splendoruranium

@splendoruranium@infosec.pub

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft Accused of 'Secret Data Collection' in Single-Player Games⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d say it’s more like your hairdresser tracking how long you are in their store and what haircut you get- but you do you!

  I’m not married to the analogy, just totally flabbergasted that “Using your own software on your own computer when and how you see fit without being watched” appears to be a slightly controversial take for no apparent reason. Evidently I’m missing something, not explaining myself very clearly or both.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft Accused of 'Secret Data Collection' in Single-Player Games⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  I run all my games in Linux and everything but Steam goes via Lutris which I configured to, by default, launch them inside a Firejail sandbox with no network access (plus a bunch of other security related limitations) something which I can override for specific games if needed.

  That sounds like a neat setup! And no messing around with firewall rules either. I’ll have to look into it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft Accused of 'Secret Data Collection' in Single-Player Games⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s the thing, though. I respect the analogy, but the equivalent here would be if the game was also checking your drive for other games, for financial apps, scanning your browser’s cookies to see which sites you visit, etc.

  If, while playing a singleplayer game, they’re recording what actions you take within that singleplayer game, it’s understandable some people wouldn’t even want that - but I also don’t see that as nearly so invasive as other data travesties. Worse, highlighting it here feels like a “cry wolf” situation where you’d desensitize people to the most harmful privacy breaches.

  Again, I don’t doubt that you do not see it as an incredibly invasive thing. I’m lamenting that you (and many) don’t.
  You’re doing something on your computer. Locally. In your own time. With a thing that is - ostensibly - yours. Why is it even remotely acceptible that some corporate entity is watching you over your shoulder while you do it? I’m running out of words to express how nuts this seems to me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft Accused of 'Secret Data Collection' in Single-Player Games⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m sorry, but that’s a terrible analogy. In the gaming scenario, Ubisoft is collecting the data on their own product usage

  Well, in the corporate software-as-a-service insane troll logic hellscape in which we live that could indeed make sense. Mind you, that’s not meant to be a rant against you but against the fact that this train of thought has indeed been completely normalized.
  In the fantasy world of the past into which I’d like to go back to live happily it is precisely not Ubisoft’s product. It’s mine. I bought it - none of what I do with it is any of Ubisoft’s business. The business transaction has been concluded. If they want to know what I do with my game then they can ask me nicely about it. I’ll certainly not allow them to install a proverbial camera over the executable.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft Accused of 'Secret Data Collection' in Single-Player Games⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Based on the article text, it’s only citing things like how long you play. I thought most games collected telemetry like this?

  A commonplace travesty is still a travesty and metadata is still data. If my hairdresser asked me “Hey, in addition to me cutting your hair and you giving me money I’d also like you to constantly keep me updated on your sleep schedule, your vacation plans, marital status changes and the myriad of other things that can be directly gleaned from aggregate timeline data - all the other hairdressers have started doing it as well!”, I’d likely look at them incredulously for a few seconds while silently imagining stabbing them with their own scissors.

  Calling it “telemetry” has somehow normalized it over the past decades, I suppose? I just don’t understand how anyone could ever accept this as normal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How are the blatant anti-competitive practices of Apple just…allowed? How is this even possible?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Global anti-trust efforts are simply not very strong and never have been. They make for boring political platforms and are constantly under attack by corporate actors.

  Ideally no business should ever be allowed to grow to the point of being able to exert political influence at all let alone rival the power of small nations, but here we are.

  Any rational business will employ all and any anti-competitive practices that they can come up with if they can get away with them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are Nintendo's $80 online game prices a result of tariffs or is Nintendo just using them as an excuse to price gouge as corporations do?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Okay, here’s a slightly hot take.

  I’d rather the price go up and the games remain ad free and high quality (not you, pokemon, you can get fucked) than become enshittified with micro transactions, ads, etc

  I don’t like it. But it’s much more acceptable to me

  That’s absolutely a false dichotomy. In a world where games exist that are ad-free, high-quality and affordable, there’s absolutely no reason to believe any notion of high prices or in-game ads being a requirement for development. It’s just not true. Don’t fall for it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cheapskate's Guide: Nuking web-scraping bots⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They block VPN exit nodes. Why bother hosting a web site if you don’t want anyone to read your content?

  Fuck that noise. My privacy is more important to me than your blog.

  It’s a minimalist private blog that sets no 3rd party cookies and loads no 3rd party resources. I presume that alleviates your concerns? 😜

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm looking for a no frills, physical key EV. Am I looking for something that no longer exists?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Are there instructions/hobbiest forums for just that?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm looking for a no frills, physical key EV. Am I looking for something that no longer exists?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The profit margins on cheap cars isn’t high enough yet to introduce EVs at that price.

  What price? OP does not talk about cost at any point, they only require specific features.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it rude to reply using English under posts in a language you can’t speak?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  nah, it’s better for information integrity to reply in the language you understand imo, comments translated using translator services are very obvious anyway and some people are multilingual

  Sure, I agree? Maybe there’s a misunderstanding here. Maybe I should add that it simply would never even occur to me to enter a conversation if I didn’t natively understand the language that’s being used.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it rude to reply using English under posts in a language you can’t speak?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I often reply under Japanese posts, and I always assume users will use a translator as I do, but maybe in the context of a Japanese this may look rude?

  Can’t speak for others (obviously, as this is about individual etiquette perceptions) but I would consider it to be polite to only enter conversations with unknown parties in languages that the parties have shown to be capable of speaking and understanding.
  Using a new language entering a conversation would therefore signal either familiarity (“I know they understand me”) or rudeness (“I don’t care if they understand me”) to me, I suppose.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it better to leave a country, or stay behind to fight for it? And what about the ethics of fleeing instead of staying behind?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Never take any risks to improve the world, that’s how things are gonna get better!

  No, I don’t think I’d agree with that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Internet forums are disappearing because now everything is Reddit and Discord. And that's worrying.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  How do you find out about it? Try to view the threads while logged out and not seeing your comments, I suppose?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it better to leave a country, or stay behind to fight for it? And what about the ethics of fleeing instead of staying behind?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Whether to flee or fight isn’t a very useful distinction, I think. It’s a false dichotomy.

  Fighting someone or fighting for something in a way that risks your life just isn’t a very smart way to fight. Obviously run when your life is at stake. When you’re safe, fight.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Internet forums are disappearing because now everything is Reddit and Discord. And that's worrying.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  What’s a bad upvote?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Firefox deletes promise to never sell personal data, asks users not to panic | Mozilla says it deleted promise because "sale of data" is defined broadly⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It is concerning - because Firefox barely has enough users to sustain it.

  Er… if you think Mozilla is sustained by its users then I have some bad news for you. Or am I misunderstanding you?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  that it’s an artificially engineered “crisis” by the medical industrial complex to justify modern day discrimination and refuse to provide healthcare to fat people, Black people, etc
  podcast episode on this

  Thanks! I’m slightly confused by the sources linked in the podcast description though. While it’s pretty US-centric they universally seem to confirm that yes, obesity rates are rising and that yes, medical consensus is that obesity is a bad thing. Does the podcast then come to some kind of different conclusion?
  I don’t have a hard time believing that American companies are profiteering off of sick people, but I feel like there might be some accidental shuffling of cause and effect here. You can fleece and discriminate against a fat person, but in order for that to happen you first need a fat person, don’t you?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  there’s no obesity epidemic. it’s all eugenics to the core

  I’m almost afraid to ask, but what do you mean by that?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  These are the people who then say that if you gain weight it is because you are lazy or weak willed.

  Whether someone perceives it as hard to lose or not gain weight doesn’t really factor into it, does it? For adults the ultimate decision to eat more than one needs lies with exactly one person.

  Really it is 99% hormones and only 1% strength of character.

  I’m not sure I understand correctly, are you suggesting that obesity epidemics have some kind of shared underlying physiological reason?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s pretty amazing that it’s as cohesive as it is.

  That’s a very good point. I’ve often wondered that myself. We may have reached peak Linux already - it’s so hard to scale up massive FOSS projects without somehow sacrificing ideals on the way.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Many things in a FOSS ecosystem will sooner or later confront you with one hard truth: The program you’re using was not developed for you. It was developed because the creator saw a problem and wanted to fix it. Then they made a program to fix it and stopped refining the program the moment they were content with it. Little to no consideration for other users or mass-adoption. Which is fine, they developed it, it’s their time.
  But it also means that you will frequently be confronted with things that are objectively unintuitive and unreasonable from a new user’s perspective because they make sense from a developer’s perspective. The former will always be outranked by the latter, even though there will always be more users than developers. That’s just how it is. There are some few exceptions, but they are just that, exceptions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[PSA] Lemmy account deletion is a mess⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s why Lemmy is such a GDPR nightmare :(

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨So, is the USA screwed?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I know you’re trying to sound optimistix, but that particular example required significant (worldwide, in fact) external intervention…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Introducing old.infosec.pub⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Haha, this is amazing! A very cool hack, thank you.