@mhoye Sure. But that’s the rub isn’t it? That security team is helping them cram AI into every orifice. I feel like my use of a “spite fork” (great term!) is a protest vote. What’s the right protest vote if not that? The feedback from Firefox users has been pretty clear but it’s not making any difference, is it?

@mhoye Waterfox is Firefox with all the AI removed. I switched to it a few months ago and haven’t looked back. So good I became a monthly supporter.

@grimalkina “Please do not bring introspection to this audience. They do not want to think about the ramifications of their work.”

@YurkshireLad no. Nearly any mobile app can do this and more.

@energisch_ I’m not a lawyer or European. But that blog makes a very strong argument that you’re right: it sure seems illegal by EU law.

@kitkat_blue Years ago I was working for a retailer in the UK who had only recently built their first mobile app on iOS. Like most apps of that era, it was little more than a webview and it didn't need much permisisons.

Like most developers, they had incorporated some analytics package that was reporting on users' interaction with the app. I'm fairly sure it was a binary library that they linked into their app. I don't think they got source code. I might be wrong.

I could see the telemetry going up in the analytics API calls. Which buttons, which pages, etc.

Then one day they launched an app feature "find a store near me." Now the app needed location permissions. If the user granted location permissions, the analytics library got access to location. Anything the app can do, the analytics library can do. And, sure enough, those analytics telemetry messages started to carry GPS coordinates from the user to this third party. My customer didn't make any change to their code. They didn't turn that on. They just asked for, and got, location permission from the end user for a legit purpose in the app.

I pointed it out, because this was a change in behavior that was not contemplated by their privacy policy. Heck, it's a change in behavior they didn't even know had happened! It wasn't in their code! So they quietly pushed out a small update to the policy that made it OK.

That was probably like 15-16 years ago.

Holy shit this is detailed. Can you believe the hubris to silently collect all this information on users?

#privacy

https://browsergate.eu/how-it-works/

@InsiderTreat I’ll bring the “Yo ho ho,” you bring the bottle of rum!

@jerry It looks like @warandpeas is writing about you.

@tezoatlipoca When a website says “we need to talk about your ad blocker,” I think “No. No we don’t.”

@nileane My best friend is a huge HP fan, but he also wants to do the right thing. I had no trouble turning my back on it when she started her anti-trans bullshit. He’s taking it slower. I’m trying. He already knows what I’m going to say if he says something positive about HP, so he rarely brings it up. But it’s tough to strike the right balance. I’m not giving an inch on JKR is bad and trans people are good. But I can’t yell at him every time we talk. Doing the best I can.