thoughts3rased
@thoughts3rased@sopuli.xyz
- Comment on Music Piracy Is Back, Baby 9 months ago:
Oh my god you’ve literally just recommended me a dream app. PlexAmp has so many annoying usability issues and symfonium seems to have solved all of them, I can’t thank you enough.
- Comment on Discord Servers asking for Phone Numbers and 'Verification Levels' 10 months ago:
How else is the platform owner to prove that the account is linked to an actual person without defeating the check being trivial? They can’t without something being tied to you. An email address may have been a good one to use back when AOL gave out addresses as part of their subscription service, but the availability of free email has destroyed this possibility. Out of the many things that could be asked for you to provide, a phone number is the least nefarious.
You reserve the right to not give your phone number to Discord. You do not need to give Discord your number in order for you to be able to use it. Likewise, the server owner reserves the right to ask Discord to only allow accounts that have been verified to not be burner accounts. Email verification does not do this, and the time limits on membership only go as far as slowing down accounts used in bad faith in a server, whether that be scams, trolling or otherwise.
Like many things in life, it’s a trade-off. You value your right to privacy more than being granted access to this particular server. The server owner values the reduced ability of trolls and bad actors over the loss of membership from users like you. Unfortunately you cannot have your cake and eat it too.
The only alternative I can think of is just buying a pre-paid number and a cheap second hand phone and using that only to verify with services. It’s good for 2FA too as it makes you immune to SIM swap attacks.
- Comment on Discord Servers asking for Phone Numbers and 'Verification Levels' 10 months ago:
In that case, is a YouTuber liable for the GDPR failings of Google? Of course they aren’t. It’s the same here.
- Comment on Discord Servers asking for Phone Numbers and 'Verification Levels' 10 months ago:
Except that’s not how it’s working here. The only “contract” is the EULA that the developer agrees to when creating their discord account.
The developer doesn’t collect or store the data, nor have they entered an agreement with discord for them specifically to collect this data. The game developer does not sell access to the discord server (a violation of the EULA). All they have done is use a feature on Discord, available to every user and bound to the terms of both the EULA and Discord’s privacy policy.
If what you said was true, then any individual that enables the highest level of protection on any server of any size would end up being liable. This simply is not true. It would also mean that the lowest setting would also leave them liable as an email is stored, which is also not true.
It would also be incredibly hard to determine exactly what they’re liable for. Is it all the users who have Discord? All the members in their server? What if a user is in multiple servers with phone/email verification turned on?
Discord collects this information as part of their service for their verification purposes, including 2FA. The implication for the developer is nothing more than a flag on an account.
The difference between the developer and Microsoft/Amazon is that those two companies, while yes they don’t store it on their own servers, collect the data for use in their services for their profit for services they sell, run ads on, or collect more data to sell on. The game developer does not run discord, they do not sell discord, they have little agency over that server in discord, and is a service that discord provides. The game developer could pull out at any point and the service would still exist because it is not theirs.
TL;DR - The developer is not liable in the same way that X users aren’t liable for people who verify their phone number following them. It’s not their service, and the Discord EULA and Privacy Policy apply.
- Comment on Discord Servers asking for Phone Numbers and 'Verification Levels' 10 months ago:
That’s the thing, it’s not. Lots, and I mean lots of sites are plagued by bot activity. The ones hardest hit are the ones that only have email validation.
I could go to Google and create a new account right now, absolutely free.
Hell, I could write a script that creates a million for me for barely any money, just paying a CAPTCHA farm a nominal sum to solve the robot tests for me. This is why sites like discord are plagued with advertisement bots, the bar to entry is literally nothing.
Phone numbers cost money to create, and are in finite supply. Even PAYG (pre paid numbers for you Americans) numbers require you to go outside and purchase a SIM card from a store. They aren’t foolproof, but they stop the vast majority of fake accounts.
- Comment on Discord Servers asking for Phone Numbers and 'Verification Levels' 10 months ago:
But it’s not the game dev that handles the information, so the game studio wouldn’t be at fault. The game dev never gets that info so isn’t storing anything. Discord would be liable for any GDPR infractions.
- Comment on Your washing machine could be sending 3.7 GB of data a day — LG washing machine owner disconnected his device from Wi-Fi after noticing excessive outgoing daily data traffic 10 months ago:
And also providing more programs and options without having to tack on a full-colour LCD or anything like that. Pretty much just a cost saving measure on the manufacturing.
- Comment on Unity bans VLC from Unity Store. 10 months ago:
Brb let me completely rewrite all my unity projects and learn unreal in a single day
- Comment on Google Will Now Back Right-to-Repair 10 months ago:
Don’t get me wrong it’s not perfect and I 100% agree with what you’re saying, but it is vastly better compared to some other OEMs (Samsung comes to mind) who uses shit like e-fuses to make sure your phone is never able to use a banking app again or the multiple companies that don’t let you unlock the bootloader at all.
- Comment on Google Will Now Back Right-to-Repair 10 months ago:
You are allowed to unlock the bootloader and install a custom ROM though, so at least once my Pixel 6 Pro is out of support I can flash lineage or graphene onto my phone
- Comment on Toyota-owned automaker halts Japan production after admitting it tampered with safety tests for 30 years | CNN Business 10 months ago:
Well you’d have to have gotten a lobotomy to want to buy beats in the first place.
- Comment on Israel grants Intel $3.2 billion for new $25 billion chip plant 10 months ago:
I don’t think Intel is too worried about boycotts because a significant portion of their customer base is businesses.
The only real sector of their customer base that would even do a boycott is the independent PC builders, and I doubt even 5% of those customers would follow through.
Your average consumer doesn’t even know what the hell an “intel” is or why they should care, it’s just a sticker they see on their laptop/PC.
- Comment on HP raising Instant Ink subscription pricing significantly 11 months ago:
Damn, and I thought brother was gonna keep riding out being good until the bitter end
- Comment on Apple Is Holding the Final Nail for X’s Coffin 11 months ago:
He survived 8 years with it though, whilst refusing normal medical attention. Given that, had he dealt with it in the first or even second year he’d have probably had a good shot at surviving.
- Comment on Apple Is Holding the Final Nail for X’s Coffin 11 months ago:
I guess money won’t fix arrogance mixed with stupidity. Such a shame…
- Comment on Hikikomori Feeding Device 11 months ago:
Because Japan.
- Comment on Apple has gotten so big it's almost overtaken France's entire stock market 11 months ago:
What no repairability, a huge walled garden and the conditioning of teens to bully others over bubble colours does to a stock price
- Comment on YouTube will have fewer ad breaks on TV — but the ads are getting longer 11 months ago:
THANK YOU. I’ve been saying this for ages. I really wouldn’t mind even £8 a month for the no ads since I spend a lot of time on YouTube, but I am in no way paying extra for bells and whistles I don’t need. I already have Spotify, I don’t want to and nor am I going to pay for an extra music service that I just won’t use. I’m on an unlimited data plan for god’s sake, I don’t care about downloading videos.
- Comment on YouTube will have fewer ad breaks on TV — but the ads are getting longer 11 months ago:
I think the day an adblocker starts charging people is the day that companies either try to sue them into non-existence with lawsuits they know will fail.
Either that or nobody will pay for it because they’re used to getting adblockers for free. They’ll just move to another one or maybe one that’s FOSS.
- Comment on Apple Is Holding the Final Nail for X’s Coffin 11 months ago:
To think he would’ve lived if he didn’t act like a total nutcase and rely on alternative medicine…
- Comment on Apple Is Holding the Final Nail for X’s Coffin 11 months ago:
Because of the potential fallout that would happen if they did. Apple doesn’t want to ban one of their key apps, it would be like banning Facebook. The app ecosystem is a key part of any mobile OS’ appeal, it’s exactly why the Windows Phone failed. Apple doesn’t want to lose users to Android which will have twitter even if it’s banned through side loading. It’s just too popular of an app, even if it’s a complete shit hole.
- Comment on Starlink loses out on $886 million in rural broadband subsidies 11 months ago:
Comcast will take the taxpayer money, run a shit 5mbps line to the rural area, charge you out the ass for it and pocket the difference from the subsidies.
- Comment on YouTube is deliberately crippling Firefox on ARM systems 11 months ago:
Why though? Because when I have a perfectly competent music streaming service already, why do I essentially want to pay double for a redundant music service I won’t use? If I could just get the ad free experience for a cheaper price I’d be satisfied, but they add all the bells and whistles on top that I don’t care for and don’t want to pay for.
- Comment on Asking ChatGPT to Repeat Words ‘Forever’ Is Now a Terms of Service Violation 11 months ago:
I asked it to do the same and it drew a nutsack: Image
- Comment on The race to 5G is over — now it’s time to pay the bill | Networks spent years telling us that 5G would change everything. But the flashiest use cases are nowhere to be found — and the race to deplo... 11 months ago:
Woops, haven’t had my third coffee of the day.
- Comment on The race to 5G is over — now it’s time to pay the bill | Networks spent years telling us that 5G would change everything. But the flashiest use cases are nowhere to be found — and the race to deplo... 11 months ago:
The battery is the most expensive part of the phone
Lol no it’s not? This is easy to disprove just by looking at the price of replacement parts. You can’t tell me that the processor of the phone is more expensive than the battery.
- Comment on Why don’t EVs have standard diagnostic ports—and when will that change? | OBD-II was implemented to monitor emissions, but EVs don't have tailpipes. 11 months ago:
This is like closing a shop to prevent robbers.
Surely the solution is to make the grid they charge off of sustainable then???
- Comment on Ultrasound can push vaccines into the body without needles 11 months ago:
Ya see that one where someone’s landlord went loopy and cut power to their building because he’d consumed a bunch of conspiracy nut stuff?
- Comment on Asking ChatGPT to Repeat Words ‘Forever’ Is Now a Terms of Service Violation 11 months ago:
A useless comment by a useless person who’s never touched code in their life.
- Comment on Automakers must build cheaper, smaller EVs to spur adoption, report says 11 months ago:
Similar experience from a European.
I own a 2015 Vauxhall Adam. It’s a brilliant little petrol car, 3 doors, very small and very reliable.
GM canned the model in 2019. It makes no sense to me, if they had stuck a battery in it for an electric version I’d have been sold in a heartbeat.
But no, GM wants to focus on big cars that I don’t want. I don’t want anything bigger than a 3 door hatchback, I’m only 20 and have no kids, why do I need some massive fuckoff SUV???
