@roberto On the surface this is SEAMS like a good idea, but I’m getting Resident Evil (the movie) vibes.
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Perhaps all of this DNA collection, using people’s voices and facial recognition is being used to created a race of synthetic humans? The homo-robot people who comply and always do as they’re told.
I feel these technologies are being used in malevolent ways however I also see the abundance of diversity of nature all around me.
I wonder how much of it has been genetically modified without our knowledge? Is there truely anything left in this world that could be called ‘natural’? Meaning it has not been interfered with by humans to alter it in some way?
This is the reason I have refused to get those DNA genealogy tests. My partner’s family in Brisbane did it & they were so happy to share their finding that they are 1% or 2% something or other. It’s so weird.
But I have to tell you @galtions, my mind won’t let me go to this dystopian idea. What you wrote makes sense, but my mind won’t allow me to go there.
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Imagine a security breach at Ancestry.com or 23andMe such that the CCP, for example, has DNA data on millions of people.
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@kirkmahoneyphd That’s SUPER scary. That’s one of the reasons I will not use TikTok.
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Yes, I totally get that. It can be scary to think about… or the other side of it is that it’s just something which may or may not exist. We cannot control what we cannot control.
What we CAN control, we get to choose what we share.
What we CANNOT control, we can either resist or reject or accept.
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Here’s an interesting read on the topic:
The EU has proposed legislation aimed at combating CSAM online. The legislation would mandate digital platforms to implement automated systems to scan private messages for potential CSAM. While the primary goal is to enhance child protection, critics argue that such measures could lead to mass surveillance, infringing on individual privacy rights and potentially undermining the security provided by end-to-end encryption.
Overreach much? Or totally justified?
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“Overreach” is insufficient to describe this legislation.
“Police state” is a better description.
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Without privacy we do not have freedom. The USSR, China, and North Korea prove this.
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Speaking of iPhones…
The iPhone 16 has so much AI-driven surveillance built into it that Apple already is spying on iPhone 16 owners in many ways.
This means that Apple Intelligence (Apple’s name for its AI) watches not only the iPhone 16 user’s side of a conversation on any encrypted-messaging app but also the other user’s side of that conversation, even if the other user is NOT using an iPhone 16!
Rob Braxman said in one of his recent videos that he plans to ask the makers of the Session messaging app whether they can modify the Session app so that a non-iPhone 16 user knows that he/she is in a Session conversation with an iPhone 16 user. If Session gets this feature, then at least the non-iPhone 16 user can be warned that Apple Intelligence is watching his/her conversation!
Of course, the makers of Session should add the same feature to determine and report whether one side in a Session conversation is using a Google Pixel 9 or newer Pixel with Gemini.
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Apple “Intelligence” is one of the biggest flaws of Apple so far. I have it (along with Siri) disabled on my MacBook, and my iPhone 11 does not support it (Siri is also off).
To be honest, I’m really getting tired of Apple in several ways, and it will only be a matter of time before my “commodity” argument comes to an end. I’m looking into Linux and LineageOS for the future, and I already have alternatives for email (mailbox.org) and a lifetime cloud option (pCloud). Facebook will be next.
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@roberto You’re on the right track. Maybe think about running your own cloud server, private streaming server (Jellyfin/Plex), and ebook server (Calibre/Kavita) in the future as well.
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I saw this video on YT this morning. I think everyone will find this interesting, especially @kirkmahoneyphd because we did discuss the topic of locking up products to prevent shoplifting.
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@urszula, the Kroger grocery-store chain in the USA now has what it calls “digital coupons” in the form of QR codes on labels beneath some products in its stores. This translates to three prices:
- The regular price (e.g., $4.99)
- The Kroger-card price (e.g., $3.99)
- The digital-coupon price (e.g., $2.49)
A shopper qualifies for the Kroger-card price by presenting a bar-coded plastic tag to the cashier at checkout. Kroger then uses this to tally purchases by shopper and then postal-mail to that shopper coupons for future purchases of the same items.
A shopper qualifies for the digital-coupon price by using the Kroger card at checkout but ALSO by using a smartphone to scan a QR code on the price tag beneath the product.
The QR codes are tiny – maybe 1 cm x 1 cm – and are therefore difficult (probably on purpose!) to scan with the Kroger app. Clever shoppers can ‘clip’ those digital coupons at home before heading to a Kroger grocery store, but the app makes it difficult (probably on purpose!) to find a given digital-coupon-qualifying product.
The result?
- Kroger uses tiny, difficult-to-scan QR codes, which are difficult to replace with research at home, to know exactly WHEN and WHERE a digital-coupon-using shopper travels throughout one of its grocery stores.
Some customers see a digital-coupon price and falsely assume that they qualify for that price simply because they have a Kroger card. The fine print on the labels reveals the higher Kroger-card price and the regular (highest) price.
Lovers of Kroger digital coupons get great prices, but only by giving up more of their privacy.
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With the price of Eggs these days…do you blame them 
Just talked to my mom in Chicago, she said she had to go to 3 stores to find eggs.
But the privacy breaches are a serious issue. We do have an article that discusses this:
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I made a decision early morning, and Apple just confirmed that I did the right thing.
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Wow, some people and corporations in the world are really going crazy!
Severe control tends to comes before the fall of the controllers and expansion of humanity… I’m looking forward to seeing the fall and more of the expansion 
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