Laura Kalbag @laura@mastodon.laurakalbag.com

Note: the misuse and overuse of “crazy” is unfortunate in the linked site. The Self Defined dictionary recommends more appropriate, and less ableist, alternative words: https://www.selfdefined.app/definitions/crazy/

“Many internet users mistake this annoying situation as a direct outcome of the GDPR, when in fact companies misuse designs in violation of the law. The GDPR demands a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’, as reasonable people would expect, but companies often have the power over the design and narrative when implementing the GDPR.”

Missed this a couple of weeks ago, and it could make a huge difference to our browsing experiences (and compel sites to do better!)

https://noyb.eu/en/noyb-aims-end-cookie-banner-terror-and-issues-more-500-gdpr-complaints

“Why pick a smartwatch made by a company whose founder called early users ‘dumb fucks’ for trusting him? Why trust the company that had a full-page temper tantrum in several national newspapers because Apple introduced stronger privacy features?“

https://gizmodo.com/i-would-rather-die-than-let-facebook-monitor-my-heart-r-1847065620

“‘There was this hope that some level of self-regulation could have happened at these tech companies,’ Raji says. ‘Everyone’s now aware that the true accountability needs to come from the outside—if you’re on the inside, there’s a limit to how much you can protect people.’”

https://www.wired.com/story/google-timnit-gebru-ai-what-really-happened/

“The outage will likely draw attention to how centralized our ‘decentralized’ internet really is—a depressing reminder as ransomware attacks hit at critical infrastructure around the world.”

https://gizmodo.com/huge-chunk-of-the-internet-goes-offline-thanks-to-one-c-1847051876

“TikTok policy already stated it automatically collects information about users’ devices, including location data based on your SIM card and IP addresses and GPS, your use of TikTok itself and all the content you create or upload, the data you send in messages on its app, metadata from the content you upload, cookies, the app and file names on your device, battery state and even your keystroke patterns and rhythms, among other things.”

https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/03/tiktok-just-gave-itself-permission-to-collect-biometric-data-on-u-s-users-including-faceprints-and-voiceprints/

“Owners of Amazon Echo assistants and Ring doorbells have until June 8 to avoid automatically opting into Sidewalk, the internet giant's mesh network that taps into people's broadband and may prove to be a privacy nightmare…

A stalker can abuse it to stalk people better. There are no mitigations mentioned’…”

https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/02/amazon_sidewalk_mesh/

“It does raise concerns about censorship, particularly given how we’ve seen social media platforms bungle moderating Palestinian voices in recent weeks amid the Israel conflict. Twitter’s algorithms have screwed up before, and there’s no arguing that mislabeling inconvenient truths as ‘fake news’ could have lasting repercussions.”

https://gizmodo.com/twitter-may-roll-out-tiered-misinformation-warning-labe-1847004671

In the battle of me vs blocker blockers, I have once again emerged victorious (x4) 💪

If you enjoy this livestream, please help support out work at Small Technology Foundation with a patronage or donation, or share our videos with your friends!

https://small-tech.org/fund-us

Yes, it is late Friday night here… never underestimate my determination to not work weekends!

Yesterday’s Small is Beautiful video is now up on our site with transcript, captions and links to all the cool sites we mentioned!

Thanks to fun guests, @heydon and @gabek, and to the lovely folks who stayed for the studio afterparty 😉

https://small-tech.org/videos/small-is-beautiful-10/

cc @aral

In 15 minutes we’ll be live for our next episode of Small is Beautiful, talking about independent and ethical video and streaming with Small Tech. Featuring fabulous guests @gabek and @heydon.

Join us! 😊

https://small-tech.org/events/small-is-beautiful/

Off to get his booster vaccs.

New rules out there for you @better friends. Lots of fixing this time, amazing how fragile big brand websites can be 😬

“At the end of the day, they are not interested in seeing things in their work timeline that make them uncomfortable, or distracts them from what they’re interested in.”

This attitude is endemic in the tech industry.

https://www.platformer.news/p/-what-really-happened-at-basecamp