Tootfinder

Sources allege that nonprofit Ruby Central took control of some Ruby open-source projects from their maintainers without consent, after pressure from Shopify (Joel Drapper)
https://joel.drapper.me/p/rubygems-takeover/

Dark and Bright Patterns in Cookie Consent Requests
Paul Gra{\ss}l, Hanna Schraffenberger, Frederik Zuiderveen Borgesius, Moniek Buijzen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.18210 https:/…

Das fühlt sich an, als ob Zahnschmerzen weniger würden:
#SocialMedia
#NotSocialMedia
#StopPlatformCapitalism

Zenit erreicht: Social-Media-Konsum nimmt weltweit ab
Immer weniger Personen geben an, soziale Medien für den Austausch mit anderen zu nutzen

Teacher goes viral with classroom song about sexual consent | Lifestyle | Independent TV
https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/lifestyle/teacher-viral-song-consent-video-b2812508.html

Analysis: 16 of the UK's top 50 biggest news websites now use a "consent or pay" model to let users opt out of cookies; almost 100% choose to accept cookies (Charlotte Tobitt/Press Gazette)
https://pressgazette.co.uk/marketing/consent-or-pay-…

More UK news publishers are adopting 'consent or pay' advertising model
Sixteen of the 50 biggest news websites in the UK are now using a “consent or pay” model to allow users to pay to reject personalised ads.

#Shopify takes over #Ruby in hostile fashion, what a surprise
This goes back to Tobi long term and public support for DHH, a very very problematic person

"Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia not only found that the Crown didn’t prove its case but also concluded that E.M. was an unreliable witness and said the woman did in fact consent."
it's over.
#innocent

Frankly, They Don’t Give a Damn: “Fair-For-Me-Not-Thee Use” Rulings Leave Artist Consent in Tatters https://musictechpolicy.com/2025/09/16/frankly-they-dont-give-a-damn-fair-for-me-not-thee-use-rulings-leave-art…

Frankly, They Don’t Give a Damn: “Fair-For-Me-Not-Thee Use” Rulings Leave Artist Consent in Tatters
Early rulings in Bartz v. Anthropic and Kadrey v. Meta sidelined the core of copyright—an author’s right to say no. Defendants brushed off consent (shadow libraries, “transformative” copy-and-train…

A federal appeals court rejects T-Mobile's bid to overturn a $92M fine for illegally sharing customer location data without consent, per a 2024 FCC ruling (Jon Brodkin/Ars Technica)
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20

T-Mobile claimed selling location data without consent is legal—judges disagree
T-Mobile can’t overturn $92 million fine; AT&T and Verizon verdicts still to come.

Just finished "Get a Life, Chloe Brown" by Talia Hibbert. It's... much less chaste than most of the other romances I've been reading, but also incredibly sweet and positive, so I enjoyed it a lot.
My one reservation is that it does the thing a lot of romance novels do where they equate physical desire with romantic desire, and physical flirtations/advances with actual communication, and yes people equate those things in the real world all the time, by it's often really harmful when they do that.
This novel does better with consent than 99% of the field probably, and legitimately deserves props for that, so this isn't the harsh criticism I'd level if it seriously broke the "would this be okay if we didn't have access to interior monologues" test, but it skirts the edges of that a bit.
#AmReading

Sonnet 028 - XXVIII
How can I then return in happy plight,
That am debarred the benefit of rest?
When day's oppression is not eas'd by night,
But day by night and night by day oppress'd,
And each, though enemies to either's reign,
Do in consent shake hands to torture me,
The one by toil, the other to complain
How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
I tell the day, to please him thou art bright,
And dost him grac…

"Further, outdated rules on the use of cookies and other tracking technologies are still governing the protection of the user’s terminal equipment and the access and collection to information from user’s terminal equipment. This requires pragmatic and immediate clarifications to limit consent fatigue, provide legal clarity on rightful access and processing, and enhanced data availability to businesses."
My fatigue stems more from politics leaving their citizens alone...

Anthropic uses questionable dark patterns to obtain users’ consent to the use of AI data in Claude: https://the-decoder.com/anthropic-uses-a-questionable-dark-pattern-to-obtain-user-consent-for-ai-data-use-in-claude/

Anthropic uses a questionable dark pattern to obtain user consent for AI data use in Claude
Anthropic’s new data policy raises legal concerns with its use of questionable dark patterns.

”I wrote a book and AI is my writing partner.”

or

”Tens of thousands of writers just contributed to my book without me needing their consent or blessing. I simply used a product that stole their writing first.”

When LLM apologists tell me that models will get better[Citation Needed], what they fail to understand is that my disinterest is moral, not utilitarian.
I don’t care if we’ll see better models.
I care if we’ll see models that are trained entirely on corpuses created with informed consent*, using compute, electric, and water resources well understood and agreed upon.
* No, opt-out is not consent. Settling legal cases is not consent. Buried deep in some TOS is not consent.

TO ANYONE I’VE EVER SPOKEN TO :
EVERYTHING I’VE EVER SAID TO YOU IS COVERED UNDER DOCTOR PATIENT PRIVILEGE
SO YOU CAN’T TELL ANYONE ANYTHING BAD ABOUT ME
ALSO CLIENT ATTORNEY PRIVILEGE.
AND WE’RE MARRIED, SO YOU CAN’T TESTIFY AGAINST ME
DOING ANYTHING SIGNALS YOUR CONSENT TO THIS

The headline begins innocently enough and the spirit rises a little but as one reads on, it swiftly turns to horror. By the gods, this is madness!
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8ex0j4y5jzo

Plans to reopen Tolkien and Lewis pub in Oxford approved
Planning permission and listed building consent is granted to restore The Eagle and Child in Oxford.

Trump declares war on an American city. The news media tries to manufactures consent -- but it isn't working. (Jamison Foser/Finding Gravity)
https://www.findinggravity.net/trump-declares-war-on-an-american-city-the-news-media-tries-to-manufactures-consent-but-it-isnt-working/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250908/p39#a250908p39

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MorningShow
New Order:
🎵 Age of Consent
#NewOrder
https://papasteve.bandcamp.com/track/new-order-age-of-consent
https://open.spotify.com/track/0dRuW27iqV6fMluxCYW47z

To continue with my post on examples of how I'm unique/strange/weird/unusual and how I'm proud of that fact (remember weirdo=compliment, normal=insult), here is another way of how I don't fit the male stereotype.
I love to cuddle, hug, and all forms of physical touch. I am, though, keenly aware of consent and make sure to never engage in any sort of touching unless I'm 100% confident the recipient is receptive to it and would consent to it. Touching someone, or even just bursting their p…

Should the Neuralink Blindsight Informed Consent Form for a brain implant mention noninvasive alternatives such as The vOICe vision BCI? #BCI #ethics #NeuroEthics

GOP lawmaker demands "parental consent" be required for doctors to treat teens' STIs - LGBTQ Nation
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/10/gop-lawmaker-demands-parental-consent-be-required-for-doctors-to-treat-teens-stis/

The EU Commission is considering tweaking rules to simplify users' cookie preference settings, after its 2009 rule plastered the internet with consent banners (Ellen O'Regan/Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-cookie-…

Europe’s cookie law messed up the internet. Brussels wants to fix it.
The European Commission wants to take a bite out of privacy rules that force websites to run cookie banners.

Using Real Names of Disabled Participant-Contributors to Practice Citational Justice in Accessibility
Jonathan Zong
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.14257 https://

Using Real Names of Disabled Participant-Contributors to Practice Citational Justice in Accessibility
In accessibility research involving human subjects, researchers conventionally anonymize their research participants to protect privacy. However, a lack of intentionality about who to publicly acknowledge for intellectual contributions to research can lead to the erasure of disabled individuals' work and knowledge. In this paper, I propose identifying disabled research participants by name (with consent) as a practice of citational justice. I share observations from examples of this practice in…

"The specific mechanism of action that underlies the curing of autism post RFK-Jr.-face-punch is not yet understood by science, but the conclusion could not be more clear: 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐅𝐊 𝐉𝐫. 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐦."
https://stuff.davidaugust.com/study-re

Study Reveals Autism Cure: Punching RFK Jr. in the Face
autism cure is surprisingly simple A joint study out of Shangri-La Polytechnic Institute and the University of Atlantis-Brigadoon has concluded that no cases of autism persist after patients punch Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the face. We do not suggest people punch RFK Jr. without his consent. However, we do

Given the chance, I think her words could resonate in a Provincial election against both the David Eby #BCNDP and the Rustad #BCConservatives (and whatever other parties happen to pop into existence).
It was nice to see a leader actually genuinely congratulate and lift up her rivals in the contest. A rarity these days in too many party leadership races!
Key lines from her speech:
"take on this province's billionaires, largest corporations, and big oil... who take far more than they give.
"democracy is in retreat around the globe, but I am encouraged to see young people in BC fighting back.”
"the BC Green Party has solutions”
"the BC NDP.. are making decisions based on scarcity and fear”
"David Eby... rolling out the red carpet for Donald Trump's inner circle of oligarchs to buy and control even more of our province”.
"The NDP's big idea… to double down on raw resource exports.... no manufacturing, no innovation, no vision for a future beyond more foreign billionaires ripping and shipping our resources while families wait for the wealth to trickle down.”
“while workers wait for fair wages and homes we can afford, the BC NDP doubles down on MAGA backed fossil fuel projects, ignores the need to obtain consent, and refuses to care for our community members”
”The horrors that we are witnessing now are the death rattle of the old world.”
"it is up to us force a new world through”
"We can build a plan to take back the public wealth that has been looted with real taxation on the ultra wealthy”
"Build on our massive advantage of renewable energy… create thousands of jobs”
"will reclaim BC's economy for working people… together we can build a resilient thriving province that respects indigenous sovereignty and our planetary boundaries.”
“we are worthy of better, and worthy of hope. When we learn to believe that again, we can win.”
@…
#BCPoli #BCGreens #CanPoli #CdnPoli #RenewableEnergy

Users hate #AI. So tech made it mandatory. Even if you don't personally use it, it pollutes what you read and how systems make decisions. The computer's hallucinated word is final.
And it steals your data to do it.
Your tools are constructing you as a subject of surveillance — the #UX is …

The AI age is the "age of no consent"
"Inevitability" means design decisions are no longer informed by user needs; now they are unilaterally imposed. The users are the ones being designed.

I've got a new favourite email consent blurb

Google will pay $30M to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it violated kids' privacy on YouTube by collecting data without parental consent for targeted ads (Jonathan Stempel/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boa

Watchdog finds MrBeast improperly collected children’s data https://therecord.media/watchdog-mrbeast-youtube-privacy-colection

La confiance est révocable.
Si vous avez aimé un produit ou un logiciel, et qu'il se détériore, que ses conditions changent, qu'il ajoute des fonctions d'espionnage, vous pouvez changer d'avis et cesser de lui faire confiance et de l'utiliser.
Vous devez toujours réajuster votre jugement lorsque vous recevez de nouvelles informations.
Cela s'applique aux produits, aux plateformes, aux entreprises, aux partis politiques et aux personnes.

Oh no the YouTube bullshit of substituting perfectly fine real videos (shorts) with very obvious AI without the creators consent just reached my timeline

Bailouts by Representation: A Minimal TLC Theory with Weighted Consent
Xinli Guo
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08693 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.08693

Bailouts by Representation: A Minimal TLC Theory with Weighted Consent
We develop a purely theoretical mechanism in which provincial bailouts are disciplined by two levers derived from Weighted Representative Democracy (WRD): a political shadow cost of public funds and a weighted-consent cap on any transfer. Bailouts are considered only when an externality threshold is met. With quadratic implementation costs, the static problem yields a simple ''threshold--linear--cap'' (TLC) policy: zero below a lower activation point, linear in the middle, and flat at an upper …

it’s annoying that web devs are no longer able to analyse their web server access logs
instead they install javascript spyware, hand over all their user data to surveillance direct marketing firms, slap a cookie consent banner on it, and pretend this is ok

Consent auf Politisch: "Nicht nein" heißt Ja.
via @… #SachsenAnhalt

Sonnet 028 - XXVIII
How can I then return in happy plight,
That am debarred the benefit of rest?
When day's oppression is not eas'd by night,
But day by night and night by day oppress'd,
And each, though enemies to either's reign,
Do in consent shake hands to torture me,
The one by toil, the other to complain
How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
I tell the day, to please him thou art bright,
And dost him grac…

Google will pay $30M to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it violated kids' privacy on YouTube by collecting data without parental consent for targeted ads (Jonathan Stempel/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boa

From Amnesty
Right now, governments in Canada are pushing forward development bills Bill 5 (Ontario), Bill 15 (British Columbia), and Bill C-5 (Federal) that fast-track corporate interests while sidelining Indigenous Peoples’ rights, labour rights, and environmental protections.
These bills would:
Bypass the right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC);
Rush through major infrastructure projects, like pipelines and highways, without meaningful public input or envi…

Hot take: Posting cat photos is unethical because cats cannot affirmatively consent to being exposed to strangers. Posting dog photos is perfectly fine, of course.

Sir Lucian Grainge Just Drew the Brightest Line Yet on AI http://musictechpolicy.com/2025/10/14/sir-lucian-grainge-just-drew-the-brightest-line-yet-on-ai/

Sir Lucian Grainge Just Drew the Brightest Line Yet on AI
Sir Lucian Grainge just set the norm: no consent, no license. UMG won’t greenlight AI that clones voices or rebuilds songs without permission. That stance rejects “opt-out” loopholes, aligns with g…

I wonder if the AI stans ever realize that most people do not want a machine that simulates doing their work for them.
Alas, asking for consent is not something they’re good at.

Trump's military occupation of American cities is unpopular. The media is trying to manufacture consent for it. (Anne Caprara/Finding Gravity)
https://www.findinggravity.net/trumps-military-occupation-of-american-cities-is-unpopular-the-media-is-trying-to-manufacture-consent-for-it/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250829/p30#a250829p30

Hätte Mario Alexander Müller damals in Schnellroda nur diese Hinweise gelesen...
https://jorts.horse/@Ananas/114972578639014632

Making avatars of dead people without their consent is obscene. It was obscene when people did it before GenAI, and it's still obscene now that it's been made easier, cheaper and and more unsettling by a less suitable technology.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/…

Naughty, naughty.
Jury finds Meta / Facebook guilty of eavesdropping.
#privacy #law

Meta Eavesdropped On Period-Tracker App's Users, Jury Rules - Slashdot
A San Francisco jury ruled that Meta violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act by collecting sensitive data from users of the Flo period-tracking app without consent. "The plaintiff's lawyers who sued Meta are calling this a 'landmark' victory -- the tech company contends that the jury got it ...

#EroticMusings 15: Does erotica have a cultural purpose? Is there anything you want your own work to achieve?
Speaking only for myself and my writing, it has the same purpose as any text I write. To entertain, to delight, to give food for thoughts that would maybe not have emerged without the text.
I'm writing a utopia, where the consent culture mostly displayed during the …

A look at the impact of AI voice cloning on India's dubbing and voiceover sector, as artists demand consent, credit, and fair pay amid a lack of laws for AI use (Zico Ghosh/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/m

AI Is Replacing Voice Artists in India — and There Are No Local Laws to Stop It
As AI voice cloning in films becomes a reality, India’s dubbing artists are demanding consent, credit and fair pay: "You must understand that your voice is your intellectual property."

Knowledge Isn't Power: The Ethics of Social Robots and the Difficulty of Informed Consent
James M. Berzuk, Lauren Corcoran, Brannen McKenzie-Lefurgey, Katie Szilagyi, James E. Young
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.07942

Knowledge Isn't Power: The Ethics of Social Robots and the Difficulty of Informed Consent
Contemporary robots are increasingly mimicking human social behaviours to facilitate interaction, such as smiling to signal approachability, or hesitating before taking an action to allow people time to react. Such techniques can activate a person's entrenched social instincts, triggering emotional responses as though they are interacting with a fellow human, and can prompt them to treat a robot as if it truly possesses the underlying life-like processes it outwardly presents, raising significa…

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MorningShow
New Order:
🎵 Age of Consent
#NewOrder
https://papasteve.bandcamp.com/track/new-order-age-of-consent
https://open.spotify.com/track/2EEinN4Zk8MUv4OQuLsTBj

Die Verarbeitung medizinischer Forschungsdaten ohne datenschutzrechtliche Einwilligung: Der Korridor zwischen Anonymisierung und der Forschungsausnahme in \"Osterreich
Saskia Kaltenbrunner, Michael Schmidbauer
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08841

Die Verarbeitung medizinischer Forschungsdaten ohne datenschutzrechtliche Einwilligung: Der Korridor zwischen Anonymisierung und der Forschungsausnahme in Österreich
Modern, data-driven medical research requires the processing of sensitive health data on a large scale. However, this data is subject to special protection under the GDPR, which is why processing regularly raises data protection concerns in practice. These concerns are particularly prevalent when sensitive personal data is processed without informed consent. This article analyses options for data processing in the field of medical research without consent and describes the legal framework for a…

The last time an American President ordered the militia of one state to invade another over its governor’s objections, his name was Abe. https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:nwnlnixtjh3qhkwpz2uy5uwv/post/3lxv6uvxpxc2e

Steve Vladeck (@stevevladeck.bsky.social)
When President Trump used 32 U.S.C. § 502(f)(2) in 2020, that was to have out-of-state National Guard troops sent to D.C.—which has no sovereignty of its own. Sending the un-federalized TX National Guard into IL without the latter’s consent raises *serious* Article IV problems that 2020 … didn’t.

"Reverse judicial precedents"? The Orange Dipshit is trying to use executive orders to eliminate legal protections for the unhoused?
"The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “reverse judicial precedents and end consent decrees” that limit jurisdictions’ abilities to relocate homeless people."
#Politics #USPolitics #USPol

Protecting Persona Biometric Data: The Case of Facial Privacy
Lambert Hogenhout, Rinzin Wangmo
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.03035 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.…

Protecting Persona Biometric Data: The Case of Facial Privacy
The proliferation of digital technologies has led to unprecedented data collection, with facial data emerging as a particularly sensitive commodity. Companies are increasingly leveraging advanced facial recognition technologies, often without the explicit consent or awareness of individuals, to build sophisticated surveillance capabilities. This practice, fueled by weak and fragmented laws in many jurisdictions, has created a regulatory vacuum that allows for the commercialization of personal i…

A look at the impact of AI voice cloning on India's dubbing and voiceover sector, as artists demand consent, credit, and fair pay amid a lack of laws for AI use (Zico Ghosh/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/m

AI Is Replacing Voice Artists in India — and There Are No Local Laws to Stop It
As AI voice cloning in films becomes a reality, India’s dubbing artists are demanding consent, credit and fair pay: "You must understand that your voice is your intellectual property."

Secure and reversible face anonymization with diffusion models
Pol Labarbarie, Vincent Itier, William Puech
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01031 https://arxiv.…

Secure and reversible face anonymization with diffusion models
Face images processed by computer vision algorithms contain sensitive personal information that malicious actors can capture without consent. These privacy and security risks highlight the need for effective face anonymization methods. Current methods struggle to propose a good trade-off between a secure scheme with high-quality image generation and reversibility for later person authentication. Diffusion-based approaches produce high-quality anonymized images but lack the secret key mechanism …

How popular media gets love wrong
Okay, my attempt at (hopefully widely-applicable) advice about relationships based on my mental "engineering" model and how it differs from the popular "fire" and "appeal" models:
1. If you're looking for a partner, don't focus too much on external qualities, but instead ask: "Do they respect me?" "Are they interested in active consent in all aspects of our relationship?" "Are they willing to commit a little now, and open to respectfully negotiating deeper commitment?" "Are they trustworthy, and willing to trust me?" Finding your partner attractive can come *from* trusting/appreciating/respecting them, rather than vice versa.
2. If you're looking for a partner, don't wait for infatuation to start before you try building a relationship. Don't wait to "fall in love;" if you "fall" into love you could just as easily "fall" out, but if you build up love, it won't be so easy to destroy. If you're feeling lonely and want a relationship, pick someone who seems interesting and receptive in your social circles and ask if they'd like to do something with you (doesn't have to be a date at first). *Pursue active consent* at each stage (if they're not interested; ask someone else, this will be easier if you're not already infatuated). If they're judging you by the standards in point 1, this is doubly important.
3. When building a relationship, try to synchronize your levels of commitment & trust even as you're trying to deepen them, or at least try to be honest and accepting when they need to be out-of-step. Say things and do things that show your partner the things (like trust, commitment, affection, etc.) that are important in your relationship, and ask them to do the same (or ideally you don't have to ask if they're conscious of this too). Do these things not as a chore or a transaction when your partner does them, but because they're the work of building the relationship that you value for its own sake (and because you value your partner for themselves too).
4. When facing big external challenges to your commitment to a relationship, like a move, ensure that your partner has an appropriate level of commitment too, but then don't undervalue the relationship relative to other things in life. Everyone is different, but *to me*, my committed relationship has been far more rewarding than e.g., a more "successful" career would have been. Of course worth noting here that non-men are taught by our society to undervalue their careers & other aspects of their life and sacrifice everything for their partners, which is toxic. I'm not saying "don't value other things" but especially for men, *do* value romantic relationships and be prepared to make decisions that prioritize them over other things, assuming a partner who is comfortable with that commitment and willing to reciprocate.
Okay, this thread is complete for now, until I think of something else that I've missed. I hope this advice is helpful in some way (or at least not harmful). Feel free to chime in if you've got different ideas...
#relationships #love

Sonnet 028 - XXVIII
How can I then return in happy plight,
That am debarred the benefit of rest?
When day's oppression is not eas'd by night,
But day by night and night by day oppress'd,
And each, though enemies to either's reign,
Do in consent shake hands to torture me,
The one by toil, the other to complain
How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
I tell the day, to please him thou art bright,
And dost him grac…

A proposed class action lawsuit accuses Otter.ai of "deceptively and surreptitiously" recording private conversations to train its AI without user consent (Bobby Allyn/NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/15/g-s1-83087/otter-ai-transcription-class-…

Florida sues Roku for illegally selling children’s data, including precise geolocation https://therecord.media/florida-roku-children-data

Crosslisted article(s) found for eess.SY. https://arxiv.org/list/eess.SY/new
[1/2]:
- Privacy, Informed Consent and the Demand for Anonymisation of Smart Meter Data
Saurab Chhachhi, Fei Teng

SCOTUS rejects NetChoice's emergency appeal to block a Mississippi law that requires age verification and parental consent for teens to join social networks (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/us…

Supreme Court Allows Mississippi Law on Children’s Use of Social Media, for Now
A trade group representing sites like Facebook and X said the law ran afoul of the First Amendment.

Privacy, Informed Consent and the Demand for Anonymisation of Smart Meter Data
Saurab Chhachhi, Fei Teng
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.00101 https://arxiv.org…

Privacy, Informed Consent and the Demand for Anonymisation of Smart Meter Data
Access to smart meter data offers system-wide benefits but raises significant privacy concerns due to the personal information it contains. Privacy-preserving techniques could facilitate wider access, though they introduce privacy-utility trade-offs. Understanding consumer valuations for anonymisation can help identify appropriate trade-offs. However, existing studies do not focus on anonymisation specifically or account for information asymmetries regarding privacy risks, raising questions abo…

GOP Senate chief changed consent law as relative faced rape charge involving 13-year-old (Sarah K. Burris/Raw Story)
https://www.rawstory.com/utah-republicans-2673861263/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250805/p131#a250805p131

There's a simple way for instance operators to comply: trust your users. Demand that they positively assert that they do not live in North Korea, Iran, Mississippi, etc. as a condition of joining. This creates a legitimate good faith belief that users are not legally barred from the system.
ALSO: No one should ever take advice from me as grounded in legality. I have no legal education beyond what life has forced upon me without my consent, and I am ill-suited to teach.

France's CNIL fines Google €325M for placing tracking cookies and ads in Gmail without users' consent; Google says it is reviewing the decision (France 24)
https://www.france24.com/en/technology/20250903-french-fines-google-shein-cookies

France fines Google, Shein record sums over cookie law violations
France’s data protection watchdog CNIL on Wednesday fined Google €325 million ($380 million) and fast-fashion retailer Shein €150 million ($175 million) for violating cookie rules. The record penalties target two platforms with tens of millions of French users, marking among the heaviest sanctions the regulator has imposed.

Austria's privacy regulator finds that Microsoft violated EU law by illegally tracking students through its Microsoft 365 Education software (Suzanne Smalley/The Record)
https://therecord.media/microsoft-violated-eu-law-austria

Microsoft violated EU law in handling of kids’ data, Austrian privacy regulator finds
Austria's data protection authority ruled that Microsoft illegally tracked students using its education software by failing to give them access to their data and using cookies without consent.

Most of the responses seem to be for coders.
I hope I won’t ever need to do another sysadmin interview but I wonder how silly it would be to have someone using a LLM to respond.
I ask wildly open questions because I don’t care as much about what they know as I do about how they think. Come back with what reads/sounds like LLM output and I don’t care where it came from or even if it’s technically correct.

Towards Transparent Ethical AI: A Roadmap for Trustworthy Robotic Systems
Ahmad Farooq, Kamran Iqbal
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05846 https://arxiv.org/pdf…

Towards Transparent Ethical AI: A Roadmap for Trustworthy Robotic Systems
As artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics increasingly permeate society, ensuring the ethical behavior of these systems has become paramount. This paper contends that transparency in AI decision-making processes is fundamental to developing trustworthy and ethically aligned robotic systems. We explore how transparency facilitates accountability, enables informed consent, and supports the debugging of ethical algorithms. The paper outlines technical, ethical, and practical challenges in imple…

Shein, Google hit with fines from French data protection regulator over cookie practices https://therecord.media/shein-google-fines-advertising-cookies-france-cnil

Nvidia says its GPUs do not contain backdoors, kill switches, or spyware, and hard-coded, single-point controls like kill switches undermine trust in US tech (David Reber Jr/NVIDIA)
https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/no-backdoors-no-kill-switches-no-spyware/

No Backdoors. No Kill Switches. No Spyware.
To mitigate the risk of misuse, some pundits and policymakers propose requiring hardware “kill switches” or built-in controls that can remotely disable GPUs without user knowledge and consent. Some suspect they might already exist. NVIDIA GPUs do not and should not have kill switches and backdoors.

Poland's consumer watchdog accuses Netflix of raising subscription fees without securing explicit user consent after it increased some monthly fees by up to $2 (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boa

Italy opens a probe into Meta, says it may have violated EU competition rules by integrating its Meta AI assistant into WhatsApp without user consent (Elvira Pollina/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/meta-faces-italia…

FTC fines toy manufacturer for allowing Chinese third-party to collect kid’s data https://therecord.media/chinese-toy-manufacturer-fine-ftc-kids-data

Disney agrees to $10 million settlement for collecting data from children https://therecord.media/disney-settles-with-ftc-millions