Notices by Esra'a (alshafei@mastodon.social), page 2

"Amid recent revelations exposing the alarming use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems by the Israeli army to automate target generation for bombings in the Gaza war, Access Now is demanding transparency from Google regarding the company’s involvement and complicity in human rights violations in Gaza."

https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/google-ai-war-gaza-israel/

#Google #Gaza #AI #HumanRights

@evacide It gets a bit worse, Telegram has a long-standing relationship with a Saudi organization that's essentially a govt arm in Riyadh, working in direct partnership to analyze and monitor an obscene amount of user data: https://www.saudigazette.com.sa/article/641746/SAUDI-ARABIA/Etidal-Telegram-remove-over-16-million-extremist-contents-in-early-2024

They claim this only targets terrorist groups. I can verify that it absolutely impacts groups run by queer communities in the Gulf, because I was in one such group that was monitored and shut down by Etidal.

Telegram can fuck off into the sunset.

Proton Mail Discloses User Data Leading to Arrest in Spain

https://restoreprivacy.com/protonmail-discloses-user-data-leading-to-arrest-in-spain/

#Privacy #Encryption

Disappointed to see The Markup share advice for people to use WhatsApp in its post about preparing your phone for a protest, and that it's coming from "digital security trainers."

Metadata literally kills, and WhatsApp is swimming in it. The metadata they collect includes:

Groups you're a member of, location, personal info (email, phone number, user IDs), contacts and their phone numbers, in-app search history, when you use the app & how often you use it. E2EE alone doesn't guarantee #privacy

@annika Well, I wasn't involved in the selection of other Board members. And "guidance" here relates to operationalizing the 501(c)(3) entity so that it can accept donations or potential grants with more ease and to be accountable for them.

An important thing to clarify on the newly formed Mastodon 501(c)(3) entity: it's not here to make or influence product decisions. It has no legal ability to enforce any such changes. Primary operations will remain led by the Germany-based Mastodon gGmbH, and this won’t change.

The focus of the U.S entity is to provide another vehicle for donations and other forms of support. The Board has no legal "control" beyond this.

The messaging app you choose impacts others as well, not just yourself, and while you personally may not require complete privacy, others in your network might have their lives depend on it.

Full post: The dangers of metadata in messengers - https://simplex.chat/blog/20240416-dangers-of-metadata-in-messengers.html

#Privacy #Surveillance #Messaging

A VC firm supporting military tech and surveillance tools wants to partner up with one of the most repressive regimes around the world on AI investments, what could POSSIBLY go wrong?

https://cointelegraph.com/news/saudi-arabia-40-billion-ai-fund-a16z-partnership-nyt #ai #humanrights

Best way to not be impacted by the massive #privacy and #safety violations in X's calling feature (enabled by default) is to not use X 😉

"Meta keeps insisting that it will not promote 'political' content on Threads"

"How the hell do they define 'political' content?"

As a queer Arab woman I ask, how do you shy away from politics when your very existence is political in your context?

Good read from @mmasnick -

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/02/29/metas-plans-to-downplay-political-content-is-itself-a-political-decision/

"For years, the antivirus software company harvested information from users’ web browsers without their consent." #infosec #privacy

Its clients have included Home Depot, Google, Microsoft, Pepsi, and McKinsey.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/22/24080135/avast-security-privacy-software-ftc-fine-data-harvesting

"Being able to say, 'wherever you get your podcasts' is a radical statement. Because what it represents is the triumph of exactly the kind of technology that's supposed to be impossible: open, empowering tech that's not owned by any one company, that can't be controlled by any one company, and that allows people to have ownership over their work and their relationship with their audience." - @anildash

Powerful to think of this in the context of messaging too.

https://www.anildash.com//2024/02/06/wherever-you-get-podcasts/

@paulbiggar You've done and continue to do your part, while an active genocide rages on. Thanks for giving some of us hope, especially in the tech community, where there's so much complicity it's repugnant.