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PierceTheBubble

@ PierceTheBubble @lemmy.ml

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Joined
8 mo. ago

  • Tomorrow’s U.S. Senate Vote: Four Internet Bills, One Wrong Direction

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  • There is a better way. Instead of considering these bills, the Senate Commerce Committee should be focusing on a national consumer privacy bill that would protect ALL internet users, or on banning behavioral advertising that tracks us across the web—again, for users of all ages.

    Refreshing to hear someone who gets it... But I guess that would hamper their ability to surveil adults, where targeted advertising simply serves as an excuse for it happening.

  • Social media algorithms shape the beliefs people form /// Even small changes to content curation algorithms can shape what people come to believe—for better or worse.

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  • lead people to form erroneous beliefs ... whether they promote consensus or belief accuracy ... more polarized and less accurate beliefs ... help users find more mutual understanding on these platforms ... content that receives approval across different groups is promoted ... bridge divides and encourage positive interactions across diverse audiences ... bridging-based ranking can promote consensus ... elicit belief updates that benefit collective accuracy ... improve both collective accuracy and average individual accuracy ... aligning them more closely with socially desirable goals

    I don't know what's creepier: a polarized society but with a more diverse view on topics, or a cohesive society with an eerily uniform view instead. Polarization is problematic, but so is thought-policing. I would argue feeds shouldn't be algorithmically determined, but composed of content by channels the user has explicitly chosen to subscribe to; and a separate explore feature for interest-based suggestions, without creepy "this is what most people agree with, and so should you" course-correction measures.

  • Should you still buy your next smartphone — or subscribe to it instead? Apple, Samsung … are betting that leasing, subscriptions, and guaranteed buyback programs can make upgrading more attractive.

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  • BMW Is Showing Commercials On Their Car's Dash Screens And They Want You To Think It's A Treat

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  • You're missing the point: that's where the autonomous driving comes in! People are now just sitting there watching the road, while they could be spending that time watching ads...

    • Some BMW exec probably

  • Company Offering Printed Books to Train AI Stops After 404 Media Coverage

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  • ISBNdb has never purchased, scanned, or sold a book — for AI training or anything else

    Nobody is accusing you of that, but instead of facilitating it (or at least trying to) as an intermediary. You got caught red-handed, and now you're trying to pass it off as a "marketing experiment", you weasel. But at least you didn't double down and take down the entire platform with it, so I'll give you that.

  • Meet Flock's Alpha Drone – It Reads License Plates from 2,000 Feet

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  • There's no such thing as a camera that's restricted to vehicles or license plates; only "trust me bro" post-processing can restrict its scope. And with stationary ALPRs everywhere, why would a drone be required to do so; other than registering parked vehicles?

  • Apple to debut smart glasses in 2027 with focus on privacy: report

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  • If the 2027 AirPods and AI pin/pendant, both expected to come with cameras (or at least an optimally placed microphone bug), are anything to go by: "the cameras ... are not designed for taking photos and videos, and will instead send information about the wearer's surroundings [including any others in it] to Siri."

    Phew... I'm soo relieved the data is just being fed straight to Siri.

  • Meta launches new Facebook Verified badge for actual, real humans

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  • Based on a facial recognition selfie, checked against your existing profile pics

    They've been doing this for a long time, but supposedly for bot-detection; which are now just using LLMs to generate slop to game the platform and its users. But with human users now possibly considered unauthentic by others, because they haven't yet de-anonymized themselves.

    It teasing a "reimagined experience" that will test full-screen videos for a section of users "the moment they open the app." is an interesting choice, when addictive design features for its platforms are under scrutiny. But I guess it only addresses the problem in relation to children; adults of course being fair game, which could be another reason to be extra cautious and use age-estimation in the verification process.

  • Flock Safety CEO speaks out after LAPD suspends use of company's surveillance cameras

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  • until we can get those data, privacy, security and sharing concerns ironed out through a contractual relationship

    Trust me bro. These systems will never be abused by those managing the system: surely they couldn't give themselves access privileges, surely they couldn't remove data access records, surely individuals in positions of power would never modify, remove or share data out of self-protection, including their buddies' (assets)...

    You're all just a little confused, you see: these video-capable cameras currently only record snapshots of vehicle identifiers, that happen to be registered to individuals, and might depict its driver and persons surrounding the vehicle. And don't give me any of that future hocus pocus of "video footage"; that doesn't exist actually, it cannot simply be enabled with a single over-the-air update...

    These cameras, among the many others might, or might not keep a record of everything you do outside your home, and stack it on top of data harvested by other data aggregators; but we promise we won't look at it. Why aren't you smiling? It's by contract: we'll monitor compliance of both our self and our partner with a mutual interest. And uuuhp, no deliberate loopholes that we actively exploit.

  • Removed

    Manchester United supporters groups in uproar over suspension of season tickets

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  • Members are allowed only to forward tickets to other members, or sell them back to United ... the use of multiple devices to access club accounts includes being able to act for a group of friends or for elderly family members who struggle to use technology

    So this is a result of forcing the use of an account for every visitor? It's also madness you cannot forward or resell tickets outside the "terms and conditions" dictated by United. Which sounds a lot more like a license to a ticket, than actual ownership over a ticket.

  • Apple Defeats Liability for Not Scanning iCloud for CSAM, But the Judge Was Not Pleased-Amy v. Apple

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  • Am I the only one that finds it ridiculous, non-E2E encrypted cloud storage isn't protected from mass-scanning (against opaque cryptographic hashes)? Just because one technically could, and "nothing in the law prevents" a provider from doing so, or a legal basis is explicitly being provided (in case of the EU's Chat Control), doesn't mean one should. You're still preemptively scanning private content, and it should be irrelevant whether or not it's encrypted.

    I've frequently criticized Apple in the past, but I can't do anything other than praising them for dodging this privacy-nightmare; unlike services provided by the likes of Google or Meta, that actively encourage the use of unencrypted options by default, while happily "volunteering" in case of the EU's Chat Control.

  • AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop

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  • FCC approves giant space mirror as astronomers warn of risks to the night sky

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  • Spotlight, uh, moonlight, uh, eyesore get your fucking aim right 🎶

  • Top Meta Exec Describes Controversial Facial Recognition Feature in Detail After the Company Claimed It Didn’t Exist

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  • ‘okay, this is David, remember this person.'

    Well, that wouldn't be creepy for someone to say. And the “the cocktail party problem”, really? It's generally much more awkward if a person you hardly remember, greets you like you're their best friend. But I guess you should also start wearing these glasses, right? So we can all be pretentious douchebags, instead of just humbly asking if we've met before. And I can't wait for creeps to give slideshow presentations to these glasses, so they have an arsenal of women to hit on: pretending like they've met these women before...

  • ‘Phantom Twist’: US team designs drone that spins to achieve near-invisibility

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  • ... drones often alter natural behavior simply because people or animals notice them. The disruption can cause wildlife to scatter and people to behave differently.

    Ah yes, humans in their natural habitat: blissfully unaware to the fact that their every move is being monitored, mocking the "tin foil hatter" trying to convince them otherwise.

  • Third-party app stores coming to Google Play next week as Epic settlement withdrawn

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  • This is the best possible outcome for Google: providing alternative application stores through the Play Store. So any application, including alternative application stores, are subject to universal app verification rules: allowing it to fully kill "sideloading" (as in: installing an APK from the web); while technically providing alternatives, gatekept by Google. The latter will likely just result in Play Store mirrors, that hardly provide any real competitive advantage over upstream. A purely symbolic, absolute joke of a court case.

  • Just Pay the Subscription - by Dustin Bluck - Uncommon Apps

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  • I might or might not disagree with you, but I have nothing to go on.

  • Just Pay the Subscription - by Dustin Bluck - Uncommon Apps

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  • I think there's a distinction to be made between solutions which are client-side, versus those that are server-side, or at least have a server-side component that is functionally necessary.

    For the first category, the termination of a subscription shouldn't lead to denial of access to the current build of the software: it should remain functional in the absence of lower-level updates. Ideally this software is sold as a one-time purchase, having life-time free updates bundled, or sell upgrades on a versioned basis; but a subscription fee for future updates seems perfectly reasonable too, if the previously stated conditions are met.

    For the secondary category I believe it's in the service's right, to provide it's products on the basis of its own terms and conditions; that is, if it doesn't employ morally questionable practices, like: outpricing other services using venture capital, for the purposes of attracting a user-base for future exploitation (by raising fees, or by turning the user into the product; despite an ever decreasing value proposition: i.e. venture capital enshittification).

  • Instagram and Facebook will likely require a redesign after EU rules they’re ‘addictive’

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  • Algorithmic feeds are the problem here, which are exacerbated by features like autoplay and infinite scrolling. Users should by default only be served content from channels they explicitly chose to subscribe to. Algorithmic feeds should be separate from this subscription-based feed, and only bleed over if subscribed to said channels; which shouldn't be any different for shorts (only showing shorts from subscribed-to channels, if not hidden altogether when preferred). Simply put: make timelines finite again, by not endlessly resupplying it with spam; which includes the unhealthy amount of "sponsored content".

  • Reusable rockets could turn orbit into military supply chain

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  • In the context of spy satellites, (nuclear) weapons and drone bases in orbit, I honestly can't wait for the Kessler effect to materialize. Russia has demonstrated it could destroy a defunct Soviet satellite in orbit using a missile, and with tensions rising, alongside the number of objects placed in orbit, it doesn't seem like a matter of if, but rather a matter of when it unfolds.