Anti-Corporate Movement

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16457773

Microsoft blocks Windows 11 workaround that enabled local accounts

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16457822

Google can keep your phone if you send it in for repair with non-OEM parts

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16034006

Just a reminder we are the future of social media.

The bankrupt casual restaurant chain didn’t fail because of Endless Shrimp. Its problems date back to monopolist seafood conglomerates and a private equity play.

The company abruptly shuttered roughly 50 of its locations across the country last week without informing employees, who showed up to work only to find signs announcing the closures, which may be a potential labor law violation. According to staff complaints, they only later received notice that they’d be laid off or transferred to the remaining stores, in some cases many miles away.

A good read for anyone who wants the truth about the fail upward brunch lords who play with the lives of their workers for high fives and walk away with billions while the companies they put on their resumes get stacked with debt and crumble under the weight.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/19653721

Thank you, our future 🌐

Source - @TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15496345

open doors transaction

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15741608

Slack is now using all content, including DMs, to train LLMs

They offer a thing they're calling an "opt-out."

The opt-out (a) is only available to companies who are slack customers, not end users, and (b) doesn't actually opt-out.

When a company account holder tries to opt-out, Slack says their data will still be used to train LLMs, but the results won't be shared with other companies.

LOL no. That's not an opt-out. The way to opt-out is to stop using Slack.

https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/trust/data-management/privacy-principles

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/9614559

The market will for sure solve this

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15741954

EU Commission opens formal proceedings against Meta under the Digital Services Act related to the protection of minors on Facebook and Instagram

The Commission is concerned that the systems of both Facebook and Instagram, including their algorithms, may stimulate behavioural addictions in children, as well as create so-called 'rabbit-hole effects'. In addition, the Commission is also concerned about age-assurance and verification methods put in place by Meta.

Today's opening of proceedings is based on a preliminary analysis of the risk assessment report sent by Meta in September 2023, Meta's replies to the Commission's formal requests for information (on the protection of minors and the methodology of the risk assessment), publicly available reports as well as the Commission's own analysis.

The current proceedings address the following areas:

• Meta's compliance with DSA obligations on assessment and mitigation of risks caused by the design of Facebook's and Instagram's online interfaces, which may exploit the weaknesses and inexperience of minors and cause addictive behaviour, and/or reinforce so-called ‘rabbit hole' effect. Such an assessment is required to counter potential risks for the exercise of the fundamental right to the physical and mental well-being of children as well as to the respect of their rights.
• Meta's compliance with DSA requirements in relation to the mitigation measures to prevent access by minors to inappropriate content, notably age-verification tools used by Meta, which may not be reasonable, proportionate and effective.
• Meta's compliance with DSA obligations to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors, particularly with regard to default privacy settings for minors as part of the design and functioning of their recommender systems.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15450579

400 Doctors in Delaware file for a union election with over 65% support

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/20896275

Stop Killing Games Canadian Petition - Now Open For Signature

Petition E-4965 is the one that is posted to stopkillinggames.com, Ross Scott (Accursed Farms)'s campaign to end the practice of bricking games people have purchased, whenever the publisher doesn't want to support it anymore.

It is open for signing by Canadian Citizens and Permanent Residents, until September 5th 2024.

Please spread the word to your Canadian friends and family who take interest in games, and please add your name to it to support this campaign to help preserve games in some form in perpetuity.

Thank you!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14980892

UK Government Response to the Stop Killing Games Petition

The Government recognises recent concerns raised by video games users regarding the long-term operability of purchased products.

Consumers should be aware that there is no requirement in UK law compelling software companies and providers to support older versions of their operating systems, software or connected products. There may be occasions where companies make commercial decisions based on the high running costs of maintaining older servers for video games that have declining user bases. However, video games sellers must comply with existing consumer law, including the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA) and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs).

The CPRs require information to consumers to be clear and correct, and prohibit commercial practices which through false information or misleading omissions cause the average consumer to make a different choice, for example, to purchase goods or services they would not otherwise have purchased. The regulations prohibit commercial practices which omit or hide information which the average consumer needs to make an informed choice, and prohibits traders from providing material information in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner. If consumers are led to believe that a game will remain playable indefinitely for certain systems, despite the end of physical support, the CPRs may require that the game remains technically feasible (for example, available offline) to play under those circumstances.

The CPRs are enforced by Trading Standards and the Competition and Markets Authority. If consumers believe that there has been a breach of these regulations, they should report the matter in the first instance to the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133 (www.citizensadvice.org.uk). People living in Scotland should contact Advice Direct Scotland on 0808 164 6000 (www.consumeradvice.scot). Both helplines offer a free service advising consumers on their rights and how best to take their case forward. The helplines will refer complaints to Trading Standards services where appropriate. Consumers can also pursue private redress through the courts where a trader has provided misleading information on a product.

The CRA gives consumers important rights when they make a contract with a trader for the supply of digital content. This includes requiring digital content to be of satisfactory quality, fit for a particular purpose and as described by the seller. It can be difficult and expensive for businesses to maintain dedicated support for old software, particularly if it needs to interact with modern hardware, apps and websites, but if software is being offered for sale that is not supported by the provider, then this should be made clear.

If the digital content does not meet these quality rights, the consumer has the right to a repair or replacement of the digital content. If a repair or replacement is not possible, or does not fix the problem, then the consumer will be entitled to some money back or a price reduction which can be up to 100% of the cost of the digital content. These rights apply to intangible digital content like computer software or a PC game, as well as digital content in a tangible form like a physical copy of a video game. The CRA has a time limit of up to six years after a breach of contract during which a consumer can take legal action.

The standards outlined above apply to digital content where there is a contractual right of the trader or a third party to modify or update the digital content. In practice, this means that a trader or third party can upgrade, fix, enhance and improve the features of digital content so long as it continues to match any description given by the trader and continues to conform with any pre-contract information including main characteristics, functionality and compatibility provided by the trader, unless varied by express agreement.

Consumers should also be aware that while there is a statutory right for goods (including intangible digital content) to be of a satisfactory quality, that will only be breached if they are not of the standard which a reasonable person would consider to be satisfactory, taking into account circumstances including the price and any description given. For example, a manufacturer’s support for a mobile phone is likely to be withdrawn as they launch new models. It will remain usable but without, for example, security updates, and over time some app developers may decide to withdraw support.

Department Culture, Media & Sport

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14896651

Ross: April updates on campaign to stop game destruction

Lots of updates on the campaign! UK petition open! Australia petition probably open soon! Research help wanted! Australian law firm hired! Talking to EU members of Parliament!

Link to UK Petition:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/659071/

Link to Australia Petition:

https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN6080

Link to outdated list of game shutdowns:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vaNfqOv3rStBQ4_lR-dwGb8DGPhCJpRDF-q7gqtdhGA/edit

Stop Killing Games campaign site:

https://stopkillinggames.com

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/18297918

FTC bans non-compete agreements, making it easier for workers to quit

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14589497

The UAW celebrates their huge win at Volkswagen with 73% of 4000 voting in favor!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14596314

Stop Killing Games | Cold Take | Second Wind (11:24)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14570366

The "Stop Killing Games" Australian Petition is Live

Just like the UK variant, this is an official government petition to look into the issue. Unlike the UK variant, the only signature threshold is 50 signatures - that said, more is better in this case.

Deadline: 20 May 2024

Here’s the Stop Killing Games campaign site for those unaware or not from Australia.

cross-posted from: https://communick.news/post/1013860

A zero-commission crowdfunding platform to support content creators in the Fediverse

About two months ago I was talking about this model for funding artists in the Fediverse where backers would set a monthly "pledge" and then they would be able to define how to split their contribution among their favorite preferred people.

This week I am launching the MVP of this idea. It's not specific to musicians or artists, but instead can be used by any content creator that wants to get any support from their audience.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14439247

EU tells Meta it can't paywall privacy

The EU's Data Protection Board (EDPB) has told large online platforms they should not offer users a binary choice between paying for a service and consenting to their personal data being used to provide targeted advertising.

In October last year, the social media giant said it would be possible to pay Meta to stop Instagram or Facebook feeds of personalized ads and prevent it from using personal data for marketing for users in the EU, EEA, or Switzerland. Meta then announced a subscription model of €9.99/month on the web or €12.99/month on iOS and Android for users who did not want their personal data used for targeted advertising.

At the time, Felix Mikolasch, data protection lawyer at noyb, said: "EU law requires that consent is the genuine free will of the user. Contrary to this law, Meta charges a 'privacy fee' of up to €250 per year if anyone dares to exercise their fundamental right to data protection."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.nl/post/13967961

Microsoft will now urge you to ditch local accounts on Windows 10

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/14370937

Canada to start taxing tech giants in 2024 despite U.S. complaints

cross-posted from: https://feddit.nl/post/13892163

X blocks posts in India after election commission order

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14399569

Discord Users Are Being Tracked Through Data-Scraping Site

Internet-scraping outfit Spy.pet claims to have harvested more than four billion public messages made by nearly 620 million users on more than 14,000 Discord chat servers – and is selling access to this trove.

The website presents the data it's collected in several ways. Each known user has a profile, which contains all known aliases, pronouns, connected accounts to other platforms such as Steam and GitHub, Discord servers joined, and public messages. If you wanted to quite literally spy on a Discord user or users, Spy.pet lets you do that, for a fee.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/29632065

Over 100 staff at Just Cause developers Avalanche have unionised

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14374682

The "Stop Killing Games" UK Petition is Live

For those wondering, this is an official government petition with two signature tresholds:

• 10,000 signatures: government will respond to this petition
• 100,000 signatures: this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament

Deadline: 16 October 2024

Here's the Stop Killing Games campaign site for those unaware or not from UK.