OK, so I just got an email saying @penpot just got $8M in series A.

Last I raised concerns about their funding (mastodon.ar.al/@aral/107213277…), @diacritica assured me “you won't see any VC” (fosstodon.org/@diacritica/1072…)

Well, this sure looks like VC to me.

Folks investing $8M are going to want a billion-dollar exit. So who’s that exit going to be to (Adobe’s already full, is Google hungry for a design tool?) Or do they plan on going public?

#vc #ventureCapital #BigTech #exits #openSource #penPot

diacritica (@diacritica@fosstodon.org)

@aral@mastodon.ar.al @penpot I think I know what happened here? the "ventures" term misled you, which is understandable but if you take a look at our website kaleidos.net you won't see any VC.

^Fosstodon

“LinkedIn ran experiments on more than 20 million users over five years … The findings suggest that some users had better access to job opportunities or a meaningful difference in access to job opportunities.”

inkl.com/a/avvnWvSAxrA

Me, a decade ago: “you’re the lab rat”

Folks: “you’re scaremongering”

#peopleFarming #surveillanceCapitalism #youreTheLabRat #BigTech #colonialTechnology

LinkedIn Ran Social Experiments On 20 Million Users Over Five Years

LinkedIn ran experiments on more than 20 million users over five years that, while intended to improve how the platform…

^inkl

“Google employee who became the most visible opponent of a company contract with the Israeli military said on Tuesday that she would resign after claiming Google had tried to retaliate against her for her activism.”

inkl.com/a/avBdzBTAxrA

#google #military #israel #activism #BigTech #ai

Google Employee Who Played Key Role in Protest of Contract With Israel Quits

A Google employee who became the most visible opponent of a company contract with the Israeli military said on Tuesday…

^inkl

LibRedirect really gives you a taste of what the web could have been like had it not developed under capitalism.

libredirect.github.io/

(Thanks to everyone who suggested it to me here. I really feel the difference when I’m on my iPhone and I’m like, wait, why did the web become shit all of a sudden?) :)

#libRedirect #BigTech #alternatives #SmallTech #stopgaps

You’ve got nothing to hide so you’ve got nothing to fear, right?

“A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal.”

inkl.com/a/EbYLJlcYkxY

(Remember Apple was/is(?) going to implement this sort of scanning by default on all your devices.)

#BigTech #privacy #surveillance

A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal.

Mark noticed something amiss with his toddler. His son’s penis looked swollen and was hurting him.

^inkl

OnlyFans Bribed Meta [Facebook] to Put Thousands of Adult Entertainers on Terrorist Watch List, Lawsuits Allege

jezebel.com/onlyfans-bribed-me…

Via @volt4ire

#facebook #meta #bigTech

OnlyFans Bribed Meta to Put Thousands of Adult Entertainers on Terrorist Watch List, Lawsuits Allege

Three lawsuits claim that OnlyFans paid Meta to shadow-ban users who promoted its competitors.

^{Rodlyn-mae Banting (Jezebel)}

“TikTok poses an unacceptable national security risk due to its extensive data harvesting being combined with Beijing’s apparently unchecked access to that sensitive data.” – Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

This is true.

Now replace TikTok with Facebook, Snapchat, <insert Silicon Valley Big Tech corporation or startup here> and Beijing with Washington, DC and…

This is also true.

🤔

blog.malwarebytes.com/privacy-…

#peopleFarming #surveillanceCapitalism #BigTech #humanRights #democracy

TikTok is “unacceptable security risk” and should be removed from app stores, says FCC

According to the FCC commissioner, TikTok being a video app is the "sheep's clothing", suggesting a wolf hides underneath those funny videos.

^{Jovi Umawing (Malwarebytes)}

Your daily reminder that the W3C is the standards body of people farming.

#peopleFarming #surveillanceCapitalism #BigTech #SiliconValley #w3c

It’s very interesting reading this and related threads on Web Authentication (“passkeys”).

The ability for people to use their created/associated key material to sign and encrypt their communication would be a huge boon for decentralised web applications. And yet, of course, the related W3C groups reject the use case. Because allowing people (instead of the corporations the W3C represents) to control their own identities is anathema to Big Tech.

github.com/w3c/webauthn/issues…

#bigTech #w3c

Can the private keys be used for other cryptographic operations? · Issue #1595 · w3c/webauthn

For example, can they be used to sign and encrypt data the client passes? This goes beyond authentication, so it may be fair to consider it out of scope, given that "authn" is in the spec...

^GitHub

For all the new fedizens and all those of us that want fedi to be stronger in the face of the #BigTech onslaught I recommend (re)watching @darius talk at the #ActivityPub Conference in 2020.

conf.tube/w/oPQjje8j6qBFj7NSQ9…

"Let's play and win our own game!"

And it has broader applicability. I responded to @csddumi on the idea to "Unionize Free Software" where these strategies can be very well applied to #FOSS movement as a whole.

discuss.coding.social/t/unioni…

Let's Play and Win Our Own Game

As creators of federated social software, we have a choice: we can compete with social media giants on their own terms, or we can play our own game, one that's impossible for the giants to play in the first place.

^ConfTube

It may be hard for policymakers to imagine but yes there are people who care about politics & volunteer their spare time to come to Brussels & talk to them.

Many of them are part of the @edri community & have been working on #DigitalRights since long before #BigTech has been around.

As interesting as Georg Riekeles' recount of #BigTech lobbying in Brussels is, it's very sad to see him paddle the myth of "well-organised citizens' groups" & #DigitalRights orgs allegedly orchestrated by #Google in the context of the EU #Copyright Directive.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

And tackle external challenges. Like the erosion of the concept of "social" by #BigTech. Or erosion of #humanity itself by the forces of #hypercapitalism. Not to speak of all the autoritarian forces that are wielding tech to dominate us.

7/..

I count myself lucky to be part of the #Fediverse. With a couple million other fedizens this decentralized #SocialNetwork has completely different dynamics to it. Where #BigTech is shunned, #ads are a big no-no, and it is people themself who built the place.

It represents a humane technology field lab of sorts. A place where a unique #culture thrives, and that has vibes representative to the #EarlyWeb.

5/..

Accused of Cheating by an Algorithm, and a Professor She Had Never Met

inkl.com/a/JJmvortMRAM

#ai #bias #racism #startups #vc #BigTech #computerSaysNo

Accused of Cheating by an Algorithm, and a Professor She Had Never Met

A Florida teenager taking a biology class at a community college got an upsetting note this year. A startup called…

^inkl

HP to release laptop running Pop!_OS. Could System76 be an acquisition target?

(Here’s hoping this doesn’t go down the webOS route.)

betanews.com/2022/05/20/hp-pop…

Via @tuxmachines

#system76 #hp #bigTech #linux #capitalism

HP chooses Ubuntu-based Pop!_OS Linux for its upcoming Dev One laptop -- could System76 be an acquisition target?

Rumors have been swirling lately that HP was planning to release a laptop running the Pop!_OS operating system. Today, System76’s CEO Carl Richell shared on Twitter that this is absolutely ha…

^BetaNews

#RFC: Unionize Free Software.

Today #FOSS can be exploited by #BigTech. We need to united free software development and collectively provide a counter to big and exploitative tech, that takes free software as gratis labor and undermines it as soon as free software developers demand anything in return - even if it's just to release your own source code depending on #FOSS as #FOSS.

Thus I present to you: "Unionize Free Software".

discuss.coding.social/t/unioni…

#SocialCoding

Unionize Free Software

In the article “The changing economics of open source” Ken Mugrage present the Free Software Sustainability problem from the perspective of companies depending on free software developed by hobbyists.

^{Discuss Social Coding}