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Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

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Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No snowflake feels responsible for the avalanche - "I didn't write it, I just had the idea" - "I didn't implement it, I just made the prototype" - "It wasn't my product, I just fixed some bugs with it" - "I can't track everything in these implementation updates, I just work with what I am given" - "I didn't collect the data, I just deal with what is in the dataset"

The snowflakes don't run the company. If you work somewhere that is designing a really big gun and the CEO uses it to commit an awful crime, you don't share the blame for one person's irresponsibility. It's not a satisfying answer, but it really is up to executives to decide where they draw the line. Nobody else in the business can say 'no'. Likewise, when we blame IBM for supplying the Nazis during WWII, we're not d…

> we're not decrying the enthusiastic early database workers.

Well, you're not. However:

  Black reports that every Nazi concentration camp maintained its own Hollerith-Abteilung (Hollerith Department), assigned with keeping tabs on inmates through use of IBM's punchcard technology.
from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust

suggest that a good number of these "early database workers" were working directly with Hollerith codes on human flesh and tasked with the identification of Jews, Roma, and other ethnic groups deemed undesirable by the regime, along with military logistics, ghetto statistics, train traffic management, and concentration camp capacity.

You might argue they are no more responsible for concentration camps than concentration camp guards, but these are the people punching holes in cards and filtering them with knitting needles while looking out the window at piles of shoes and gold teeth to tabulate.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The snowflakes don't run the company. If you work somewhere that is designing a really big gun and the CEO uses it to commit an awful crime, you don't share the blame for one person's irresponsibility. It's not a satisfying answer, but it really is up to executives to decide where they draw the line. Nobody else in the business can say 'no'. Likewise, when we blame IBM for supplying the Nazis during WWII, we're not d…

> we're not decrying the enthusiastic early database workers. Well, you're not. However: Black reports that every Nazi concentration camp maintained its own Hollerith-Abteilung (Hollerith Department), assigned with keeping tabs on inmates through use of IBM's punchcard technology. from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust suggest that a good number of these "early database workers" were working direct…

With different executives, that might not have happened. With different tabulators I don't think anything would have changed. You're not really disproving my point by emphasizing that the end operators of these machines were typically Nazis.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#313

Text-only, no Javascript: https://assets.msn.com/content/view/v2/Detail/en-in/AA1GecPs

unformatted html with sugar is not really helpful to humans, is it?

If the response is JSON where the JSON values contain HTML, then is the response "JSON" or "HTML".

I would call this response "JSON" not "HTML".

The JSON is unformatted, i.e., no "prettyPrint".

The text-only browser I use to read HTML works with this JSON, it is easy to read, because the JSON values contain HTML tags.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#314
post #162

I don’t know anyone that works at Meta, so I’m hoping that someone here could answer this for me- What makes employees there feel good (or at least okay) about doing stuff like this? You're spying on people, no? Surveilling ordinary people, not enemy combatants or foreign militaries? Perhaps a friend of a friend or even a family member? This kind of thing is so creepy and disturbing to me, not that it’s anything new…

You may find the book Careless People a good read. The culture there is...troubling. From the top down.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#315

What about the other app ? Now that this trick is known, either it’s completely fixed, including in system webview, or all the other usual spyware ,that the play store is full of, are going to use it to track their user. Google still hasn’t fixed the issue of app being able to list all other installed app on your phone without requiring permission despite having been reported months ago. They didn’t even provide an a…

> Google still hasn’t fixed the issue of app being able to list all other installed app on your phone without requiring permission despite having been reported months ago. They didn’t even provide an answer.

Since the first release of Android it has been possible to query for installed applications on the device, and since Android 11 those results have started to be filtered[0] (with some exceptions[1]).

So which issue exactly are you talking about?

[0]: https://medium.com/androiddevelopers/package-visibility-in-a...

[1]: https://developer.android.com/training/package-visibility/au...

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#316
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any way to fix it within Android? damn...

Yes, don't install their native apps.

that's great but cheaper android phones come with built-in Meta apps/services which cant even be uninstalled.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory optimizing for money long term should align everyone's interests. The problem is that (for a number of reasons) public executives have far more incentive to be short sighted.

No, it doesn't. You're assuming that markets have a computational efficiency and smoothness that simply isn't there. P != NP. Markets are a heuristic based around mediating between the interests of different parties precisely because the overall problem is computationally hard. If markets achieved the kind of optimality you're thinking, then top-down central planning would also be workable.

Even if markets were perfect, they’re not involved when a company decides to dump toxins into the air or water to save a buck.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#318
post #162

I don’t know anyone that works at Meta, so I’m hoping that someone here could answer this for me- What makes employees there feel good (or at least okay) about doing stuff like this? You're spying on people, no? Surveilling ordinary people, not enemy combatants or foreign militaries? Perhaps a friend of a friend or even a family member? This kind of thing is so creepy and disturbing to me, not that it’s anything new…

It's hard to feel you're doing something wrong when the people are literally handing you their private data to sift through.

That's the onramp to normalization: "If the users didn't like this, they'd stop us."

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They make something people want. Most people I know thah use it, including me, just don't really see that big a downside to using it. I'm not even slightly considering removing any Meta app, and let's face it, Firefox is over as a project because their priorities are all out of wack. So Chrome and meta apps all the way for me, but I'm sure to listen to the Amazon Washington Post as to how I should treat Amazon compet…

This is such a foreign perspective to me that I legitimately cannot even conceptualize it. I've used Facebook products. Even just barring the privacy concerns, there's been one constant - the products are bad. They're not good. They actively make my life worse. They're not fun, they're not enjoyable, they're not performant, they're not... anything. Even if I was a complete 100% sellout and I didn't give a single fuck…

Even instagram? I tend to agree with your point but I like insta.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#320
post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such a foreign perspective to me that I legitimately cannot even conceptualize it. I've used Facebook products. Even just barring the privacy concerns, there's been one constant - the products are bad. They're not good. They actively make my life worse. They're not fun, they're not enjoyable, they're not performant, they're not... anything. Even if I was a complete 100% sellout and I didn't give a single fuck…

Even instagram? I tend to agree with your point but I like insta.

Yeah actually maybe a year ago I got rid of Insta, too. It was the most tame one but it just got so annoying over the years. Why am I being shown reels over and over again? I just want to see my friend's wedding!
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