I tried Google Takeout as part of degoogling my life

“Your total request size is 427.36 GB. This request has been divided into 107 files.”

You can’t see what the downloads are for (which data they contain) and what the size of each file is, but apparently they are up to 4GB large. You can choose 1, 2 or 4GB as file size.

There are 69 types of data, most of which do not pertain to my activities. So, let’s try again.

Now I have one for 17 “products”, excluding Gmail.

Is this Google, 4chan-type people or vicious civil servants? All three? Or is it Dierenambulance Amsterdam staff, this time, reporting my review?

Google has flurries in which it unpublishes my reviews. Initially, this was mostly for local government and the like. At around the same time or a little later, other online activities were being reported as fraudulent and I figured that the latter might be done by someone who has covert NPD.

Slowly, a pattern started to emerge that seemed to reveal that it’s Dutch civil servants (and friends and family) who are doing this.

Google increasingly often claimed that I was lying and/or extorting people, such as at VU University Amsterdam. When I started adding evidence that I really had been to or at these places, Google would then refuse the review on the basis of the “low quality of the media” or because it “contained personal information”.

Now this has happened. Google just removed another review. Why? 🤔

Keep reading. 🤪😤😠🤬


Google unpublished this review a few days after posting because Google claims that it contains people’s medical information, credit card details or govt-issued ID. This concerns a gull and a pigeon who are unidentifiable and are also both likely or possibly dead by now. Humans don’t have wings and humans don’t have a crop, Google. (I know that you don’t know that because your AI search comes up with similar rubbish as, say, “crop wing gull pigeon legal” not being a common legal phrase.)


Niet bellen voor vogels. Leidt alleen tot een enorme, walgelijke dierenkwelling. Schokkend. Ik ga er intussen echt van over mijn nek. Dat dit überhaupt MAG!

Ik kom nu voor de tweede keer een dier tegen dat hier angstig vele uuuuuuren deels of geheel in het donker en in de kou staat.Het idee schijnt te zijn dat ze dan wel vanzelf dood gaan.

Nú maak ik eerst foto’s.

De vorige keer betrof het een zogenaamde squeaker (jonge duif, nog niet vliegend) met een compleet kapotte krop. Het was nota bene de politie die erover had gebeld. Om een uur of 5, 6. Om 11 uur kreeg ik nog steeds smoezen te horen.

Die duif zat in een doos met briefje erop dat de dierenambulance het dier kwam halen, op een bankje op een plek met veel verkeer en veel luide mensen. (De spoorbrug bij de Pontanusstraat/Eerste van Swindenstraat. Midden augustus was dat. Het dier zou door iemand steeds in de lucht zijn gegooid en kwakte dan steeds op de stoep volgens de mensen in de bar Botanique.)(Uit nest gevallen?)

Overigens kan een kapotte krop worden gehecht en zo’n vogel worden gerehabiliteerd (gecheckt met iemand aan Cornell die zowel vet tech als onderzoeker is), maar dat vergt behalve geld voor de behandeling geduld en toewijding. Dat er dan soms voor euthanasie wordt gekozen kan ik begrijpen, maar dan moet je dat prooidiertje niet eerst urenlang in herrie, donker en kou in de angst laten zitten.

Walgelijk.

Want de mensen van de dierenambulance liegen, liegen en liegen en o wee als je belt als er na 5 uur wachten dus na 11 ‘s avonds nóg niemand is geweest, want dan word je letterlijk weggedrukt, en als je dan weer belt en stampvoet, zijn ze er opeens binnen 5 minuten. En dan blijkt er van enige drukte of tijdsnood geen enkele sprake te zijn. (Ook voor socials hebben ze alle tijd, trouwens.)

Ze gaan er gewoon van uit dat het dier op deze manier wel gewoon dood zal gaan. Het is maar een stomme vogel, tenslotte.

Echt WALGELIJK.

Ik heb ervaring met animal rehab. Vogels. Ook zelf privé ervaring mee. (Overigens óók ervaring met honden, paarden, vee, katten etc. Voor iedereen die denkt dat mensen met vogels mentaal een soort breekbare vlindertjes zijn.)

Dit is geen animal rehab, dit is dierenfoltering.

PS Ik ga zo even proberen te kijken en hoop dat deze meeuw “gewoon” even een vleugel had laten hangen. Dat gebeurt wel vaker. Maar in deze wasmand heeft ie wellicht intussen wél een verwonding overgehoudenIk word hier echt ziedend door en voel me enorm machteloos. Ik kan niet even naar mijn avian vet in Andover gaan oid (John Chitty). Ik kan niet even naar Lee Fox in Wimauma gaan. Ik kan niet even in mijn auto springen. Ik kan hem nu indien nodig niet in mijn eigen bird icu thuis zetten. Ik heb niet eens een handdoek bij me.

PPS Bespaar me jullie reactie. Ik heb het echt gehád met jullie. Ik had de vorige keer ook een review geplaatst. Later weggehaald. Ik wilde niet al te gewichtig doen en niet zeuren. Ik heb het nu echt gehad met jullie.

Vogels zijn PROOIDIEREN! Triage, people! (Who am I still kidding? 😓)(Overigens was ik er óók niet van gediend dat jullie me eerder zo raar gingen stalken op Mastodon.)(Maar misschien was dat 4chan oid weer. Kan heel goed.)(Of, eigenlijk logischer, 764 of zo.)

Tipje voor anderen: De Toevlucht in de Bijlmer is mogelijk een betere optie voor vogels. Zelf geen ervaring mee. Geen idee of ze goed zijn. Ik weet dat ze bestaan omdat ik iemand ken die er vrijwilliger is geweest. (Dierenambulances hebben vaak ook weinig kennis van vogels. Heb ik althans elders in Nederland gezien.)


For the record, this was a juvenile gull and one of its wing joints was off. It might have been a dislocation; I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t do a damn thing and am still seething with anger re Dierenambulance Amsterdam. They’re despicable. My experience with everyone who I interacted with at Dierenambulance Amsterdam this year have been really negative. They’re simply bullshitting you.

That said, this gull was in an urban environment where people often drop food and some even feed birds. Gulls don’t only fly, they also spend time in the water (and here’s where they can be safer). Adult gulls tend to look after youngsters in trouble too, I’ve noticed. Its musculature was not off. There was no wound. It was hungry and thirsty and tough. Smart, too.

I think I had seen this gull before, btw. Juvenile gulls sometimes let a wing droop without there anything being wrong with it. Pigeons too do stuff that makes it easy to assume that they are ill. Birds – prey animals – tend to hide illnesses really well. They can be about to keel over dead while still looking fine.

The main danger in that gull’s location comes from dog owners who allow their dogs to chase birds. The owners laugh about it when anyone – not just me – says anything about it. Most birds know exactly which dogs do this and recognise them from a distance, however.

From John Chitty, I’ve learned that birds with a dislocated wing often still teach themselves to fly again (if the wing angle isn’t too bad, I assume). I had a formerly feral quaker parrot (Myiopsitta monachus) with a dislocated wing for over two decades.

I called De Toevlucht later, hoping that I could take it there, but they weren’t accepting birds because of this mostly human-induced spread of bird flu. Smart decision.

Two years ago or so, I noticed that a different Dierenambulance had very little knowledge of birds and bird flu, btw.

Many vets may recognise John Chitty’s name because he was the president or chair or whatever of the European organisation for vets or whatever.

Having the luxury of being able to focus on the blood work on one bird only and compare it with the blood work of other birds that were diagnosed with what John assumed was one of my two bird’s problems, I did not agree with him on that. However, I really respect John (and his wife who’s also a vet) and when he later did the necropsy, which he let me witness, we discovered that none of us could have known what was going on without having opened up this bird, which would have killed it.

The bird had a crisis during the x-ray and went into the ICU, on oxygen.

A few days later, they tried again, with barium. I still have the images.

That what later happened to me in Portsmouth and after ruined my entire network is a different matter. John couldn’t figure it out either, what on earth was happening in my life, and he started distancing himself, understandably.

Here is a bird that I rehabbed myself:

Very ill pigeon on the left; same pigeon, rehabbed by me, on the right

Ah, so it’s called a wifi sniffer

Saw one in the air in Portsmouth once, very very briefly.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2584076-twee-tieners-opgepakt-voor-spionageklus-voor-pro-russische-hacker

That dad, he sounds like an idiot, frankly.

Dad: “Doesn’t go out, has a supermarket job and shows zero interest in exploring the world. How could Russians hire him for a spying job?”

Others: “He’s a fanatical gamer, good with computers and fascinated with hacking activities.”

Why the Clinical Diagnostics hack is such a nightmare

This is MUCH MORE than a mere ransomware attack.

These patients risk getting hounded for years.

I know what I am talking about.

People think that these are goofy little dorks, the people who do this. Wrong.

On the basis of my blood test results, people like that tried to make me believe that I had blood cancer. That was in Portsmouth. Someone else might have fallen for it. I didn’t. I didn’t bother telling my GP practice about it.

On the basis of my eye test results here in the Netherlands, people tried to make me believe that something was seriously wrong with my left eye.

This Clinical Diagnostics hack involved Amphia patients. I have known for over a year that Amphia’s systems are not secure. That does not mean that this hack took place via Amphia but it is possible.

I am aware of several other Dutch systems that aren’t secure. I am not going to mention them here as it would signal to other hackers that these systems are vulnerable.

Please


No stupid (hacking etc) crap today, please. I’m EXTREMELY exhausted at the moment and I need all my focus and energy on keeping myself from not falling over. No stupid crap today.

Thank you.

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Willem de Lange got targeted too as part of the long-term stalking of me

Years ago, the hacker commented something about contacting this person when I mentioned the name of someone – Willem de Lange – on my website, in a photo caption.

Worried, I quickly removed the photo.

I did not want people who barely knew me to be contacted and be affected by this nonsense too. Too many people already had been fooled by what seems to have been calls from someone pretending to be a good friend of mine and telling them that I had sustained brain damage in a car crash or whatever nonsense.

Well, what do you know.

Earlier this year, out of the blue, this Willem contacts me. His demeanor was unpleasant. Standoffish. As if I was something smelly and disgusting.

But he had 600 euros’ worth of work for me. I couldn’t say no. My stomach still turns a little thinking back to it.

(He had contacted me last year too, that is, he donated toward my dental intake appointment right after I had needed to cancel that appointment for lack of funds.)(I finally had that intake in August 2024 and I need 1000 euros’ worth of dental work, mostly for a crown on on a broken-off molar. I can’t afford it.)

I did not deserve any of this abuse. Nobody does.

I feel so powerless. When is this going to stop? (See also my previous post about ChatGPT etc.)

Aha! (Twilio)

Looks like I can’t do a particular Python install (in a Linux VM). So maybe Casper the poltergeist blocked my Twilio account for that reason?

(I just opened a second account and answered the questions slightly differently.)

My laptop is refurbished and upgraded; this comes with downsides.

Anyway, my second account hasn’t been shut down this time, but I can’t send text messages to verified numbers. That is, myget the error that the number is not verified. 21608.

Python

Update 7 Jan 2025: No, I think I like docs.python.org best.

After having tried a few courses that appeared to be free, but weren’t, I decided to go for “Introduction to Python Programming” at Openstax.

Update: Hmmm. Starting to get the feeling that for example C may be a better option for me.

I have to shelve this for now, can’t really do much, of anything, in my weird situation, but I can toy a little.

(These online tutorials are too simplistic. I don’t want to see cute little things happening on the screen. I want to learn what each line is about.)

Fun with Twilio? Nope. Not at all.

Update: I then signed up for a new account in which I didn’t say that I was a student or hobbyist but self-employed but no matter what I try, if send myself a text message to a verified number, I get error 21608 (number not verified). I tried a Dutch number and a UK number. Well, that’s that, then, I suppose.

😎

Update: I received another bonkers email from Twilio.

This is what I wrote back:

I decided to start teaching myself some new skills, opened a Twilio account and it got suspended right away by the fraud department because they want me to answer a few questions as to what I want to do with Twilio.

(Phone number maybe linked to activities to do with my hacking crap?) (Or… email simply sweetly spoofed with the aid of Twilio?) (Likely the latter.)

I tried to send myself a text message but Python can’t find Twilio no matter what I try. I suspect that I may have to run this in a virtual Linux machine. Currently using Visual Studio Code. Need to do some tweaking before I can install the VM.

For now, Twilio and I are parting ways. I simply don’t appreciate such a totally unprofessional approach. It doesn’t bode well with regard to a future with Twilio. It’s going to be very difficult to work with them, then, and any clients I might eventually have would be victimised by this too.

I’m going to hunt for an alternative.

What also happened was that my car suddenly was no longer available as of 10pm – wasted trip – and that a bill had gone up by 33% with some “excellence” charge or whatever and something else, of which I have forgotten what it is.

Continue reading

Oh!

Guido van Rossum. CWI. Ha. I may have encountered him. I used to know a mathematician who used to work there and I have been to the CWI. That must have been between 1988 and 1994.

Photo of section of my screen, showing a page at Microsoft.com

Okay.

First thing I notice is that ” and ‘ appear to be interchangeable. Let me test that. Check. ✔️

Its very intuitive, so far. I’ve done a tiny bit of Basic without computer and a tiny bit of UNIX with computer and a tiny bit of Turbo Pascal with computer, all a few millennia ago, and tons of HTML in notepad and a tiny bit of JavaScript and a lot of DOS and a tiny bit of its predecessor and a tiny bit of a statistics suite (geochemical data analysis, concerning p,T indicators in, I think, pyroxenes) of which I don’t remember the name but that was (probably) before Windows (in 1988 or thereabouts) and forced me to let the computer run and stick a note on it telling people not to switch it off pretty please because my program was running overnight.

The next thing that I notice is that the game didn’t let me play, just watch, and that the code that Windows says let’s me create my own game returns lots of errors that I don’t find unexpected.

Fabscinating.

Ah. Was in wrong directory. It must’ve looking for the things that it could not find, hence returned errors.

Next: It’s almost too simple. I like separating my statements with parentheses and structuring my programs. (It makes debugging so much easier, visually, too.)

Nope, it hasn’t stopped yet 😁🙃😎😢😓

Update 17:49, 2 November: I’ve just discovered email replies from two others – one is from a woman in the Netherlands – that initially didn’t show up in my protonmail account. Nothing I can do with them at the moment, but I have already followed up on Glenn Cohen’s email.

(Screenshots at bottom of post. For anyone who still believes that I am delusional. So fed up with that.)


I had written to several people, and just received a reply from Glenn Cohen at Harvard.

Spoofed again or not? I can’t tell. An email from Hank Greely a while back appeared to have possibly been altered. That became clear when I discovered an actual institution that he referred to in his mail. It had initially confused me as it was something quite different in the email and did not seem to add up. A hasty copying error, possibly. It happens.

(Had the email been changed? If so, why? Likely because the hacker doesn’t approve of the work that they do at that research center, or he doesn’t see opportunities there.)

Once you get hacked to pieces and messed with relentlessly and realize how much is possible for motivated hackers, you develop a habit of assessing the authenticity of digital communications because you are aware of how flimsy their basis is.

(I think this mail from Glenn Cohen is genuine.)

Continue reading

Godsamme, Adirio en Tahir, het zal je maar gebeuren

Ik krijg de indruk dat de technologie steeds meer onze vijand aan het worden is.

Gisteren of eergisteren las ik dat premier Schoof zeer terecht bij allerlei vergaderingen de aanwezigheid van mobieltjes verbiedt en over hoe mensen als Adirio onterecht maar zeer publiekelijk zomaar tot vrij vuile misdadigers werden gebombardeerd. Vanochtend zag ik een kort interview met deze man (Adirio) en zijn advocaat.

https://nos.nl/video/2534339-adirio-kwam-onterecht-als-verdachte-op-tv-ik-durfde-niet-meer-over-straat

https://nos.nl/artikel/2534271-mannen-die-onterecht-als-verdachte-op-tv-kwamen-eisen-schadevergoeding

https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2534341-afluistergevoelige-smartphones-verbannen-uit-ministerraad-had-veel-eerder-gemoeten

https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2523301-gaten-in-beveiliging-videocalls-ministers-vergaderinformatie-in-te-zien

Deel van het probleem is dat de meeste mensen nog steeds denken alsof we allemaal vulpennen en typemachines gebruiken en zich dat totaal niet bewust zijn.

“Het is digitaal, dus klopt het.” “IT is onpartijdig en heeft geen emoties.” “De computer liegt niet.”

“Het werd op TV uitgezonden, dus het klopt.” “De computer laat zien dat hij geld heeft verduisterd, dus moet hij de gevangenis in.” “Het algoritme meldt dat zij fraudeert en daarom moeten we haar nu het leven enorm zuur gaan maken” “Ik krijg een heel raar mailtje of appje van Pietje of Marietje dus Pietje of Marietje is gewoon gek.” “Mijn leverancier mailt met me en stuurt me een factuur, dus maak ik het geld gewoon over naar boef XYZ want ze zeggen allemaal dat nepmails makkelijk te herkennen zijn en ik kan niets aan deze mails zien dat erop duidt dat ze nep zijn of dat iemand de inhoud ervan heeft gewijzigd.”

Ik roep al jaaaaaren over wat er allemaal kan maar waar mensen niets van willen weten. Ik ben meestal “dus” “gewoon een oude taart die niets van moderne technologie snapt”.

https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2534365-plagiaat-met-chatgpt-studenten-vallen-maar-moeilijk-door-de-mand

Nu worden zelfs universiteiten als het ware onderuit gehaald want kennis en inzicht worden synoniem met alle onzin die er op het internet te vinden is en zelfs compleet door chatbots bij elkaar kan zijn verzonnen.

Dat laatste betreft misschien vooral misdaden die mensen zouden hebben begaan, zoals de Canadese hoogleraar die op een studiereis vrouwelijke studenten zou hebben lastiggevallen. Het reisje had zelfs nooit plaatsgevonden. Soms wordt er zelfs daarbij verwezen naar niet bestaande maar solide klinkende bronnen zoals niet bestaande artikelen in The Guardian.

Ook dit moet Adirio aanpakken. Hij moet nu al contact opnemen met ChatGPT, Bing etc.

De Duitse journalist Martin Bernklau deed jarenlang verslag van strafrechtzaken en wordt “dus” door chatbots beticht van een enorme serie misdrijven. Want chatbots denken niet. Ze kunnen zich gedragen zich als iemand die door het gebruik van meth doordraait en op hol slaat. Waarom denken wij dat chatbots de waarheid verkondigen, maar verklaren we de schreeuwende man op de hoek van de straat voor gek?

Omdat de meeste mensen nog steeds denken alsof we allemaal vulpennen en mechanische typemachines gebruiken en zich dat totaal niet bewust zijn. Een vulpen en een typemachine kun je niet hacken. Er zitten geen programmeerfoutjes is (en ook geen vooroordelen).

Met IT is er een cruciale verandering in technologie opgetreden die de meeste mensen nog niet in hun hersenen hebben verwerkt.

Het probleem is nu dus dat er soms ook niet meer goed wordt gekeken naar wat er nou precies op camerabeelden staat want de automatische aanname is dat het wel allemaal zal kloppen.

Ook die camerabeelden zijn nu digitaal. Er komen geen handen meer aan te pas, dus je kunt niet zien waar precies camerabeelden vandaan komen. Er loopt niemand meer een winkel in om de tape van camera A te halen en de tape van camera B te laten zitten.

We see this as an objective and reliable source of information

Image of a chatbot going crazy on meth
(generated by ai)

We see this as an unreliable source of information

Image of an intelligent older woman and man and a dark-skinned person
(generated by ai)

“Wat zeg je op het internet over ons?” is belangrijker geworden dan “Heb je genoeg te eten?”

Got scammed with the aid of technology? It’s not your fault.

Besides the fact that we’ve now passed the point beyond which technology is no longer helping us speed up, but also slows us down because we’ve become enslaved to it, everybody and their brother and sister are falling for scams these days.

Here’s another example.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/16/tech/arup-deepfake-scam-loss-hong-kong-intl-hnk/index.html

I have a good example of of how technology is now starting to slow us down. In the past, people applied for jobs that they wanted and to companies where they wanted to work and that was that.

Because it’s mostly done through giant websites now, people are told, obliged or enticed to apply to many different firms and for many different jobs. Now we need technology – algorithms – to help us deal with the flood of applications. As those algorithms are problematic too, we now also need to learn to deal with those.

In the video below, you can learn how a smart woman with a PhD got tricked into losing 150,000 dollars.


But there is something fun to report too:

If you’re on Dutch benefits, expect phishing emails, spoofed phone calls and scammers knocking on your door

Yesterday evening, the news was posted that 150,000 CVs – with DOB, email address, postal address, phone number and all – were illegally viewed and possibly downloaded from the system werk.nl in which people on benefits are required to post their CVs in the Netherlands.

(DOB? Yes. Age discrimination has been illegal in the Netherlands for a long time, but DOBs are still routinely requested in job applications and online CV forms usually force you to enter your DOB.)

It’s happened before. In 2019, 117,000 CVs were downloaded illegally.

Datalek bij UWV: 150.000 cv’s ingezien en mogelijk gedownload (nos.nl)

After someone noticed that logins were taking 0.8 seconds instead of the usual 0.3 seconds, he was able to stop a cyber attack in progress in Linux, but whether the plan was mass hacking or to execute a very patient and targeted attack on one single user is not clear at this time

Nope, there is no such thing as hacking, certainly not targeted hacking and not at all in Linux. Everybody knows that you can’t hack into Linux.

And yes, it was spotted by a Microsoft developer. And Kali Linux, that’s, to take a shortcut, the hackers’ version of Linux. In case you wondered. Details in The Guardian, interestingly, with link to the related Ars Technica article. Then again, it’s quite an interesting story.

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2024/apr/02/techscape-linux-cyber-attack

That apparent culprit’s account JiaT75 is Jia Tan’s, now suspended in GitHub (along with Lasse Collin’s @Larhzu and I assume that he is simply the other developer on this project) for anyone who this vaguely rings a bell for.

Facebook in for a major battle? (republished)

I just learned that Facebook made the blunder of conducting a massive psychological experiment on the users of its English-language version without their explicit consent. This is extremely unethical.

This is bound to have legal consequences.court

The Independent published about it today. The paper reporting the results of the experiment appeared in PNAS.

I hope to see class actions in every country that uses the English version of Facebook because this is most definitely not right. No amount of word-twisting by Facebook (or the researchers) can cover up that no users ever consented to this kind of experiment being carried out on them.

In addition, the university researchers involved in the study should be investigated and disciplined. If they were in my employ, I would sack them instantly.

They have damaged the scientific reputation of their universities and, in my view, do not belong in academia. I trust that Cornell University and the University of California will take the appropriate steps.

On the other hand, these researchers are highlighting a serious danger that lurks behind social media, but it does not appear that this was the motivation for their unforgivable conduct.

 

Facebook in trouble? (republished)

Facebook appears to know it is in trouble over the experiment it conducted (see previous post). On CNN, I read this morning that a spokesperson said it was research “to improve our services”.

It looks like Facebook is trying to jump through hoops. But Facebook doesn’t fit through the hoops.

When users consented to their data being used to improve Facebook’s services, most users will have assumed that this referred to services provided to the users, not services Facebook provides to advertisers. (When you’re happy, you are more optimistic, hence more likely to click on advertisements. Pessimists have a more realistic view of the world than optimists, but optimists likely see themselves as more successful than pessimists.)

And when Facebook users consented to their data being used to improve the services, they sure as hell did not consent to psychological experiments being conducted on them.

They may have expected Facebook to analyse the data and make use of the results of those analyses, yes, but they were likely thinking in terms of technology or something along those lines. Upgrading server x that delivers Facebook to country y. They may also have expected to see baby products being advertised to those who clicked on such ads and posted baby pictures, and office products being shown to people who stated that they are self-employed.

Facebook tweaking the streams of users to bring them the items it thought users wanted to see, that is one thing. I can be annoyed about Facebook not showing my friends’ posts in my timeline, no matter how many boxes I tick to try and get them to show and I can be annoyed about commercial posts I get shown no matter how many boxes I tick in an attempt to get rid of posts about products I cannot even buy because I am many miles away on the other side of the world, but that is an entirely different ballpark compared with Facebook deliberately tweaking the streams of users to make them feel happy or make them feel miserable, or even attempting to see whether it can or not.

Facebook – and the two university researchers along with it – has crossed a line, again. This time, Facebook has made an unforgivable mistake.

It is true that other media manipulate us all the time. But we expect that. We know that the BBC only reports what it wants to report and does not present an objective overview of society. We know that commercials feed us bullshit, that buying that car or buying that dress or perfume won’t make glamorous models suddenly find us irresistible. And I know that when CNN – CNN Money, that is – writes that “it does not appear that Facebook faces any legal implications”, CNN is trying to manipulate its audience too.

That does not apply when it comes to messages from our friends. It may still be true that we have one or two friends – or children – who may consciously or subconsciously try to manipulate us, but when it comes to messages our friends post combined, we do not expect those messages to be manipulated by a third party in such a way that we become happier. And we certainly don’t expect our Facebook streams to be manipulated to make us miserable.

Happy or sad?

 

Facebook could have conducted this experiment equally well after explaining what it wanted to do and allowing users informed consent. It chose not to.

The US Army provided some of the funding for this experiment. That does not help.

I have meanwhile realised how Facebook may be able to get away with this in a court of law. Facebook could claim that it was carrying out this experiment because it was concerned about the number of suicides and other problems precipitated by bullying on Facebook. It could say that it was trying to figure out how it could tweak the streams of its users to prevent such problems for its users. Unless some whistleblower provides evidence to refute this, that might very well work.

Facebook getting away with it? (republished)

I haven’t heard of huge numbers of users quitting Facebook over its recent experiments and I haven’t heard of any court cases on behalf of one or more users yet.

That could mean that from now on, Facebook will be free to do exactly as it pleases. If that ticks off or disadvantages its users, those users take responsibility from now on as their continued use of Facebook in spite of all the publicity about what Facebook has been up to can surely be seen as informed consent.

Understandably, the scientific community appears to be appalled.

Meanwhile, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (Epic) in the US has filed an official complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission about the Facebook experiment.

On this side of the big pond, a UK regulator is launching a probe into the experiment.

Ha ha

So I’m an orangutan in a glass enclosure, eh? Very funny 🤣😂🙏 Quite accurate!

In July 2023, this – see below – got inserted into my library print queue, from my tablet. It refers to a package that was tampered with. (Undamaged envelope contained instead of fabric dye a broken screen protector in packaging that wasn’t scrunched up or bent and that had cat-like scratches on it, with a scrunched-up invoice for dye, from a business that does not sell screen protectors.)

Could probably have been done remotely. From the UK, I mean. I’ve occasionally been connected with UK servers when I shouldn’t have been, but that seems to have stopped now.

In June, I had received an email from that library, asking me to reset the password before I had even been to that library or had set a password… That struck me as odd.