Michel Salim @michel_slm@social.privacytools.io

Minnesota is now using contact tracing to track protestors, as demonstrations escalate

https://bgr.com/2020/05/30/minnesota-protest-contact-tracing-used-to-track-demonstrators/

"This was a mistake. We had imagined that the textual representation would be used for remote comparisons and the QR code for local (in person) comparisons, but some users found it easier to send a screenshot of both formats via a public forum like Twitter, unknowingly publishing the phone numbers embedded in the QR code."
https://signal.org/blog/safety-number-updates/

So, Signal apologists, remind me how forcing users to associate their phone number with their #Signal account isn't a privacy risk?

● NEWS ● #citizenlab ☞ #WeChat #Surveillance Explained https://citizenlab.ca/2020/05/wechat-surveillance-explained/

Half of Americans have decided not to use a product or service because of privacy concerns

https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/g7ulzd/half_of_americans_have_decided_not_to_use_a/

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/14/half-of-americans-have-decided-not-to-use-a-product-or-service-because-of-privacy-concerns/

"Recently, [Google's] security team informed employees using Zoom Desktop Client that it will no longer run on corporate computers as it does not meet [their] security standards for apps used by [their] employees."

​

"Earlier this month … SpaceX also banned employees from Zoom, citing 'significant privacy and security concerns.' And on Monday, New York City's Department of Education urged schools to abandon Zoom and switch to a service from Microsoft."

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/04/08/2119207/google-told-its-workers-that-they-cant-use-zoom-on-their-laptops-anymore

How to isolate zoom from doing too much nasty shit on your linux system, the easy way:

install firejail ("sudo apt install firejail" or whatever command it is for your distro you nerd).

Only run zoom with this command from now on (maybe even uninstall your current zoom and re-run it with this) "firejail zoom".

Done! You may wanna make a new menu icon or executable for running Zoom in a sandbox, so you don't accidentally launch it normally again.

Those of you real nerds will have noticed that I didn't suggest making a new firejail config or anything, that's because the latest firejail comes with a suggested zoom config by default! No extra work required!

#FuckZoom

At what point should we consider #Apple a #monopoly and stop them buying apps and killing off its #Android version?

https://blog.darksky.net/dark-sky-has-a-new-home/

Letsencrypt is going to revoke 3,048,289 certificates tomorrow that "may" have been wrongfully issued due to a wrong CAA DNS check.

To check if you're affected, and need to re-issue certs (before tomorrow!), check here:

https://letsencrypt.org/caaproblem/

A couple of days ago a friend of mine visited a mobile service shop, to fix an issue on her phone. The store employee, after looking into the device, asked her: Signal? This uses e2e communication... Why? Are you a journalist?

So, instead of basic human right, privacy is now considered a "special case" ?

#signal #privacy #rights

Google Fi's terms are insane. You have to agree to let them pass all your data over a vpn to Google's network.

All. Your. Data.

They say it's to "enhance your privacy and security."

There is no privacy or security when sending all your data to the worlds biggest privacy violator.

"I used object-oriented programming languages but only called static methods because abstraction is oppression and only The Man uses virtual function tables." -- https://mickens.seas.harvard.edu/wisdom-james-mickens I plan to chortle for the next hour or so while watching his talk https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=4vd2rCBjHp8

Mickens never disappoints here he trashes blockchain and deep fakes. I do not know when he gets times to do actual research.

Exclusive: Google users in UK to lose EU data protection - sources

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-privacy-eu-exclusive/exclusive-google-users-in-uk-to-lose-eu-data-protection-sources-idUSKBN20D2M3

When Orbán in Hungary had drafted a new constitution and only about a thousand of us protested way back in 2012, if I had to place a moment when hungarian democracy died then this would be it.

With the USA, that moment is after the senate didn’t convict Trump. No mass protests? No-one was throwing Molotov cocktails? That’s when authoritarianism received a silent, tacit approval from most people in the US.

Game over for now.

Great overview of the issues with advertising: http://jacek.zlydach.pl/blog/2019-07-31-ads-as-cancer.html

There is a need to spread awareness of your offerings to the people who need them, but advertising has long ago gone beyond that to something actively harmful.

Dear IT workers, are you about to #burnout ? 💊
https://burnoutindex.org

"People who work on social software are closer in spirit to economists and political scientists than they are to people making compilers. They both look like programming, but when you’re dealing with groups of people as one of your runtime phenomena, you have an incredibly different practice."
— #ClayShirky, 'A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy'
https://october.substack.com/p/part-i-the-next-great-online-community

The Irish have teeth: Facebook wants to roll out dating but provides no documentation. The Irish data protection commission invades their office and takes docs. Facebook stops the roll-out. What a shot across the bow. https://dataprotection.ie/en/news-media/press-releases/dpc-statement-facebook-dating-feature

Not sure I like this. First #Snapchat - now #Pinterest ...

#Facebook keeps copying apps. Meanwhile the blue app still doesn't have a working dark mode months after Android 10 and iOS 13

#monopoly

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/13/21136898/facebook-pinterest-photo-sharing-app