WhyJiffie

@WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In North Korea, your phone secretly takes screenshots every 5 minutes for government surveillance⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  no, they only allow the app to capture its own screen content. to make a regular screenshot of the whole display, the app needs a permission that the user has to approve every single time, at least on most phones. that API is actually for continuous screen recording, but of course usable for this purpose too. this also means that after getting approved by the user, the app can keep its recording sessions to keep more screenshots, but that ends when the app gets killed by android. I think the system also shows a notification when an app is recording, but as anything that too could vary with phones.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Congratulations, homosexual!⁩ ⁨⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I prefer the robotic announcer with the fake uplifting tone

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Congratulations, homosexual!⁩ ⁨⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  in my head it was the other robotic voice. I think it was used in both portal 1 and 2

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In North Korea, your phone secretly takes screenshots every 5 minutes for government surveillance⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Out of over 17,000 Android apps examined, more than 9,000 had potential permissions to take screenshots. And a number of apps were found to actively be doing so, taking screenshots and sending them to third-party sources.

  this is a weird paragraph. no permission is needed for an app to take screenshots of itself. all apps can do that.

  just an example: the Element matrix client has a bugreport feature that allows you to submit an automatically created screenshot of the previous menu.

  it seems there are several ways to accomplish this: stackoverflow.com/…/how-to-programmatically-take-…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[UK] Live facial recognition cameras may become ‘commonplace’ as police use soars⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  every police officer in the UK should shove up their cameras into their asses. literal china developing over there for quite a few years now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Which is more likely in the future: Smartphones eventually becoming more "open" OR Computers eventually becoming more "locked-down"?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  What’s an “important app” to you here?

  the app of my bank. it refuses to work if the operating system is not original. they charge you money for each login code and transaction approval code SMS they send, but if I had the app, scanning their QR code would impose no charge.
  they also recently ended the support of the new web interface for mobile browsers, to “protect against hackers”. WTH! and this is the biggest bank in the country by far according to statistics. the old site shuts down soon.

  the new webapp can still be used in a mobile browser if you enable desktop mode. but for how long? and it’ll be fine for me, I would use that anyway because I don’t want to install their app for other reasons. but lots of people don’t want to deal with a website that’s been designed for desktop PCs, on a small touch screen,because it’s hard to use, it’s hard to read, and if your thumbs are big maybe it’s not even possible to use it.

  for banking apps this is almost expected nowadays.

  then another friend of mine has the worked related apl I said above. it does the same: refuses to let you use it because the opersting system is not the original one, unmodified. and mind you that does not only mean that you can’t root it or can’t replace the ROM, that also means you cannot even uninstall a bunch of apps that do whatever in the background!

  I bet there is much more of these, but if I can I avoid installing anything new from the play store at all, so I don’t come across these apps. I live different technological lifestyle than most around me. most of my friends’ phones cannot be liberated or they are not interested in it because of the dangers, and honestly me neither in supporting an installation that may be unstable as is not rarely the case with lineage, so I rarely offer it. but sometimes I do and they like the idea, accepting that things like this may happen, and then it happens with yet another app I did not know about beforehand.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ansible Playbook - How do I reverse engineer a running system?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  oh the find with the hash sum is good advice! I would have done this but manually, maybe with the double commander sync dirs tool.

  but also, for configs this might be the best time to move your custom config to ordered dropin files for all things that support it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Which is more likely in the future: Smartphones eventually becoming more "open" OR Computers eventually becoming more "locked-down"?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  If Google want to continue to claim Android is open source,

  do they want it? what’s the benefit for them?

  they have to allow for devices that forego any of this crap and boot vanilla non-Google-Services Android.

  Sorry but that has nothing to do with what restrictions an app imposes on the user. Currently they allow, and bunch of important apps still refuse to work.

  And if you’re privacy oriented enough, you will give up on apps that are not.

  as I said above, there are apps that you cannot refuse in this world in certain life situations. most of these apps are not about convenience.

  And given enough time somebody is going to work out how you fool a modified system into booting.

  as in: in half a decade somebody will reverse engineer the bootloader of a single phone model, so that other tech savvy people can have some privacy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Which is more likely in the future: Smartphones eventually becoming more "open" OR Computers eventually becoming more "locked-down"?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You can run whatever you like in your Android phones. Jailbreaking iPhones is also possible. All these devices are just computers that can run anything within their hardware specs. Hacking some of these things may be against the Ts and Cs or even illegal. But technically possible. The restrictions are mote political, not technical.

  unless it verifies itself and refuses to boot a modified system. the logic for that can be in actual read only memory.

  but wait a minute. something like that is already happening with google safetynet! baking apps and more are literally refusing to work on non-google approved systems, including any single rom that is even just a little bit privacy oriented

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨FBI Wants Access To Encrypted iPhone And Android Data—So Does Europe⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  aaand those and the usere will be punished when found

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google is going ‘all in’ on AI. It’s part of a troubling trend in big tech⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  thats like saying a CPU cannot be used to run malicious code and be used against you, because all it does is maths, and maths cant hurt you, and would you really outlaw maths just because someone uploaded a picture of you to facebook?

  TPMs have a use, that can be good for users too, I don’t doubt that. but because of its capabilities it enables so much user hostile shit. and frankly the tradeoffs are not worth it. just look at what happened, and still is evolving by the way on android, but iOS too. bootloaders that are not possible to unlock were bad already, but this is terrible, that they are literally making it impossible to take ownership of your own devices, to get rid of all the factory malware, if you need to use certain services that most people don’t want to or simply just aren’t allowed to give up.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Forced E-Waste PCs And The Case Of Windows 11’s Trusted Platform⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Quick glance on my installed programs, and I count 7 apps I heavily use in windows 11 with no linux version, nor a clear equivalent that could replace them without extensive hacks that may or may not work and be a total waste of my time.

  if you tell us the names, maybe someone can help

  Also a funny thing: I installed Debian with KDE and then GNOME last year on another PC, and guess what? KDE & GNOME came bloated with a bunch of apps, games, office suite, code editor and other shit.

  that’s the decision of the distribution, not KDE/Gnome. often it is configurable in the installer, even in debian to some level.

  The same cleanup & customization did for windows 11 I had to do to Debian KDE and then GNOME.

  to be fair if uninstalling unneeded programs is the only thing you do on 11, you’re leaving in lots of things.

  Let people use what they want.

  I agree that insufferable jerks are insufferable jerks, but I don’t think most people want to use windows 11, but that’s what they can use, for one reason or another, some of which have a solution, some of which not yet

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google is going ‘all in’ on AI. It’s part of a troubling trend in big tech⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  TPM has nothing to do with any privacy invasion, AI, or anything bad really.

  are you living under a rock, or have you been not using an Android phone in the past decade? that’s exactly what is happening! through the use of the TPM, apps can verify whether you run a google corporate approved operating system, or something else, even if just slight differences, but also if you use a real clean and respectful system.

  plenty of apps do this. including banking apps, while banks are restricting their web banking sites to not work on phones (because that “gives us security from hackers”, no I’m not joking this is what my bank told publicly 2 months ago, in the EU), pps that use some form of DRM, and even work related apps that show you your current working hours and needs to be used for work related manners!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google is going ‘all in’ on AI. It’s part of a troubling trend in big tech⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  it is “automated” by some “peasants” they are already paying “too much”. maybe they want to reduce those costs too.

  AI serverparks may consume more power (for now?), but at least they don’t question your commands. maybe that’s how they see it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft wants Windows Update to handle all apps⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  windows update is known to force updates down your throat, even when it is just not appropriate right now. that’s not how things work on linux.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plex now will SELL your personal data⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  on the tablet it should work fine in the browser. maybe that would also work on the TV, that’s exactly what most TV apps do anyway.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plex now will SELL your personal data⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  what? It’s not like everyone needs to run jeyfin at home. the oy thing you need to use is the jeyfin webapp, which I don’t understand how is it more complicated than netflix or any other similar service. you log in, pick a movie and hit play. that’s it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plex now will SELL your personal data⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  URL into bookmark, username and password onto paper. Dont tell me they can’t do handwriting anymore.

  TV? how did they log into their google account to begin with?
  but also: they can log in first on the phone or anywhere else, then use quick connect for the TV… added bonus: phone is now a remote.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨T-Mobile secretly records iPhone screens and claims it's being helpful.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  several ways

  • screen recording
  • accessibility services
  • ADB
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Having to manage cables is a very 80s thing that we still have to do in 2025.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know, man, walking around with a whole desktop PC, with monitors, keyboard and mouse? that does not seem to be easy. but sure it adds to the fun factor of imagining it with the curly cable!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The European Commission says it is investigating Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos for potential child safety Digital Services Act (DSA) violations “as a matter of priority”⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Fine, assuming you are right, what’s the alternative ?

  that’s easy, you even said it out loud:

  And if the kid is educated well, he would refuse alchool from an adult that is not his parent or relatives. If not maybe you should educated your kid better than that.

  now just replace alcohol with porn, and its done. just like they would drink your alcohol, they are using your internet access, its your job and responsibility to limit their access to both of these.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The European Commission says it is investigating Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos for potential child safety Digital Services Act (DSA) violations “as a matter of priority”⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, I don’t need to lock my liquor cabinet because I educated my kids.
  And now that they are old enough they know that they can simply ask instead of stealing.

  Congratulations, you have found the solution to kids accessing inappropriate content on the internet.

  if the kid is educated well, he would refuse watching porn on a website. If not maybe you should educated your kid better than that.

  use education instead of invasive age verification systems.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it OK to leave device chargers plugged in all the time? An expert explains⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  that’s because phone makers were pumping out garbage chargers with bare minimum performance for every single phone, isn’t it?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You have been in a prison of bone for your entire life⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  We Are Legion, We Are Bob

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI is rotting your brain and making you stupid⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  suspiciously specific

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Funny how we see the world in landscape, but live it mostly in portrait.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Text in a book is horizontal

  on your phone too, but it is still in a vertical rectangle of view

  also an opened book is most often wider than tall

  but most often you are only observing a single page, don’t you?

  I think OP’s point is not about the shape or layout of things, but the “rectangle of view” or “bounding box” or whatever.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft’s vast advertising business is target of Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) Enforce application for class action launch under EU data law⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  nah don’t worry, they’ll be fine

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google Shared My Phone Number!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  that’s a problem too, but the discussion was about interacting with google. fuck them for showi g ds down our throats, but at least they don’t know who watches the video (when using a proxy like invidious), and so they can’t build a profile of you, and they can’t bombard you with tailored manipulative ads either, just something possibly totally irrelevant.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Keep the Future Human: How Unchecked Development of Smarter-Than-Human, Autonomous, General-Purpose AI Systems Will Almost Inevitably Lead to Human Replacement. But it Doesn't Have to.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  not just AI systems, but implants too. we need to do everything to make sure it won’t become a necessity, on any level, in any circumstance. but I fear that won’t be enough.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve CEO Gabe Newell’s Neuralink competitor is expecting its first brain chip this year⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  not “no wifi”. It’s “no any kind of wireless connections” and even then I’ll say no.