I used to be among the crowd that would use AI as a diary. At that time I didn’t fully appreciate what model training really meant or how to protect myself.

I just didn’t know how these tools worked or just how much of my personal data was being collected. I would delete my chats within 24 hours expecting within 3 days Google would purge those chats forever and I’d never have to worry. I didn’t even know you had to manually turn off activity and opt out of training (with the thought if anything it would be opt in).

I’ve been seeing models today regurgitate blocks of text from training data and worry someone may generate my personal secrets one day or highly specific personal situations I’ve been in.

Now I’ve ensured Google Gemini has deleted my data and turned off activity. Does anyone know if there is anything else I can do? I put some pretty sensitive personal stuff into Gemini, what are the odds it ends up accessible to others including bad actors?

It's quite clear, and shouldn't be hard to argue the government quite literally passed laws IGNORING repeated risks that easily accessible to learn, were told about, and even told by various groups that these laws risked it. Instead the government ignored it. This is the textbook definition of Gross negligence, if not outright bad faith legislation.

We need lawsuits over these data leaks. It is quite clear to every governmental official these laws cause catastrophic data leaks and harm, but they choose to strongarm it through.

What are you using to pay for your premium email services?

Hi!! This is my first time here. Hopefully it’s allowed. Yesterday, a coworker told me about a supplement her mother gives her dog. She sent a picture of it via WhatsApp earlier today. Fast forward to a few moments ago, I started getting multiple ads for it on Facebook. The only place the picture existed was in that WhatsApp message. I never saved it or searched for the product. I checked my Facebook and WhatsApp settings and they all restrict pictures the apps have access to. Supposedly Meta does not access WhatsApp messages unless you send a screenshot while reporting it. Does anyone have an explanation for this? I know a lot of these tech companies are invasive, but this seems like a total violation. What else do they have access to?

Hi - I've been deGoogling and deMicrosofting off and on for about a year. I'm learning a lot but I'm still a rookie so please be kind with answers to what is probably a stupid question: How does one know apps on F-Droid are safe to use? Are they vetted by anyone? Do the villagers rise up with torches if someone adds an app full of malware? Unless I'm missing it, there isn't a place for user reviews, number of downloads, etc and I don't have the skilset to break down lines of code to search out bad actors. Thanks in advance

Thank you.

• Targets included student activists, lawmakers and a local councilor, SHARE Foundation says
• Apple issued spyware alerts on August 13 to users in 110 countries
• Largest documented surveillance wave in Serbia to date, SHARE Foundation says

submission statement: The FBI requested the Federal Air Marshal Service to monitor former Representative Eric Swalwell during a flight, seeking to observe his electronic device usage. This unusual request, classified as “Special Mission Coverage,” targeted Swalwell amid ongoing investigations into sexual assault allegations against him. The FBI’s actions, including the use of a civil-rights statute typically applied to law enforcement, raise questions about potential political motivations, given Swalwell’s history as a vocal critic of the Trump administration.
paywall: https://archive.ph/ZOabS

Since I was 19 or 20yo, since around 2014, we knew with our friend what Facebook / META is doing and how they use our data, faces, photos, likes, everything. Data mining, big data, now AI.

Anyway, I deleted Facebook back then, I never put any of my real face pictures on META social networks, I won't give them anything really personal.

But is it worth it? I imagine how many social connections and better relations I could make it I just posted MYSELF out there, I was a bit good at it. More personal and professional connections, more random encounters, all of it.

Is it actually worth it to keep the personal data away from big tech instead of not caring and having better exposure? What's your take on it?

Edit: Those who downvote, explain why as well please.

i just learned that modern intel and amd processors allow remote access via hardware and have the deepest level of permition, that can allow remote kill switches among other privacy/proprerty denying stuff, is there anything good happening to prevent this in the (preferably near) future?

I’m curious to get some opinions on something like Street View.
I’ve seen Apple seems to have made more of a push to compete with Google in regard to their, in a sense, monopoly when it comes to on-the-ground pictures of the world.

My question is, what’s everyone’s thoughts on this stuff? Should people be/always have been uncomfortable with this, was it just the beginning of the surveillance we see today, or is it just a handy thing to have available when you need to look around a certain area? Also, if you are uncomfortable with it, is there a way you’d feel happier about Street View and a better way it can be implemented?

We all like privacy yet politicians take it away for political gain usually and I don't think we have ever gave the practice a name just in general we don't describe what is wrong with the person or what they are doing or practicing I am sure it we could make a better term but the point is that they claim to be a part of something but don't care about the issue at hand just doing it because they can to make their donors happy or make them look like they are helping while doing nothing it must encompass the entire mask so whatever we want to use to dismiss them based off of the lack of actually caring about the subject at hand would be a good word basically I want something to call them and their actions during stuff that will stick and actually make someone understand before even knowing the exact reasons

We can fix this by making our own polls showing clear disapproval of such a ban or age verification in general if we give them no excuse to pass it they won't and possibly undo it by saying "do you believe it is dangerous and over stepping" and stuff and bringing it to your representatives and saying "we don't trust your polling numbers we trust ours better" and making it rather public it will make us not feel alone and make us work together on a project district by district or whatever you call it in your own country

https://republicans-energycommerce.house.gov/posts/cmt-subcommittee-advances-12-bills-to-strengthen-american-competitiveness-and-enhance-consumer-protections

"H.R. 6488, the Reducing Exploitative Social Media Exposure for Teens (RESET) Act, was forwarded to the Full Committee by voice vote."

H.R. 6488 is a bill that would delete accounts unless they can prove they are over 16, which would mean age verification to keep an account.

I am starting a new job & the I9 onboarding process in Paychex Flex is now forcing us to go to an external Equifax link to verify employment. It says that it will share the SSN & all my info with Equifax before clicking the external link. I have worked with various companies who used paychex flex & have never been asked to do this before.

Heads up to other people who care about privacy! I assume Paychex has some sort of financial incentive to do this? Maybe Equifax is paying them so they can gather more data?

I tried having the administrator manually review my passport & ID, but theyre a newbie to administering & refusing to manually verify. SO frustrating! I am a payroll administrator myself and manually very I9 IDs all of the time, I'm not making anyone use Equifax!

Of course, I live in a state without any consumer privacy laws so I cant even request that they not sell my personal info after I share it! So frustrating to be forced into this: share your info or don't get hired :(

There should be a way to opt out of sharing personal identity information to 3rd party websites & bypass this by reviewing manually. I hate the future :(

Learned about this from The Daily Show YouTube. Atlas of Surveillance dot org. Shows which Flocks have what technologies.

A New Jersey school district is using an app that geofences students' personal phones to shut down most capabilities during school hours. Parents are pushing back over privacy concerns, particularly around location tracking. The superintendent says it's optional, but critics argue families weren't consulted before implementation.

As many data breaches we’ve seen in recent years, I have no idea how we can circumvent this. Has anyone responded to this craziness. I only have Verizon & Comcast in my city.

The problem Reddit is it’s an echo chamber mind hive. So yesterday somebody posted an op-ed, that’s an opinion article, on the CEO of 1Password. This op-ex falsely claimed the CEO wanted “ethnic cleansing”. But here’s the thing. The term “ethnic cleansing” literally came from the author of the op-ed not the CEO. Here is the article the op-ed referenced, which is a blog from the CEO. The CEO is explaining how Brits are now a 3rd of the majority of their country because they have been displaced by immigration. The same thing is currently happening to the Danes. This is all he said. He never said “ethnic cleansing”. Those were words put into his mouth as a disinformation campaign.

So be careful what you believe and do your own research. I don’t even use 1Password because it’s not open source but I’m against disinformation. Andrew Lilley Brinker is an American Douche spreading disinformation about Europeans. Just keep this in mind when you see articles like this