Originally this was a reply to this article about a Windows feature called Recall, but there’s a good argument the author’s concerns resonate far beyond Windows and Meta to proprietary generally.
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“im a henchman for a bad guy…and lemme tell you…I think we might be starting to do bad stuff…not sure yet…”
Thanks bud
Unfortunately, not everyone has a choice in who they work for in end-stage-capitalism. Work is about survival, not ideology. The majority of Americans are not far-right capitalists, but the vast majority of CEOs are, and it’s not really possible to survive long enough to start a small business in most of the US without investment from a far-right capitalist or inheritance (usually also from a far-right capitalist family member).
If you have the skillset and CV to work at Meta, you have a choice to work somewhere slightly lower on the scale of exploitation.
Very big window between participating in society via capitalism vs working directly for, eg. FAANG or a military defense contractor. It’s leaping over every less shitty option to get to the end because that’s what pays best. How funny that I considered writing a pre-reply for this exact comic in my original comment.
Not really. I can’t think of a major social media software company that isn’t exploitative. If that’s where their specialty lies, then they either learn new skills which takes time, requires partially resetting your career, and money only to have that company then absorbed by an exploitative big company in a decade and do it all again, or just keep your job that started as a decent company and got corrupted already.
People gotta earn money to survive, I don’t blame the employees for this. And this is not just a case of Meta’s privacy being bad. This is close government involvement with potentially serious impacts and implications across all US based platforms.
“I’m only following orders!”
if they didnt know what they were signing up for, and they cant quit, you cant blame them
Yeah, just like the attorney’s who resigned when asked to drop the charges against Eric Adams.
“Are we the baddies?!”
Hey now, he didn’t say he was working close with Trump, he said he was working closing with Trump.
I’m sure there’s a distinct difference.
Dog, this Linux-Is-Best dipshit almost ruined and ran a local /r/massachusetts subreddit into the ground a couple years back. I remember it because I was there and had a role in getting them removed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS7gw2h5n2o
There’s a bit more to it, someone found out who they were and I forget if they a) didn’t work for FB or b) was just a lowly content control employee or whatever.
If this is the same person, I think they’re legitimately unwell.
It’s funny how they’re saying “You need to use Linux” and not “You need to get off Facebook”. How’s Linux going to save you from Facebook spying on you?
I think the be careful what you do on Facebook is implied. He’s highlighting something that’s less expected, where you may need to be careful what you do on Windows systems.
They mentioned Microsoft updating privacy agreements at the same time as other companies, and OP mentioned that the context was a discussion of a Windows ultra-keylogger type of feature, the implication is they’re in on this shit too, and Linux is a way to not use Windows.
Back in 2020 when I took my class for my A+ cert I remember the instructor directing us to a Windows 10 debloating video tutorial to speed up a Win10 computer. If I recall correctly In that video the host point’s out that one of the Microsoft services that ran in the background of every standard distribution of Windows 10 was a keylogger. It was one of the many things that got permanently turned off in the in the tutorial.
They literally work for the Fediverse branch of meta, sure its an evil corp and zucks intentions aren’t exactly pure (more than likely an effort to lower server costs) but it is something likely to put more eyes onto the fediverse which I definitely think will benefit the fediverse in the long run.
I read the post like you at first, but I don’t think he works on the fediverse. I think it was just a poor/unclear sequence of clauses in his post.
My uncle works at the fediverse and gets all the games before they come out
Threads has fediverse integration, the fediverse like the internet is decentralised its not an entity.
That first comma is a bit out of place - ‘why won’t you just try, Linux?’
‘seriously Linux, just try your vegetables’.It can’t. Its just a kernel. Maybe with the right gnu core utils…
Or maybe with busybox :3 (I use Alpine)
I was thinking one of those bio powered military robots
Its a bit odd to see an employee of a company that has always had a terrible privacy policy now be suddenly alarmed.
Things have changed. Before, the worst Facebook could do to its critics was ban them and those that they knew. Now Facebook can have ICE turnover your house without a warrant for a troll post. A private company is now working to suppress a specific kind of conversation that questions the judgement and actions of those in power. It’s a subtle but very dangerous difference in why a bad EULA may not have previously caused concern but the new one is.
I’d be leery about posting anything on any platform, especially one that has even your email or other personal info attached to it. Even on a random day that I go browse ahem the other place, I don’t really comment anymore. I don’t even have my email tied to that account, but I don’t trust spez’s greedy little pig boy ass, and I’m doing my damn best to fly under the radar while they build their databases. Nor would I trust MS, Google, or even Apple to not be tracking every thought and action online for resistance monitoring.
Well, if they want to intimidate everybody who says anything anti-Trump…they’re going to be very busy. What I’m worried about are leaders of movements.
intimidating everyone is a lot of work, but having them on the list can be useful to disperse wherever they plan on doing next, or purge attempts to organize in a more decentralized way.
it can even be used to manipulate or target certain cohorts with propaganda and stuff in a way not possible before, or nab them off the streets. surveillance brings control.
Manipulated, you say? With propaganda?
Well, clearly this is a bridge too far! The Trump administration can never get away with this!
and stuff
people are starting to get disappeared to concentration camps atm too so like.
id ditch the account if thats what you want
Sounds like Facebook is the issue then
He is kinda whistle-blowing about the next level of evil. Up and coming.
it wasnt them under the crosshairs before
See the context mentioned by OP. It was a reply to a post about Recall on Windows.
This is a big oof.
imagine how great it feels to say this for like 10-15 years while getting dismissed as a conspiracy nut.
and then having it happen exactly as you said it would.
It’s called the Cassandra Complex, named after Cassandra/Kassandra of Troy.
If you think this is new, you’re very naive. They just have better tools to spy on you now.
i didn’t say its exactly new, quite the opposite.
its just that we can’t stop it anymore.
nah you can totally stop the surveillance. Just use tailsOS, live in the basement of a building under an aluminum ceiling (to hide from synthetic-aperture radar spy sats), near a busy highway (so the LIGO gravity-wave observatory cant record the sound of your footsteps), get food deliveries so you don’t have to leave, and connect to the internet using a neighbors wifi.
\j
I was talking more about the panopticon surveillance phenomena, not the people individually trying to hide something which I’d guess its probably still possible.
But the surveillance state is here to stay and we won’t get rid of it easily is what i’m saying.
This is one of those cases where you’d really rather have been wrong.
I’ve done OSINT research and that alone converted me into a privacy advocate. Seeing how Alphabet, Meta, and MS have allowed creep to get training data… Whew. It’s breathtaking and complicated beyond the ability to explain in 114 characters.
Y’all, we are cooked. Currently. Present tense. If you aren’t freaked out already, you’re missing about 85% of reality.
Yeah OSINT existing is proof that no backdoor is secure, not even mentioning what you can buy from data brokers, something authorities wouldn’t need warrants for.
I didn’t care before ai as i was nobody and scams were easy to detect.
Now ai is running those scams and people are trying to use ai to target nobodies like me. All the while ai is stealing my creation and data that companies used to pay you, all while using it to generate money without compensating me.
Well, to be fair it’s also proof that people do not value privacy, and that the means by which actual privacy can be obtained are few and narrow.
It also really drives home the fact that our systems of IDs, licensure, taxes, property purchase, etc. are designed for an analog 20th century world. We need new systems based on modern technology, bit not in a way that simply contracts out to the very companies that put us here.
They’ll be forced to care when their freedom’s inevitably on the line (in the states)
You can’t force people to care or act in their own self interest. The US will sooner adopt the metric system and mandatory digital IDs.
Switching from Windows to Linux isn’t going to block them from monitoring your use of online services. Facebook doesn’t even do anything in the OS space.
I think what they are getting at is that Meta does this and they find it likely Microsoft might be doing something similar.
They have an agreement with MS, so they are definitely doing something there.
Yeah, this was a weird way for them to phrase this. You can use Meta stuff on Linux and Fediverse stuff on Windows.
Know what linux doesn’t have? Your screen constantly recorded and sent to corporations who use this data to maximise shareholder value. Oh and the company is in a 3rd world dictatorial shithole with little to no user protection or regulations.
“But i disabled recall” Cool. They still use telemetry. You turned it off? Nice job, have you considered using linux so you don’t have to do the advanced user bullshit(and if you do, it’s way easier and more straightforward?)
If this is the same person I think it is, I would take their comments with a huge pile of salt. Not saying they’re wrong, but…
A couple years ago this Linux-Is-Best dipshit somehow got onboarded as a mod of the /r/massachusetts subreddit, started banning a ton of users for pretty unreasonable reasons, brought a few other seemingly random moderators on board and almost nuked it out of existence by being an unhinged little weirdo. They claimed to have worked at Facebook/Meta and I forget which, but they were found out either to have made it up or they were just a bottom tier content moderation employee.
You can go find some posts about it, but this person’s not well at all even if you happen to agree with them. If this is the same person. They’re not trust worthy. Privacy’s important, big companies are creepy, do what you can to protect yourself and use linux if that’s what gets you there, but again I would take anything this dipshit says with a grain of salt.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Massachusetts_US/comments/11wnjsk/removed_by_reddit/
https://www.reddit.com/r/massachusetts/comments/11xw44r/linux_is_gone/
One should be have been assuming since Windows 7 and automated online updates that the Microsoft key used to sign OS updates is in the hands of at least the NSA (and hence probably the Israeli equivalent) and they can push whatever they want to your computer as an OS update, bypassing all protections.
In fact the same applies to Linux updates of certain distros - if they’re maintained by a company based in the US they can be forced by FISA courts to provide the signing keys to the US Government.
More in general, just go read about FISA courts and their secret court orders - companies based in the US or hosting things in the US can be secretly forced to just “give the keys of the Realm” to parts of the US Government.
Since things like the Patriot act one should be treating companies based in the US as just as untrustworthy as companies based in China.
(By the way, some other supposed Democratic countries have similar or worse systems - for example the equivalent of FISA courts in the UK have things like secret court sessions were the side which is not the State is not authorized to have a legal representation, see most of the evidence or even know the decision of the court).
Have people already forgot most of what came out in the Snowden Revelations?!
Would stuff like Fedora be in danger, in this case? I couldn’t find if Red Hat was US based
In theory yes since they’re essentially sponsored by RedHat. (RedHat is owned by IBM)
Which is funny because the Snowden leaks actually showed the NSA likes using Fedora for their fancy spy tech lol.
I guess a good alternative would be OpenSUSE.
To all the people who are criticising this guy for working for Meta, I would like to remind you of the phrase, “Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer”.
I am very much a left-winger, but I still read right-wing papers and articles, I like to know what the other side is thinking.
Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer”.
Bruh, it’s not game of thrones. People just need to work.
If you can get a job at Facebook then you could easily find employment elsewhere. And no it’s not Game of Thrones, but I would love to see Zuckerberg get the Joffrey treatment.
Less criticism and more pity.
Sheryl Sandberg seems like a Grade A asshole to work for - possibly the only woman CEO I’ve ever heard of getting #MeToo’d. Zuckerberg is an absolute baby-brain completely up his own asshole with delusions of grandeur, outright comparing himself to Roman Emperors.
But if you get into the tell-all released by Sarah Wynn-Williams, all you really take away from it is that this company is as corrosive to the body public as it is ravenous for economic expansion. There’s no “keeping close” that’s going to be good for you in the long run. Might as well try to keep a rabid dog on a short leash.
I am very much a left-winger, but I still read right-wing papers and articles, I like to know what the other side is thinking.
I’m not above peaking in on Citations Needed or QAnon Anonymous to see how the other side lives. But the actual right-wing material itself is really ugly stuff, particularly in the modern moment. When it isn’t nakedly xenophobic or Mean Girls callously cruel, its just pumping your eyeballs and ear holes full of the dumbest fucking advertisements imaginable.
Not good to ingest that stuff.
Do, or do not, there is no try.
Except there is… live environments
I don’t try, I do. Wanna try me?
I mean…if you’re offering
username checks out
Distrosea would just like to interject for a moment.
Why not both?
std::vector ulUtil {"GNU", "Alpine", "BusyBox", "Toybox"}; int currentUtil = 0; do { try { OS(ulUtil[currentUtil], "Linux").use(); } catch (USER::Bored & err) { currentUtil++; continue; } } while ((currentUtil < ulUtil.size()) || (findMoreUtil(ulUtil)));
The Linux Foundation itself is in the US jurisdiction - just sayin’.
Which is why I repeatedly called for the Foundation to move into Europe, potentially into Finland, back to its roots.
FUCK YEAH, YEAR OF THE LINUX DESKTOP
What exactly in the privacy agreements is this person worried about? All I’m seeing is PANIC but without a reason given…
I work for Meta (Facebook).
For example, the word “protest” will now get your account and activity monitored.
I switched from Fedora to openSUSE recently and it has been painless. Would recommend to anyone who are looking to get away from US companies and US jurisdiction. Edit: note that it uses RPM package manager though, I don’t know yet if that is problematic or not. If someone knows then please elaborate on that.
Tumbleweed or Leap or something else?
Most likely Tumbleweed. As it is the most modern of them. Because it is rolling.
Correct, Tumbleweed is the one I started using.
As a long time debian user, I have my eyes on Leap. I value stability (in the unchanging functionality sense) over latest versions.
For me Tumbleweed is rock solid even though it is rolling. But if you don’t like subtle changes it might not be fore you.
No matter which OpenSuse people end up choosing, it’s a super solid decision. Even though it relies on infrastructure by SUSE S.A., a company that unfortunately has ties to the US (mostly hosting with offices and employees in the US) but got its HQ in Europe, it’s the most solid and user-friendly distro out there if you look for rather independent distros (the only user-friendly one that’s fully independent would be Mageia, but that one really isn’t where it would have to be imho). And the existence of bootable snapshots in case something happened is extremely useful. The biggest problems I’ve found are just 2: Problems with the Nvidia driver (especially if you use said snapshots), and Flathub not coming preconfigured (not a Problem in KDE since there’s a button new users can stumble over, but for Gnome you have to know something rather important is missing to look up the command to add it since there isn’t a GUI to add Flatpak repos yet).
Other than that the whole OpenSuse ecosystem is just great.
Mmm interesting. I have not hat any issues with rolling back and snapshots. Even though I do use nvidia. Configuring flathub shouldn’t be too difficult I think. But I don’t use a DE eather
Which Nvidia driver setup do you use? The problems arise with the proprietary driver; if you roll back or use a different kernel than the current default (as specified by the repo) both my brother and I had the unfortunate situation of the driver kernel module missing. Nouveau or NVK probably don’t cause such issues.
Flathub not coming preconfigured
Huh, that’s odd. I’ve been test driving different Linux distros lately for my move away from Windows, and Tumbleweed was one of the ones I tried. KDE Discover in Tumbleweed had Flatpak options for software, and I’m pretty sure it was tied to Flathub and not a different repo like Fedora does. Maybe I’m misremembering? Or did you mean that it doesn’t have the Flathub application itself?
Like I said it’s less of a problem with KDE, they even got a button to add Flathub specifically in Discover. It’s more of a thing with Gnome and Gnome Software where no “Add Flathub” button exists (and also no GUI to add repos -> they have to look up the whole CLI command), so newer users won’t necessarily be aware that something rather important is missing.
I don’t mind changes, but I want to be able to decide when they happen. Maybe I’m just traumatized from the last time I used a rolling release distro and suddenly Gnome 3 landed and replaced Gnome 2. I did not like that.
Can I ask which rolling distro that was. I presume arch?
Yes, but it must have been like 15 years ago or something. It didn’t help that the first versions of Gnome3 were unpolished and buggy. After that I started to appreciate version stability. I do like new and improved software, but I want it in predictable ways.
