Given the current development when it comes to trustworthiness of governments as well as (especially) big companies - how do you all handle the topic technology & privacy?
Given you are using a banking app and/or other apps that won't work on a modified phone - which potential "evil” did you choose and why? (iOS, Android, something completely different)
#apple #google #privacy #phone
Reposts are welcome - thanks!
deutrino
boosted
Greg Lloyd
boosted
#Google releases #VaultGemma, its first #privacy-preserving #LLM
#GoogleResearch shows that #AI models can keep training data private.
This work on differential privacy has led to a new #openweight Google model called VaultGemma. The model uses differential privacy to reduce the possibility of memorization, which could change how Google builds privacy into its future AI agents. For now, though, the company's first differential privacy model is an experiment.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/google-releases-vaultgemma-its-first-privacy-preserving-llm/
maco
boosted
I give a fiver each month to the wonderful FOSS-type things below:
- Signal (killing Meta's WhatsApp)
- Libre Office (slaying Microsoft's 365)
- GrapheneOS (kicking Google Stock Android in the goolies)
If you use any of these - and you can afford to - why not set up a monthly dontation to the wonderful organisations above.
#Signal #LibreOffice #GrapheneOS #Meta #Microsoft #Google #WhatsApp #Android
Agaric Tech Collective
boosted
Google Secretly Handed ICE Data About Pro-Palestine Student Activist
Google handed over Gmail account information to ICE before notifying the student or giving him an opportunity to challenge the subpoena.
https://theintercept.com/2025/09/16/google-facebook-subpoena-ice-students-gaza/
#google #gmail #meta #ice #privacy #surveillance #enshittification #dystopia #technology
I give a fiver each month to the wonderful FOSS-type things below:
- Signal (killing Meta's WhatsApp)
- Libre Office (slaying Microsoft's 365)
- GrapheneOS (kicking Google Stock Android in the goolies)
If you use any of these - and you can afford to - why not set up a monthly dontation to the wonderful organisations above.
#Signal #LibreOffice #GrapheneOS #Meta #Microsoft #Google #WhatsApp #Android
The Intercept found, Google handed over data to ICE before notifying him or giving him an opportunity to challenge the subpoena. By the time he found out about the data demand, Thomas-Johnson had already left the U.S.
https://theintercept.com/2025/09/16/google-facebook-subpoena-ice-students-gaza/
Google Secretly Handed ICE Data About Pro-Palestine Student Activist
Google handed over Gmail account information to ICE before notifying the student or giving him an opportunity to challenge the subpoena.
https://theintercept.com/2025/09/16/google-facebook-subpoena-ice-students-gaza/
#google #gmail #meta #ice #privacy #surveillance #enshittification #dystopia #technology
Luke O.
boosted
Hello all, I'm trying to help move a community of (dance) artists away from google forms and google sheets etc. to something like a managed Nextcloud instance.
Has anyone here had success with something similar? Any tips greatly appreciated.
"For example, I think Google [NZ] pays out about 95-97% of all the revenue that it earns [in "service fees" to the parent company] ... and FaceBook would be very similar, Uber would be. The percentages vary, but it's most of it, in all cases."
#NickMiller, Tax Justice Aotearoa, 2025
https://www.1of200.nz/podcast/1200-s2e160-big-tech-better-taxes
#podcasts #1of200 #TaxJusticeAotearoa #DataFarms #TaxAvoidance #Google #FaceBook #Uber
Hello all, I'm trying to help move a community of (dance) artists away from google forms and google sheets etc. to something like a managed Nextcloud instance.
Has anyone here had success with something similar? Any tips greatly appreciated.
jbz
boosted
Novo ciberataque “Shai-Hulud” propaga-se como um verme e compromete 187 pacotes npm
🔗 https://tugatech.com.pt/t71903-novo-ciberataque-shai-hulud-propaga-se-como-um-verme-e-compromete-187-pacotes-npm
#API #ataque #cascata #CD #CI #ciberataque #Github #google #javascript #linkedin #malware #npm #phishing #riscos #segurança #servidor #software
Novo ciberataque “Shai-Hulud” propaga-se como um verme e compromete 187 pacotes npm
🔗 https://tugatech.com.pt/t71903-novo-ciberataque-shai-hulud-propaga-se-como-um-verme-e-compromete-187-pacotes-npm
#API #ataque #cascata #CD #CI #ciberataque #Github #google #javascript #linkedin #malware #npm #phishing #riscos #segurança #servidor #software
#Google releases #VaultGemma, its first #privacy-preserving #LLM
#GoogleResearch shows that #AI models can keep training data private.
This work on differential privacy has led to a new #openweight Google model called VaultGemma. The model uses differential privacy to reduce the possibility of memorization, which could change how Google builds privacy into its future AI agents. For now, though, the company's first differential privacy model is an experiment.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/google-releases-vaultgemma-its-first-privacy-preserving-llm/
This is this script of my national radio report yesterday on why there isn't so much excitement about new smartphone introductions these days. As always there may have been minor wording variations from this script as I presented the report live on air.
- - -
So yeah, remember back when new smartphone introductions triggered fanfare and lines of people around the block waiting for hours or even days to get the latest iPhone? There was even a Simpson's episode that was a parody of Apple like that. Well, those days seem long gone now.
Sure, #Apple and #Google and others are in the midst of announcing new smartphones, but you don't really see the kind of excitement that there used to be. And there seems to be a bunch of reasons for this. First off, these phones, especially the incredibly expensive high-end models tend to be loaded down with so many features that the overwhelming vast majority of users never touch. The user interfaces keep changing and getting more complicated, so that even doing relatively simple tasks can be a chore. And this can be a problem even with many low-end smartphones now.
And the kinds of new features being touted don't necessarily inspire excitement either. The phone is even thinner! WOW! It's got #AI to feed you misinformation and claim to be helping you simplify your life, while actually making your life more complicated, and feeding it 24/7 to Big Tech. OH GOODIE!
One I had to chuckle over a bit when I heard it a few days ago was Apple announcing technical memory management improvements to help prevent app-based malware attacks. This is actually a good thing as far as it goes -- though there are lots of malware and phishing, etc. attack vectors still open. But I somehow doubt that "better memory partitioning and control" is really high up on most people's reasons for buying a new smartphone.
The firms keep announcing various camera improvements that sound technically advanced but then many people just use the phone cameras mainly for taking selfies anyway that would look about the same with far simpler phone camera systems. You have features now like selfies that can be modified by AI so that your selfie isn't even an actual image of yourself where you actually were, it's just an artificial creation. Interesting, but pointless, except for Big Tech who wants you hooked on their AI and ultimately willing to pay big bucks for it.
Now one of the actually useful features showing up on more phones is the ability to communicate with satellites for emergency texting or more general purpose texting, and eventually voice and data. This can be important if you're in areas without cell service, though due to satellite capacity issues terrestrial cell sites are likely to continue being the workhorse outside of rural areas. Thing is, you shouldn't need a high end ultra expensive smartphone for this kind of satellite capability, since essentially all these low orbit satellites are doing is emulating local ground-based cell sites.
The phone manufacturers REALLY want you buying their expensive models, or at least committing to mobile carrier contracts where they pay for some or all of the phone -- but then you're tied to that carrier for a year or more. The phone makers really enjoyed the era where it was more common for people to upgrade their phones every year or maybe two. But now more and more people are holding onto their phones much longer, and that changes the dynamics in all sorts of ways, including firmware updates and related security issues.
Another aspect of the situation is no matter what software tools are provided it can still be a confusing mess to migrate from an old phone to a new one including all the important app data, and of course many people have their lives utterly disrupted when they get locked out of their smartphones or they're lost or stolen.
For many people, smartphones have fallen from the amazing, wonderful tech category to in some ways the "necessary evil" category of tech, more like a set of shackles than a wondrous helper. So it's not surprising that when new smartphones are announced, so many people say "I'm not falling for it this time". And I agree.with them.
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L
Dan Gillmor
boosted
I'm writing this post here today in hopes to bring some attention to something that is near and dear to my heart, and that's an update to the current situation with Nova Launcher, that I worked for and with for nine years up until August of 2024.
For those that haven't seen the news, Kevin Barry, the founder and developer of Nova has left Branch which in turn means he's now no longer involved with Nova Launcher in any way going forward.
https://teslacoilapps.com/nova/solong.html
For the past year or so Kevin has stated that he was working on the open source version of Nova Launcher so that if/when this time came, it would be out in the open and the community could take it over and contribute to it and have it continue being developed.
However, it seems that Harish Thimmappa and others at Branch had told him to stop working on that effort as they didn't want him to continue doing that for unknown reasons. This is sad news because this was something that former CEO, Alex Austin, had promised both via a contract and publicly that if Kevin were to ever leave Branch, Nova Launcher would become open source. You can find that quote here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/w2q6al/comment/igzoniu/
and another very similar quote with similar conversation here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/w2q6al/comment/ih25ntz/
The reason for this post is to try and draw some attention to the folks at Branch, specifically folks like Harish Thimmappa to do the right thing and honor these promises and any writings in the contracts from 2022 and to fully focus on releasing Nova Launcher as an open source app.
The community deserves this more than anything, since that was something that Kevin was very adamant about when he allowed Branch to acquire Nova Launcher back in 2022. Plus, this is just something that Branch should do since it is something that has been promised.
There is currently a petition on Change.org to try and get Branch to do this as well. After only 3 days of it being posted to Change.org, it sits at almost 1,500 signatures, and that's with very little to no press coverage at this time, which is something that would be super useful to bring full attention to this situation. You can find the petition here:
https://www.change.org/p/make-nova-launcher-open-source-let-the-community-continue-its-development
I ask that everyone who sees this post can share it with their followers as I would love to see Branch do the right thing and follow through with their promises that were made back in 2022 when they acquired Nova Launcher and release it fully as an open source app now that Kevin is no longer working for Branch and not involved in Nova Launcher.
I'm going to tag some folks below that I worked with at Branch in hopes of getting this post seen by as many folks there as possible.
#NovaLauncher#Nova#Branch#BranchMetrics#OpenSource#OpenSourceNova#Petition#Android#Apps#Google
