I would cancel and tell the restaurant why.

Businesses need to know why they lose customers, because if enough of them report the same reason, they might do something about it.

It’s not just a matter of blocking Threads users.

Facebook is coming on here to slurp up data I don’t want them to have, and enriching their own Threads ecosystem with Fediverse content they haven’t lifted a finger to create.

Not to mention, when Threads users are able to fully interact in the Fediverse, do you really want that particular bunch to create noise in your communities? I don’t. There’s a reason why I avoid Facebook in all its forms.

Great.
I joined the Fediverse to escape Facebook’s toxic interpretation of communities, so Facebook is coming to the Fediverse instead.
Just great…

You know what would be ironic? If you were a bot OP. I mean, how can we tell? 🙂

If the service is worth it and subscribing isn’t yet another opportunity to put me under surveillance - which is the main reason why, although I consume a lot of YouTube videos and I would genuinely pay Google for the service, I won’t - yes.

Hint: Facebook and Reddit aren’t worth it. If they want to exit the ad-supported business model and disappear behind a paywall, I won’t miss anything in my life.

deleted by creator

F-Droid is also considering ads that contain no tracking, which removes that moral dillema, IMO:

You assume everybody is okay with ads.

I’m not. My brainspace has been highjacked since I was a little kid by stupid advertisers. To this day, I remember ads for products that have disappeared decades ago and that I never gave a shit about at any point in my life.

Why are advertisers allowed to force their shit into my head?

I hate ads. I’m utterly intolerant of advertising. I hate the tracking and the malware that come with ads, but I hate ads even more. There are no moral ads. The advertisement industry is a despicable leech that needs to die.

If F-Droid springs this shit on me, I swear to god I’m gonna start having murderous thoughts…

Paid apps: no problem. If it’s good, I’ll pay.

Subscription: maybe, if it’s worth it.

Ads: F-Droid can fuck right off. If they do that, they’d be a miserable bunch of sellouts.

deleted by creator

I hate Google as much as the next guy - well, probably a lot more than the next guy actually - but here I’m siding with them for a change.

They require payment for a feature (your phone number: it is monetizable private data to them and that’s your payment) and you tried to get the feature without paying. And you failed.

The story here is that AI is frighteningly accurate when detecting embedded screenshots, not that Google is “vicious”: they’re not vicious in this case, they’re simply scary successful at detecting your attempts to game their system. Probably because everybody and their dog tries the same trick all the time, I would assume.

Generally speaking, I agree with your assessment of Big Data and Google. But not in this particular instance.

I’d rather have a camera with complete lines, not just the top.

Don’t worry: American ultra-capitalists are actively taking care of the problem

There’s plenty of good reasons to transfer update ownership to the Play Store, too

Aside from self-hate or suicidal tendencies, I fail to see which.

What’s Play Store?

Oh yeah, that stuff I access with Aurora because it can’t run on my deGoogled cellphone…

I doubt it. It would be really obvious because of the extra data traffic. People who go bananas if they found out Google chews through their monthly plan to exfiltrate audio.

Although Google (and Apple, and all the others) are working hard to embed AI onto your cellphone, not for your own convenience but to implement client-side surveillance - i.e. digest what you see and do and distill the surveillance data on your device before it even hits the internet - so that the surveillance doesn’t attract undue attention.

But we’re not there quite yet, and I don’t believe even Google could get away with real, proper audio surveillance today.

That’s probably the reason why they want to create this bogus “note taking” service: to have a legitimate excuse to listen in on your audio.

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

Newsflash: Big Data is above the law. Didn’t you know?

They’ll spin it as a “service” to the user and carve out an exemption that way. And 10 or 15 years down the line, you’ll hear your own words spat back at you by a fucking chatbot, but it’ll be too late by then.

Just what I always wanted: letting Google listen in on my phone calls.

deleted by creator