Amazon is allowing gift senders to choose items from third-party sellers, which could open recipients up to new privacy risks.
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New AirSnitch attack breaks Wi-Fi encryption in homes, offices, and enterprises
That guest network you set up for your neighbors may not be as secure as you think.
arstechnica.com/security/2026/…
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Physical media built secondhand markets, swaps, and libraries thanks to the First Sale principle. Without it, digital media is hollowing out those spaces and leaving us with cheap rentals.
eff.org/deeplinks/2026/01/rent…
Rent-Only Copyright Culture Makes Us All Worse Off
In the Netflix/Spotify/Amazon era, many of us access copyrighted works purely in digital form – and that means we rarely have the chance to buy them. Instead, we are stuck renting them, subject to all kinds of terms and conditions.Electronic Frontier Foundation
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Today is Digital Independence Day, a German initiative to move more and more away from Big Tech in 2026. Let's reclaim our independence!
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Every year, we issue a challenge to EFF supporters to help us reach a certain number of donors by year-end. We know our community can rise up to the task. Be sure to spread the word to your family and friends to help us reach our Year-End Challenge goal! eff.org/YEC
Stand Together to Protect Democracy
Donate in 2025 and you’ll help EFF receive bonus grants. Support digital privacy and free speech!Electronic Frontier Foundation
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Real-time bidding, which powers nearly every ad you see online, might be the most privacy-invasive surveillance system that you’ve never heard of. Learn how it works and how to protect yourself. eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/onli…
Online Behavioral Ads Fuel the Surveillance Industry—Here’s How
Each time you see a targeted ad, your personal information is exposed to thousands of advertisers and data brokers through a process called “real-time bidding” (RTB).Electronic Frontier Foundation
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Is there an equivalent to MAID on a Chromebook? Is it something I should delete/block/spoof?
Introduction
Over the past year I’ve consolidated my Fediverse presence and moved fully into self-hosting, so this felt like a good time for an update.
I started out on fosstodon.org and mastodon.art, then spent some time running community services like jabber.social (Snikket), fairly.social (Mastodon), and snaps.social (Pixelfed). While I enjoyed building them, I eventually realized that long-term community hosting required more mental bandwidth than I could sustainably give.
That led me to self-hosting my own space instead. Today I run my personal Fediverse setup with Friendica, along with services like BookWyrm, FreshRSS, Wallabag, LinkStack, Matrix, and Prosody. It’s calmer, more manageable, and feels like a better fit.
Outside the infrastructure side, I’m an aspiring 2D/3D artist, occasional photographer, and lifelong sci-fi fan. Having my own corner of the Fediverse makes it easier to share works in progress and ideas without the pressure of corporate platforms.
Overall, I’m much happier being self-hosted and largely disconnected from corporate social media.
#introduction #Fediverse #SelfHosting #Decentralization #DigitalIndependence
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"I used to think that the defining fight for our country was between the left and the right. Now, I am much more worried about the money at the top crushing everyone underneath."
I continue to be an Alvaro Bedoya fangirl.
newrepublic.com/article/201171…
How I Became a Populist
My time at the Federal Trade Commission—before Donald Trump fired me—totally changed the way I see our political divide.The New Republic
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perhaps, but you can be South American/Hispanic/Latino and white. More importantly than what he may or may not identify as, he is almost certainly perceived as white, and has all the authority that comes with that perception. Aka whiteness isn't something you are, it's something you're granted
This entry was edited (2 months ago)
"By dangling multibillion-dollar rare-earth and energy deals, Moscow could reshape the economic map of Europe—while driving a wedge between America and its traditional allies"
Read this excellent @wsj.com account of the business deals behind the "peace"negotiations
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Of course American businessmen would come like a knight in shining armour to save failing Russian businessmen.
They will never have to face the real consequences of how Russia does business on the ground.
They can just pocket the profits while they leave Eastern Europe to deal with the corruption, brutality, political meddling and propaganda that always comes with Russians.
Russofobia is not racism, it’s a logical reaction to the brutal reality of the Russian world
You know, can we take a pause on characterizing the Trump regime's actions as anything legitimately reflecting the will of America and Americans?
"Driving a wedge between America and its allies..." come on now. Trump's been at this bullshit for a minute. Calm down.
Yes, ugly. Worrying. And we're very, very sorry. Obviously. And we're working on fixing it.
But be an ally of the American people here. Describe this as a regime choice, not an American one. #uspol
Loving your work can be great, but judging whether others love their work isn’t.
When passion becomes a standard, employees who do their work for stability or family needs can be unfairly judged or overlooked. theconversation.com/treating-l…
Treating love for work like a virtue can backfire on employees and teams
If you view intrinsic motivation as a virtue, you likely judge yourself and your co-workers by ‘passion’ – which can backfire.The Conversation
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This is why I get so mad at my coworkers who are all "If you're not coding in your spare time, it means you don't really love it and aren't worth hiring!" (Well and the industry standard of that as well.) I actually do love coding, but I also love balance in my life. If I'm coding all the time, I'm not refreshing my brain in other ways. So annoying!
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LibreOffice communities around the world help to improve the software, do local marketing, and advocate for open standards. Today we're announcing a new project, to build up the LibreOffice community in the US: blog.documentfoundation.org/bl… #foss #openSource #freesoftware
Announcing the LibreOffice US community! - The Document Foundation Blog
LibreOffice is made by hundreds of people around the world. In many countries, we have active communities that organise events, do local marketing, and help users in their local language.Mike Saunders (The Document Foundation)
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Bombshell report exposes how Meta relied on scam ad profits to fund AI
Meta goosed its revenue by targeting users likely to click on scam ads, docs show.
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…
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Oh that probably explains these waves of incredibly high quality ads I've gotten
kg4cyx.net/flushbook/
kg4cyx.net/flushbook/
Flushbook!!
Today, Facebook seems to be having an issue with their advertising, at least with their choice of ads they’re serving up to me. I didn’t get a screenshot, but the first one was an ad fo…KG4CYX
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My favorite:
After I saw an obvious scam ad for a fake store I reported it and then just started getting garbage like this for a few days, but this one was just over the top amazing
Chris Hoffman, whom I've had the pleasure to edit in the past, writes about the sausage being made in the VPN recommendation world
It's a good read
windowsread.me/p/the-best-vpns…
#tech #technology #VPN #journalism #ethics
The best VPNs (and how affiliate links broke the web)
Confessions and recommendations from the ex-Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek.Chris Hoffman (The Windows ReadMe)
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I like to read and decided this weekend that I would self host an instance of Bookwyrm. I intend to start shifting my book purchases away from the big corporate players--my challenge is that I like e-books and I like tracking my reading list.
I will confess, the Bookwyrm import feature leaves something to be desired. Ran it three times yesterday, seemed like it was locked up and restarted it...just to find out from comments on Github that this seems like a fairly common issue. Left an import running overnight; 9 hours and 5% done...wonder if it's because I just setup the instance?
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Well, I may have figured out the issue. The export from Goodreads had the ISBNs surrounded by parentheses in the CSV file. I removed the "=" and the parentheses in both columns and it seems to be working. I only have about 200 items to import so I should know for sure in just a bit...
Still working this. I've now removed my written reviews from the file and added all the ISBNs that were blank since most reads were ebooks. Import progresses further but still only to 17%. Thinking it may be quicker to just manually enter them all 🙁
Canceled fairly.social, snaps.social, and jabber.social this weekend to complete my transition to herrons.social. Moved away from managed servers to a VPS.
Last year, I had this grand vision of hosting public instances but the US political environment made me realize I'm probably not in a good position to do so right now. I'm thinking this personal instance of Friendica will be perfect for me.
Welcome to Opt Out October, our collection of tips to slowly break free from online surveillance and throw sand in the gears of overreaching large tech companies. Today’s tip is about establishing good online security fundamentals. eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/opt-…
Opt Out October: Daily Tips to Protect Your Privacy and Security
Trying to take control of your online privacy can feel like a full-time job. But if you break it up into small tasks and take on one project at a time it makes the process of protecting your privacy much easier.Electronic Frontier Foundation
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Advertisers and data brokers use some pretty shady tactics to track you. Take back your privacy by disabling ad tracking on your phone in a few taps. eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/opt-… #OptOutOctober
Opt Out October: Daily Tips to Protect Your Privacy and Security
Trying to take control of your online privacy can feel like a full-time job. But if you break it up into small tasks and take on one project at a time it makes the process of protecting your privacy much easier.Electronic Frontier Foundation
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Decluttering is all the rage for optimizers and organizers alike, but did you know a cleansing sweep through your apps can also help your privacy? #OptOutOctober eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/opt-…
Opt Out October: Daily Tips to Protect Your Privacy and Security
Trying to take control of your online privacy can feel like a full-time job. But if you break it up into small tasks and take on one project at a time it makes the process of protecting your privacy much easier.Electronic Frontier Foundation
only access certain social media sites through a Private Browser instance or through an aftermarket Social Media App.
Never install the “Official” App.
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Don’t let companies spy on you while you browse the web. Today’s tip in our #OptOutOctober series is to install Privacy Badger, EFF’s free, tracker-blocking extension. eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/opt-…
Opt Out October: Daily Tips to Protect Your Privacy and Security
Trying to take control of your online privacy can feel like a full-time job. But if you break it up into small tasks and take on one project at a time it makes the process of protecting your privacy much easier.Electronic Frontier Foundation
Think I successfully managed to get Yunohost moved over to a new VPS. Had a few hiccups but the backup / restore feature did pretty well. Had one issue with Prosody configuration file ownership and a second issue with the filename for the Friendica log file. #yunohost #selfhosting
I've been curious about Friendica for a while and finally decided to take the plunge this weekend and give it a try. I certainly like the layout and I'm left wondering if this might be more of an inviting user interface for introducing some people I know to the Fediverse.
I'm most familiar with Mastodon and Pixelfed but I'm wondering if I also might prefer to move my primary accounts over...need more testing 🙂
So far I think I’m liking this better than the Mastodon and Pixelfed combination I’ve been using. #friendica
Martin
in reply to Ars Technica • • •