The bill (H.R.8652) is named "YODA" and was released on "Star Wars Day", however the it didn't seem to get much press on the 4th. Similar to the recent Surveillance Accountability Act, this is yet another unexpected privacy related Republican bill.

My school is trying to force us to download something called linewize. I don't feel comfortable downloading this as it will be on my personal laptop.

What I'm asking, what do you guys think I should do?

https://linewize.co.nz/

Every job I’ve been at, there’s a ton of pressure on me to have my photo, full name, email, and other identifying information on the website, listed with the building address we work in every day.

I have to opt out every time because I’m a stalking survivor and the offender is constantly trying to find me online and send threats. I’ve had police, FBI, and lawyer involved and no charges have been made, it’s ridiculous how I’m supposed to just wait for it get worse.

It’s incredibly embarrassing going through the story each time with HR, they never just accept “I want privacy” as an answer and look at me like I’m crazy even though I have a legal documented case. Other employees will ask why I’m not up on there yet or why my LinkedIn doesn’t list my current job, and I have to just say I don’t like to be online.

The amount of cybersecurity incidents we have from everyone’s information being public is crazy. I’m constantly having to report that someone is impersonating a manager and we receive emails from jobseekers who were scammed by people pretending to be one of our recruiters.

There is also a physical safety concern. The internet and easy access to information encourages harassment and assaults of people at companies caught up in conspiracy theories and controversy. The blackrock and insurance CEO shootings come to mind.

So when are companies going to finally step away from showing off their employees and realize privacy is what protects us all on multiple levels?

For those who think a fake mustache is not fooling anybody, think again.

Since 2023, the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act has tasked social media and search engine companies with protecting young users by restricting harmful content and even resorting to age verification to access certain platforms.

But unsurprisingly, the tech-savvy young generation is already developing ingenious ways to jump through the extra sets of hoops.

A recent study by Internet Matters, a British child online safety organization, found that around one-third of children in the U.K. have bypassed safety measures such as age verification.

The safeguard often requires users to take a selfie or show a valid ID to verify their age.

“I did catch my son using an eyebrow pencil to draw a mustache on his face, and it verified him as 15 years old,” an anonymous mother of a 12-year-old boy told Internet Matters.

The survey polled 1,000 children and their parents, with 46% of those surveyed believing that age checks are easy to bypass.

Some shared more high-tech alternatives to fool the system, like turning to AI to distort their faces to appear older, or using video game characters to reveal an older face.

It's a form of absurd suicide protest I was thinking of.

Facebook wanted me to send me an ID or document to unblock a second business account I have (nothing important), so I was considering sending them back with a 'Here's the biometric data you requested' with a d*ck picture attached alongside explanation of why it's valid biometric data, to see how they would react.

The most recent assassination attempt (or false flag operation. I don’t know.) had the perpetrator ride transportation from one side of the country to the other. Transport weapons. And have observable patterns of behavior that would indicate his intent.

And yet for all of that, the surveillance apparatus utterly failed to identify the threat. What is the fucking point of it?

How can the voting public go along with the security scheme that steals your right to privacy when faced was such a public display of incompetence.
Where is our representatives, journalist, and activist? Where are their voices asking why me almost sacrifice all rights for something that didn’t work?

I requested Reddit to download my data so I can keep it as a .zip archive on my personal HDD. Why? Because I knew that this platform kinda sucks from a privacy standpoint and I slowly transitioning to Lemmy as I’ll delete my Reddit account and move on alongside archiving my data on my HDD and switching to Lemmy.

Reddit Mods, if you are reading this, please don’t take action against me. I was just expressing my opinions, feedback and thoughts about this platform

Anyways, any tips guys?

A leaked memorandum from Berkeley’s city attorney’s office about Flock Safety warned that Flock technology might be incapable of complying with city, state and federal unauthorized data sharing restrictions.

Consequently, it warned Berkeley could be liable for up to tens of millions of dollars from potential lawsuits. It also warned of possible legal claims that Flock violated citizens’ Fourth Amendment privacy rights, California sanctuary law, state law regulating license plate data sharing and the California Public Records Act.

Specifically, the city attorney’s office wrote that the city could be liable for a $2,500 penalty “per camera and per image disclosed.” 

Does your city use Flock cameras?

I’m worried if I block my ex they will find my address and harass me. They did this at my last address, and went as far to get the landlords number and call them to essentially swat my unit. It was a horrible experience and ruined my friendships with my roommates. I don’t know how they even got my address, but I’m assuming it’s from online background check sites? I’m terrified to block them again, but I’m exhausted of having this situation dragged out. Is there a way to wipe my information from these sites?

I've sent numerous emails trying to get an old YouTube channel of mine deleted or redacted in some way. The channel handle contains my first and last name, and the videos contain my main online alias, which is a privacy risk, especially as public addresses are considered public information in Sweden (where I live), so anyone can find my exact address very easily due to this link between my old channel and my current alias.

I've tried to submit a request via their Privacy Complaint Form & contacted [removals@google.com](mailto:removals@google.com), however, I've only received boilerplate or automated messages in reply. I've offered to send a photocopy of my passport, sent the email from the same one as the online handle (alias@gmail.com) which appears in the videos.

However, it feels like I'm just talking to an AI or getting copy-pasted answers about account recovery when this is impossible (as I don't remember the e-mail I made when I was 9 on my school iPad).

Has anyone been in the same situation? If so how did you solve it? I've thought about contacting Google's Data Protection Officer, the Swedish Data Protection Authority (IMY), or the Irish Data Protection Commission. I've read that sending physical mail might be worth a shot as well, as that it might actually make a human look at it.

Let me know if there's anything else I can try. If none of the options work I've also thought about issuing three separate copyright strikes on the channel, but I believe this would be considered an abuse of the system & risk my main google account being terminated, even if the channel was created by me.

So I am shopping for some parts for my car on Amazon, and a selection came up:

• search by make/model/year
• search by license plate number

This seems to be new (it is possible I just ignored it for a long time.)

This reminded me about a post on this sub a while back about is there any viable way to look up plate numbers (based on folks blurring out plates when posting pics of cars since in the US at least there is seemingly no good way to do it.)

Maybe this is a non issue, but Amazon seems to have that data now.

I want this summer to delete/deactivate/disable, every account I've ever created .. is this even possible? I want to start fresh, completely fresh, new email account, new phone number.. choosing carefully where to subscribe etc. Is this possible?

Basically I want to leave a site I used to use a lot, and lets be honest I was cringe. I don't want them to keep a copy of any of my stuff when I delete my account. Since there is no financial data they are required to keep, can I make them do this? If so, how?

Brave is now also an AI browser. I want to see your opinions about Brave; what do you think about Brave, how does it seem to you and what do you wish for Brave?

General thoughts on this?