Olives @olives@qoto.org

When I see news about Russia, and the things they're doing are the absolute stuff of nightmares.

Oh, there's another Facebook privacy scandal. It would be them, wouldn't it.

Guilty until proven innocent.

https://reclaimthenet.org/google-is-ordered-to-identify-who-watched-certain-youtube-videos
"US federal law enforcement and courts have gone a step further in the extreme efforts they are making to surveil people’s activities online, including on Google’s vast platforms.

The latest is that the tech giant gets orders to identify all people who happen to be watching certain videos or livestreams on YouTube."
#privacy #YouTube

https://reclaimthenet.org/spain-reverses-telegram-block-but-users-are-alarmed-about-overreach
"Spain, a European Union member, has joined – even if only for a short while – China, Iran, Cuba, Pakistan and Thailand in blocking the encrypted messaging app Telegram.

The country’s High Court made the decision and said the ban was temporary, citing alleged copyright infringements happening on the app as the reason. The judge in charge of the case, Santiago Pedraz, first tried to get Telegram to hand over “certain information” regarding the case."
#privacy #copyright

https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-high-court-opens-a-path-for-assange-to-appeal-us-extradition
"In a preliminary victory against censorship, Julian Assange has been granted a temporary lifeline in his legal battle to avoid extradition to the US."
Notice she doesn't say anything about him being discriminated against for using his right to a fair trial.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240319191221/https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/germany-follow-through-with-human-rights-commitments-and-improve-access-to-social-rights What do you think of this?

Someone being out in the community is ideal compared to locking them up in the mental hospital.

Police can be notorious for using questionable technologies / techniques, and on "just closing cases" rather than serving justice (which could mean punishing innocent people, although even if this was less so, there would still be enough there that would lead to innocent people being punished).

When you look at a few groups, at first glance, they might appear a bit like a civil society group, or a technical partner.

When you dig a bit deeper, you discover the people running it are either from the police, used to work for the police, or are in something strongly associated with the police, in one case, it was a "Police University".

After doing a bit of research into an... interesting bunch.

Quite a few groups pushing for this internet control crap (mainly chat control) in the E.U. appear to be either cops or groups strongly associated with them.

It isn't just the "fake foundation" (run by the U.S. / U.K.) or "foreign dark money" from Oak going into apparent "local groups" (quite a few which sprang up out of thin air right when the E.U. pushed the E-Privacy Directive and have a tendency towards making misleading claims).

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