Olives @olives@qoto.org

I see people comparing ideas for "AI assistants" to Clippy, lol.

https://qoto.org/@olives/111621216456534863 I covered it a few weeks ago here. #vppa

Like ISPs who wanted to be able to sell (and share) user data, #Patreon is arguing their "free speech rights" are being violated by not being able to share user data with Facebook, due to a federal video privacy law.

It didn't go well for those ISPs in ACA Connects v Frey, so I don't see how it will go well for Patreon. #privacy

I see more people criticizing Patreon for not respecting user privacy (i.e. over them apparently handing user data to Facebook in violation of federal video privacy law).

I see someone saying a Missouri Republican is complaining about sex robots...? No, dolls. Right, dolls. No, not those tiny little things. Those mannequin like things. Because it might vaguely look like a minor. Vague fuzzy language. Anyway... Please. Let me rest. I don't have time for this. You know damn well it's a bad idea, and it violates the 1st and 14th Amendment... By now... Don't you...? All it would do is create a shitshow. A shitshow that just so happens to also be unconstitutional.

https://qoto.org/@olives/111016310514191221 My resources are very limited, and I simply don't have the time to come up with something very processed and fresh. There, you go.

I'm fairly sure this is mentioned in there, but I suppose I should repeat it, curiously, I've seen a legal association make the following argument (in this sort of case) before. If someone is up to evil, then there are other laws which someone can use against them...

https://web.archive.org/web/20240105055451/https://rm.coe.int/0900001680adaf31 Australia wants "observer" status for CoE AI Committee.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240105044108/https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/encryption-in-the-age-of-surveillance

This one is from quite a few months ago, but it flew under the radar, and might be of interest. Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, comments on end-to-end encryption and voices human rights concerns about #chatcontrol. #privacy

Reminder that passing a bill to "punish TikTok" would not only be a violation of the First Amendment, it would also be an unconstitutional bill of attainder. A bill of attainder is a bill where the legislature declares someone (or some group) guilty of some crime, and they pass a bill to punish them for that without a trial. Article 1 Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution states "No Bill of attainder or Ex post facto law shall be passed."

https://reclaimthenet.org/the-digital-id-rollout-is-becoming-a-hackers-dream

"Governments and corporations around the world are showing great enthusiasm in either already implementing, or planning to implement some form of digital IDs.

As it turns out ironically, these efforts are presented to citizens as not only making their lives easier through convenience, but also making sure their personal data contained within these digital IDs is safer in a world teeming with malicious actors.

Opponents have been warning about serious privacy implications, but also argue against the claim that data security actually gets improved."

"In numbers, a staggering 50 million records containing personally identifiable information have surfaced on the dark web. The reason so many stolen datasets have made it to the black digital market all at once appear to be “technicalities” related to the time window during which most of it will be “sellable”.

Breaking down that 50 million number, Resecurity said that 22 million records were stolen from a telecommunications company in Peru, which include what’s known there as DNIs – national IDs."

#privacy

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/01/victory-police-drone-footage-not-categorically-exempt-californias-public-records

"Video footage captured by police drones sent in response to 911 calls cannot be kept entirely secret from the public, a California appellate court ruled last week.

The decision by the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District came after a journalist sought access to videos created by Chula Vista Police Department’s “Drones as First Responders” (DFR) program. The police department is the first law enforcement agency in the country to use drones to respond to emergency calls, and several other agencies across the U.S. have since adopted similar models.

After the journalist, Arturo Castañares of La Prensa, sued, the trial court ruled that Chula Vista police could withhold all footage because the videos were exempt from disclosure as law enforcement investigatory records under the California Public Records Act. Castañares appealed."

"The appellate court agreed that drone footage is not categorically exempt from public disclosure. In reversing the trial court’s decision, the California Court of Appeal ruled that although some 911 calls are likely part of law enforcement investigation or at least are used to determine whether a crime occurred, not all 911 calls involve crimes.

“For example, a 911 call about a mountain lion roaming a neighborhood, a water leak, or a stranded motorist on the freeway could warrant the use of a drone but do not suggest a crime might have been committed or is in the process of being committed,” the court wrote."

https://reason.com/2024/01/03/maines-bad-prostitution-law-could-be-coming-soon-to-your-state/

"Advocates of asymmetrical criminalization say it's beneficial for people selling sex, but a wealth of evidence suggests otherwise. Because no matter what you call it, this model keeps prostitution a black market—which means most of the things that make prostitution dangerous remain intact.

Under "partial decriminalization" like Maine's, it's still illegal for sex workers to work together, to work in safe locations, or to employ people to help keep them safe. Their work is still policed, only now it's deemed for their own good. They still can't advertise openly. They still face reluctance from clients—perhaps more than ever—to submit to screening procedures. And because some segment of law-abiding or risk-averse people are going to be turned off by a criminalized system in a way they might not be under decriminalization, the pool of prostitution customers is tilted toward people who might be riskier in a number of ways."

"One study published in 2023 found that liberalizing prostitution laws led to lower rape rates overall, while passing stricter prohibitions led to increases in rape rates. Implementation of the Nordic Model was associated with the biggest increase.

Research on the Nordic Model in various European countries has found it failed to decrease the prevalence of prostitution"

https://reason.com/2024/01/02/devolving-standards-of-decency/

"A federal circuit judge wants the Supreme Court to scrap a longstanding test for determining what is cruel and unusual punishment. In an October speech to the Federalist Society, Reuters reported, Judge Thomas Hardiman, appointed by President George W. Bush to the Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, advocated a "return to the text and original meaning of the Eighth Amendment" and an end to the "evolving standards of decency" test created by the Supreme Court in the 1950s.

In 1958, the Supreme Court ruled that stripping someone's citizenship for committing a crime violated the Eighth Amendment. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that, to determine what constitutes cruel or unusual, the Court "must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society." That test has since been used by liberal Supreme Court majorities to strike down death penalty protocols, ban capital sentences for crimes that did not result in death, and outlaw death sentences for offenses committed as a minor."

https://qoto.org/@olives/111243613449618948
https://qoto.org/@olives/111553944783670893
https://qoto.org/@olives/111691547688391998

It's worth noting that while these cases seem spotty and sporadic, these are probably the cases we know about, and it doesn't account for any potential chilling effect.

As always, I would strongly encourage contacting reps at territory, state, and federal levels to oppose any and all censorship.

#anime #auspol

If "Link History", is buried in a menu somewhere, then it's probably safe to assume that most people will never change the default. #privacy

https://gizmodo.com/meet-link-history-facebook-s-new-way-to-track-the-we-1851134018

"Facebook recently rolled out a new “Link History” setting that creates a special repository of all the links you click on in the Facebook mobile app. Users can opt-out, but Link History is turned on by default, and the data is used for targeted ads."

"Meta has always kept track of the links you click on, and this is the first time users have had any visibility or control over this corner of the company’s internet spying apparatus. In other words, Meta is just asking users for permission for a category of tracking that it’s been using for over a decade. Beyond that, there are a number of ways this setting might give users an illusion of privacy that Meta isn’t offering."

#privacy

Looks like the lesbian dating game "The Curse of Kudan"(1) is being censored by Australia(2), probably because the system was built by freakin puritans (most likely worrying about things which don't matter(3,4), although incompetence is another smaller possibility in this case).

As always, you can write to reps at the territory, state, and federal levels (5) to oppose any and all censorship.

#anime #auspol

1 https://www.mobygames.com/game/199315/the-curse-of-kudan-folklore-of-kudan/

2 https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship-timelines/game-iarc/

3 https://qoto.org/@olives/111516011246609826

4 https://qoto.org/@olives/111192296198968801

5 https://www.efa.org.au/get-involved/lobbying/