If companies can’t protect the information they collect now, (a large portion of it gathered without consent), how are they going to protect even more information; and where can I opt out?..smh

If they did not collect any information, they would not have any information to give when they are served a subpoena.

I would happily pay to download Firefox if they removed telemetry, ads, analytics. Security updates could be free, feature updates could have a small fee. Something similar.

There is a way to fund Firefox without user data and ads. Will it be as profitable, who knows, because quite simply, the vast majority do not want to make it a reality and loose what profit, control, or power they currently hold onto.

In parallel to our existing consumer products, we have the opportunity to build a better infrastructure for the online advertising industry as a whole. Advertising at large cannot be improved unless the tech it’s built upon prioritizes securing user data. This is precisely why we acquired Anonym.

Catering to the ad industry is backwards thinking, imo. Securing user data is easy enough if you do not collect it to begin with.

Imo, the fact companies have changed the narrative in favor of advertisers and data collection, proves only profit matters, not the people.

It still boggles my mind how paying for ads became acceptable. Not only is the company making money from the advertisers for the ad space, they now get to make money off the population for viewing the ads. This is a crazy world we live in.

I’m pretty sure that Amazon, google, etc do far more nefarious shit behind the scenes in terms of tracking/fingerprinting you and collecting data to sell

You even get to pay more and more for this privilege…smh

I did not see a reason given. Anyone know why?

I am not a content creator and do not upload anything. My use would just be as a consumer.

As a consumer, I will not use YT simply because of ads and the way they have made removing ads without a premium subscription so ridiculously difficult and time consuming.

Imo, having ads thrown in your face when you pause it, is reason enough not to use again.

From a non techy perspective, having what is used and installed being secure is a big one. I am new to Linux Mint. Mostly user friendly until something gets corrupted or suddenly can not be verified.

Looking for why is not always simple, and there are some explanations/instructions easier to understand than others.

I preface most of my searches with Linux mint (whatever I am searching for) for dummies. This helps some.

Then they suddenly started helping Microsoft exclusively, which has been criticized many times for being a monopoly,

Iirc, Microsoft has 49% of it. OpenAI is having another round where it is speculated Apple will contribute along with Microsoft again.

Wasn’t Altman in charge of World Coin where he wanted everyone to scan their eyes for money to encourage a universal ID/wage?

Public transportation does not operate in the middle of nowhere where the closest store is more than half an hour away.

Why will they not use F-Droid?

I can’t stress strongly enough how badly I am opposed to ads.

Not much to be done with a work machine, but for personal use, I believe the more people moving away from Windows the better.

Microsoft believes if they worsen the enshitification of Windows 10, more people will just upgrade to 11 quicker.

I decided to move to Linux and my other family went with Macbooks.

they don’t care and can’t be bothered to look for a better way.

This implies they are fine with it by tacit agreement.

My jaw dropped when I saw that. Not sure how many people are aware if it.

Samsung is also trying to make its ACR data more valuable for ad targeting, including through a deal signed in December with analytics firm Experian.

This should add to their profits.

People deserve better and should expect/demand better.

Overall my opinion is irrelevant, however, I think there is a huge difference in knowing a person votes vs how a person votes. The how should not be public, imo.