Olives @olives@qoto.org

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/12/end-geofence-warrants

"Google announced this week that it will be making several important changes to the way it handles users’ “Location History” data. These changes would appear to make it much more difficult—if not impossible—for Google to provide mass location data in response to a geofence warrant, a change we’ve been asking Google to implement for years.

Geofence warrants require a provider—almost always Google—to search its entire reserve of user location data to identify all users or devices located within a geographic area during a time period specified by law enforcement. These warrants violate the Fourth Amendment because they are not targeted to a particular individual or device, like a typical warrant for digital communications. The only “evidence” supporting a geofence warrant is that a crime occurred in a particular area, and the perpetrator likely carried a cell phone that shared location data with Google. For this reason, they inevitably sweep up potentially hundreds of people who have no connection to the crime under investigation—and could turn each of those people into a suspect."

#privacy

https://nichegamer.com/twitch-reverses-stance-on-adult-content-will-allow-animated-nudity/ A good start but it would be better if they went further. #twitch #anime

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/14/students-can-make-provocative-remarks-if-they-do-not-break-law-watchdog-says

"University staff and students can make provocative statements on subjects such as Israel and Gaza as long as they do not break laws on incitement or harassment, under proposals by the government’s campus free speech tsar.

Arif Ahmed, the newly appointed director for academic freedom of speech at the Office for Students (OfS), said universities and colleges in England that infringed the rights to expression of individuals would face fines under the new complaints process."

"Speech that amounts to illegal harassment, stirring up racial hatred, inciting violence, stirring up religious hatred – none of that would be protected."

"Ahmed said it was important that students and academics “be allowed to hear and discuss a whole range of views, including ones that they might find controversial or offensive, or distasteful or shocking”."

#FreeSpeech

https://gizmodo.com.au/2023/12/sam-altman-accused-of-psychologically-abusive-behavior/

So, OpenAI's Board didn't fire Altman (until he came back) because they invented some new AI which is going to "take over the world", they fired him because he was apparently a jerk.

https://www.coe.int/en/web/freedom-expression/-/assessing-the-impact-of-immersive-realities-on-human-rights-committee-of-ministers-informal-meeting In case you forgot about the #metaverse, the Council of Europe was holding a meeting on it not so long ago with Facebook.

"She is like an angel." Someone talking about a civil liberties activist doing activism in the U.K.

Apparently, YouTube's Content ID system is still working hard to, uh, remove remixed parodies (i.e. anime abridged series'), even though I'm fairly sure that is fair use.

Hmm... I'm not a fan of it particularly. It is less precise and is usually accompanied by sensationalistic (and even misleading) language. It's also not the modern convention.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/11/politics/house-gop-leadership-pulls-dueling-fisa-bills/index.html

"House GOP leadership has pulled a pair of surveillance law bills from the floor, according to GOP sources, as Speaker Mike Johnson was facing backlash from his conference over the two-bill approach."

#privacy