dangillmor

dangillmor, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

Well, this is a transcendent level of evil: Facebook bought a VPN company and deployed it, in part, to spy on its competitor's users.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/26/facebook-secret-project-snooped-snapchat-user-traffic/

It's a reminder that VPNs have their own risks, beyond technical ones if operated incompetently -- namely, that you have to trust the VPN company itself.

UPDATED to reflect which users were being spied on.

dangillmor, 1 year ago to random

@mmasnick done by far the best job of chronicling the Twitter/Musk follies and the resulting social media diaspora. His 6-months-later piece, on where we stand in what I hope will be a massive move to decentralized networking, is a must-read: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/28/six-months-in-thoughts-on-the-current-post-twitter-diaspora-options/

dangillmor, 8 months ago to random

Most journalists have, sad to say, stuck with the deadbird site. They shouldn't, and one of our finest political journo-activists, @msifry, says of X/Twitter "Enough wrestling with the pig. Time to go." https://theconnector.substack.com/p/finishing-with-twitterx?utm_campaign=email-post&r=qs4z&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Note: Micah is a friend and he quotes me in this piece.

dangillmor, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

The auto industry has even more contempt for your privacy than Big Tech, which is saying something. Now an appeals court has ruled that the car makers can intercept and sell your private information, and you can't do a damn thing about it.

https://therecord.media/class-action-lawsuit-cars-text-messages-privacy

Well, one thing: Don't hook up your phone to these sleazy companies' "entertainment" systems.

h/t @dangoodin

dangillmor, 6 months ago to random

You should stop using Google Chrome. The company is following through on its threat to ban the ad/tracker blockers that a) help protect your privacy and b) make your web experience much more pleasant.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/google-chrome-will-limit-ad-blockers-starting-june-2024/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

dangillmor, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to random

It is essential to stop using Chrome.

Under the pretense of saving users from third-party spyware, Google is creating an ecosystem in which Chrome itself is the spyware.

Given Google's overwhelming presence in the browser market, this is unconscionable.

We should all despise the ad-tech business, and have no sympathy for the companies getting whacked by Google's actions. But we should not permit one monopolist to replace them all.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/12/year-review-googles-corporate-paternalism-browser

dangillmor, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

Dear journalists who remain on Twitter:

You actively participate on a site operated by an extremist right-winger who promotes other extremists who want, among other things, to end democracy. The end of democracy means, in case you haven't grasped this yet, the end of freedom of expression.

This means you are actively supporting his business -- and you're doing it for free.

Please grow a spine, and stop helping the people who hate you and want to destroy what you do.

dangillmor, 8 months ago to random

I posted this on the deadbird site:

"Standing offer for journalists: I'll help you get set up on Mastodon and will help you bring your Twitter audience along (and find new followers and rich engagement there). All I ask is that you migrate -- over time, not instantly -- your social media activity there."

dangillmor, 6 months ago to random

The self-verification system built into Mastodon should be one of its greatest selling points. This is especially true for journalists and everyone else for whom evidence of identity has huge value in the social media realm.

But anecdotally -- and I would wager for real -- most people in the craft, even a lot of technically adept folks, don't seem to know how easy self-verification can be here.

If you are trying to persuade a journalist you know to join up, please highlight this feature.

dangillmor, 5 months ago to random

Not the Onion:

The NY Times editorial page published a "Really, Trump isn't all that right wing, just relax" op-ed today.

dangillmor, 7 months ago to random

The Associated Press -- like essentially every other major journalism outlet -- has totally normalized extremism.

Calling the new house speaker a "staunch conservative" -- a pathetically weak euphemism for far-right extremist -- is only the latest example of Big Journalism's collapse into willful helplessness.

It's journalistic cowardice in the face of a movement that aims to bring down democracy, and by extension journalism.

dangillmor, 3 months ago to random

Biden wasn't my first choice in 2020, and his administration has made some egregious mistakes.

But he has been a far, far better president than I could have imagined. His administration's achievements have been extraordinary in all kinds of ways.

Now the nation is confronted by the Republicans' plain-as-day goal: undo all progressive policies and institute what amounts to fascism.

If I ran a news organization, we would have one primary agenda: being activists to save democracy.

dangillmor, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to random

I hope that Mastodon folks who like to scold newcomers will realize how off-putting -- and damaging -- that behavior is.

Please be helpful, not scornful. Let's reduce the genuine risk of poisoning fediverse growth, and thereby giving social-media oligarchs indefinite control over online discourse.

Having said that, Mastodon/fediverse could/should do more to make users' experiences more gratifying.

Read this essential post from @kissane to understand more. https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt

dangillmor, 5 months ago to random

A reminder that there is NOTHING Musk can do that will prompt journalists to stop supporting his business.

Disgusting on his part, as usual.

But disgraceful on their part.

dangillmor, 11 months ago to random

I can't say whether Facebook joining the fediverse (ditto Google, which won't want to miss this opportunity) will kill or absorb the fediverse, though it's obviously and rationally something to worry about.

But preemptively blocking them -- and the people already using them -- from your instance guarantees less relevance for the fediverse.

It also guarantees, if my instance joins such a boycott, that I'll find a new instance.

dangillmor, 5 months ago to random

Trump lawyer argued today that Biden would be immune from prosecution if he ordered Trump's assassination.

dangillmor, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

A year later, many, many journalists still fuel the deadbird site,. They know they are in effect supporting a person who hates them, and amplifies anti-democracy activists.

Journos rationalize. They say exTwitter is still "where the people are" -- but what they mean, I believe, is that it's where their peers are.

The in-group conversation they are having is more important than the inconvenience, and effort, of doing what they know is the right thing, for themselves and their audiences.

1/x

dangillmor, 2 months ago to random

Sure, TikTok is terrible in many ways. But the hypocrisy of its critics, especially members of Congress, is almost beyond belief.

The problem with TikTok is the same one we have with countless other Internet products: They are relentless violators of our privacy and security.

Fix that, and you've fixed TikTok.

Democrats are just as bad as Republicans on this. And so is Big Journalism, which mostly just amplifies the lies.

This is a moral panic with a mercantile edge.

(From a year ago...)

dangillmor, 9 months ago to random

A person I otherwise deeply respect has remained (very) active on the deadbird site, and is even paying for it, because (the person says) it fulfills a professional need that can't be met elsewhere.

My friend calls it "a deal with the devil." On that, we agree.

I have my share of hypocrisies, and try to manage them carefully. Sticking with a site run by an enemy of journalism and democracy was just too much to stomach.

Journalists should leave. Period.

dangillmor, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to random

Just discovered the Dropbox had turned on -- without my assent -- a feature that let it use what I've stored there for AI training, which means it was being sent to "Open"AI. I had to opt out, and only did it after being alerted here on Mastodon to the fact that this was happening. (h/t @natematias)

This is a disgusting betrayal, and I'm looking for an alternative to Dropbox.

(Update: This story from CNBC says Dropbox CEO claims the sharing "only" occurs if you use the AI tools in the site.)

dangillmor, 4 months ago to random

You probably never thought you'd find anyone with as thin a skin as this pathetic whiner of a billionaire...

dangillmor, 4 months ago to random

Are the major ad/tracker blocking folks working on ways to remove the ads now polluting all the streaming services?

dangillmor, 8 months ago to random

New Yorker review of Musk hagiography says Twitter "has American journalism in a choke hold."

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/09/18/elon-musk-walter-isaacson-book-review

Journalists are choking themselves. It is their decision. Musk must chortle every day as he watches journalists bend over to support his business.

They could leave, and take their audiences with them, if they wanted to. They don't.

They're doing this to themselves. Inertia, amoral calculation, and timidity are weapons of self-destruction.

dangillmor, 2 months ago to random

Stupid and arrogant move by Tesla, removing the turn signal stalks in new cars and forcing drivers to fumble around with buttons.

A physical example of how the tech industry constantly changes the UX in software -- like breaking into your house, rearranging your living room, and not allowing you to put it back the way you liked it in the first place.

This one's downright dangerous.

https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-fans-complain-new-model-3-highland-turn-signal-stalks-2023-9

dangillmor, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

By banning (or forcing sale of) TikTok (which I loathe), Congress -- Democrats as well as Republicans -- and a Democratic president just performed extreme censorship of the Internet.

They claimed it was for your privacy, but that is a flagrant and stupid lie.

They believe you have no privacy rights, and deserve none, and have made that clear again and again.

We need public spaces controlled by the public, not rapacious companies and control-freak lawmakers.