I have tried to convince the other family members to switch to using LibreOffice at home, saving us on a relatively pointless (to my mind) O365 subscription.

I have lost that argument. And I understand why. People like us (Mastodon users, designers, coders, FOSS users, etc.) both understand the risks of using capitalist surveillance-centric tools, and are willing to change and overcome the learning curve burden. We see it as to cost, but also benefit, of making the change.

*But* for normies like my wife and daughter, the hurdle is subjectively too high. There's too much to learn for their otherwise over-occupied brains in their legitimately busy lives.

Their work and study (both wife and daughter have busy jobs and are studying) lives are full of O365-world, so it's the easiest, lowest hurdle for them to have the same toolset at home. The objective truth that using such things is the worst option for a bunch of good reasons just doesn't cut it.

"(...) In 1982, eleven clandestine Radio Solidarity radio stations were shut down across Poland. The scientists who cooperated in the balloon project were risking serious jail time in addition to the loss of their career and livelihood.

Their act of defiance didn't bring down the state. It didn't do much more than give hope and brighten the day of a few hundred people. But it went straight back to that first idealistic promise of radio: that there existed magic, invisible rays that had the power to erase the distance between people, bypass all intermediaries, and penetrate even the thickest walls.

I tell this story to reassure you that just because everything is heavy and political right now, it doesn't mean we can't also fight these fights on our own terms, as nerds.

The Utopian qualities that made us love the web have not disappeared, even as it's become centralized and corporate, and we can find ways to defend and express them in our work.

The important thing is to recognize that there is a fight, and a need for individual acts of creative resilience.

We have to make sure that the powerful don't get comfortable using our tools. And we have to find ways to dismantle the surveillance economy before it becomes a political weapon turned against our democracy. (...)"

idlewords.com/talks/ancient_web.htm

#Radio #Web #Democracy #SurveillanceCapitalism

Just #SurveillanceCapitalism things. Absolute creep behaviour. And this is why I try hard not to actually use the Crimson card and just transfer money to my debit card ASAP instead. Because knowing #DoorDash, they'll track when you top off your tank and skew you towards shitty offers, knowing you might be more apt to take them at the top of the tank than the bottom. #gigwork #GigWorker #surveillance #capitalism

Great article about the current state of #adtech
https://www.exchangewire.com/blog/2025/07/23/the-end-of-everything-except-the-actual-ad-tech-problems/

This is how your phone "listens to you"....
#surveillancecapitalism

Fixing the #privacy mess we live in on an individual basis but also politically (where ever still possible) and all other means is crucial right now to be able to organise as #workingPeople before hell breaks loose even more. Here some points to be aware of:

1. #Bluetooth and #WiFi based #locationtracking in all populated areas with beacon technology in for example ad signs, smart devices and even other peoples phones and so on. For some devices it will get rally hard in the future to find alternatives without Bluetooth, things people depend on like hearing aids as well.
Do not bring devices with wireless capabilities preferably anywhere important.
2. You technically can be tracked everywhere with all the #cameras that often also have IR or even thermal sensors filming public ground, shops, streets, number plate #surveillance and so one. This is not just done trough facial recognition but also by fingerprinting your body by measuring your proportions and evaluating your walking style, making it extremely difficult to avoid tracking even with baggy clothes and masks.
3. Paying with cash is getting harder in many places we have to keep up the cash culture otherwise this freedom gets taken from us. The payment systems are a huge surveillance aparatus that tells so much about your activates even if you just use cash from atm's. Be aware of cash tracking as well.
4. All your internet traffic is analysed even if you use technologies like #Tor, so think about when you use an uplink, who pays for the uplink, with what traffic you have on that uplink and when you do not have any traffic going on your personal uplinks, because this is all analysed. Even your power consumption in many nations gets analysed in real time with #smartmeter. This helps a lot to determine daily routines for example.

Those are just a couple of points that we cant solve with individual privacy apostrophes, so please spread the message.
#Workingclass #ClassStruggle #BigTech #SurveillanceCapitalism #Cash #organizing

Why we can’t stop #doxxing people for fun
This is another excellent video vy @taylorlorenz about what is becoming an additional digital plague: #EntertainmentSurveillance. This increasingly popular practice, deeply rooted in #SocialMedia, is desentizing us to the issue of #MassSurveillance as well as #SurveillanceCapitalism, and legitimizing them, with catastrophic consequences for #democracy, but also for our capacity to live together and trust each others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZUqGvOnLik

Palantir für die deutsche Polizei, bundesweit?! Nein danke!

https://aktion.campact.de/s/Palantir-2/lc

I'm so glad somebody is finally writing about this.

#HikVision Thousands of controversial Chinese surveillance cameras installed in public places across Ireland

https://www.thejournal.ie/investigates-hikvision-surveillance-6755381-Jul2025/

via @TheJournal

"We are ONLY in it for the clicks"

Anyone wearing one of these things should be required to display a warning sign.

“Bee makes a $49.99 Fitbit-like device that listens in on your conversations while using AI to transcribe everything that you and the people around you say, allowing it to generate personalized summaries of your days, reminders, and suggestions from within the Bee app.”

#AI #Privacy #SurveillanceCapitalism

https://www.theverge.com/news/711621/amazon-bee-ai-wearable-acquisition

Take part in the #BigTechWalkout2025

Start running ethical tech now, in parallel to big tech services, so you can finally ditch the big tech ones by the end of 2025!

Find alternatives here:

https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/stopusingbigtech.html

And track your progress using this free (no email required!) spreadsheet: https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/files/BigTechChecklist.ods

Now do you understand what we mean when we say that ANY data collected can be used for purposes not originally intended & that's why we need to be EXTREMELY judicial about who gets to collect & keep what kinds of data...?

https://mastodon.social/@eff/114892874528709311

At a recent Coldplay concert, a kiss cam moment sparked viral controversy, exposing private lives on a massive jumbotron . Astronomer CEO Andy Byron resigned after being identified, reigniting debates on public privacy, consent, & surveillance culture. Are we building our own glass cage? #privacy #security #PrivacyMatters #SurveillanceCapitalism #ColdplayGate https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/18/coldplay_kiss_cam_privacy/
#newz

Have you ever been talking about something and then seen ads for that thing a few minutes later?

Did you ask yourself "Is my phone listening to me?" ?

Find out if that's true in this explanation:

https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/learn.html

I know I just shared @Mer__edith's SXSW talk with Guy Kawasaki, but I have to quickly check back in with a timecoded link, because if you hear nothing else of this (you should; you'll learn what communication privacy in the age of #SurveillanceCapitalism looks like), trust me when I say you need to hear her response to a question about impeding progress & innovation by not putting #AI in #Signal https://www.youtube.com/live/AyH7zoP-JOg?feature=shared&t=3219

Let me be clear: That's not an opinion - that's fact.