A #WikiConPT terminou com a inauguração do #WikiLovesEarth 2025, um concurso fotográfico para o qual podem participar durante todo o mês de Junho!

https://wikilovesearth.wikimedia.pt/

O Dia da Liberdade Documental celebra-se já na próxima semana, e em Portugal há conversa pelo Porto!

#documentfreedomday2025 #DocumentFreedomDay #ECTL

Faz hoje #5anos que a #INCM começou a distribuir gratuitamente livros em #PDF:

https://imprensanacional.pt/livros-em-pdf/

@RuiSeabra several times - but I don't think I managed to be as happy about it as you seem to be... looking forward to read about it!

@RuiSeabra welcome to the club 😞

It has been interesting to see so many reflecting at the same time about the current state and the possible future of web browsers - even if it was fired up by some bad news from @mozillaofficial.

Still, it is important to acknowledge what is and has been going on - how a web browser currently became a lot more than just a piece of software implementing a number of open standards, how they are all basically based over one of two existing browser agents (Gecko and Webkit) with the emergence of two upcoming ones (Servo and LibWeb); the difficulties of creating or maintaining a new web browser, or how dependent are all firefox forks (or older, harder derivatives like SeaMonkey) of Mozilla (both Firefox and Gecko).

I'm not trying to get to any point with this text, but rather to highlight that now is the time to have a few conversations around open standards, and in particular web standards. And as it happens, the "annual day" to have discussions of that sort is around the corner: @dff's Document Freedom Day 2025 is already in the 26th of this month. So why aren't there more events on the map? How is your community, user group, etc. going to mark and celebrate this day?

Organize something, and put it on the events map, right this way: https://digitalfreedoms.org/en/dfd

So, #Mozilla wrote something up to "explain" their #Firefox move. Read it in full here:
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/information-about-the-new-terms-of-use-and-updated-privacy/m-p/87922/highlight/true#M33705

TLDR? It's bull. Let's dive in?

They focus basically in saying three things:
1) Mozilla needs a license to your data to do things like sending your words to a search engine;
2) there's #AI stuff that needs ToS and Priv. Policy;
3) the acceptable use policy was already in place at Mozilla for the website, etc..

Why bull?
1) if what I type on Firefox (the browser) was sent to Mozilla so they could send it to the search engine, then they'd need access to it. It's not how a browser works or how a privacy-caring browser should ever work. Since what goes on between my Firefox textfields and the browsers I submit to is between us and then, Mozilla should have nothing to do with that data, with or without license.
2) They talk about two kinds of AI: AI services you can access to from Firefox, and AI offline and private abilities within Firefox. For the first, each of those services - if we choose to use them - can and should have their own ToS (distinct from Firefox or any other software used to reach them). AI services running locally should never share anything with anyone, so there's no licenses Mozilla should get.
3) Keep your website's ToS to your website, I don't need it on Firefox - and Mozilla neither.

@mozillaofficial decided to add "Terms of Use" to #Firefox.

If you just asked "WTF?", welcome to the club.

Of course, this doesn't make sense, it couldn't be just like that... so I went on and read the terms. The trick is specifically on this bit:

"These Terms only apply to the Executable Code version of Firefox, not the Firefox source code."

So sure, Firefox is still the Free Software codebase you were used to, only now if you want to use not the code but Mozilla's distributed binaries, you'll do so while also agreeing to some Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

The trick is, of course, to not use their binaries. In practice, things are a bit trickier. Ubuntu, for instance, was more than happy to ditch their self-compiled Firefox packages and use Mozilla-provided snaps instead.

But trickier or not... well, Mozilla has just made an unhappy user base unhappier - and I hope they reap what they are sowing.

@sarahjamielewis https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/114072293410465140

@mozillaofficial in the meantime updated their news item to add this "explanation" regarding one of the items within the terms that has been criticized:

"We need a license to allow us to make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible. Without it, we couldn’t use information typed into Firefox, for example."

In the explanation, they don't tell us -what- is that "some basic functionality" they refer to, or why would Mozilla need to use information typed into Firefox, for example.

@Ylyej

M, do Fritz Lang:
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_-_Eine_Stadt_sucht_einen_M%C3%B6rder

Para quem como eu não pode estar presente hoje, #ectl é a hashtag do primeiro de muitos encontros regulares das comunidades de tecnologias livres em Portugal, e podem espreitar para ver fotos e o que estamos a perder!

#selfhosting is a privilege.

Sure, I agree: it is the best option in many cases, and in some cases it feels like the only option - if you care for things like safety and privacy.

But us - the same community that usually promotes self-hosting - should also be aware that it is a means to an end, we should understand the reasons why it is a good idea... and also design "the fallback" for those who cannot, for some reason, self-host.

And we know how to do that: just look at the healthy community of fediverse servers that are out there, not in competition but in cooperation with a number self-hosted single-user instances. But we don't do it/have the same ecosystem in many other fields.

And self-hosting is a privilege: it demands more financial investment, more time investment, and has some potentially expensive dependencies (stable 24/7/365 internet connection and electricity, for eg.).

Just like the "path to #freesoftware" is a ladder and not a binary switch, service autonomy/independence/sovereignty is too (an often they are even related - how many "need" to use some proprietary app in order to access to a certain service they are dependent of?).

#musiquinta de #duetos ?

Provavelmente todo este CD (ou mesmo toda a discografia) de #interlock serve, mas para aer só uma musiquin(h|t)a fica escolhida logo a música que abre este disco: skinless.

Aqui o vídeo: https://youtu.be/auW4ShSRtng

We were right all along:

"EDPS (European Data Protection Supervisor) issues decision finding that the European Commission has illegally targeted advertisement on citizens using "sensitive" personal data on their political views."

https://noyb.eu/en/political-microtargeting-eu-commission-illegal

What now?

"The EDPS only issued a reprimand - so a formal finding that the processing was illegal and a formal warning. The EDPS considered that other measures, such as a fine, were not necessary as the Commission stopped the practise."

Too bad they don't have to also issue an apology or at least an admission of guilt, bit even not having to, they really should - it would be a first step in an attempt to recover lost credibility.

How this isn't a bigger news story thank #dieselgate is something hard to understand:

"#Kia cars were built with a #backdoor that enabled the company's server to locate them and take control of them. The icing on the #Orwellian cake is that the server had a security fault which allowed absolutely anyone to activate those controls for any Kia car."

@fsf https://hostux.social/@fsf/113556253427893813

Sabe a tanto e a tão pouco: hoje foi dia de festa - com direito a bolo e tudo!

Foi o último dia de @FestaSoftwareLivre mas não o fim: ficou a promessa de que "para o ano há mais".

A @FestaSoftwareLivre continua hoje, o dia inteiro, em #Aveiro, e estão todos convidados.

Começa assim:

@vitordematos https://floss.social/@vitordematos/113282712548585205

Primeiro dia da @FestaSoftwareLivre a chegar ao fim... mas ainda falta a noite! ;-)

Anteontem: governo reitera compromisso com #VotoElectrónico

Hoje: autenticação.gov e gov.ID em baixo, vítimas de #ransomware

Não se passa nada...

One thing that we keep saying about #ChatControl is that you can create backdoor, but you can't control how and by whom will they be used.

It is not just theoretical: "U.S. Wiretap Systems Targeted in China" -
https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/u-s-wiretap-systems-targeted-in-china-linked-hack-327fc63b