Jon S. von Tetzchner
Jon S. von Tetzchner  ·  5 days ago
I have for the last 11 years talked about the problem with user profiling and algorithmic content. Creation of echo chambers and the ability to easily manipulate what people see for marketing purposes and worse. Even made a cat video to try to make the point. I wish more would see this.

The point is not for political parties to see the potential here, but rather to see the risk. The only way to fix this is to ban user profiling.

You have made a good choice to move the the Fediverse. It would help for more of your friends to join us.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/11/09/social-media-traditional-news-elections-00188548

#Politics #fediverse#Mastodon @EUCommission#Privacy#Twitter#Facebook#USPol#USPolitics

ErosBlog Bacchus
ErosBlog Bacchus  ·  4 weeks ago
Even if the fact pattern implied by this meme were literal truth, it would not LITERALLY be a reification of Cory Doctorow's ( @pluralistic) enshittification concept; but it comes rather closer than any of us would want!

https://www.erosblog.com/2024/10/15/enshittification-of-a-restroom-near-you/

#Toilet#Privacy#Enshittification#PublicToilet#Transparent#Opaque#SmartGlass#PrivacyPolicy#Update#Transparency#Opacity#Voyeurism#Bathroom#Shame#Meme

Marcel Waldvogel
Marcel Waldvogel  ·  last month
The worst thing: This very revealing and personal data may already be on the market. Because of lack of enforced secure login (e.g. #2FA) and an open "social" policy of providing almost unrestricted access to the most personal and immutable data for any random stranger with some #DNA likeness.

Personal data is not here to play games with. By anyone.
#DNAsamples #23andme#Privacy
3/3
https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/10/uk-and-canada-privacy-watchdogs-investigating-23andme-data-breach/

Open Rights Group
Open Rights Group  ·  last month
🚨 BREAKING 🚨

We've signed a joint letter to oppose the resurrection of welfare surveillance powers in the UK.

Using welfare fraud as a wedge issue to spy on all benefit claimants is a huge blow for privacy and has the makings of a Horizon-style scandal.

Suspicionless algorithmic surveillance will impact pensioners, disabled people and carers. They will bear the brunt when these systems go wrong.

Read more ⬇️

#ukpolitics #surveillance #digitalrights #privacy #welfare

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/01/monitoring-uk-bank-accounts-for-benefits-would-be-huge-blow-to-privacy

Nonilex
Nonilex  ·  last month
At least a dozen employees at the Dept of #VeteransAffairs improperly accessed the #MedicalRecords of VP nominees #JDVance & #TimWalz this summer, VA investigators found, in a violation of federal #health #privacy #laws that is under #criminal investigation.
VA ofcls notified the #Vance & #Walz campaigns about the breaches after discovering the unauthorized viewing by employees at the agency’s massive health-care arm, the #Veterans Health Admin….

#law#USpol
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/30/vance-walz-medical-records-breach-va/

Elena Rossini ✏️✨📸
Elena Rossini ✏️✨📸  ·  2 months ago
🚀 The Future is Federated - issue no.11 👩‍🚀

"Beyond technical features: why we need to talk about the values of the Fediverse (part 1)"

https://blog.elenarossini.com/the-values-of-the-fediverse-ethical-social-media/

with shout-outs to: @bengrosser @rysiek @phanpy @pixelfed and all the lovely people I've been interacting with on here ❤️

#TheFutureIsFederated #tech#Fediverse #activism #bigtech #socialmedia#FOSS #blog #privacy #consent#Matrix

Matthias
Matthias  ·  2 months ago
I was a huge fan of @mozilla@mozilla.social and #Firefox for years – to me, they always stood for #openness, #privacy, and a free #internet.

But ever since Laura Chambers took over, it feels like Mozilla is completely losing its way. 🤔

Instead of focusing on the #browser, they’re starting projects that have little to do with their core mission. Commercial partnerships are on the rise, and now they’re even shutting down their own #Mastodon instance. That was the perfect opportunity to push #decentralization and openness in the #Fediverse. 🌐

#Firefox used to be my go-to recommendation for privacy – but sadly, I can’t say that anymore. 😕

💬 Do you have any recommendations for a #browser on #macOS and #iOS that focuses on privacy, syncs easily, and is still customizable?
Pachacutec
Pachacutec  ·  2 months ago
Has anyone seen any good discussion or analysis of the potential long term impact the Israeli pager explosives attack may have generally on mass consumer confidence, not only in Israeli tech, but in consumer tech generally?

How on the nose is it to demonstrate so cleanly that the tech you buy is not trustworthy, harms people, is designed to exploit you, and may even. . . kill you? cc @pluralistic

#privacy#tech #ai#Israel#Terrorism#Fascism#Democracy #labor #gaza

Open Rights Group
Open Rights Group  ·  2 months ago
In what looks like a blatant breach of GDPR, X users are automatically opted-in to have their data harvested to train Grok AI.

Our personal data mustn't be used without opt-in consent. We need the ICO to step up before it’s too late.

Our statement ⬇️

#privacy#AI #dataprotection#GDPR#Musk

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releases/x-appears-to-breach-gdpr-with-ai-data-grab/

Kathy Reid
Kathy Reid  ·  3 months ago
Great interview with @Mer__edith in @WIRED from @agreenberg talking @signalapp, #surveillance, #privacy and #sustainability

"Signal is a nonprofit because a for-profit structure leads to a scenario where one of my board members goes to Davos, talks to some guy, comes back excitedly telling me we need an AI strategy for profit. Or another one of my board members comes in, gets really nervous that our revenue model, whatever it is, isn’t bringing in something that meets our goals and says, “Well, maybe we can start collecting metadata. Maybe we can reduce the focus on privacy, because of course our primary objective function, as a traditional for-profit, is revenue and growth.” And privacy in an economy powered by surveillance will necessarily hamper those."

https://www.wired.com/story/meredith-whittaker-signal/

Esra'a
Esra'a  ·  3 months ago
Pleased to announce the launch of Surveillance Watch, an interactive map and resource that documents the hidden connections within the opaque surveillance industry: https://www.surveillancewatch.io/

By mapping out the intricate web of surveillance companies, their subsidiaries, partners, and financial backers, we hope to expose the enablers fueling this industry's extensive rights violations, ensuring they cannot evade accountability for being complicit in this abuse.

#Privacy#Surveillance#InfoSec

May Likes Toronto
May Likes Toronto  ·  3 months ago
I can't imagine taking a test online with these virtual tools. I don't envy the people going through university right now.

Worth reading: @pluralistic 's take on how our public universities aren't following rules with privacy assessments.
https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/01/eruditio-libertas-est/

The Privacy Library's stance on the situation: https://www.privacylibrary.ca/legal-threat/

#Canada #privacy