Does Google REALLY think I'm just going to turn the Spyware back on?
Google keeps asking about turning on my location timeline, trying to push for me to turn ON Ad tracking.
Are they stupid? If I'm the type of person who went out of his way to turn this crap off ...do they really think saying "Your in Control" is going to encourage me to turn this s*** back on?
like this
Apple CEO gives Trump gold gift exceeding company policy; Tim Cook's 24-karat gold present exceeds Apple's $10 limit for US officials.
Apple CEO gives Trump gold gift exceeding company policy
Tim Cook's 24-karat gold present exceeds Apple's $10 limit for US officials.Luis Rijo (PPC Land)
adhocfungus likes this.
Warren, Sanders, Wyden, Welch Warn Google and YouTube CEOs Against Breaking Anti-Bribery Laws in Potential Settlement with Trump Administration
Warren, Sanders, Wyden, Welch Warn Google and YouTube CEOs Against Breaking Anti-Bribery Laws in Potential Settlement with Trump Administration | U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
The Official U.S. Senate website of Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusettswww.warren.senate.gov
adhocfungus likes this.
Exiled Moldovan opposition head decries police crackdown
Exiled Moldovan opposition head decries police crackdown
Exiled Moldovan opposition politician Ilan Shor has denounced the election-related police crackdownRT
Chris Cuomo mocked after falling for deepfake video of AOC slamming Sydney Sweeney ad
In his post accompanying the ersatz video showing AOC wearing a black blazer and with her hair in a bun, Cuomo denounced the Democrat for having misplaced priorities.
“Nothing about hamas or people burning jews cars. But sweeney jeans ad? Deserved time on floor of congress? What happd to this party? Fight for small business …not for small culture wars,” he wrote.
Cuomo failed to notice that the AI-generated video bore a clear watermark stating it was “parody 100% made with AI.” - The supposed hard-hitting journalist also apparently forgot that Congress is not in session.
After the embarrassing gaffe, Cuomo acknowledged his error and removed the original post. However, his response attempted to shift focus back to his original criticism of the congresswoman regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
“You are correct… that was a deepfake (but it really does sound like you). Thank you for correcting. But now to the central claim: show me you calling on hamas to surrender or addressing the bombing of a car in st louis belonging to the idf american soldier?…dude?” he wrote.
Chris Cuomo mocked after falling for deepfake video of AOC slamming Sydney Sweeney ad
The veteran journalist apparently can’t tell AOC from an AI-OC.Ariel Zilber (New York Post)
Substack’s extremist ecosystem is flourishing
Substack’s extremist ecosystem is flourishing
The app's recent swastika push alert was just the tip of the iceberg.The Handbasket
Trump Is Quietly Using The U.S. Military In A Whole New Way
Since taking office in January 2025, Trump has authorized several unprecedented military actions and territorial claims:
Border Militarization:
- Transferred control of the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-foot-wide strip along the US-Mexico border, to the Department of Defense in April 20251
- Established "National Defense Areas" in New Mexico and Texas, treating them as military installations where troops can detain migrants1
- Deployed over 10,000 troops to patrol and monitor the border2
Los Angeles Military Deployment:
- Federalized California National Guard troops in June 2025 over Governor Newsom's objections3
- Deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles following immigration protests3
- A June 19 appeals court ruling upheld Trump's authority to deploy troops in American cities4
Territorial Claims:
- Refused to rule out military force to seize control of Greenland from Denmark5
- Threatened military action to retake control of the Panama Canal5
- Proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America"5
Legal Framework:
- Administration argues military activities at border are legal under "military purpose doctrine" exception to Posse Comitatus Act1
- Critics say actions violate constitutional limits on military involvement in domestic law enforcement1
- Brennan Center called the border militarization "a transparent ruse to evade the Posse Comitatus Act"1
- Huffpost - Trump Is Quietly Using The U.S. Military In A Whole New Way ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
- Newsweek - Donald Trump expands US military role at southern border ↩︎
- CNN - Trump seizes on Los Angeles protests in contentious use of military amid migrant crackdown ↩︎ ↩︎
- The Conversation - Appeals court ruling grants Donald Trump broad powers to deploy troops to American cities ↩︎
- AP News - Trump refuses to rule out use of military force to take control of Greenland and Panama Canal ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Donald Trump Expands US Military Role at Southern Border
This directive involves the use of federal lands for military activities, such as constructing barriers and deploying equipment.Gabe Whisnant (Newsweek)
This only can go worse
Getting Started with Cloudflare Tunnel
Getting Started with Cloudflare Tunnel | David Ma
A guide to setting up and using Cloudflare Tunnel for local development.www.davidma.co
Ramaphosa Discusses Bilateral Trade With Trump, South Africa's Presidency Says
Ramaphosa Discusses Bilateral Trade With Trump, South Africa's Presidency Says
Ramaphosa Discusses Bilateral Trade With Trump, South Africa's Presidency SaysDuring a phone conversation, the two presidents emphasized their commitment to continued dialogue, the presidency said in a statement.Detailed discussions...Sputnik Africa
Russia Shoots Down Storm Shadow Missiles and Hundreds of Drones in 24 Hours
Russia Downs 240 Ukrainian Drones and 8 British Storm Shadow Missiles
Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced on August 7 that its air defense systems shot down eight UK-made Storm Shadow missiles and 240 Ukrainian drones overnightPetr Ermilin (Pravda English)
Putin not against meeting Zelensky, conditions should be created
Putin not against meeting Zelensky, conditions should be created
As the Russian president noted, there is still a long haul ahead for creation of such conditionsTASS
Pashinyan Selling Off Armenia’s Sovereignty to the West: Here’s What It Means for South Caucasus
Pashinyan Selling Off Armenia’s Sovereignty to the West: Here’s What It Means for South Caucasus
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is digging a suicidal geopolitical hole for Armenia by trading sovereignty for shaky Western promises, warned political analyst Shota Apkhaidze.Sputnik International
Trump Is Launching an AI Search Engine Powered by Perplexity
Trump Is Launching an AI Search Engine Powered by Perplexity
Donald Trump’s media company is teaming up with Perplexity to bring AI search to Truth Social, the President’s X.com alternative.Truth announced the endeavor in a press release on Wednesday. Anyone using the browser version of Truth can now use Perplexity to search the web. “We’re proud to partner with Perplexity to launch our public Beta testing of Truth Social AI, which will make Truth Social an even more vital element in the Patriot Economy,” Devin Nunes, Trump Media's CEO and Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, said in the press release.
playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2…
“We’re excited to partner with Truth Social to bring powerful AI to an audience with important questions. Curiosity is the engine of change, and Perplexity’s AI is developed to empower curiosity by delivering direct, reliable answers with transparent citations that allow anyone to dig deeper,” Perplexity’s chief business officer Dmitry Shevelenko said in the press release.According to the announcement, “the mission of Trump Media is to end Big Tech’s assault on free speech by opening up the Internet and giving people their voices back.” Which is a funny thing to put in an announcement about Trump partnering with a company whose investors include Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and the former CEO of GitHub.
Perplexity’s Truth Social search engine will be powered by stolen content. Earlier this week, Cloudflare reported Perplexity used stealth and undeclared crawlers to evade websites that explicitly set themselves up to avoid being catalogued by LLMs. Perplexity has a long history of using scrapers that ignore the Robots Exclusion Protocol. Perplexity started as a demo that scraped Twitter with fake academic accounts backed by AI-generated research proposals.
Forbes, the New York Times, New York Post, and the Dow Jones have all accused Perplexity of plagiarism. News Corp‘s Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post sued Perplexity in 2024 for copyright infringement, claiming in the federal lawsuit that Perplexity is “engaging in a massive amount of illegal copying of publishers’ copyrighted works and diverting customers and critical revenues away from those copyright holders.” In 2024, WIRED reported on the accusations of Perplexity’s plagiarism and Perplexity almost immediately plagiarized the story. When New York Times tech workers went on strike last year, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas offered to help the Times keep the paper going.
Big Tech has aligned itself with the Trump administration since before the election, seeing an alliance of opportunity for deregulation of AI in particular.
But is the Perplexity-powered AI aggregation machine “woke?” I asked a few questions to find out. I wanted to know: Is Trump in the Epstein files?“There is no evidence in the recently reviewed and released government ‘Epstein Files’ of a ‘client list” or documentation placing Donald Trump as implicated in Jeffrey Epstein's criminal actions,” it said. “While Trump’s name, like many other prominent individuals, appears in public records of Epstein’s social and business contacts (such as guest lists or flight logs, widely reported over the years), there is no mention in current official documents or filings that directly implicates Trump as a criminal participant in Epstein’s sex trafficking activities.”
How does Truth Social’s search engine think the American economy is doing?
“The American economy is currently facing significant headwinds, with signs of slowdown—most notably by a contraction in GDP, rising inflation, and softening labor market conditions—though some leaders still emphasize areas of resilience,” Truth Search AI said.
Are the tariffs to blame?“Recent tariff increases in the United States have generally had a negative effect on economic growth and employment, raising costs for businesses and consumers while providing only limited benefits to some manufacturing sectors,” Truth Search AI said.
Damn. It’s woke as hell.
Big Tech Backed Trump for Acceleration. They Got a Decel President Instead
Effective accelerationists didn’t just accidentally shoot themselves in the foot. They methodically blew off each of their toes with a .50 caliber sniper rifle.Emanuel Maiberg (404 Media)
like this
X plans to show ads in Grok chatbot's answers
X plans to show ads in Grok chatbot's answers
Grok's responses to users on X could include paid advertisements in the future.Mariella Moon (Engadget)
Fitik likes this.
Tech giants turning blind eye to child sex abuse, Australian watchdog says
Tech giants turning blind eye to child sex abuse, Australian watchdog says
Commissioner’s recommendations for tech companies include measures that have been criticised on privacy grounds.John Power (Al Jazeera)
Google search boss says AI isn’t killing search clicks
Google search boss says AI isn’t killing search clicks
Liz Reid says Google’s data shows AI is generating consistent clicks and better experiences.Ryan Whitwam (Ars Technica)
adhocfungus likes this.
Monkeys can't write, only hit random keys, but several monkey brains interconnected with each other, with an LLM, can.
In such a scenario, there'd still be a random factor behind the monkey's behaviors: less of a pure randomness, more of a Weasel Program.
how many monkey brains are needed to connect to have the capability of an human brain.
I often consider the Homo sapiens intelligence not as superior than other species, but just a different approach for problem-solving capabilities and tool-making among living beings. For instance, crows (particularly the New Caledonian crow) are well-known for exceptional intelligence, because they're not just able to use tools, they're also able to use tools to make/fix other tools (just like humans).
That said, I bet it would require less crow brains than monkey brains for human-like intelligence to emerge, despite primates being genetically closer to humans. Crows are awesome.
Huawei to open-source AI chip toolkit to take on Nvidia’s proprietary platform
Tech war: Huawei to open-source AI chip toolkit to take on Nvidia’s proprietary platform
The move will help accelerate innovation from developers, while making Ascend chips easier to use, Huawei’s Eric Xu says.Xinmei Shen (South China Morning Post)
Large language model developed by Chinese researchers helps rescue in Myanmar earthquake
Large language model developed by Chinese researchers helps rescue in Myanmar earthquake
A large language model developed by researchers from Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) was applied in rescue efforts following the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on March 28. It was recently included inwww.globaltimes.cn
Technology reshared this.
FEP-c313: Replies Addressed to Original Author’s Followers
Hello!
This is a discussion thread for the proposed FEP-c313: Replies Addressed to Original Author’s Followers. Please use this thread to discuss the proposed FEP and any potential problems or improvements that can be addressed.
Summary
This proposal introduces an ActivityPub extension to improve reply distribution. It allows a reply (comment) to be addressed directly to the original post author’s followers collection, so that followers of the original author can receive the reply. This behavior aligns with how networks like Diaspora and Friendica distribute comments, and aims to enhance conversation visibility across federated servers.
A new flag in NodeInfo metadata advertises support for this extension. Servers implementing this FEP can thus coordinate reply delivery: if both servers support it, a reply will be forwarded to the original author’s followers automatically; otherwise, the sender can fallback to standard distribution.
Re: FEP-c313: Replies Addressed to Original Author’s Followers
If Mastodon doesn't support forwarding delivery to local collections, then you're still facing an uphill battle getting Mastodon to support your FEP, no?
In which case wouldn't it be roughly equivalent to get Mastodon to support 7.1.2 of the AP spec?
Huawei to open-source AI chip toolkit to take on Nvidia’s proprietary platform
Tech war: Huawei to open-source AI chip toolkit to take on Nvidia’s proprietary platform
The move will help accelerate innovation from developers, while making Ascend chips easier to use, Huawei’s Eric Xu says.Xinmei Shen (South China Morning Post)
China is really practicing what they preach by making the fruit of the workers' labour available for all. They could have made infinitely more money by offering this as a service and that's what every Western C-suite would do even if every engineer that worked on it wanted it made public. Both Huawei's co-op leadership and presumably the Chinese government (even in Western "free market" capitalist countries decisions this significant by this big of a company would be subject to government oversight and export control) choosing to make it open source for free is saying a lot. They're also seemingly not concerned about preventing the West from using their technology in the same way the West denies China use of their tech, despite the obvious strategic and economic benefits of having something the West doesn't.
Same with a lot of other Chinese tech investments like Deepseek and RISC-V implementations.
I wonder if they're making these things open source to counter the Western propaganda that Chinese tech has spyware or built in censorship. If so, I think they've made pretty good faith strides and if they're hoping for countries like Canada to jump ship and work with them on tech instead of the US, I as a Canadian software developer would gladly work for a Chinese company over a US one.
FOSS Alternative to Privacy?
Virtual Cards That Protect Your Payments | Online Payment Security
Protect your payment security. Shield your financial information and protect against credit and debit card fraud with secure, randomly-generated virtual card numbers.www.privacy.com
like this
Do posts like these get verified in some way?
A screenshot of an image post can be faked so easily. Even the image can be faked so easily now. How do we know what’s real?
Chinese scientists detail how they created high-strength, low-temperature steel for world’s first fusion nuclear power reactor in action
‘Absolutely impossible’: how China created super steel for nuclear fusion
Chinese scientists detail how they created high-strength, low-temperature steel for world’s first fusion nuclear power reactor in action.Shi Huang (South China Morning Post)
Desperate measures to save Intel: US reportedly forcing TSMC to buy 49% stake in Intel to secure tariff relief for Taiwan
Desperate measures to save Intel: US reportedly forcing TSMC to buy 49% stake in Intel to secure tariff relief for Taiwan
A new report out of Taiwan has revealed that the current US administration is tying the reduction on trade of trade tariffs on Taiwan to significant TSMC investment in the US. This investment includes a 49% stake in Intel.Fawad Murtaza (Notebookcheck)
like this
China’s humanoid robots complete world-first multi-task training
China’s humanoid robots complete world-first multi-task training
UBTech's Walker S1 humanoids complete world-first multi-robot training at Zeekr's 5G smart factory, advancing intelligent automation.Jijo Malayil (Interesting Engineering)
Technology reshared this.
Netanyahu's government unanimously votes to fire Attorney General who is prosecuting him for corruption
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/04/netanyahu-fire-israel-attorney-general-trial
Israel to launch new phase of Gaza war after receiving US green light for total occupation
Media outlets citing Israeli sources said the Israeli regime plans an expansion of fighting and a full occupation of Gaza.The scheme to occupy Gaza, set in motion by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will continue with an offensive on Gaza City and central refugee camps, forcing much of the Palestinian population in Gaza to move south.
The objective, Israeli authorities said, is to eradicate what remains of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement and force the group to release the roughly 50 Israeli captives still held in Gaza, some of whom are still alive despite the famine in Gaza.
Netanyahu is expected to push the scheme for approval at a high-level Israeli war cabinet scheduled to convene on Thursday.
Netanyahu has reportedly already obtained the go-ahead from the United States. President Donald Trump does not oppose the scheme for the full occupation of Gaza, according to US officials cited by the media.
Israel to launch new phase of Gaza war after receiving US green light
The Israeli regime plans to launch a new phase of its war on the Gaza Strip after receiving the US green light.PressTV
like this
Any good music trackers?
I used to be on what.cd and redacted.ch but ran out of HD for a while.
Now I don't know where to get music anymore.
like this
A 40-year-old Palestinian detainee from Gaza died at a Shin Bet security service facility last year after falling from a significant height while handcuffed, sources told Haaretz.The incident occurred in January 2024, and the Palestinian man's body was transferred without identifying information, leaving him unnamed. According to sources familiar with the investigation into the case, after the detainee's death, the Shin Bet said that he fell while trying to escape the facility where he was being questioned.
The autopsy found signs that are consistent with a fall from a height, as well as signs indicating that the detainee had been handcuffed for a prolonged period.
The Justice Ministry told Haaretz that the probe into his death has been concluded with no suspicion of criminal activity, even though the deceased was in state custody at the time, which at the very least may indicate negligence by Shin Bet officers. Even though the man's body was transferred without identification, his identity is known to the Shin Bet.
Autonomous User
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •Not fake setting? lmao
We do not control the software. It fails to include a libre software licence text file.
like this
sunzu2 likes this.
Chulk
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •I think they know that most people will eventually give in (or accidentally say yes) if they have to close a notification every time they want to do something.
Like you, I aim not to be "most people."
WaffleWarrior
in reply to Chulk • • •sunzu2
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •Youe feelings are valid and we should be pushing for proepr regulation.
However, let's be real it isn't happening. This is just one aspect of the class war. Most people are unwilling to go into proepr opposition ie stop using their slop services. They will keep doing this.
It is up to you how much abuse you will accept before taking direct action to punish the parasite.
sunzu2
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •I am gonna come off as a dick here but OP is stupid enough to have google anything on their most personal of devices
I don't even like YouTube on my TV but suffer it for access.
Using a Google phone as a normie is like being a young actress and doing an audition with Weinstein
Chip_Rat
in reply to sunzu2 • • •I'm gonna come off as a dick here but sunzu2 is stupid enough to have YouTube on their TV? At that point might as well just buy a pixel.
(Maybe a polite link to ways to degoogle a phone would be more productive and make you less of a dick.)
like this
sunzu2 likes this.
officialdakari
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •Blue_Morpho
in reply to officialdakari • • •officialdakari
in reply to Blue_Morpho • • •Blue_Morpho
in reply to officialdakari • • •GenosseFlosse
in reply to officialdakari • • •Samsy
in reply to GenosseFlosse • • •smokeppb [he/him]
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •like this
sunzu2 likes this.
sunzu2
in reply to smokeppb [he/him] • • •Well without these slop picture, how would I know what to waste my money on?!?!?
Normie, circa 2025
Blue_Morpho
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •like this
Endymion_Mallorn likes this.
irmadlad
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •OP, I'm not going to castigate you for your Google usage. I am going to assume that you are aware of the privacy concerns when dealing with Google since you are posting here in a Privacy chan. Sometimes, people are required to use Google services and there is no way around that. If that were my situation, I'd use a sandbox, VPN, 7 diff proxies, and a hazmat suit. If this Google usage is not required by say an employer, I'd find something more private.
Google does have some pretty cool technology. Unfortunately most of it, if not all, is built off of data theft.
like this
Endymion_Mallorn e lusterko0 like this.
sanity_is_maddening
in reply to irmadlad • • •Right? I would think that people in a Privacy community, especially one on Lemmy would not use anything Google unless their employers or inexperienced clients forced their hand in some way.
Just to be clear to anyone else, I don't know the lives of anyone in this community, and everyone is on their own path at their own pace.
Nevertheless, it's still a bit exasperating if this is a community where we have to repeat over and over that Google and Apple and everything Big Tech is essentially the bad choice.
As someone who isn't a coder, the reason why I hang out in communities like these for a long time now is to hear the coders and more tech savvy people catching nonsense earlier than I would have on my own. Beyond the code that nonsense includes legislation also.
But that's just me.
DavidGarcia
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •like this
Endymion_Mallorn e lusterko0 like this.
JamesBoeing737MAX
in reply to DavidGarcia • • •Luke
in reply to JamesBoeing737MAX • • •darkstar
in reply to JamesBoeing737MAX • • •JamesBoeing737MAX
in reply to darkstar • • •ReversalHatchery
in reply to JamesBoeing737MAX • • •JamesBoeing737MAX
in reply to ReversalHatchery • • •ReversalHatchery
in reply to JamesBoeing737MAX • • •not everyone has nudes on their phones, not everyone will get to know that they are leaked, and afaik google hasn't even leaked user images ever.
they. won't. notice. it. they wouldn't notice even if they were subjected to personalized pricing.
Keyboard
in reply to DavidGarcia • • •Mugita Sokio
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •Articles – Untraceable Digital Dissident
Untraceable Digital Dissident2fm
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •Do you want X?
No.
Ok we'll we'll ask again in a minute.
shortwavesurfer
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •HiddenLayer555
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •Nyadia (she/they)
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •burrito
in reply to Nyadia (she/they) • • •kehet
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •Nighed
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •Unpopular opinion (here anyway):
Google timeline is really useful! Let's you know where you where when you need to know. Have used it, or told people to use it multiple times when someone needs to know when/how long they have been out of the country, or when they moved house etc.
They made a change recently so that it's all local or something? Not sure how that works.
Having home, work and other key locations set in Google maps is also..... Really useful.
kuhli
in reply to Nighed • • •I've never come a cross a situation where I need to know how long I've been somewhere more accurately than I can remember that I can't easily figure out some other way
You can also age locations in Google maps without having to store your location 24/7
Auli
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •It's not spyware anymore. It's stored on device so Google does not have access to it. It was a big issue when they did this as people could not longer log into the website and view their history. Right now there is no way to back it up so if you loose your phone you loose your history.
Reading these comments first nobody knows Google moved it locally.
WaffleWarrior
in reply to Auli • • •shaggyb
in reply to Auli • • •Okay so it doesn't matter that I don't let them collect it in the first place so there's no reason to turn it on, cool.
Unless you're wrong of course, but I trust you, random paragraph I encountered anonymously on an internet forum and engaged with for 8 seconds before moving on with my life forever. You couldn't possibly have a vested interest in misleading me and hey my coffee is ready.
P00ptart
in reply to WaffleWarrior • • •