Olives @olives@qoto.org

Ultimately the fight for privacy, security, and thus freedom of expression and association will be won't be won in a courtroom or a legislature.

It will be won my people making a choice that those values are worth actively protecting.

Every time someone localizes cwtch for a new language, or submits an anonymous bug report, or simply reaches out over ephemeral wires to say hi, I remember why we continue to do this work.

2023 was somewhat of a Red Queen's Race for #privacy, #p2p, #decentralization

At the end of it I feel like we had to run much faster just to stay in the same place.

Much like the rest of the space, funding for @openprivacy and @cwtch took a hit, and we have to continue to squeeze ever more out of the amazing support we do get.

When I look at where Cwtch is now compared to a few years ago I couldn't be prouder.

So much more to do, so many better worlds to build.

Since I also saw someone coming up with a spooky story (of how censorship can be a terrible thing), I thought I'd add one of my mine.

I encountered a pretty spooky and creepy coincidence once. So, there were discussions of censorship (and something about legality in some very random backwater country) involving "fictional minors", then, shortly afterwards (I'd say within a few weeks or so), someone (who was there and wasn't keen on censorship) turned up dead. Suicide. In that very country. Very eerie.

Anyway, I don't think we particularly need stories of self-harm or suicide to get to the, rather evident, point that Censorship Of Artistic Expression Is A Bad Thing.

In any case, with things like suicide, it can feel very surreal. Someone is talking normally one day (well, actually week in this case, but you get the saying), like any ordinary person. Then, they are no longer there. So, I guess be good to one another, yes, yes.

I suppose with the LLM, someone can finally get their cute loli wife, huh? Lol.

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"After publication, Maca Ferguson, a spokesperson for Volunteers of America Western Washington, said the pixel was used for fundraising efforts"
Some of these deliberately added the pixel (although, it's unclear whether they knew how much data it would collect) for unrelated purposes.

"Pellerin said they had removed the code, which they attributed to a plug-in on their website."
Others appear to have been hit by supply chain issues like this where a vendor casually threw the pixel in without their knowledge (although, likely not knowing this would happen).

https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2023/06/13/suicide-hotlines-promise-anonymity-dozens-of-their-websites-send-sensitive-data-to-facebook

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/07/24/more-suicide-resource-orgs-found-to-be-monetizing-sensitive-user-data/ Ugh, the *suicide resource sites* really shouldn't be sharing sensitive data like this with Facebook.

"In some cases, filling out contact forms on the sites transmitted hashed but easily unscrambled names and email addresses to Facebook."
Very intrusive.

What inspired you to join today? "I wanted to become a 'friend' of the FSF." - Anonymous