Sylvain Miermont @miermont@qoto.org

I was supposed to get a call from a reporter to talk about space junk right after the goat sale, but he just emailed to say that Toronto is flooding and he just got off the phone with Weather Canada and has to write that up right now.

Which is so extremely 2024: "Sorry I can't do the interview about garbage that billionaires dropped on you from orbit, climate change is causing too many problems in my city right now"

I think reasonable people can disagree on the nuances of privacy engineering here...you can get really in the weeds of epsilons and trust boundaries.

Mozilla need to understand that that isn't what is happening here.

The fact is this is a new data gathering vector, it doesn't matter how privacy-preserving it is, it should be subject to *new, informed, and proactive* consent - rather than being automatically enrolled in an experiment.

Two updates to this thread.

Update 1: In this thread I complain Mozilla does not provide specific technical details about this feature. It turns out there *is* a document with the technical details, on Github:

https://github.com/mozilla/explainers/tree/main/ppa-experiment

It also explains (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Origin_Trials) which sites are participating in the feature.

I am linking this document because I believe the first five words do more to discredit what Mozilla is doing here than anything I could say:

"Mozilla is working with Meta"

According to https://httparchive.org/reports/page-weight, the median weight in KB for desktop:

126 months:

HTML
2010: 20KB;
mid 2024: 33KB;
Increase of 65%.

Images
2010: 229KB;
mid 2024: 1,062KB;
Increase of 464%.

JavaScript
2010: 89KB;
mid 2024: 640KB;
Increase of 719%.

- - -

107 months:

Video
mid 2015: 173KB;
mid 2024: 3,872KB;
Increase of 2,238%.

I reckon that in the era of AI the JS gradient is gonna steepen significantly

How to not leak customer data:

- Don’t collect them

So this, from Firefox, is fucking toxic: https://mstdn.social/@Lokjo/112772496939724214

You might be aware Chrome— a browser made by an ad company— has been trying to claw back the limitations recently placed on ad networks by the death of third-party cookies, and added new features that gather and report data directly to ad networks. You'd know this because Chrome displayed a popup.

If you're a Firefox user, what you probably don't know is Firefox added this feature and *has already turned it on without asking you*

Can't face riding your bike up that last hill?

Germany: We've got you covered!

The Zacke ("Spike") in #Stuttgart, an electric rack railway that pushes a wagon of bicycles uphill.

🧵

"Edinburgh's council announced on Tuesday that it had moved to exclude adverts and sponsorships for "high-carbon products and services" that "undermine the council’s commitment to tackling the climate emergency." The ban covers airlines, car companies that advertise SUVs and cruise operators, as well as "all firms and associated sub brands or lobbying organisations that extract, refine, produce, supply, distribute, or sell any fossil fuels."" https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2024/05/30/this-scottish-city-just-banned-suv-and-airline-ads-heres-why/ 😍

STATEMENT ahead of @internetarchive oral arguments in their appeal for the right to own digital books: "The right to read without fear of being punished for what you read has never been more under threat."
https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2024-06-27-statement-on-internet-archives-oral-arguments-in-appeal-for-the-right-to-own-digital-books/

Nothing says "ignore all previous instructions" like the EMP from a sub-orbital nuclear detonation.

Did you catch the story about the Wayback Machine on CBS News Sunday Morning? 🌞 David Pogue chatted with @brewsterkahle about archiving the web, and the lawsuits from publishers & the recording industry that threaten our mission & your access to information. Watch now: https://cbsnews.com/news/the-wayback-machine-a-time-machine-for-the-web/

TED offered a vision of the world where complex societal issues could be solved with a lightbulb moment and a well-designed PowerPoint presentation.

Climate change? There's an app for that.

Poverty? A social entrepreneur with a TED talk has it figured out.

It was a worldview that flattered millennials' sense of ourselves as changemakers while conveniently ignoring the systemic barriers to real change.

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/ted-talks-the-picotop-of-millennial-pop-intellectualism

Excuse me while I go ugly-cry: “Gilead’s experimental twice-yearly medicine to prevent HIV was 100% effective in a late-stage trial, the company said Thursday.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/20/gilead-prep-lenacapavir-succeeds-in-phase-3-trial.html

"Last month (...) Edinburgh’s city council voted to ban fossil fuel advertisements on city property, undermining the ability of not only oil companies, but also car manufacturers, airlines and cruise ships, to promote their products. The ban targeted arms manufacturers as well."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/06/15/fossil-fuel-advertising-bans-edinburgh/