I could be mistaken, but since it’s a Mozilla base code and F-Droid distribution chain, I’m not sure where Google can stick it’s thumb in the pie.

File under “abusive uses of technology”

All technology development stands on the shoulders of giants. It’s unethical for modern giants to refuse to continue the tradition.

https://newrepublic.com/series/49/microsoft-three-mile-island-ai-nuclear

Nope. Very real.

Or just agree with what your betters want you to think, obviously. </s>

I thought her insights were practical and grounded. Do you disagree about the factual nature of their anecdote about engagement with cameras off? Or that the anecdote isn’t indicative of general audiences? Would you care to elaborate on what you mean by “what actual people are actually like”?

It’s worse then that. They’re actively profiting from that discount rate, meaning they’re ludicrously profiting from everyone who doesn’t spend half their life getting discount codes (the cost of convenience)

Yep yep. Was hoping someone would call me out on that. 😝

Nah. I’ve been advocating for Linux for decades. For decades I’ve been trying to convince people to switch on its own merits, but none of that has been effective.

It took Microsoft sabotaging their product for me to see the needle shift. So I’m done trying to convince people with carrots, it’s time for Microsoft to convince the masses with sticks.

What’s next Microsoft? Replace the windows os loading windows page with a 30s ad? Or have defender uninstall apps if a competitor pays enough? Maybe capture a screenshot of my screen every 3 seconds for AI analysis?

If your goal is to play “Robin Morningwood Adventure - A Gay RPG” from the comfort of your closet without your aunt getting a notification, then you want to mark the game private.

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1150-C06F-4D62-4966

Obviously, this is insufficient if you don’t want the watchful eye of Valve themselves to be upon your gaming session.

I’ll accept that maybe I’m giving Google a pass because of misplaced nostalgia, and while I personally have never used or liked Meta Facebook, I’ll concede that for a while it provided a service some people valued.

It’s still my opinion that Google and Facebook have a large percentage of engineers that personally try to make them a genuinely good service, at least moreso than compared to TikTok and Temu. But I’m willing to concede it’s not as much a practical difference as I would like.

Emphasis on by comparison, as in “molten hot metal is cooler than the surface of the sun, by comparison”.

TikTok and Temu actively have code in them that would be considered a virus in other contexts. They exploit your system to gain more access than they should, violating the point of sandboxed access.

By comparison Meta and Google merely take advantage of user ignorance and apathy by making opting out frustrating - but still technically doable.

Both practices are terrible, but that’s not the same as saying they’re equally bad.

Them too, but lukewarm by comparison.