: poorly at that). And the best part: non of the ad-revenue will be shared with the propped up channels: as the recently heightened threshold, requires additional engaged viewers; as opposed to the TikTok-level, worthless kind.

  on YouTube will now count a view as soon as a video starts playing in c/technology@lemmy.world · 18 Aug 2026

• “Consent” from just the wearer, that is likely to have their iPhone’s photos/videos synched to their iCloud account: which by default don’t appear to be end-to-end encrypted (and is therefore accessible by Apple). So although the user is technically expected to read Apple’s entire privacy policy to everyone they interact with, and they technically can enable E2EE on iCloud for this category of data, they know full and well the ordinary iSheep isn’t going to.

  Given Apple’s obsession with brand-perception, risking being associated with perverts (like rightfully happened with Meta’s “pervert glasses”), I think it’s completely inexcusable to release a product of the same category; at least for the time being. But perhaps Apple’s marketed propaganda has really given the ignorant populace a false sense of privacy, in which they blindly trust a Trillion dollar corporation with their most privacy-sensitive information.

  on Is Apple beginning a privacy reset? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 18 Aug 2026

• Here’s the link you may have forgotten to add: marketwatch.com/…/employers-are-using-your-person…

  on Companies are now using your credit history, past-due accounts, browsing data, and social media accounts to figure out the absolute lowest salary you'll accept. Algorithmic wage suppression is being… in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 15 Aug 2026

• And then music that gets ripped off by AI, gets the original creator flagged as AI, that in turn has to prove to an AI, that they are in fact not AI…

  on Spotify to distinguish AI artists from real people and block them from some playlists in c/technology@lemmy.world · 12 Aug 2026

• Law enforcement shouldn’t become too convenient (“The company built a staff of hundreds of compliance officers, many of them veterans of U.S. and European law enforcement agencies. The police could often get information about accounts far faster from Binance than they could from banks.”), but equally not be excessively hindered by procedures or cronyist governments (“[…] unable to obtain account records from some Binance users based in the United Arab Emirates. […] certain information requests flow through the Emirati government […] conflict of interest, because the investment firm MGX is funded by Abu Dhabi royals.”); so I’m quite mixed on the change of direction.

  It might be positive for legitimate users of the platform (which are less likely to be investigated, let alone receive specialty-treatment), but simultaneously protect Trump’s crypto-scamming inner circle, alongside other high-value targets.

  on World’s Biggest Crypto Exchange Has Made It Harder to Fight Crime, Police Say - European Law Enforcement Say Binance Is Protecting Money Laundering in c/technology@lemmy.world · 12 Aug 2026

• Having no issues with the Bypass Paywalls Clean addon. It’s so good, it got removed from: the Mozilla add-on store, GitLab, and Github (which is why it’s now hosted on the Russian GitFlic).

  on A Surveillance ‘Cat-and-Mouse’ Game With AI - The Atlantic in c/technology@lemmy.world · 11 Aug 2026