"Is carbonite, like...an actual thing? Can I be frozen like Han Solo? I have a little bit of money saved up. Which stupid tech bro startup can do this for me?"
Never underestimate how far they will go to track your movements, habits, etc. It's not even about "the gubment spyin' on me". It's about how valuable that data is to corporate assholes who like to target you with customized advertising, and resell your data, etc. (And yes, as a side-effect, the police can also sometimes take advantage of this ubiquitous data capture).
We live in a time when even our stupid cars spy on us:
So I joined a new gym last year and was pleasantly surprised. They gave me a smart card to get in and out, that's it, no app, no accounts, no nothing. Well, today I got to the gym and saw the announcement that they are phasing out the access with the smart card and starting to use, you guessed it, an app....
Here's a non-paywalled link to an article published in the Washington Post a few days ago. It's great to see this kind of thing getting some mainstream attention. Young children have not made an informed decision about whether they want their photos posted online.
I really hope it becomes the new normal to stop posting everything about ourselves non-anonymously online in general. But especially photos and information about kids. I am hopeful that in the near future, we'll all look back and say "What the fuck were we thinking? We all looked like narcissists exploiting our kids for likes!"
I've noticed that ads are absolutely everywhere, and wanted to post this to disillusion some of the places we see ads but don't realize. It would be harder to make a list of places you don't see ads....
Pitcher's mounds. When you watch a baseball game on TV, they often super-impose an ad on the damned dirt. Also graphics at the bottom of the screen will often have an ad box.
Every available inch of visible space must be covered in an ad. It makes me resent those brands.
In particular, I stew over insurance companies spending millions on celebrities in commercials and prime time slots. That's money that could have gone to pay claims that were denied, or lowered their ridiculous premiums.
And I'll never understand people who purchase expensive t-shirts or caps with some corporate brand's logo splashed across it. They are paying more to be a human billboard. Are we supposed to be impressed with their taste in something millions of others have bought?
In response to Joe Biden and the White House enabling ActivityPub federation via Threads, a number of people asked: "Why didn't the White House just self-host their own Mastodon server?"...
Would be entertaining to watch it unfold. I'm sure team 45 would try to horn in if it happened. Might bring a massive influx of users. Mixed feelings. But a good writeup.
Years ago, back before it was totally shitty, someone on reddit posted a gigantic, comprehensive, well-sourced list of all the horrible shit Zuck / Meta have done over the years.
It's unfortunate that long lists of damning facts can't seem to move the needle very much. People don't seem to care unless directly impacted.
I hate seeing Meta dig its tentacles in. Thanks for posting this.
Yup, I get it. It's important with regards to farm equipment and many other things. Just drives me crazy how they can't cover the fundamentals, but they get fired up about McD's ice cream.
As a medical doctor I extensively use digital voice recorders to document my work. My secretary does the transcription. As a cost saving measure the process is soon intended to be replaced by AI-powered transcription, trained on each doctor's voice. As I understand it the model created is not being stored locally and I have no...
Will they allow you to use your own non-cloud solution? As long as you turn in text documents and they don't have to pay a person to transcribe, they should be happy. There are a number of speech to text apps you can run locally on a laptop, phone, or tablet.
But of course, it's sometimes about control and exercising their corporate authority over you. Bosses get off on that shit.
Not sure which type of doctor you are, but there's a general shortage of NPI people. I hope you can fight back with some leverage. Best of luck.
I had another idea. You might be able to use something that distorts your voice so that it doesn't sound anything like you, but the AI can still transcribe it to text. There are some cheap novelty devices on amazon that do this, and also some more expensive pro audio gear that does the same thing. Just a thought.
I agree that getting the point across and having them rethink this whole thing is a much better way of handling this than using a tech solution. I am just pessimistic you can change their minds and you might need a plan B.
I was afraid that might be the case. Was hoping they would let you upload the files as if you had typed them yourself.
Maybe find some studies / articles on transcription bots getting medical terminology and drug names wrong. I'm sure that happens. AI is getting scary-good, but it's far from perfect, and this is potentially a low-possibility-but-dangerous-consequences kind of scenario. Unfortunately the marketers of their software probably have canned responses to these types of concerns. Management is going to hear what they want to hear.
It is true that Dragon and similar apps have been used for years. But I don't think it's fair to say OP is being paranoid and a luddite. Data breaches in the cloud are a weekly occurrence, and OP wanting to protect their voice / biometrics is not foolish it's smarter than the average bear. You can change a compromised password. You can't change your biometrics or voice.
Also, those products were used on local networks for many years before they entered the cloud. They gradually reduce our privacy over time, getting people numb to it.
I agree with you but that ship has sailed. I work with big medical data and it's shocking the stuff that gets stored and passed around. The really big players like PBMs and major insurance providers are supposed to abide by HIPAA but they do not fear enforcement at all. Only the small fish like doctors, etc, need fear HIPAA.
I understand, and we're basically on the same page. I'm not fully anti-AI, either. Like any tool, it can be used for good or evil. And you are right to have concerns about data stored in the cloud. The tech bros will mock you for it and then.... oh look, another data breach has it been five minutes already. :)
In my experience these things are always a box-checking exercise to justify some useless person's job. As others are pointing out, participation can backfire because now the bosses know you have personal problems. (Everyone has personal problems, but formal admission will be punished in our toxic work-always-comes-first culture.)
It's a shame, because such programs administered in good faith could truly help people. But helping workers is never the real objective. It's only for the optics. "Look, we did a thing to address this".
It’s frustrating how many non-joiners are completely turned off by the part where you hunt for an instance to join. They act like it’s super confusing and scary (when in fact it’s ‘super easy, barely an inconvenience’).
Meanwhile these same people will scour the internet looking for a recipe or bootleg movie or whatever.
It’s really frustrating when you remember what a huge PITA it is to get your account going on reddit. Sure, the first part is easy enough, it’s just registering on the site. But then you find you can’t do jack shit because you don’t have enough karma and every sub you visit has 10,000 arbitrary byzantine rules to deal with because the mods got picked on in high school.
Lemmy is actually EASIER than reddit. But here we are.
Some instances disable downvotes, some do not. It’s a little confusing. I think lemmy.one is one of the instances (and beehaw and a few others) that have downvotes turned off.
It’s like a ratcheting effect. Every time schmeddit fucks up, we gain a few more. And if you can count on Spez for one thing, it’s that he’ll reliably fuck up on the regular.
Pure speculation on my part, but large corporations like Google always have endless meetings full of people just looking for any kind of shit to justify their jobs. I figured it was inevitable before some goons there put their sites on ad blockers and am surprised it took this long. After all, those of us that use them (including me) are using their resources without giving them any revenue in return. (Well, that’s not entirely true, I was a Premium subscriber until they hiked the price again).
Just be careful, there are some legit concerns that they could ban you. Getting banned from YouTube wouldn’t be too bad, but getting banned from all Google services could be highly disruptive for a lot of people (gmail, Android phones, maps, many other things).
They have been cracking down on ad blockers (like Ublock) on the free version of YouTube. If you have YouTube Premium, they don’t care if you use an ad blockers, at least for now.
Google also has a project in the works where only “verified” browsers with no extensions (or only approved ones) will be allowed to use web sites that implement the restrictions. I don’t know the current status or if it will happen, but it’s scary stuff.
Trump demands drug test for Biden ahead of first debate ( thehill.com )
Former President Trump said he wants President Biden to be drug-tested before their first debate....
After Buying Up Studios, Xbox Says It Doesn't Have The Resources To Run Them ( kotaku.com )
Thoughts on Google turning every device into a scanner for Find My Device?
Received notice of a change to the service in my inbox today. Seems icky to me....
Kristi Noem Suggests Biden’s Dog Should Have Been Killed, Too ( www.nytimes.com )
How Do I Prepare My Phone for a Protest? ( themarkup.org )
Simple steps to take before hitting the streets
Got annoyed by my gym
So I joined a new gym last year and was pleasantly surprised. They gave me a smart card to get in and out, that's it, no app, no accounts, no nothing. Well, today I got to the gym and saw the announcement that they are phasing out the access with the smart card and starting to use, you guessed it, an app....
As the Internet Gets Scarier, More Parents Keep Their Kids’ Photos Offline ( getpocket.com )
Here's a non-paywalled link to an article published in the Washington Post a few days ago. It's great to see this kind of thing getting some mainstream attention. Young children have not made an informed decision about whether they want their photos posted online.
Consumer Reports asks USDA to remove Lunchables from schools' lunch menus ( www.npr.org )
What am I supposed to do with this? ( pawb.social )
Comments that are nested too deep simply become unreadable.
Where are places you see ads?
I've noticed that ads are absolutely everywhere, and wanted to post this to disillusion some of the places we see ads but don't realize. It would be harder to make a list of places you don't see ads....
Could the US Government Self-Host a Fediverse Server? ( wedistribute.org )
In response to Joe Biden and the White House enabling ActivityPub federation via Threads, a number of people asked: "Why didn't the White House just self-host their own Mastodon server?"...
Are you seeing a massive uptick in pro meta propaganda as well?
I will probably be harassed for this but I feel like I need to act....
US government agencies demand fixable ice cream machines ( arstechnica.com )
Neil deGrasse Tyson Complains That “Dune 2” Isn’t a Shining Beacon of Scientific Accuracy ( futurism.com )
Lemmy Active Users looking good ( discuss.tchncs.de )
Source: https://fedidb.org/software/lemmy
How to constructively protest against AI voice transcription at work?
As a medical doctor I extensively use digital voice recorders to document my work. My secretary does the transcription. As a cost saving measure the process is soon intended to be replaced by AI-powered transcription, trained on each doctor's voice. As I understand it the model created is not being stored locally and I have no...
Workplace well-being initiatives don't boost employee mental health ( www.newscientist.com )
A Florida woman is suing Hershey because its Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins aren't as cute as they appear on the wrapper ( www.businessinsider.com )
How to Kill a Decentralised Network (such as the Fediverse) ( ploum.net )
Down votes
On sync I can only upvote and not down vote. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling. I just changed phones and this was happening on the last one too
Average Lemmy Active Users by Month ( lemmy.world )
lemmy.fediverse.observer/stats&months=6
Anyone know of self-hostable security cameras?
Edit: ideally wifi cameras that I can solar power....
YouTube's anti-adblock rollout has finally arrived for Firefox users ( lemmy.dbzer0.com )
I’m sure many of you are already aware that YouTube has been rolling out anti-adblock detection for Chrome users for a few weeks now....