privacat

@privacat@dataprotection.social

Lover of cats, beer, coffee, learning things, travel and getting into trouble.

I write a weekly newsletter, Chronicles of the Constantly Curious (https://careylening.substack.com/) where I explore how our lives are increasingly dominated by complex systems, processes, and people. This often leans towards complexity related to privacy law/policy & tech, but I will alsowrite on anything that tickles my fancy.

I also do related consultant-y type of stuff for clients who like how my brain works.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

privacat, to random

Ever think 'Data Portability' could be about more than just exporting data? What if we could use data portability as a way to curate what companies know about us?

In my latest post, I argue that it's time to rethink and reframe data portability for our dynamic digital lives. 🔗https://careylening.substack.com/p/the-right-to-data-portability-is

After all, we are not static creatures; our likes, dislikes, names and even our identities evolve. So should our digital profiles. What if GDPR’s data portability right also allowed for easy data curation?

I argue that it's time to actually empower users by giving them the tools to easily and selectively modify their digital records to reflect who they truly are. If we extend the power of data portability to data (im)portability, this could make controlling our digital narratives as simple as a few mouse clicks. No more deadnaming. No more permanent awkward, painful memories.

The ability to curate what companies know about us, easily and painlessly may make it easier to reshape our relationship with Big Tech. Instead of hostility, we could aim for trust and accuracy. If this intrigues you, check out my latest. 🔗https://careylening.substack.com/p/the-right-to-data-portability-is

#GDPR #BigTech #dataportability #curation #control #datasubjectrights

aral, (edited ) to Facebook
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

Folks, the reason #Facebook/ #Instagram/ #Meta/ Zuckerberg hasn’t launched #Threads in the #EU isn’t because the EU is determined to protect your privacy, it’s because the EU is determined to protect The Single Market (peace be upon it) from anticompetitive behaviour. It’s because they’re using Instagram to launch Threads and sharing data between them (and not with EU startups that might want to use that data too). It’s #antitrust, not #privacy. It’s markets, not people.

#DigitalServicesAct

privacat,

@aral Por que los dos?

Honestly, Meta is getting slammed on both fronts (DPC Decision prohibiting processing in May, Court of Justice Decision on Tuesday covering competition AND data protection). I think it's a perfectly rational calculus by Meta to say "Eh, Europe really doesn't like us right now, let's not give them another thing they can sue us over" -- and not quibble on whether it's privacy, competition, single markets protection, DSA .... There's so much to choose from!

privacat, to Futurology

is having a very bad year. The latest decision (issued by the yesterday in Meta Platforms Inc, et al., v. Bundeskartellamt, C-C252/21) adds to their woes, but more importantly, I anticipate it will force us all to re-evaluate , bases, special category data, and derived from that data.

In my article, I explore the case in detail, as well as some hypotheses on the impact of this decision broadly to , with examples.

But I'm curious to hear your thoughts and observations. Am I being a Cassandra? Overly pessimistic? Completely overthinking this? What implications am I missing?

I'll note here (even though I didn't mention it in the article) that this may also portend the effective death of the One Stop Shop mechanism, which is already on shaky ground after the whole spat between the and other regulators. Who needs Ireland if competition authorities can also raise issues under the GDPR?

CJEU case: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document_print.jsf?mode=DOC&pageIndex=0&docid=275125&part=1&doclang=FR&text=&dir=&occ=first&cid=62013

Substack: https://careylening.substack.com/p/metas-wakeup-call-and-big-techs-new

privacat, to fediverse

In retrospect, I shouldn't have bothered writing an article regarding , the and the because this brilliant gem (back from the 'Endless September' Usenet days) says everything I want to say and then some. Everything old is new again, the same tribalism and existential fears remain. We are creatures of short memories and strong, deeply-felt fears.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060223165423/http://www.nyupress.org/netwars/pages/chapter03/ch03_.html

I encourage anyone (regardless of what side you're on) to read this. H/T to @wendyg for sharing this on the Hellsite):

privacat,

@osma @wendyg Yes. And we all seem to suffer myopia about that. Interfaces and design influence behavior as much as anything else.

Not to give Meta any favors here, but it's possible that the reason they reached out to Masto admins prior to launching some abominable interface, was to head some of these obvious self-owns at the pass.

privacat,

@osma @wendyg

Mastodon from a privacy perspective is better on certain things, but appalling on others. I wrote a guide on how to fix some of these issues, but it creates a lot of challenges for people who are arguably not thinking about data protection at all.

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

BTW, conservative commentators are complaining that the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action didn't go far enough and still leaves the schools plenty of wiggle room.

privacat,

@lauren I mean, for most conservatives, the only win would have been to revert back to white male-only institutions, so, no real surprises there.

privacat,

@lauren I (only half) joke that if Clarence Thomas could, he would vote to repeal the 13th-15th Amendments and put himself back into slavery.

He and Alito are terrorizing the bench in a way that will destabilize this country for half a century.

privacat, to random

So after wading into the debate yesterday based on an article written by @ploum (and posted by @dangillmor), and the larger controversy, I decided to share a slightly more coherent version of my thoughts. I still think unnecessary and preemptive suck and will cause a helluva lot more damage to the protocol than Meta likely will, but as always, hope others who differ in their thoughts will engage in some healthy debate, and not just resort to calling me a troll for having a different opinion than them.

https://careylening.substack.com/p/the-fediverse-metapocalypse-and-preemptive

privacat,

@onepict
Thanks! I will read this. Also thanks for the constructive comments.
@ploum

privacat,

@onepict @ploum

Thanks for the response, and your thoughts. I will admit, I don't agree with a lot of it, but I do get where you're coming from. I think there's some degree of fractal complexity in these systems that many miss (I wrote about the problem of fractal complexity here: https://careylening.substack.com/p/test-post-thing).

Some disclosures: I (briefly) worked for Meta in 2018-2019, when they were trying to rehabilitate themselves post CA/pre-GDPR. I naively thought I could change some of the particularly odious bad behaviors and practices, and it only took me a few months to realize that this was about as effective as me trying to sprout wings and fly.

Part of the reason is that Meta isn't a monolith anymore; it's a messy, fragmented clown car of a system, a pile-on of various hacks, experiments, deprecated-but-not-yet-deprecated code, forgotten interconnections, and abandoned promo endeavors and efforts. Nobody at Meta knows what data Meta has (and I mean this very literally - they literally cannot comply with a DSAR effectively because they have no clue about what their code is actually tracking, or at least that was the case in 2019).

It's the equivalent of assuming there's a single world order who controls the "System". This shit is so big that while there might be people who know more, nobody (or no single team) knows everything, or even most things. Assuming that conscious efforts to destroy the AP/Fedi are being made by some shadowy leadership group is ascribing WAY too much intelligence and foresight to a group of people who probably thought it would just be cool if they could get on this AP/fedi bandwagon and siphon away Twitter users.

And like, really, I think that's what the main end-goal is. To siphon away Twitter users by showing that Threads will be more like the social network people had on Twitter, back when everyone was on Twitter. FB knows it can't achieve that on its own, so they're going to coopt whatever system might give them an edge.

You hinted at this in a later comment, and I think it's the most realistic basis for any of the P92 efforts. Or, even more cynically: A few people at Meta thought they could get a promo from this.

privacat,

@xgranade The only thing I positioned as an ad hominem attack is the fact that I was called a troll for having a different opinion.

As for poisoning the well, if you don't think it's gatekeeping what would you characterise it as if you were in disagreement with that position (I get that if you're pro-blocking Facebook, you assume it's on the side of the angels, but pretend you had to argue my side).

I dont' think I hate safety or agency - it's why I have zero problem with individual admins blocking FB/P92. I am mostly concerned with fallout effects if major instances go further and punish others for not doing the same and pre-emptive banning without any real evidence.

privacat,

@ploum @onepict I mean, expand that to logical conclusions: What phone do you use? Was it created by a corporation? What brand of computer do you own? What car do you drive or bike do you own? What food do you buy, what news do you read ... I could go on.

If they're all soulless robots, why aren't you out there living off the land, instead of online? Why support any of them if they're all entities that "nobody control(s) anymore" ?

privacat,

@ploum @onepict When I see generalizations like "We should fight corporations" or "We should be honest and ensure people join the Fediverse because they share some of the values behind it" uncritically mentioned without any nuance, I respond with the same lack-of-nuance generalizations.

Asserting that it's all bad, or that only the right people should join (those that share 'the values behind' the Metaverse' (without any articulation about what those might be!) isn't any more helpful.

privacat,

@ploum @onepict We only disagree because you mischaracterize my argument. shrug You never said 'too big' or 'abusive' -- you said 'corporations' and then dismissively told me to read folks I've in fact, already read. There's not much more to discuss here.

privacat,

@ploum @onepict These are not mutually exclusive conditions. Surprisingly, one can consider meta problematic, and still find the broad-brush approach (preemptive banning) to be a bad one.

You assuming that because I don't agree, that I am pro FB, or pro big corporations, don't know what a corporation is, don't like freedom, etc., means there's no room for debate, nuance, or understanding here.

That's a very boring conversation to engage in, so we'll just have to disagree.

privacat,

@onepict
That wasn't to you, it was to
@ploum

You haven't accused me of anything, AFAIK. We cool.

privacat,

@xgranade
You have difficulty reconciling because you're missing the context surrounding the original. And most of my explanations in the comment threads.

rolle, to IT
@rolle@mementomori.social avatar

My Mastodon server was offline this morning for 2 hours and 2 minutes. The root disk was full for some reason. Reboot cleared 60% of the space. Those damn phantom files again...

Is there anything to do about this or do I just need some regular, timed reboots? How have others solved this? (my db and media are not on the same disk) #MastoAdmin #Servers #SysOps

privacat,

@rolle
I would love to know the answer to this. This happens to us all the time. Interesting that reboots help solve the problem though... Didn't know that -- @dbenbenn

dangillmor, to random
@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

This is important reading. What Google did to the open XMPP messaging protocol -- adopting and then poisoning it -- is an object lesson as the fediverse ponders Facebook/Meta entry.

I'm still leery of pre-emptively blocking Meta here, but we need to be absolutely clear on what's at risk -- and ready to instantly respond if they try to take over.

https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html

privacat,

@Daojoan
100%

This is just elitism, draped in rose-colored glasses and cautionary tales.
@dangillmor

privacat,

@tokyo_0
Imagine a world where you were connected to a private electrical grid. You didn't have to do anything to maintain that grid but pay a monthly bill.

All of your friends are on the grid, and everyone's devices work -- you can charge your phone at your friends house, and don't need a special adapter to plug in your devices.

A separate grid also exists. It's open source and anyone can join, but unlike the paid grid, it's a bit janky. Oh, and you really need to be an electrical engineer or at least very familiar with electrical grids and how to connect to them, in order to join.

One day, the proprietary electrical grid gets taken over by a dictator, and lots of people rightly want to leave. The open grid people are delighted and think that this will be the way that their grid will grow, with only the best people.

Many on proprietary grid hear about the open grid, but realize that they don't really know enough about electricity to connect, much less set up their own substation. Also, they hear about how things often break and there are lots of rules about what devices you can use on the grid, and what times you can use the grid, and it's kinda hard to get set up.

The old proprietary grid continues to degrade, and now people are being cut off entirely. The open grid people encourage them to join, but refuse to lower the barriers or relax on some of the rules -- they don't want to let the wrong people connect and trash the grid, after all.

All the while, a loud faction of the open grid people chide the proprietary grid users for refusing to educate themselves, or being lazy and not learning electrical engineering. After all, the open grid people all know electrical engineering, and for them, setting up on the grid is easy! Anyone can do it, and if they don't, it's on them.

Now, another proprietary grid company wants to get set up on this open grid, but the open grid people are FURIOUS. "If people want to have electricity, they should learn electrical engineering and join our grid, or suffer because they are lazy and want convenience and don't want to be free."

So millions of people languish on a dying proprietary system, while a small minority of others complain that not enough people are embracing the better open grid.

This is Mastodon/fedi right now

@Daojoan @dangillmor

privacat,

@tokyo_0 @Daojoan @dangillmor

My example was an analogy -- not a 1:1 comparison. I should have, in truth said "that's how I see Mastodon going" -- it's not quite that bad.

And while I can't see your background, I did peruse your profile -- you write software. You may not have a degree in engineering, but it's clear you're probably more familiar with a protocol like AP than say, many of my friends on BlueSky or the vast majority of Twitter users.

The fediverse isn't an electrical grid, but it isn't particularly intuitive either, especially when you first start. Ask me how I know? Making an excuse that blames the user (media says its hard, people like status quo, people hate freedom) is elitism. While I do agree network effects matter, after getting accounts on both Bluesky and having my own instance here, I'm gonna have to say, Bluesky will probably be where most Twitter users end up.

And soon, I expect there will be similar laments (just as the OP's to XMPP) for 'why Mastodon was cut off at the knees' without any sort of introspection on the multifaceted reasons as to why other than 'a big corporate entity killed it.'

privacat,

@hamishtpb @tokyo_0 @Daojoan @dangillmor The analogy is apt, because the tactics are similar.

It wasn't 'everyone' in the Linux/GNU communities, either . It was a loud, but insulting and off-putting minority of (mostly) guys who would shoot users down for trying to understand. And yes, that also exists here.

I've seen more than a fair number of interested folks who cannot get past the 'what server do I join' roadblock get similarly shut down by folks just explaining it's 'so easy' and not understanding what's causing the block.

I've seen many users on small servers leave because they can't find people/topics or can't figure out the mechanics of adding @user when they're used to just @user. Mastodon quickly becomes a ghost town for them. The lack of search functionality makes it hard to expand to find topics and people to follow. The most recent v trending approach makes it hard to identify trends.

These are choices that intentionally or otherwise, gatekeep out users who "don't put in the work" -- which sounds reasonable until you realize that it's just a form of in/out group politics and tribalism. While the degrees and severity might be less than the XMPP/Linux zealots of the past, or my grid example, it's still the same shit and it has the same effect.

ClimateChris, to random
@ClimateChris@mastodon.world avatar

It’s been a wild 72 hours since I resigned. When life settles, I plan to be more active here. #climatechange #climateemergency #climateaction #ClimateCrisis

image/png
image/png

privacat,

@ClimateChris The Right wing mind virus is insane. Threatening a meteorologist for reporting the weather is next level.

privacat, to tech

The has potential to record our lives, all the time. Are we ready for this kind of reality, and are we comfortable living with Apple's Privacy Vision? Read my thoughts here: https://careylening.substack.com/p/seeing-through-apples-vision-pro

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