Looks like Chromebook is being replaced with something called "Googlebook" and it is full-scale Microsoft-style Surveillance PC.
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@mcc Seems like the long term plan is to cut costs on the hardware and offload all functionality onto the AI cloud. Your data is the real money-maker for them.
@polinamials on some platforms tho they seem to be trying to offload the computation of the "AI" cloud onto local devices. It's hard to tell what they're doing exactly or if there's even a unified direction
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@mcc no, yeah, that does seem like a worthwhile mitigation to think about
@mcc we hate that it's at this point. we've stayed away from implementing UA-specific behavior or UA detection, ourselves, because it feels surveillancey and controlling. we've seen how that stuff plays out too many times to trust ourselves with it... good intentions don't even count in Horseshoes.
but we also believe in diversity of tactics and think you should pursue whatever strategy you believe in, after you've considered everything you can
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@mcc we hate that it's at this point. we've stayed away from implementing UA-specific behavior or UA detection, ourselves, because it feels surveillancey and controlling. we've seen how that stuff plays out too many times to trust ourselves with it... good intentions don't even count in Horseshoes.
but we also believe in diversity of tactics and think you should pursue whatever strategy you believe in, after you've considered everything you can
@mcc and the risks are severe enough now that it's worth revisiting
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Since the Google announcement wording also poses this as not just the future of Chromebook but the future of Android, this raises serious questions, for me, about how much longer using Android will continue to be an option. Google's been escalating removal of Gemini opt-outs and Android is almost the only one of their products I haven't yet dropped as a result. (This is, of course, happening at the same time governments worldwide are making citizenship contingent on owning an Android or iPhone.)
@mcc
> governments worldwide are making citizenship contingent on owning an Android or iPhoneElaborate on that.
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@otte_homan @mcc you do realize that the state at this point fundamentally relies upon the very same advertising/capital surveillance apparatus you openly note Google for possessing for their own surveillance against their citizens? The state, thanks to the liberal world order, 'on paper' must respect personal privacy, but has left an intentionally wide open loop hole for companies to not only transgress that privacy, but for the state to buy that information for their own use, whatever it may be? This isnt limited to the United States, and EU is moving to essentially force all of this upon us with their multiple bills relating to it, most recently, the Digital Services Act.
The state wants this, do not be confused. They want to have their loophole, and they ideally want it to be totally explicitly legal. If you're at all paying attention to how globally we are having these laws pass, and how Meta (undoubtedly others are as well) was show giving millions to lobby to do so, and recognize the root needs and necessities of the state structurally as a hierarchical, centralized organization, then its very clear that all of this is part of the plan. The best part is it doesn't even have to be conscious or intentional on part of the majority in government, as sometimes theyre being tricked too.
@zambezi @otte_homan @mcc the capitalist state is a complex and the idea that there's a bright line of separation between large capitalists and the "formal" state edifice is a major part of how the operation of capitalism is obscured
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@Unlikelylass @mcc I suspect that this is going to be something more like the chromebook pixel, a limited-run high end proof of concept thing, but who knows. Google has very little tenacity when it comes to hardware.
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Since the Google announcement wording also poses this as not just the future of Chromebook but the future of Android, this raises serious questions, for me, about how much longer using Android will continue to be an option. Google's been escalating removal of Gemini opt-outs and Android is almost the only one of their products I haven't yet dropped as a result. (This is, of course, happening at the same time governments worldwide are making citizenship contingent on owning an Android or iPhone.)
@mcc In my country (Brazil), even a medical appointment, a token is required via app (coming from Playstore or Apple Store). All public services are already digitized. There is no option not to have it. What I'm trying to do is minimize my exposure for advertising profiling, but unfortunately the financial contribution to Google and Apple is compulsory.
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Looks like Chromebook is being replaced with something called "Googlebook" and it is full-scale Microsoft-style Surveillance PC. Apparently anytime you "wiggle your cursor" anything that is underneath the cursor gets fed into Google's surveillance AI https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/meet-googlebook/
One of these things that makes me consider detecting the platform from my webserver and blocking it entirely because the probability of whatever I wrote becoming an LLM input is too high
@mcc LOL
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Looks like Chromebook is being replaced with something called "Googlebook" and it is full-scale Microsoft-style Surveillance PC. Apparently anytime you "wiggle your cursor" anything that is underneath the cursor gets fed into Google's surveillance AI https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/meet-googlebook/
One of these things that makes me consider detecting the platform from my webserver and blocking it entirely because the probability of whatever I wrote becoming an LLM input is too high
@mcc no wonder they need massive datacenters for their "thinking" machines. They suck at designing efficient software, because they are vibe coding all their shit, and shove it into anything they can find. The amount of compute this crap consumes is going to ruin the world for everybody.
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Looks like Chromebook is being replaced with something called "Googlebook" and it is full-scale Microsoft-style Surveillance PC. Apparently anytime you "wiggle your cursor" anything that is underneath the cursor gets fed into Google's surveillance AI https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/meet-googlebook/
One of these things that makes me consider detecting the platform from my webserver and blocking it entirely because the probability of whatever I wrote becoming an LLM input is too high
@mcc “Surveillance PC”
We need a system to name and categorize the distinct harms #AI will unleash upon humanity.
The "Magic Pointer" feature works by wiggling your cursor: it uses Gemini to offer contextual suggestions for whatever's under the pointer. The cursor is literally reporting what you point at back to Google (Gemini).
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Looks like Chromebook is being replaced with something called "Googlebook" and it is full-scale Microsoft-style Surveillance PC. Apparently anytime you "wiggle your cursor" anything that is underneath the cursor gets fed into Google's surveillance AI https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/meet-googlebook/
One of these things that makes me consider detecting the platform from my webserver and blocking it entirely because the probability of whatever I wrote becoming an LLM input is too high
@mcc
That's fucking bleak. -
Looks like Chromebook is being replaced with something called "Googlebook" and it is full-scale Microsoft-style Surveillance PC. Apparently anytime you "wiggle your cursor" anything that is underneath the cursor gets fed into Google's surveillance AI https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/meet-googlebook/
One of these things that makes me consider detecting the platform from my webserver and blocking it entirely because the probability of whatever I wrote becoming an LLM input is too high
@mcc I'm sure Apple's pcs are non-surveillance pcs.
All the ecosystem narrative is surveillance.
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Since the Google announcement wording also poses this as not just the future of Chromebook but the future of Android, this raises serious questions, for me, about how much longer using Android will continue to be an option. Google's been escalating removal of Gemini opt-outs and Android is almost the only one of their products I haven't yet dropped as a result. (This is, of course, happening at the same time governments worldwide are making citizenship contingent on owning an Android or iPhone.)
@mcc GrapheneOS will keep all of the junk out for as long as it is able to keep existing.
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Looks like Chromebook is being replaced with something called "Googlebook" and it is full-scale Microsoft-style Surveillance PC. Apparently anytime you "wiggle your cursor" anything that is underneath the cursor gets fed into Google's surveillance AI https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/meet-googlebook/
One of these things that makes me consider detecting the platform from my webserver and blocking it entirely because the probability of whatever I wrote becoming an LLM input is too high
@mcc The surveillance PC mentioned in LITTLE BROTHER will be defeated. And probably in someplace like Canada or Finland or Poland, where they don't care if you threaten the country with tariffs for ignoring DCMA. They already have tariffs.
I'm sure someone will figure out how to overwrite the firmware so you can load linux on the thing. It took how long for Chromebooks to become crap?
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@mcc I'm sure others already did it, but I'm at the point of deleting all my gmail accounts. I'm done with this.
Google can eat a dick straight up!
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Since the Google announcement wording also poses this as not just the future of Chromebook but the future of Android, this raises serious questions, for me, about how much longer using Android will continue to be an option. Google's been escalating removal of Gemini opt-outs and Android is almost the only one of their products I haven't yet dropped as a result. (This is, of course, happening at the same time governments worldwide are making citizenship contingent on owning an Android or iPhone.)
@mcc Sounds like you haven't heard about the future of ChromeOS and Android.
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@mcc “Surveillance PC”
We need a system to name and categorize the distinct harms #AI will unleash upon humanity.
The "Magic Pointer" feature works by wiggling your cursor: it uses Gemini to offer contextual suggestions for whatever's under the pointer. The cursor is literally reporting what you point at back to Google (Gemini).
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@dekkzz78 I guess in Europe there’s some legal protections for users but this is many many steps into an Orwellian nightmare. Even if Microsoft copilot sort of fizzled into a joke in media coverage windows users have no choice. Google’s customers neither. No opt out from chrome to which ever other product. Tech media and mainstream media will regurgitate the misleading local on device llm line, as if processing locally means Google doesn’t collect all this information. A disaster and like social media, no regulation until it’s too late.
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Looks like Chromebook is being replaced with something called "Googlebook" and it is full-scale Microsoft-style Surveillance PC. Apparently anytime you "wiggle your cursor" anything that is underneath the cursor gets fed into Google's surveillance AI https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/meet-googlebook/
One of these things that makes me consider detecting the platform from my webserver and blocking it entirely because the probability of whatever I wrote becoming an LLM input is too high
@mcc wow I thought we were cooked before, but clearly the horrors have other plans
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@dreamos82 @mcc Jolla Phones were sold out, sadly...
@romion00bie @mcc there is a new batch full price, it has still 556 unuts available. https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-sep-ii-2026
