Notices by ar.al🌻 (aral@mastodon.ar.al), page 6

“Last March, Tony Schmidt discovered something unsettling about the machine that helps him breathe at night. Without his knowledge, it was spying on him.

From his bedside, the device was tracking when he was using it and sending the information not just to his doctor, but to the maker of the machine, to the medical supply company that provided it and to his health insurer.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/you-snooze-you-lose-insurers-make-the-old-adage-literally-true

#SurveillanceCapitalism

Via @gilles

I’ll be on WION (Indian TV) in ten minutes to comment on Facebook’s patent for identifying and targeting families using facial recognition.

(In a nutshell: it’s their business model. Of course they’re going to. There’s nothing surprising about this whatsoever. What I’m surprised about is that we keep getting surprised about a company doing exactly what its financial statements state it does to make money.)

Google and Facebook are to our human rights and to democracy what Philip Morris is to our health and what Exxon Mobil is to the environment. Until we grasp this fundamental truth we haven’t a snowflake’s chance in hell of either effectively regulating them or funding alternatives.

“Will you be nice to Facebook and Google at the afternoon sessions?” — organiser to me at #NordicPrivacyArena

(I asked the transport minister of Finland and the Mozilla rep hard questions at their sessions.)

Me: “I don’t think that’s the right question to ask. Would you be nice to Exxon Mobil at an environmental protection conference?”

Still hearing the time-honed bullshit that “nobody cares about their privacy” at #NordicPrivacyArea. Bullshit. People are lied to on a daily basis with billion-dollar budgets.

Attending the #NordicPrivacyArena during the day and will be giving the dinner talk this evening to address, in addition to other things, the ridiculousness of having Facebook present a keynote at a privacy event.

The quest to design an ethical social media platform – Jennifer Johnson on The Week

https://theweek.com/articles/799415/quest-design-ethical-social-media-platform

How lovely to see such a nice article on Mastodon and ethical design in The Week from the journalist that @laura introduced to Mastodon.

:indieHeart:

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… WTF, Amazon?

@fosdem That “free” word you keep using refers to “freedom”.

”We aren’t selective about about sponsors and sources of donations” is tone-deaf, reckless, & simply not acceptable in 2018 for any group that seeks legitimacy in the ethics of what they do.

Palantir develops open source (https://palantir.github.io) and also helps ICE find & deport asylum seekers. By your (lack of) ethical standards, they would be welcome as a sponsor.

Please see https://fundingmatters.tech and review your stance on this.

With all their money, the one thing surveillance capitalists like Google cannot buy is legitimacy. Unless those of you with it sell it to them, of course.

Stop legitimising surveillance capitalism.

Don’t be the doctors in the cigarette ads.

#FollowFriday @switchingsocial for constantly great information about freedom-respecting alternatives and stop-gaps to surveillance capitalism as well as great Follow Fridays :)

If your event is sponsored by Facebook or Google, it’s not about freedom or human rights. Events that are are not sponsored by corporations that make money by restricting the former and violating the latter.

# SurveillanceCapitalism #whitewashing

Ethical technology has people, not users.

Not honoring Do Not Track (DNT) is a #GDPR violation. If you receive a DNT signal, you must turn off all tracking. Furthermore, as the person has made their choice explicit and clear, you must not ask them again (via popovers, modals, etc.)

How do we get this enforced. The first part seems like it is already covered by GDPR. Would the second half we enforceable under the current framework?

Thoughts?

My BBC Ideas piece on #SurveillanceCapitalism is now on the main page of BBC News. Tell your friends, spread the word :)

https://www.bbc.com/news

HT @cbowdon

Flying to Amsterdam to take part in a workshop co-organised by the Commons Network to help formulate a strategy to get the European Union to shift its focus from “Digital Single Market” to a goal that prioritises people/personhood/human rights and a healthy commons instead of corporations/business/the market.

FREEZE+PRESS

This is a fascinating article and an inspiring approach to the process of authoring and publishing in the digital/networked age using bash, markdown, etc.

https://freeze.sh/_/2016/london/

#publishing #layout #markdown #bash #foss

Apple: we believe privacy is a human right.

Also Apple: here’s your trust score.

#surveillancecapitalism

This just popped up on my Apple TV:

“Your playback, searches, and device trust score are used to personalise your experience, improve that of others, and prevent fraud.”

What the fucking fuck, Apple? No, this is not OK at all.

#privacy #surveillancecapitalism #apple

Me, 5 years ago: don’t trust Google/Facebook because XYZ…

Neoliberal tech folks: you dumb tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist you don’t know anything there’s nothing wrong with Google/Facebook shut the fuck up what are you a communist?

Me, today: don’t trust Mozilla Corporation because XYZ…

Neoliberal tech folks: you dumb tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist you don’t know anything there’s nothing wrong with Mozilla Corporation shut the fuck up what are you a communist?

*marks calendar for 2023*