Olives @olives@qoto.org

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/25/san-jose-homelessness-ai-detection
"Revealed: a California city is training AI to spot homeless encampments"
This is very likely going to be used to oppress homeless people. #privacy #ai

https://reason.com/2024/03/25/ron-desantis-signs-social-media-age-verification-bill/
"Ron DeSantis Signs Social Media Age-Verification Bill
The law would require platforms to use invasive measures to prevent most teenagers under 16 from making social media accounts and bar all minors from sexually explicit sites."

"The bill further states that any "commercial entity" that publishes content that is "harmful to minors" on a website or social media application must use age-verification measures to ensure that users under 18 cannot access the material."
This violates the #FirstAmendment. "#AgeVerification" is bad for #privacy.

https://nichegamer.com/microsoft-cautions-developers-to-avoid-curvy-female-characters/
#Microsoft really should mind their own business about what kinds of characters players want to play. It's okay for a character to be "sexy". I think that ultimately, the style of the game is going to depend a lot on the game. It's silly to pretend that every game should fit awfully particular and seemingly utilitarian criteria.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563222001637
There also isn't really a scientific basis for it.

https://tuta.com/blog/german-government-publishes-encryption-law
"While most countries want to introduce new surveillance laws, Germany is taking the opposite approach: The Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport Affairs (BMDV) has published a draft bill that will require email, messenger and other cloud providers to use strong end-to-end encryption. The bill is celebrated by cryptography experts as well as privacy enthusiasts as it enshrines the digital secrecy of correspondence."
#privacy

Reading about someone apparently needing lolis is reminding me of that episode of Spongebob all of a sudden.

The one where he tries to make do without water.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/25-03-2024/supermarkets-know-everything-from-your-gender-to-licence-plate-number-do-you-care
"CCTV cameras, self-checkout machines, data-gathering loyalty cards, facial recognition: supermarkets gather an obscene amount of information about customers. Can they be trusted with it?"
#privacy #NewZealand #Aotearoa

Undermining security is a lot like... Imagine there is a door which you can lock from one side. Then, imagine there is a big hole in it which you can put your hand through to open it.

Lolis can be pretty strong. They could probably even beat Superman up and shoot past him like a rocket. If someone tries to force her, don't they risk being beaten up? Lol. A high end loli could even destroy a galaxy.

Since it came up, I'm not a fan of "guilt by association" either. There's a great deal of injustice there.

https://truthout.org/articles/criminal-charges-filed-against-russian-gay-club-for-lgbt-extremism/ Progressive outlet Truthout has some bad news from Russia.

If that was in 2024, they might have a social media handle which looks a lot like this: "hitlerfan111"

Well, maybe.

Did you know that a number of these British fascists were quite literal admirers of Adolf Hitler around a century ago?

I propose adding this label to these NGOs: Funded by fascists.

When a British NGO (which are usually funded by the U.K. government) describes themselves as a "E.U. NGO" in order to promote absolutely ridiculous ideas for censorship despite the U.K. leaving the E.U. four years ago.

https://reason.com/2024/03/24/dating-apps-are-horrible-a-colorado-bill-would-make-them-worse/ Another stupid idea from a politician.

I see someone saying that we don't need to worry about "AI", not because folks have exaggerated fears (or even entirely imaginary ones), but because it's a bubble which won't be around for long.

It's a more interesting take, to say the least.

I'd say that, as a rule of thumb, if someone isn't bothering other people (to be clear, "I am offended" does not count, lol), then I'd say that people should enjoy and entertain each other however they please. Does it really matter how? Why is it anyone else's business?

In principle, I shouldn't even really have to get into considerations about War on Drugs type harms (an "intervention" can be harmful in itself in a lot of ways), or other harms from censorship (or someone being plain mean about some kink...)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/19/us-prison-water-rat-fur-arsenic-copper
Surely, this violates the Eighth Amendment? Apart from being obviously cruel, it can't be good for someone's brain or health. #HumanRights

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

https://www.engadget.com/authorities-reportedly-ordered-google-to-reveal-the-identities-of-some-youtube-videos-viewers-140018019.html
"Federal authorities in the US asked Google for the names, addresses, telephone numbers and user activity of the accounts that watched certain YouTube videos between January 1 and 8, 2023, according to unsealed court documents viewed by Forbes. People who watched those videos while they weren't logged into an account weren't safe either, because the government also asked for their IP addresses. The investigators reportedly ordered Google to hand over the information as part of an investigation into someone who uses the name "elonmuskwhm" online.

Authorities suspect that elonmuskwhm is selling bitcoin for cash"
#privacy #FourthAmendment