Example?

Isn’t every app that’s not open source assumed to be spyware nowadays?

Wake me up when this sort of thing is actually illegal. Preferably punishable with jail time.

Actually, this is a great idea in principle, because the inverse is possible.

We could use Amazon’s resources for search, then use a browser plug-in to replace the buy button and have it buy the product from somewhere else using an AI agent.

We know

The hacker known as “capitalism”

Personally, I always felt it was an impractical thought experiment you’d have in high school physics class after a lesson on friction and not much more. It was a great way to derail (heh) legitimate conversations about California building a realistic and cost effective high speed rail when it was first proposed.

Side note: Nitter still exists?! I thought they gave up

I’m very pro privacy, but I’m just going to say out loud that it’s not like US state and federal governments don’t already have photos of your face that can be used to track you. The alternative is to hand over your ID, the thing the government printed after capturing and storing a picture of your face.

My pitchforks are saved for companies that track your location and interactions using facial recognition combined with social media posts. Or CCTV, of course.

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The one thing I’m holding out hope for is that things like this won’t lead a significant number new people into getting duped.

There’s a certain portion of the population that seems to question nothing and got duped long ago by all of those “every immigrant is a rapist and murder”-type Facebook posts with links to totallyrealnews.com. That segment of idiots remains unchanged. They will believe any wild claim and never fact check as long as the misinformation fits their world view.

The question is, how many people who aren’t already lost see these low-effort AI posts and take them at face value?

Disclaimer: I say this knowing full well that well that better quality and more subtle misinformation is also possible with AI, but this ain’t it.

This problem desperately needs to be fixed, but the solution isn’t some expensive, over-engineered laser LED matrix. The solution is basic headlights that don’t blind people. You know, like every headlight that existed in the US until a few years ago.

Surely it’s not an insurmountable task to use a cheap LED bulb with the optics to give the beam proper directivity—i.e. not direct the beam into the eyes off oncoming drivers. Maybe even make it replaceable with a screwdriver. Call me crazy.

I also find it crazy that people don’t understand the value of privacy. Telling people that Nissan wants to sell information about your sexual activity seemed to wake some of my social circle up. But only in the context of Nissan, which almost certainly doesn’t have that data. Meta almost certainly does.

What sort of roadmap are you looking for in Signal? It does everything I need it to do, personally.

Unofficially, yes probably. But officially Facebook only upped the ante on user data connection from WhatsApp more recently according to their privacy policy. Sorry, “Meta”

I feel like this thread has been bombarded by the Zuckerberg defense brigade.

Turning a messaging app for myself and friends into a data farming social media app full of paid promotions is absolutely the definition of enshittification.

If you log into the app, you’ll see promoted content from celebrities and organizations. What do you think drives those promotions?

It’s either direct paid promotion, user data being sold to ad firms, or a combination.

Monetizing the app

This is the beginning of monetizing the app after they started collecting user data a few months back. The more aggressively they decide to monetize, the more aggressive they’ll be about pushing promoted content. Remember when Instagram had no ads?

That’s how this works. And they’re certainly not going to choose to make less money off of their app over time with the market dominance that they have. Why would they when users will continue to use it?

We’re gonna have some juicy legal battles when Hollywood start leveraging generative AI more and more

Pretty sure I first read this headline in 2012. I’m glad the DOJ finally woke up