Tech Dependence Leading to Loss of Control

“I hosted a party for some friends and their families yesterday and this also came up, particularly in regards to Roblox. It is possible to tune Roblox and make it safe for your kid, but is is a lot of work.Fundamentally, tech companies are user-hostile because their growth, revenue, stock price, (and for some of them now, political power) depend on a shitty experience. Every tech company wants to automate other companies's products, but will use every tool available (including legal ones) to sto”

“It's simply away to confirm your a human, so that they can make a profit off your data. They can't make money on a clanker.”

“> The AI industrial complex does not do consent. You will use it.I posted a thread on thr MacRumors forum making a similar point. I tried to couch it in the language of Apple being inconsistent with Apple Intelligence. You can’t turn it off anymore globally but Apple provides the user the ability to block, not turn off, some parts of it. Even then you can’t block everything, like the Apple Intelligence parts of the Photos app. Even if you turn off Siri that stuff sticks around. But iOS 27 does n”

“Now this is coming from someone who when your age verification rolled out, I did everything right. I verified my identity and I was able to enjoy loose safeguards from your previous models, Now as of today from 5.5 to 5.6 those safeguards have suddenly tightened without warning, What happened? Did something go through your head that you decided to treat verified adults users like teens and made chatgpt into teen mode even though we adults did everything you asked. Verify and all. Only to get a g”

“Yes, but where are you going to go when everyone is forced to comply- even the services that are currently against these practices including Linux, Unix, decentralized platforms, etc!!?? Won't it just be a matter of time until they too are affected!!?? :-(”

“> [infinite scrolling, artificial notifications and certain reward mechanisms]Of course the removal of bad algorithms is a good thing, but that is not the problem with the proposed legislation and approach.> still keeping access openWhat tells you that access will remain open? How will they implement access control? This is the big question, and the very fact that they are not replying to that clearly defines their faults.> Sometimes I think even adultsThey are again unrecognized minors of undul”

Anyone gonna stop this?

“These solutions will never be viable, and I'll explain why. Fundamentally, there's three sets of the population:1) Those who are clamoring for age verification (generally on sites they never interact with themselves.)2) People arguing fiercely against age verification and won't engage with any site who uses it3) Most significantly, the large majority of people in the middle who can't be bothered to do AV and will just use another overseas website instead.Even if the privacy can be solved (and I”

“>who desperately need to exercise their right to capture every and any piece of data the OS provides.thankfully the EU has extensive privacy regulations prohibiting developers from doing just that, so we can enjoy open platforms instead of being at the mercy of a private corporations protection racket as if it's the 19th century”

“>All in all, still extremely anti-consumer.One thing that ticks me off about this conversation is they are always framed as anti-consumer, instead of anti-developer. It's Tim Sweeney, Mark Zuckerberg, and the ad networks who have the biggest gripe with these policies, not consumers. Consumers are the ones who bear the brunt of the cost when it comes to developers who desperately need to exercise their right to capture every and any piece of data the OS provides.>If I can download and run arbitra”

“But the mechanics to work around it, and potentially slip something onto my phone, are already in there. No, thanks. The problem with this wholeEU bullshit is that the pro-consumer and pro-security do not always go hand in hand. And relevant dept lawyers don’t always communicate sufficiently.”

“I hate that news you can’t ignore comes packaged as obvious slop you have to trudge through to to comprehend.”

“Step 1: Shift the burden from service providers to OS providers (on devices owned by individuals).Step 2: Recognize that the system is trivially bypassed by a kid who sets up their own device without their parents' oversight or parents who just think this is a stupid law and lying for their kids. Or bypassed by anyone using open source operating systems which are (for a feature like this) going to be trivial to amend to always claim the person is an adult regardless of which account is being use”

“Does it even ask for verification? If not, the problem with it is that it seems to require the OS provider (not the local installation) to store the age.”

“> You said that Meta doesn't want to be responsible for age verification - they absolutely doNo, they really, really do not!In their own words:> There is a practical framework that directly answers the complex logistical challenges I’ve laid out: centralizing age verification and parental approval at the app store level. App stores are already the gateway through which teens access every app on their phones. And we don’t have to start from scratch. Apple and Google already collect age informatio”

“Fortunately, it's not a linear scale. All sorts of technical and political options exist which don't fall cleanly into the anarchy or baby-proofing spectrum. Random incomplete examples, in no particular order and off the top of my head:GGP's idea of making it more commonplace to have a "Johnny" helping people with their tech needs to prevent accidents could work socially, if there are ways for communities to create more people willing to do that.Worldwide legal penalties for spamming/scamming co”

“Humans are incapable of governing themselves. How can anyone oppose the only technical solution that both could administer things without bias and replace the need for humans to spend their time toiling away at things they'd rather not be doing? "There is only one condition in which we can imagine managers not needing subordinates, and masters not needing slaves. This condition would be that each (inanimate) instrument could do its own work, at the word of command or by intelligent anti”

“Europe has been dealing with this to various degrees for years. The recent age verification mess has only made the need for such solutions more acute. I wonder though to what extent a lot of these app makers are just paying lip service to compliance and hoping no one comes knocking. If you're an app developer that has built something used by schools to (for example) keep parents in the loop with what their kid is up to, share photos etc, maybe you'll just take the risk that no one compla”

“When identity providers like Facebook, Google, and later Apple appeared, I actually welcomed them because they made life easier. But I wasn't disciplined enough to stick with just one, so I partly created this mess myself. The UX problem I'm complaining about is partly my own fault. Lately I've been thinking about going back to the good old password manager, because what used to feel convenient has gradually become another thing I have to keep track of. From now on I'll probably”

“Pokemon Go was for collecting data. I think most people are too jaded by corporations to fall for something like this so easily again. https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/bigtech/pokemon-go-the-largest-mapped-data-collection-ploy-in-history/”

“> What methods could be implemented to take money away from governments that implement with such things?Right now the most important thing to inhibiting a dystopia is to break the lock Apple and Google have on approval of mobile code, because it gets used as a fulcrum by authoritarians. Want to ban VPNs? Make the app stores do it. Censor social media? Have them ban every social media app that doesn't censor. Want to track everyone everywhere? Make the phone provide sites and apps with a persiste”

“The intro indeed doesn't sound too bad, but if you read into the underlying demands, the title is actually quite representative of what's going on here.Specifically, the requirement to provide non-digital alternatives as well as control over relying parties (i.e. consumers of the 'digital ID' and/or 'age verification' APIs) makes all of this a non-starter.I mean: non-digital alternatives to digital IDs? I guess that means that nobody should be forced to get a digital ID for access to essential g”

“FWIW a 5 mile walk is not a long walk. Humans are very much designed to make that trek without too much trouble. Lots of the world has people walking similar distances for fresh water, to go to school, etc.The point being that cars also reshape your perception of the world. METR had trouble replicating their dev productivity study because devs have already become much whinier about doing things "manually." Things that were slightly tedious in 2022 have become impossibly difficult without AI in 2”

“I agree wholeheartedly with the argument raised in this github issue, but I think people are wrong to be skeptical about the concept of a government-issued age verification app.Thing is, the status quo is absolutely worse. My 13yo son likes making Roblox games. Suddenly, some months ago, Roblox made a change where you’re not allowed to share your games with friends unless you do “age verification”, apparently in some misguided bid to beat the pedos. In Roblox’ case, this means sharing your 3D li”