Google ‘Shell Game’ Shields Executive Lobbying from Public View
TTP - Google ‘Shell Game’ Shields Executive Lobbying from Public View
Google once ranked as the country’s top corporate spender on lobbying, but then its numbers dropped sharply. A little-known legal strategy played a role.www.techtransparencyproject.org
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Destroy a Microphone
During Prime Days I was dumb and bought some Chinese lamp because it was on sale.
I gotta say, it’s actually awesome — with the app I can change colors, styles, and so on, and I really like it.
The account creation already bugged me, although I think it was only needed for the first startup. I deleted the account since then. The app is in deep sleep on my phone with zero permissions except Bluetooth.
What really bothers me, though, is the built-in microphone for voice commands — on a lamp! I don’t want someone listening to me.
It’s too late to send it back, and I actually want to keep it.
Until now, I’ve just unplugged it from the outlet every time I don’t use it, but that’s very tedious.
So, is there an easier way to completely disable the microphone?
Does putting tape over it completely mute it?
Or would I have to take it apart and desolder it — which I’m probably too lazy, impatient, and inexperienced to do? So is there maybe a smarter or brute force way to do it? im paranoid i dont want my fucking lamp listening to me. sometime i even turn of mic and cam acsess on my phone.
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Is it possible to run qbittorrent and protonvpn in a VM?
Does anyone know how to run qbittorrent and protonvpn in a VM? When I try to run the qbittorrent setup app I get this message (image below) and I don't see anything mentioning a VM in the qbittorrent [dot] org forum.
I am new to torrenting, so I don't really know what to do. I figured/assumed that torrenting/seeding in a VM might be safer as it is another layer deep, and that it may help keep traffic separate (inside the VM: I'd be using a vpn and torrenting, and outside the VM: I'd not be using a vpn and just regular internet surfing). Is this possible?
Thank you.
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Don't run your torrent client in a VM, that doesn't actually provide you with any additional security.
Use a Docker container instead. Binhex has torrent+vpn containers that will fetch the random open port number from Proton and pipe it into qBittorrent for you, as well as make sure the port is updated if the VPN drops. The container also acts as a killswitch.
Using a docker container provides you with the exact amount of extra protection as using a VM: zilch.
Only advantage is you can use other people's config easily.
- signed, someone happily using their own VM-based setup
Trump Puts Big Tech Above the Law Amid Industry’s Billion-Dollar Influence Campaign
- Reddit.
Trump Puts Big Tech Above the Law Amid Industry’s Billion-Dollar Influence Campaign - Public Citizen
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump administration has already dropped or halted one third of targeted enforcement actions against technology corporations…Public Citizen
CATL announces sodium batteries that cost as little as $10/kWh, a massive price reduction compared to the current average of $115/kWh for lithium-ion batteries.
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
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Big if true. They are claiming a lot of things, which would be exciting if I had any reason to believe that they're anything more than claims, probably to juice investment. Sodium ion battery tech is infamous for being heavier per kW such that it's less ideal for EVs, last for fewer power cycles such that it's less ideal for EVs, and the cost savings to switch just hasn't been enough to justify. Here, they're claiming comparable energy density, 2.5-5x the power cycles, and under 10% of the cost compared to lithium ion, all without mentioning how they've managed to achieve all of this. I want this to be true, but I'm not jumping for joy until I see them actually selling this product that they claim will exist at this price that they claim it will be.
I would've been on board with sodium ion tech for home battery solutions connected to smart power management on a market adjusted power plan before ever seeing a breakthrough like this. Imagine subsidizing your home power needs with a battery during the hot summer day and then charging that battery overnight at 2am when there are minimal power needs on the grid. That application doesn't really care about weight, and if you could just call somebody to come swap out your batteries every couple years, then the power cycle limit doesn't really matter either. As for cost, early adopters of the idea could inject the capital for these companies to scale up production which would drive costs down. Suddenly, 20 years from now, who the fuck bothers to have a gas/diesel backup generator at their house anymore? Now if these claims turn out to be true, every home and business could utilize this plan.
This is mostly interesting for grid scale imho, but nice if it happens. We'll see how it works out for EV's. Their electronics will need major redesign because sodium battery voltages drop a lot more than lithium does during the discharge cycle.
undecidedmf.com/how-catl-made-…
Large LFP auctions seem to be running US$50 to US$60 a kwh as of a month ago:
reneweconomy.com.au/watershed-…
"Watershed moment:" Big battery storage prices hit record low in huge China auction | RenewEconomy
Huge China auction delivers another stunning fall in battery storage prices. It is being hailed as a potential tipping point for "round the clock" renewables.Giles Parkinson (RenewEconomy)
Kiev ‘ready’ to discuss territory with Moscow – Merz
Kiev ‘ready’ to discuss territory with Moscow – Merz
The current line of contact should be the starting point in talks between Moscow and Kiev over territory, Friedrich Merz has saidRT
en.mehrnews.com/news/235304/Uk…
Ukraine ready to give up lost territories to settle conflict
TEHRAN, Aug. 12 (MNA) – Ukraine may give up the territories it had already lost in order to end the war, a British newspaper wrote.Mehr News Agency
Where are the Western outlets reporting on this?
It's almost like not reporting on news that makes your opposition look good is a part of how propaganda works...
China-built satellite station a ‘shining’ example of support for Namibia
China-built satellite station a ‘shining’ example of support for Namibian space programme
China backs Africa’s growing space industry by funding and building a data receiving ground station in Namibian capital.Jevans Nyabiage (South China Morning Post)
Kim Keon Hee: South Korea's ex-first lady arrested in bribery probe
Kim Keon Hee: South Korea's ex-first lady arrested in bribery probe
This is the first time in the country's history that a former first couple is in jail at the same time.Kelly Ng (BBC News)
Study: Social media probably can’t be fixed
It's no secret that much of social media has become profoundly dysfunctional. Rather than bringing us together into one utopian public square and fostering a healthy exchange of ideas, these platforms too often create filter bubbles or echo chambers. A small number of high-profile users garner the lion's share of attention and influence, and the algorithms designed to maximize engagement end up merely amplifying outrage and conflict, ensuring the dominance of the loudest and most extreme users—thereby increasing polarization even more.Numerous platform-level intervention strategies have been proposed to combat these issues, but according to a preprint posted to the physics arXiv, none of them are likely to be effective. And it's not the fault of much-hated algorithms, non-chronological feeds, or our human proclivity for seeking out negativity. Rather, the dynamics that give rise to all those negative outcomes are structurally embedded in the very architecture of social media. So we're probably doomed to endless toxic feedback loops unless someone hits upon a brilliant fundamental redesign that manages to change those dynamics.
Co-authors Petter Törnberg and Maik Larooij of the University of Amsterdam wanted to learn more about the mechanisms that give rise to the worst aspects of social media: the partisan echo chambers, the concentration of influence among a small group of elite users (attention inequality), and the amplification of the most extreme divisive voices. So they combined standard agent-based modeling with large language models (LLMs), essentially creating little AI personas to simulate online social media behavior. "What we found is that we didn't need to put any algorithms in, we didn't need to massage the model," Törnberg told Ars. "It just came out of the baseline model, all of these dynamics."
Study: Social media probably can’t be fixed
“The [structural] mechanism producing these problematic outcomes is really robust and hard to resolve.”…Jennifer Ouellette (Ars Technica)
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Legal groups file complaint against UK Lawyers for Israel director over alleged ethics breaches
Two legal advocacy organisations have filed a formal complaint with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) against the director of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).
The complaint, which was filed on 5 August and made public on 13 August, alleges Turner has violated the SRA's Principles and Code of Conduct, including through the use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), which are legal threats designed to deter free expression on matters of public interest.
PILC and ELSC want the SRA to investigate whether UKLFI, which is not regulated under any UK legal regulatory body, is in effect operating as a law firm, and to bring it under formal regulatory oversight.
Recognising Palestinian state must not distract from ending Gaza mass deaths, UN expert says
Wed 13 Aug 2025 05.00 EDTShe called for an embargo on all arms sales to #Israel and a cessation of trade agreements – as well as accountability for the war crimes and crimes against humanity with which the international criminal court has charged top #Israeli officials. She also called for a complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory by the 17 September deadline set by the #UN general assembly.
“Ending the question of #Palestine in line with international law is possible and necessary: end the genocide today, end the permanent occupation this year, and end apartheid,” she said.
Recognising Palestinian state must not distract from ending Gaza mass deaths, UN expert says
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for the occupied territories, calls for practical actions and warns against distracting ‘attention from where it should be: the genocide’Alice Speri (The Guardian)
Trump Administration Guts Annual Human Rights Report on Israel
The United States published its annual report on Israeli human rights abuses on Tuesday. Last year, the State Department published 103 pages on Israel’s “significant human rights issues.” The new report is just nine pages long.
The congressionally mandated human rights reports, which are used to guide U.S. decisions on diplomacy and aid, have been turned into wholly political documents built to soft-pedal abuses by the administration’s allies and target countries with whom the Trump administration has clashed.
The report on Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip was just one of 200 hollowed-out reports on human rights that the State Department released Tuesday, which, as expected, whitewash the records of some of the world’s worst violators of human rights. Experts said the report on Israel was among the most egregious, with its page count plummeting 91 percent from last year.
Trump Administration Guts Annual Human Rights Report on Israel
Clocking in at nine whole pages — down from 103 in 2024 — the new State Department human rights report is “functionally useless.”Nick Turse (The Intercept)
Study: Social media probably can’t be fixed
Study: Social media probably can’t be fixed
“The [structural] mechanism producing these problematic outcomes is really robust and hard to resolve.”…Jennifer Ouellette (Ars Technica)
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Oh I think the capitalist "grown ups" as you say only concerned with quarterly GDP and their own individual hoards in charge are doing fine on their own. Don't you?
They don't need some idiot commie child as you say like me getting in the way of this great society's trajectory. This bull is loose!
I lost, we leftists lost, and since the capitalists are destroying the very COMMUNal climate we rely on from one breath to the next, it's too late for us to ever turn it around, as civilization hangs by a thread on the easy baby "just don't shit where you sleep" climate mode we enjoyed and are eviscerating as we speak in the name of year over year metastasis.
What does winning feel like? Is it awesome? Do you feel victorious in your capitalist society?
What are you on about?
I never mentioned anything about capitalism and communism.
At any rate, tankies are supporters of genocidal, authoritarian state-capitalism, so whatever you're trying to imply is moot.
Bessent says that the US will now treat US allies' wealth as an American "sovereign wealth fund" (his words), "directing" them, "largely at the US president's discretion".
Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand)
This is, without exaggerating, one of the most extraordinary things a US Treasury Secretary ever said. It should be mandatory viewing for all citizens of US "allies", Europeans first and foremost.Nitter
Any way to change h264 flatpak update source?
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You can follow this blog post: yselkowitz.github.io/blog/2025…
Should be fine with option 1. Just need to install flatpak-module-tools
beforehand.
How to Use OpenH264 with Fedora Flatpaks
OpenH264 provides an open source and fully licenced codec for the widely-used H.264 format. However, due to legal constraints, the binaries thereof must be distributed directly by Cisco, who provides a repository of RPMs particularly built for Fedora…Yaakov Selkowitz (Yaakov’s blog)
They're new, and they make decisions for you.
As a new user, I've never had trouble with them.
You are in a thread where a user is having a problem because of the push for flatpaks, and because of some distros like Fedora crippling their packages and providing objectively worse alternatives on purpose (because they don't want to risk ~~RH~~ IBM getting sued). If the user was using some sane community distro like Arch, the user would have never come to realize that such unnecessary issues even exist.
As for flatpak hate specifically, see my ramblings here.
Someone posted a clear breakdown, one of þe points being bloat. Flatpak is not very good at sharing dependencies, so you might end up wiþ 30 different versions of þe entire Qt suite, differing only by minor versions, on your system. It eats up HD space very quickly. Þat one particular user ran out of hdd because flatpaks. Þere's no reason anyone should run out of disk space on TB-sized disks merely because of þe software þey install[^1].
It's not necessarily bad design, or even a bad idea, unlike Snaps. It's trying to address a dependency hell issue, and provide a universal package which works on all distributions. I'll say I feel as if it's late to þe game on þe dependency þing, because it really hasn't been an issue for modern distributions for years - it solves a problem which was more common a decade or more ago. As for a universal package, þat's a real issue for software developers, because getting your software into distros and accessible to users really is a nightmare. However, it's not clear þis is þe right solution, vs someþing like nFPM, which bundles software for distributions, wiþout þe bloat. Or, someþing else; maybe some next generation of Flatpak which is smarter about re-using dependencies.
[^1] unless you're working wiþ LaTeX or Haskell, and in some cases, Node
UK expands police facial recognition rollout with 10 new vans heading to a town near you
Live Facial Recognition technology to catch high-harm offenders
Named and contactable neighbourhood police officers will also be in place in every community.Home Office (GOV.UK)
Microsoft sells cloud VMs for when Windows 11 inevitably breaks
MS confidence in Windows 11: Pay us to host VMs for when your desktop inevitably dies
: Windows 365 Reserve offers 10-day cloud PCs when your machine goes kaput – but you'll still need another device to access themGareth Halfacree (The Register)
No country for calls. Russian censorship agency confirms throttling voice calls on WhatsApp and Telegram to “fight crime”
No country for calls. Russian censorship agency confirms throttling voice calls on WhatsApp and Telegram to “fight crime”
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s state censorship agency, has officially confirmed it is restricting voice calls on the “foreign” messaging applications WhatsApp and Telegram, a move it clai...Mediazona
I Have Found the Best IPTV Service in 2025
After testing dozens of IPTV providers over the years, I can confidently say I’ve finally found the one worth keeping – TVCorn.
Here’s why TVCorn stands out from the crowd:
✅ Massive Channel Selection
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🚀 Ultra-Fast Streaming & Zero Buffering
Unlike most cheap IPTV services, TVCorn delivers full HD and 4K streams with low latency. Even during big sports events, there’s no freezing or pixelation.
🔄 Huge Video-On-Demand (VOD) Library
Binge-watch your favorite shows and movies anytime with their constantly updated VOD section – no need for extra streaming subscriptions.
📱 Works on Every Device
TVCorn supports:
- Smart TVs (Samsung, LG, Android TV)
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With encrypted connections and reliable uptime, TVCorn feels more premium than other IPTV providers I’ve used.
💡 Why I Recommend TVCorn
I’ve been through my share of sketchy IPTV providers that disappear after a few months. TVCorn has been consistent, offers excellent support, and feels built for long-term users – not just quick cash grabs.
If you’re looking for reliable IPTV with huge channel selection, great streaming quality, and fair pricing, TVCorn is worth checking out.
IPTV review, best IPTV service 2025, IPTV sports streaming, TVCorn IPTV, live TV online, HD IPTV provider, IPTV for Firestick, IPTV without buffering, watch live sports online, IPTV VOD movies
Home - Tvcorn.com Premium IPTV Streaming for Live TV, Movies & Sports
Discover 30,000+ live channels and 120,000 on-demand titles across 150+ countries and 18 languages.se (TVCorn: Best IPTV Service for High-Quality Streaming – Watch Live TV Anywhere)
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Sunlight is all that’s needed to keep these tiny aircraft aloft
Sunlight is all that’s needed to keep these tiny aircraft aloft
Sun-powered fliers could use photophoretic forces to hover in the mesosphere, gathering data from a region off limits to planes and balloons.Emily Conover (Science News)
Torture Victim’s Landmark Hacking Lawsuit Against Spyware Maker Can Proceed, Judge Rules
Torture Victim’s Landmark Hacking Lawsuit Against Spyware Maker Can Proceed, Judge Rules
PORTLAND, OR – Saudi human rights activist Loujain Alhathloul’s groundbreaking lawsuit concerning spying software that enabled her imprisonment and torture can advance, a federal judge ruled in an opinion unsealed Tuesday. U.S.Electronic Frontier Foundation
Using Sound to Remember Quantum Information
Using Sound to Remember Quantum Information
Mohammad Mirhosseini's lab has paired a superconducting qubit on a chip with a miniature tuning fork, demonstrating how to store quantum states longer.California Institute of Technology
Sky Chief Admits 3pm TV Blackout Fuels Piracy; Or Even Justifies It, Pirates Insist
Sky Sports chief Jonathan Licht has added momentum to what some believe is the beginning of the end for football's 3pm 'blackout'. Speaking at Sky's Premier League launch, Licht said "it's a conversation that's coming" while effectively admitting that the restriction fuels piracy. It actually does something far worse; it provides unrivaled justification for piracy based on logic and common sense.
Sky Chief Admits 3pm TV Blackout Fuels Piracy; Or Even Justifies It, Pirates Insist * TorrentFreak
Sky Sports chief Jonathan Licht has added a little more momentum to what could soon be the end for football's piracy-fueling 3pm 'blackout'.Andy Maxwell (TF Publishing)
German manufacturer mulls relocating to US to avoid arms embargo against Israel
German automotive manufacturer Renk, which produces tank transmissions and engines for the Israeli military, is considering moving production to the US after the German arms embargo on Israel.
Renk CEO Alexander Sagel mentioned the prospective shift on a post-earnings call, as reported by Reuters on Wednesday.
The call comes five days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced the country would freeze military exports to Israel that could be used in the Gaza Strip, amidst an Israeli plan to occupy the entire Palestinian enclave.
German manufacturer mulls relocating to US to avoid arms embargo against Israel
German automotive manufacturer Renk, which produces tank transmissions and engines for the Israeli military, is considering moving production to the US after the German arms embargo on Israel.MEE staff (Middle East Eye)
☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆ likes this.
It just got easier to make an archival copy of that website you’re digging into
It just got easier to make an archival copy of that website you’re digging into
It's a tough time to be interested in archiving the web — arguably the most transient medium for news since the birth of radio.Nieman Lab
What happens when chatbots shape your reality? Concerns are growing online
What happens when chatbots shape your reality? Concerns are growing online
As people turn to chatbots for increasingly important and intimate advice, some interactions playing out in public are causing alarm over just how much artificial intelligence can warp a user’s sense of realityAngela Yang (NBC News)
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Right, I see a handful of articles about the same handful of people. The hysteria is the media. Absolutely floored how no one else sees that the media is driving a weird campaign against AI. It's creating opinions.
I'm not saying AI is great. But I am saying fucking media is doing a thing and more people should be asking why
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Why is the media reporting on a thing that’s happening?
Why are multiple sites writing about the same topic?
Must be an anti-AI conspiracy.
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FaceDeer likes this.
Fear mongering at its best but honestly, the fear of AI is warranted. Especially when goat fuckers like Musk are central in their creation.
Grok anyone?
Yea I agree fully that having individuals that own the one or two platforms is bad.
I don't think much of the fear and panic is warranted though.
Honestly view these headlines the same way you'd view headlines about any other bullshit hysteria that media drums up. It's all so weirdly familiar.
FaceDeer likes this.
The media hasn't been legitimate since 2010.
Example: CNN = Breaking News! Cow sneezes on side of road.
FaceDeer likes this.
I don't necessarily think the MM is intentionality going against AI, they're just following what drives engagement and the mainstream tide is turning against AI (again, AI winter 3.0, here we go).
However, I did see that "AI causes delusions" article in the NYT together with the very hilarious conflict of interest notice: "The NYT is currently suing OpenAI for copyright infringement."
So who knows? It is entirely in the MM's interests to both write about AI (hot topic, much engagement) and also to make the AI companies look incompetent, reckless, and dangerous because that bolsters their cases against them.
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Judge denies government's request to unseal grand jury material in Ghislaine Maxwell case
Washington — A federal judge on Monday denied a request from the Trump administration to unseal grand jury material in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, saying there is nothing in the grand jury record that would shed new light on the case.
The Government's invocation of special circumstances, however, fails at the threshold," Engelmayer wrote. "Its entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes, or the Government's investigation into them — is demonstrably false."
Judge denies government's request to unseal grand jury material in Ghislaine Maxwell case
A federal judge on Monday denied a request from the Trump administration to unseal grand jury material in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell.Jacob Rosen (CBS News)
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Judge denies government's request to unseal grand jury material in Ghislaine Maxwell case
Washington — A federal judge on Monday denied a request from the Trump administration to unseal grand jury material in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, saying there is nothing in the grand jury record that would shed new light on the case.
The Government's invocation of special circumstances, however, fails at the threshold," Engelmayer wrote. "Its entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes, or the Government's investigation into them — is demonstrably false."
Judge denies government's request to unseal grand jury material in Ghislaine Maxwell case
A federal judge on Monday denied a request from the Trump administration to unseal grand jury material in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell.Jacob Rosen (CBS News)
Ukraine ready to give up lost territories to settle conflict
Ukraine ready to give up lost territories to settle conflict
TEHRAN, Aug. 12 (MNA) – Ukraine may give up the territories it had already lost in order to end the war, a British newspaper wrote.Mehr News Agency
Ukrainian prisoners of war demanded an “honest” exchange from Zelenskyy
Ukrainian prisoners of war demanded an "honest" exchange from Zelenskyy
More than a thousand Ukrainian prisoners of war have appealed to Volodymyr Zelenskyy to establish a systematic exchange.newsmaker newsmaker (English News front)
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Uso da Inteligência Artificial na Administração Pública de SC em pauta na ALESC
Está em pauta hoje (13/8), na ALESC – Assembleia Legislativa de Santa Catarina, um Projeto de Lei de autoria do deputado Mário Motta que dispõe sobre “os princípios e diretrizes para o uso da Inteligência Artificial no âmbito da Administração Pública Estadual“, e estabelece outras providências. O texto do PL pode ser acessado aqui (arquivo PDF).
O PL estabelece critérios importantes, como “não discriminação”, “transparência” e “auditabilidade”, mas conta com o seguinte texto no Art. 7°: “O Poder Público facilitará a adoção de sistemas de inteligência artificial na Administração Pública e na prestação de serviços públicos, visando à eficiência e à redução dos custos”. Como seria essa facilitação? Como comentou o amigo e engenheiro de dados Cudo, essa “redução de custos” também é outro ponto que precisa de mais atenção, pois pode até gerar mais custos, além de questões como a necessidade de capacitação dos servidores.
Mas o que mais me chamou a atenção é a necessidade de priorizar (ou até condicionar) o uso de IAs desenvolvidas no Brasil e, de preferência, em código aberto, que é auditável de fato e transparente, já que se trata da utilização de informações estatais. Em tempos de debate sobre a soberania digital, seria um ponto fundamental.
O ideal mesmo seria realizar uma audiência pública com pesquisadores, representantes da academia e organizações do terceiro setor dedicadas ao assunto.
Início - Soberania Digital
Rede para debates, trocas de informações e organização de ações pela Soberania Digital. Sua participação é fundamental para construirmos um futuro digital!Diego (Soberania.digital)
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I started losing my digital privacy in 1974, aged 11
We already live in a world where pretty much every public act - online or in the real world - leaves a mark in a database somewhere. But how far back does that record extend? I recently learned that record goes back further than I'd seriously imagined.On my recent tour of the United States (making it through immigration checks in record time, thanks to facial recognition), I caught that bug, the same one that brought the world to a halt half a decade ago. But I caught it early, so I knew that I could probably get some treatment.
That led to a quick trip to an 'Urgent Care' - the frontline medical center for most Americans. At the check-in counter, the check-in nurse asked to see some ID, so I handed over my Australian driver's license. The nurse looked at the license and typed some of the info on it into a computer, then they looked up at me and asked: "Are you the same Mark Pesce who lived at...?" and then proceeded to recite an address that I resided at more than half a century ago.
Dumbstruck, I said, "Yes...? And how did you know that? I haven't lived there in nearly 50 years. I've never been in here before - I've barely ever been in this town before. Where did that come from?"
"Oh," they replied. "We share our patient data records with Massachusetts General Hospital. It's probably from them?"
I remembered having a bit of minor surgery as an 11 year old, conducted at that facility. 51 years ago. That's the only time I'd ever been a patient at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Good thing we're paying for all these data centers!
I started losing my digital privacy in 1974, aged 11
Column: An encounter with the healthcare system reveals sickening decisions about dataMark Pesce (The Register)
Can i customize LibreWolf like this?
Here's how LibreWolf currently looks for me. Aside from the sidebar and some stuff removed from the toolbar, it's pretty standard.
And here's how i'd like it to look, with no toolbar and less stuff in the sidebar.
The back/forward/reload buttons are moved to the top of the sidebar. The window controls are moved to the bottom of the sidebar. Settings & history are replaced by bookmark and menu. And keyboard shortcuts exist to access the address bar, like in Links.
This layout saves space for the content of pages and relies more on keyboard shortcuts and less on the mouse.
Is this possible without making my own Firefox fork?
More tools -> Customize toolbar
you can set up that layout AFAIK.
UK Government expands police use of live facial recognition vans
Government expands police use of live facial recognition vans
The Home Office says the technology helps locate suspects but civil liberties groups warn of heightened surveillance.BBC News
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[Episode] Turkey! Time to Strike • Turkey! - Episode 6 discussion
Turkey!, episode 6
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Turkey!
At the bowling club of Ikkokukan High School in Nagano Prefecture, Mai, the club captain, prioritizes everyone's enjoyment over winning. However, her passionate junior, Rina, declares, "I want to win.MyAnimeList.net
China bans agencies and individuals from dealing with 2 EU banks
China bans agencies and individuals from dealing with 2 EU banks
The move is seen as countermeasure against financial sanctions imposed on two small Chinese lenders by 27-member bloc.Ji Siqi (South China Morning Post)
frongt
in reply to Nino477 • • •like this
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FiveMacs
in reply to frongt • • •unsolder it, and maybe even replace it with the proper resistance but yes.
depending how it's made, breaking it off could render the entire thing useless.
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adhocfungus likes this.
Linsensuppe
in reply to FiveMacs • • •like this
adhocfungus e giantpaper like this.
southsamurai
in reply to Nino477 • • •like this
giantpaper likes this.
tlekiteki
in reply to Nino477 • • •Okay, I will help you turn your minestrone into an inediple slop: the kind your grandkids will have nightmares about for years to come.
Step 1: Create a minestrone.
Seefra 1
in reply to Nino477 • • •I have some bad news for you. Whatever software switch your phone has to "turn off" the mic, can still be bypassed by either the manufacturer or an attacker that gets root control of the device.
The only way to ensure a mic isn't listening is by either unsoldering it or shorting the + and - contacts. I mean in the case of a phone you can probably do the toothpick thing and then test it and repeat until sound actually quiets, but note that phones can actually listen to you by via the accelerometer :/
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PhilipTheBucket
in reply to Seefra 1 • • •Framework laptops have a little physical switch to turn off the camera / mic when you don't want them.
The original SGI webcams, some of the first that ever existed, actually had a physical plastic cover that you could slide over them when you didn't want the camera on. "No, I don't trust your hardware any more than your software. I shouldn't need to. Stop looking at me when I don't want you to, and prove to me that you are not, or else I will be suspicious." Back in those days that was sort of a universal point of view among internet people, I think...
HiddenLayer555
in reply to PhilipTheBucket • • •Unfortunately even this is not that comforting because we don't know how the switch is implemented. Is it actually in series with the microphone data lines? Power lines? Ideally both but you'll never know. It could even just be a software GPIO switch (gonna bet Amazon Echos with their microphone switches are implemented like that) and unless you have the knowledge to check the PCB you'll always have that lingering suspicion.
Otter
in reply to HiddenLayer555 • • •This is a valid concern with a lot of manufacturers. My gut says that Framework actually does what it says, but here is a discussion about it:
community.frame.work/t/how-do-…
The webcam light is also hardware for once. A lot of laptops do it with software, where people complain the camera turning on without the light being on. Framework shouldn't have that problem
The classic Technology Connections video: youtube.com/watch?v=m0mMF7GaIR…
How do the camera and microphone switches work?
Framework CommunityPhilipTheBucket
in reply to HiddenLayer555 • • •HiddenLayer555
in reply to PhilipTheBucket • • •That's called a schematic and not only are those not public, they're closely guarded trade secrets that companies will spend a lot of resources to prevent from leaking to the public.
Also, just because a schematic says the switch is connected a certain way doesn't mean that's actually how it's connected. The only way to prove how the switch works is to inspect the traces in the PCB, which is very difficult to do especially without destroying it. Modern computers have multi layer PCBs that you'd basically need to peel apart to see the inner traces.
PhilipTheBucket
in reply to HiddenLayer555 • • •Here's the pinout for the webcam component: github.com/FrameworkComputer/F…
Unfortunately it isn't really clear whether the switch positions are in the pinout because it's the mainboard's job to implement shutting off the camera when it's off, or just as information with the webcam module responsible for shutting it off in hardware. I have no idea which it is, but it wouldn't be super-hard for someone capable with EE to take off the bezel and fool around with it and see which it is (or just pay $19 for the magic of buying two of them, if you didn't want to take apart your own laptop for it.)
They say they provide full schematics on demand to repair shops (knowledgebase.frame.work/avail…). I'm not sure why they don't want to just post them publicly, so in that sense you might be right, but they also don't seem like they are trying to keep them or the interface details of the webcam module fully top secret either.
They do seem like they publish enough information that someone could figure out the answer if they wanted to. (People in the forums have fooled around with them and seem to be convinced that they are actually hardware switches: community.frame.work/t/how-do-… IDK whether that's accurate, but that's what the forum people think.)
No idea why you're trying to lecture me from this position of authority about taking apart PCBs and whatnot. Anyway, that's how it works, hope this is helpful for you.
Framework-Laptop-13/Webcam at main · FrameworkComputer/Framework-Laptop-13
GitHubnickwitha_k (he/him)
in reply to HiddenLayer555 • • •dylanmorgan
in reply to PhilipTheBucket • • •like this
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HiddenLayer555
in reply to Nino477 • • •HiddenLayer555
in reply to Nino477 • • •First take it apart and determine what form factor the microphone is.
Is it a through hole microphone with two pins that are soldered to the underside like this? If so it's best to desolder it to prevent damaging the PCB. Use a soldering iron to heat up the pins and pull it out with pliers from the other side. If you don't have a soldering iron and don't want to buy one, I've also seen people using side cutters to cut off the solder joints and loosening the component enough for it to be pulled out through brute force without breaking the circuit board. If you can't or don't want to do either of those and don't mind risking the device, you could just yank it out with pliers like you're an old timey dentist pulling teeth, and hope that the pins break before the board does, might also help to twist it back and fourth repeatedly until the metal gets fatigued and break.
It might also be a surface mount microphone that, as the name suggests, is only soldered to the surface of the PCB. Might look something like this. These are pretty challenging for most people to desolder especially if it's close to other components, but they're small enough that the solder pads don't need a lot of force to break, so if you can get a good grip with pliers you should be able to just rip it off. Twist it until you feel the solder joints snap and then pull straight up. It doesn't really matter if you rip the pad off the circuit board since you don't plan on soldering anything else to it. But what you do need to be careful of is if you peel off more of the copper traces than just the pad, which can damage other components. If you do want to desolder it, touch the soldering iron to the metal casing which should hopefully heat up the entire component enough to melt all the solder joints, then pull it off with pliers. Just be careful not to touch any nearby components with the soldering iron.
Failing all those, you could also take a screwdriver or awl, put the pointy end on the microphone, and hammer it a few times to cave the metal casing in and hopefully crush the audio sensing parts. This will probably destroy the microphone, but less certain than removing it.
I've also heard recommendations about grounding the microphone connections after removal for extra privacy, mainly to prevent the traces from picking up EM waves, but I don't know how to reliably do that without breaking stuff so can't give any advice.
No. Speech is surprisingly robust from an audio perspective and it's entirely possible for audio not recognizable to humans as speech to still be decoded by speech recognition AI. The thing is even if this works 90% of the time and makes the audio completely unusable, you can never prove if your case is in that 10% where there's juuust enough information for AI to detect. You also can't easily hear the actual output of the microphone so for all you know it might be fully intelligible and just muffled. If you're concerned about privacy to the point where you're asking how to remove a microphone, I doubt you'll accept that 10% chance anyway and removing the microphone entirely will save you a lot of anxiety.
who
in reply to Nino477 • • •BTW, Lemmy lets you edit titles, so you can fix errors like that.
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Blum0108
in reply to who • • •like this
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surph_ninja
in reply to Blum0108 • • •liliumstar
in reply to who • • •Nino477
in reply to who • • •sorry for my english. it's my fifth language and it's very stupid language.
xD
Fixed it
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somerandomperson
in reply to Nino477 • • •FIFTH LANGUAGE!?
What the hell...
Are you traveling around the earth or are you megamind?
(or do you just enjoy learning languages?)
Nino477
in reply to somerandomperson • • •No no im stupid but my parents taught me two from their respective countries.
German, the country where I live.
Plus English and Spanish in school ;))
Although my Spanish got really bad, so let's say 4,5
somerandomperson
in reply to Nino477 • • •Oh. Ok.
Still pretty damn good.
Nino477
in reply to somerandomperson • • •RogueBanana
in reply to Nino477 • • •like this
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Nino477
in reply to RogueBanana • • •It wants me to connect to wifi but i did not.
Bluetoorh works worse but is a requirement to change color 💀
I hate modern technology
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Nino477
in reply to Nino477 • • •ArcaneSlime
in reply to Nino477 • • •RogueBanana
in reply to Nino477 • • •Nino477
in reply to RogueBanana • • •Sorry but ai: "Distributed environment gateway" in English.
From the red Wi-Fi symbol, it looks like the app is telling you that this gateway (likely for a smart home system, IoT devices, or industrial network) is offline or not connected to the internet.
yaroto98
in reply to Nino477 • • •like this
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Nino477
in reply to yaroto98 • • •I never used the voice command, but paranoid it is still listening in the backround.
But it has a mode to match rhe lights to music from my phone.
Not sure tho if it uses my mic from my phone, itself mic or i dunno sound data my phone is processing.
Edit:
Just checked it music effects are processed through the lamp mice.
But i will try cuz maybe it is listening to my music and taping the mic would be proof it doesnt work amymore for other things like listening 24/7 to me ;*)
Also thanks for the superglue ans playsough ideaa, they are good
Edit: i will try to break it apart and destroy the mic otherwise, superglue it is.
Thank you for your input buddy
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Nino477
in reply to yaroto98 • • •No more spying on me !
yaroto98
in reply to Nino477 • • •FlappyBubble
in reply to Nino477 • • •like this
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krunklom
in reply to FlappyBubble • • •im handy with a soldering iron but dont know jack about the math behind electronics - can you provide any guidance as to how one would do this,
id be comfortable deslldering something and surface soldering something back onto a pcb but i am mot sure how what i would actually need to do to do this.
Also while im on the subject - how woukd one do this with bluetooth with a device with a bluetooth chip soldered to the board?
FlappyBubble
in reply to krunklom • • •You may be able to just remove the microphone. Otherwise you can use a dummy load matching the expected impedance. Either you have to measure the component or look for a part number.
Don't really understand what you're referring to about the Bluetooth chip. The wireless communication should not be affected by removing the microphone.
/home/pineapplelover
in reply to Nino477 • • •like this
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vas
in reply to /home/pineapplelover • • •/home/pineapplelover
in reply to vas • • •irmadlad
in reply to Nino477 • • •I had a similar incident with a cheap, 360, cam I bought off of Aliexpress. It was not going to be a security cam, just a cam to keep an eye on some seedlings in a grow box. I set it all up and would review the video of the seedlings sprouting. Then I noticed an weird behavior. At 5:00 AM it would automatically pan and stop, then repeat.
At the time we were experiencing some heavy electrical storms in our area and I have a Woody doll that sits up on a shelf in my lab. When we get electrical storms in this area, my Woody doll will introduce himself all on his own. 'Hey howdy hey! My name's Woody!' It'll freak you out if you didn't know it does that. The Woody doll has a pull string voicebox and I haven't pulled the string in years. I attribute the phenomenon to static charges in the air that activate the voicebox somehow.
So the panning I attributed to this static electrical charge during electrical storms. However, it started becoming a schedule. At 5:00 AM~ it would begin panning. So I got into the guts of the cam and the software. Turns out, no matter what DNS you used, one was already hard coded (1.2.4.8) along with other network settings, into the firmware and seemed to bypass any setting you punched in. The cam operated as a normal cam would and for what I was using it for, it did the job, except for the early morning panning.
So, great, I've allowed a nefarious actor into my network. I removed the cam off the wifi, and destroyed it. Combed through the network for any signs of exfiltration or other angles of attack and found nothing, except that I had pretty much set up a cheap, Trojan horse on my network.