1/ A new EU plan could expand access to personal data for US immigration and law enforcement.
This proposal document (see article) was released without a press announcement or much mention at all, yet it contains alarming plans.
Under the US's Visa Waiver Program (VWP), countries whose citizens can travel to the US without a visa already have to let US agencies search their police databases to see whether travellers have been involved in terrorism or serious crime.
According to Google, #Conversations_im is now also collecting users’ email addresses.
Pretty much the exact same thing that happened to Quicksy about a month ago¹ is now also happening to Conversations.
An app update I submitted ~48 hours ago passed review without any issues. A subsequent update just now, which contained very minor bug fixes, was rejected because I failed to declare that I’m collecting email addresses.
Someone or something at Google started to hallucinate that #Quicksy is collecting the user's email address and would not approve the app update until we declared that in our data policy.
The sign up process in Quicksy hasn't changed in 7 years. I don't even know where the user would enter their email address and I'm not aware of an API that collects this automatically.
One of the main reason I do not publish my apps on the Play Store is to avoid Google's unproductive process, and to not have anything to do with their obscure reviews.
that sucks. Whatever LLM (or worse, human) they're using to do this obviously needs to be trained a thing or two about the difference between email addresses and JIDs 🙄
I admitted to collecting email addresses because it is the fastest way to get the release out, and now I’m appealing the decision. Let’s see where this is going. Spoiler: very likely nowhere. Google doesn’t make mistakes.
Are you certain that they actually mistook XMPP addresses for e-mail addresses? Perhaps they're just referring to those e-mail addresses collected by some XMPP servers when signing up or something similar?
my best guess is that it is both automated analysis and click workers. Some automated tool probably flags any input form of type email address and then a screenshot or something is shown to some poor $1/day worker in some poor country with the prompt 'can the user enter an email address here' and they can't and don't want to understand the context.
(sometimes the rejection takes too long for it to just be 'AI')
Google rejected my appeal and included this helpful screenshot to demonstrate that Conversations is collecting email addresses.
Extending this logic means that any app with a free form text field is technically collecting users social security numbers. Because the user could potentially enter that.
the indentations that your keyboard makes while you are slamming your face into it must be hurting. I'm sorry you have to go through this - again. I've got mad respect for your patience over the years. Not sure if I could bring that, to be honest.
I submitted a version that does that. Speaking from experience these shenanigans rarely work and always create more work (make change, bump version, upload, wait for feedback). But let's wait and see.
Yeah, of course they'll just type @hotmail.com and reject it again.
This kind of thing would have been easier if XMPP didn't have that no-SRV fallback behavior, if SRV records were always required, so you could tell by the existence of SRV records whether a domain was a valid XMPP domain without connecting to the fallback address.
I really don't think you should have to, but if you split it into "username" and "XMPP server" would that help, or do you think it would annoy / confuse users too much?
when the field is empty, the placeholder (text in the background) shows `username@example.com`. The field also validates what appears like e-mail addresses. I think that this might have confused them.
When entering a domain that does not exist, Conversations shows "server not found" immediately. When entering a domain that does exist, but is not associated with an XMPP server, Conversations freezes for some time. Maybe that timeout should be reduced?
I would suggest filling the compliance paperwork stating that your app collects XMPP addresses (as stated in the field label), which may look like e-mail addresses but are actually not, unless an identical e-mail address exists.
I think you should mention in the appeal that you don't collect jabber id because it's only stored locally on the device and used to authenticate with origin xmpp server, so the app doesn't collect anything.
right, that's the ones we know are curl. The ones saying curl in the user-agent. We can't know how many additional ones there are without the user-agent set
Berlin, 29 August 2025 – LibreOffice 25.8.1, the first minor release of the free, volunteer-supported office suite for personal productivity in office environments, is now available at https://www.libreoffice.
LibreOffice is the free power-packed Open Source personal productivity suite for
Windows, Macintosh and Linux, that gives you six feature-rich applications for
all your document production and data processing needs: Writer, Calc, Impress,
Draw, Math …
I've been dabbling a bit more with AI-driven development and have a basic windows RSS reader joining my Sports Scores and Image Description Toolkit apps.RSS Quick, A Basic RSS Reader for Windows 1.0 Available theideaplace.net/rss-quick-a-b…
I’ve been dabbling further with AI-driven development and have another app for exploration. This time it is a basic RSS Reader for Windows I’m calling RSS Quick. Get the full details an…
@menelion I use VS code, a GitHub Copilot subscription, and then various frameworks. My sports score and image description tool kit apps were python. RSS quick is a C sharp WPF application because I find the accessibility better for graphical apps. I also, as I think I have been in my blog post, want to be transparent that I am using AI for a sizable part of my development. I have the ideas and the understanding of what I want to happen and am using AI to help me deliver it more rapidly.
Absolutely with you in this. I'm a developer myself, so I'm, so to say, more nitty-gritty into details and write large parts of the code myself, but I extensively use Claude Code now.
Default handshake timeout is hardcoded (10 seconds) and doesn't respect --connect-timeout parameter. In some cases 10 seconds can be not enough or too long to "establish a connection"...
Co by pro Česko znamenalo, kdyby odešlo ze Severoatlantické aliance? Pražská lídryně Stačilo! Jana Maláčová ve Studiu N odmítá odpovědět. Hnutí přitom prosazuje referendum o vystoupení z NATO i EU. Celý rozhovor najdete na herohero.co/studion
Tak jsem ten díl poslechl cestou z práce. Uff to je síla. S tou paní to jde z kopce. Jen výkruty a mlžení.
Člověk chce pochopit o co jim jde a jak na věc nahlíží. Ale nedozví se nic. Respektive dozvíme se jen zvláštní pravidlo: Když je něco rozbité, tak to zrušíme.
“Canada’s Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon has said he will put less emphasis on AI regulation, amid a global shift in which governments are focusing on AI adoption and away from safety and governance.” theglobeandmail.com/canada/art…
If we haven't figured out how to get humans to adopt the technologies and behaviours that will slow and stop climate change, then we haven't solved the problems of climate change (We've just done the easy bits of figuring out the physical science and tech of it)
A message I received today:"While you don't entirely disagree with me? that you disagree with me at all means you can fuck right off!" This is what passes for well-reasoned debate on the internet. What passes for tolerance of different points of view, for challenges to our own. And we wonder why fascism is so successful at the moment. "You're not like me, therefore you don't deserve to be heard". This isn't just the province of the right. Please share widely.
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I’m still contemplating switching to tuta, or just hosting my own email so that’s why proton is still there. It’s pretty messy but I know where things are. (Ignore the loss)
I love the better BLU phones. Unfortunately, I have trouble finding anything as a phone operating system that will run on them other than Android. and I can't afford a freephone. I could totally de-Google my life if I could only de-Google my phone.
"#spores of S. sclerotiorum contain one set of 16 #chromosomes divided across two nuclei, rather than each nucleus containing a complete set... #chromosome composition varies among nuclei, suggesting the division of chromosomes between nuclei is in an irregular manner... to produce the next generation, they need to reform a diploid cell with the full suite... Presumably, this requires the fusion of nuclei"
Challenging the long-standing assumption that a cell’s nucleus contains a complete set of chromosomes, recent research reveals that some fungi nuclei only contain half.
mě to příjde vtipný jako nadsázka, ale konec toho celého mě znejišťuje, jestli to opravdu nadsázka je. Za mě je to tak "blbý" že to musí být nadsázka. Jenom bych na konci čekal, že to celý nějak "hodí do koše", to mi tam chybí, protože pak ve mě zůstává osten pochybnosti, jestli oni to nakonec nemyslí vážně.
Letos jsem se rozhodl volby pojmout jinak. Budu samozřejmě vybírat pouze v demokratickém spektru, ale nikoli podle slibů, nýbrž podle toho, jak mě kdo zaujme. Je mi prakticky fuk, kdo tam bude, jen když z nás neudělá Maďarsko, nebo Slovensko. Víc už od politiky skutečně nečekám.
At least with fixed ALPR cameras, and even certain police departments that heavily use the tech on their vehicles, it's at least theoretically possible to plan travel to avoid constant state surveillance.
This partnership would make surveillance all but ubiquitous, impossible to avoid, and would mark the largest assault on unencumbered freedom of movement that I can imagine.
What we're increasingly seeing is a convergence of the Death of Anonymity in both virtual and physical spaces. Online, this includes the explosion if ID requirements to access services to "protect the youths".
In any case, it's all under the pretense that because there are bad actors that exist, it's incumbent on law abiding citizens to be subjected to increased surveillance for their protection, despite the fact that bad actors will still exist and skirt these systems regardless.
Recently, the meta rayban glasses have kind of been hitting me from all directions, and not gonna lie, I'm starting to consider buying them, since I rely a lot on identifying colours on displays of household appliances, reading documents on paper, recognizing frequencies/channel numbers on radios and so on. Could anyone who owns them please enlighten me if they work for the things I described? And mainly if the AI functions are supported outside of the US (since I'm from Czechia)? I remember reading about this limitation a few months ago, but maybe I'm imagining things. I'd be very glad for any answers, and if you could boost this post, that would really help me out a bunch. Thanks!
I have had my share of adventures with URL parsers and their differences in the past. The current state of my research on the topic of (failed) URL interoperability remains available in this GitHub document.
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@multisn8 WHATWG has their own spec since a long time, and it is "a living spec" meaning that what parsed fine yday might not parse tomorrow. People in IETF think the issue is so infected they won't go near it so there is little hope for a new URL spec anytime soon.
Random thought: What if multitrack recording and stereo hadn't been developed concurrently? What if stereo, and even binaural micing, had come long before multitrack? Would it have become normal to produce music recordings in the studio by setting up binaural mics in a room where a band performed together? When multitrack finally came, would it still be normal to produce the artificial stereo mixes we have now, that IMO don't sound anything like a band playing together in a room?
"Please do not use Google AI to find out our specials. Please go on our Facebook page or our website," the restaurant wrote in a weary Facebook post. "Google AI is not accurate and is telling people specials that do not exist which is causing angry customers yelling at our employees."
"We cannot control what Google posts or says," the post added, "and we will not honor the Google AI specials."
I watched Envision's community call. If I'm understanding this correctly, I can actually buy the Solo AirGo V glasses from the manufacturer's web site. I haven't looked at it in detail. but, the prices appear to be cheaper. I'm confused by the financing here. I understand the first year's pro sub to be free. But, if I subscribe to the annual pro plan right now, I'd get it for $100 and I'd be grandfathered in for following years.
This has me wondering whether Solos is a more open platform or at least whether they're more willing to partner with other companies. IMO, we have the most potential to create a great thing for blind and vision impaired folks if we can get an open source, community centric project happening, but that requires open access to decent hardware.
I did a bit of quick research earlier and couldn't find an SDK or anything like that, so I guess it's still a closed partner ecosystem. But still, seems like there might be more chance with them than, say, Meta.
@jcsteh I've been reading about the company Apparently, they have multiple *verticals*—which, to me, translates into we're willing to partner with pretty much anyone.
To defend against Russian tanks, Finland and Poland consider restoring wetlands
Finland and Poland are both considering rewetting dried out peatbogs to form defence barriers against a potential Russian ground invasion. Restoring these natural carbon sinks could also bring significant environmental benefits.
Damit wurde ich letztens in Sachen #digitaleKirche belehrt.
Gemeint sind Konzerne wie z.B. Meta, Google, MS...
Diese Ansicht teile ich so pauschal nicht!
Klar, nicht nur in digitaler Kirche haben wir uns von den Großen abhängig gemacht. Wenn sie den Stecker zu wichtigen Diensten ziehen (z.B. Seekabel, DNS, Cloud-Infra usw.), ginge zur Zeit nix mehr.
Trotzdem, oder gerade deshalb möchte ich diese Herangehensweise nicht zur Grundlage meiner Arbeit machen.
Dankbar bin ich, dass es viele Engagierte gibt, die die Freiheit eines Christenmenschen (frei nach Luther, die Theologen mögen mir verzeihen 😉 ) auch im Digitalen erproben und sich für eine, soweit wie möglich, selbstbestimmte digitale #Kirche und #Gesellschaft einsetzen.
Hello curl community, I'd like to discuss the possibility of adding openHiTLS as a new cryptographic backend for curl. About openHiTLS openHiTLS is an open-source cryptographic library that provide...
@cpu agreed. They don't seem to have a single test in CI. The API docs is... lacking. Only 400 commits since November 2024 and many of the commits are under-specified ("fix: fix some issue" is a verbatim commit message from two days ago). I'm not impressed after a casual look.
This repository will be a community-curated list of software and resources that explicitly avoid the integration of artificial intelligence. - thatshubham/no-ai
BBC Breakfast this morning had a long segment about the 30th anniversary of Windows 95. So what vintage computer did they put in the studio as a handy prop?
S1m
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •This is exactly this kind of obscure review I'm talking about
infosec.exchange/@S1m/11510762…
S1m (@S1m@infosec.exchange)
Infosec ExchangeHippo 🍉
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •Ærion
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •caravantravellers 🌈
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •Daniel Gultsch
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •Pixelcode 🇺🇦
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •Nicoco
in reply to Pixelcode 🇺🇦 • • •Daniel Gultsch
in reply to Nicoco • • •my best guess is that it is both automated analysis and click workers. Some automated tool probably flags any input form of type email address and then a screenshot or something is shown to some poor $1/day worker in some poor country with the prompt 'can the user enter an email address here' and they can't and don't want to understand the context.
(sometimes the rejection takes too long for it to just be 'AI')
Daniel Gultsch
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •Google rejected my appeal and included this helpful screenshot to demonstrate that Conversations is collecting email addresses.
Extending this logic means that any app with a free form text field is technically collecting users social security numbers. Because the user could potentially enter that.
Lutin Discret
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •Guus der Kinderen
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •J👀
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •Zash
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •Daniel Gultsch
in reply to Zash • • •Zash
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •Yeah, of course they'll just type @hotmail.com and reject it again.
This kind of thing would have been easier if XMPP didn't have that no-SRV fallback behavior, if SRV records were always required, so you could tell by the existence of SRV records whether a domain was a valid XMPP domain without connecting to the fallback address.
Tagomago
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •Steven Reed
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •talpa
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •algol
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •The AI (lol) just see xmpp addresses like email addresses.
🤯
mimi89999
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •when the field is empty, the placeholder (text in the background) shows `username@example.com`. The field also validates what appears like e-mail addresses. I think that this might have confused them.
When entering a domain that does not exist, Conversations shows "server not found" immediately. When entering a domain that does exist, but is not associated with an XMPP server, Conversations freezes for some time. Maybe that timeout should be reduced?
mimi89999
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •When Nextcloud had problems with the Play Store, they went public and got quite some media coverage. Maybe Conversations should try the same?
arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/0…
Google restores Nextcloud user’s file access on Android
Kevin Purdy (Ars Technica)Daniel Gultsch
in reply to mimi89999 • • •Splinux
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •he meant public w/ reach...
@mimi89999
sre4ever
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •HugoPoi
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •txt.file
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •crispycat
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •uɐıʇsɐqǝs
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •is the EU going after PlayStore already?
They forced Google to show a randomized Browser selection dialog during device setup.
Now please forbid PlayStore is preinstalled and show alternative App Sources like Fdroid (and make them be granted the same permissions as Play).
Remember when they removed the "don't be evil"?
RSL
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •Akari-chan
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •they're so idiotic...
Thanks for making Conversations, it's a true gem 😄