"Meta has announced it will use EU personal data from Instagram and Facebook users to train its new AI systems from 27 May onwards. Instead of asking consumers for opt-in consent, Meta relies on an alleged 'legitimate interest' to just suck up all user data. The new EU Collective Redress Directive allows Qualified Entities such as noyb to issue EU-wide injunctions. As a first step, noyb has now sent a formal settlement proposal in the form of a so-called Cease and Desist letter to Meta. Other consumer groups also take action. If injunctions are filed and won, Meta may also be liable for damages to consumers, which could be brought in a separate EU class action. Damages could reach billions. In summary, Meta may face massive legal risks – just because it relies on an "opt-out" instead of an "opt-in" system for AI training."

https://noyb.eu/en/noyb-sends-meta-cease-and-desist-letter-over-ai-training-european-class-action-potential-next-step

#EU #Meta #AI #GenerativeAI #AITraining #DataProtection #GDPR

Q&A from a talk I gave last week.

Q: "What do you think is the biggest threat in cybersecurity right now? Is it post-quantum computing? Is it AI?"

A: Fascism. It's fascism.

New Privacy Guides article 👁️⛔️
by me:

Last week, OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman
announced his ambitious plan for the World project, formerly known as Worldcoin.

The company opened 6 stores where people can go to get their biometric data collected from a creepy iris scanner called The Orb.

But this isn't just a cryptocurrency grift anymore, this is much more dystopian.

In this article, I describe the risk of using such service, the unethical practices the World project has been employing to gather numbers, and how this is a slippery slope towards the normalization of mass surveillance we should all worry about.

Say NO to the Orb!

Don't scan your eyeballs! 👁️🙅‍♀️

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/05/10/sam-altman-wants-your-eyeball/

#PrivacyGuides #Privacy #NoAI #AI #Worldcoin #BiometricData #GDPR

Best feature on GitHub right now.

https://github.com/settings/copilot

The state of Linux accessibility in 2025. This started out as a rant but became a series. Please feel free to leave feedback, comments, and subscribe via rss or email for more stuff as I release it. https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-want-to-love-linux-it-doesnt-love-me-back-post-1-built-for-control-but-not-for-people/

I am thrilled to share that I'm joining the @freeourfeeds.com team as interim director. Since leaving @globalvoices.org I've been focused on the incentives that influence how we talk to each other in public spaces and online. Free Our Feeds tackles this head on at the level of infrastructure. https://free-our-feeds.ghost.io/free-our-feeds-update-2-may-2025/

As we approach the release of Bonfire 1.0, this isn’t your typical launch announcement. Instead, it’s a moment to reflect on how we’ve built Bonfire, a roadmap of values, methods, and intentions – and an invitation to define what comes next.

In a world of “move fast and break things,” we’ve chosen a different tempo — one rooted in care, deep listening, and collective stewardship...

📣 Read our latest blog post: https://bonfirenetworks.org/posts/slow_software_for_a_burning_world/

Breaking travel surveillance news:

A company you've never heard of is secretly selling copies of every airline ticket issued by a travel agency in the US to DHS and a plethora of other Federal police agencies -- and who know who else:

https://papersplease.org/wp/2025/05/08/arc-sells-airline-ticket-records-to-ice-and-others/

Instagram Threads is getting video ads https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/08/instagram-threads-is-getting-video-ads/

Come over to https://www.twitch.tv/dair_institute to celebrate the launch of the The AI Con with us.

Real ID's are now required for entry to federal buildings + domestic flights. This is another stretch of the state surveillance arm that is placing yet more burden on everyday people while also placing more risk on vulnerable communities. https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/amp/rcna204996

I had someone tell me we shouldn't be using Scheme at Spritely because AI code generators aren't good at writing it

No no no

That's a huge feature

Covered California, a public agency that administers the Affordable Care Act for the state, had over 60 #trackers on its website and transmitted the #health info of visitors to #LinkedIn without consent, allowing LinkedIn to direct targeted advertising relating to health care products to these people when they used LinkedIn. This broke every state #privacy law in existence. https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2025/04/28/how-california-sent-residents-personal-health-data-to-linkedin

Notes on genocide prevention and other kinds of organizing, mutual aid, and activism on social networks

https://privacy.thenexus.today/notes-on-genocide-prevention-and-other-kinds-of-organizing-mutual-aid-and-activism-on-social-networks-d/

A continuation of the discussions about organizing, including a look at high-level use cases and then a deeper dive into perspectives of anti-genocide organizers

#fediverse

You can catch me live on stream on the @firesidefedi in a few hours!

https://social.firesidefedi.live/@firesidefedi/statuses/01JTJWFV78QDBCS9AE4ZQQBCCW

I’m seeing reports on other platforms of a lot of disinformation going around. Here’s a good Bluesky thread with from Shreyan Sardarizadeh of the BBC with several examplescreenshots from Twitter -- or example pictures of air strikes on Gaza or the 2020 Beirut explosion being mislabeled as air strikes on Pakistan.-- excellent work by. (The presentation here is excellent btw, a great example of how to clearly label disinfo as false)

Is anybody seeing anything related to this here on fedi?

Awesome #Bandwagon news: I've just pushed a number of cool updates to bandwagon.fm - including newly revamped profile pages that are smarter, more streamlined, and easier to manage.

The new profiles highlight your albums, concerts, and news posts separately, showing each in its own customized layout.

If you're already a Wagoneer, then sign in to see the results of the spring cleaning. And if you're a musician and you're not on Bandwagon yet, well…. you know what to do :)

Mastodon CFO @mellifluousbox will be at the #GlobalSolutionsSummit in Berlin today as part of the panel "Beyond Profit: Public Interest Technologies for Democratic Digital Futures". You can also listen to his live interview with Radioeins from last week.

https://www.radioeins.de/programm/sendungen/der_schoene_morgen/_/global-solution-summit.html

https://global-solutions-summit.org/public/events/fb1a1fa895/seminars/dcdd5421fe/modal

Next stop: Brussels! 🌍

The Complex Anarchism Symposium will gather scientists, artists, activists & dreamers for a 5-day deep dive on organizing without hierarchy and embracing complexity.

A Bonfire instance will serve as digital commons — a self-organized space for discussion, coordination, proposals & reflection.

Excited for this collective experiment and to see what emerges. 🌱

🔗 Join remotely or in Brussels (May 19–23): https://clea.research.vub.be/complex-anarchism-symposium-19-23-may-2025-in-brussels

💸 Support the event: https://www.gofundme.com/f/anarchism-and-complexity-science-community-kickstart

🐙 It's out, and we're proud! 🐙

The #PeerTube mobile app is upgraded to v1!
Log on to your account(s), comment and (dis)like videos, manage your subscriptions & playlists, get your watch history and in-app notifications.

All the info: https://joinpeertube.org/news/app-v1