The secret weapon of stylometry -- the statistical analysis of writing style -- is something called “function words.” Most people assume AI looks for unique topical vocabulary. It actually looks for words like the, and, of, and in. Authors use these filler words unconsciously. Because you do not think about them, they are incredibly difficult to fake or manipulate. You naturally drop them into sentences at a highly specific, mathematical rate, making your "word print" almost wholly unique.

c-22 by Gary Anandasangaree. Will introduce 6 month metadata retention for internet service providers and share canadian data with US authorities.

s-209 by Julie Miville-Dechêne. Will introduce age verification.

c-32 by Marc Miller. Second way to introduce age verification. Yes that guy who called privacy critics of c-22 tinfoil hats.

This submission analyzes Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act, which would enact broad surveillance obligations and reforms in Canada. Issues include: the bill’s sweeping scope, significant constitutional and human rights risks, transparency and accountability deficits, and dangers to encryption and Canada’s cybersecurity. We recommend entirely withdrawing several elements of the bill and suggest amendments to mitigate harms.

Bill C-34 would require social media services to “implement adequate age-verification or age-estimation measures” preventing children under 16 from registering for an account.

Based on groundless fraud fears, it will create headaches for seniors and families.

In February, a Swedish newspaper reported that contractors in Kenya were reviewing Meta glasses footage without the wearer’s knowledge. The workers were made to watch uncensored videos of people going to the bathroom, getting undressed, and having s*x. Lots of the footage seemed to be taken without the wearer knowing they were recording. Then at the beginning of June, WIRED uncovered that Meta was quietly adding facial recognition technology for its smart glasses to every single iPhone. The feature, called “NameTag,” would identify people captured by the glasses and share information about them.

Posting some recent good or funny news to say happy 4th to my fellow Americans. And happy Canada Day to our friends to the north. Not sure about Flocks exactly, but I heard of ALPR use in Ontario, maybe other provs too.

Gizmodo: Flock Cameras Have a People-Love-Smashing-Them Problem. People just aren't being very nice to these mass surveillance devices. A sticker with the note, “Hahaha get wrecked ya surveilling f***s” was applied to one of the poles below the spot where it was cut.

Several ppl doing it have been caught, often due to other Flock cameras who follow their movements across their city.

Also 100's of stories out there about municipalities across dozens of states not renewing Flock contracts due to mounting public pressure. It's not univerally good, some are looking toward other vendors. But many are stopping ALPR completely too!

Jalopnik: Unsure With How To Cancel Service, City Officials Are Covering Flock Cameras With Trash Bags Until They Can Be Removed. Dayton, Ohio's utility poles are sporting new accessories this week in the form of a black trash bag. Police and local authorities are working to cover the controversial Flock cameras installed throughout the city as they try to figure out how to severe ties with the company.

Citizen engagement does help. We need to keep the momentum going. Pls get involved locally if you can! A hundred ppl showing up at a city council meeting to speak out against ALPRs carries more political weight than 10 thousand emails.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/1203713

Comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/1201578

Comments

She fled the state from an abusive ex. Went to a state where abortions were legal. Had it performed. Texas puts out a national search over the Flock network. And the state where she fled told Texas where she was.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flock-safety-and-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-missing-person-it

🚨 UK Online Safety Act in the EU - starting now? 🚨

It appears I had suspected right and big platforms will think the UK Online Safety Act equivalent for the EU has already been decided by the EU commission in July 2025, with a deadline of July 2026 (a few days). At least Reddit acts like it: https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/50368431806484-European-Union-Digital-Services-Act-DSA

I talked about all of this here on lemmy, with more detailed explanations: https://leminal.space/post/31858818/21120139

How all of this went for the UK previously: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/09/uk-online-safety-act-internet-censorship-world-following-suit https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/11/6/britain-calls-it-safety-it-is-censorship

I'm worried this might be the beginning of the end of anonymous public discourse in the EU...

OC by @ell1e@leminal.space

Reddit has begun rolling out mandatory age verification for any NSFW content, as well as for some social media functions, if the AI determines you might be under a certain age.

Another good day to be on Lemmy... until the surveillance capitalist tech overlords lobby enough to get their great firewall of the West, anyway.

Further reading:

• https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/50368431806484-European-Union-Digital-Services-Act-DSA
• https://cybernews.com/security/eu-age-verification-app-hack/
• https://piunikaweb.com/2026/02/19/persona-age-verification-surveillance-allegations/
• https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/23595536875796-Digital-Services-Act-DSA-Information-for-EU-users

Apple's known about it for a year but hasn't fixed it.

People don't even want you to play a video game in private now.

"Gibbons cut in: "They're illegal. They are not in any way affiliated with Microsoft. Microsoft, for Minecraft, has gotten a lot of criticism because of those community servers not employing the same safety standards that Microsoft does on their Minecraft servers."

Arguably more security than privacy, but this made me think. I havent considered the use of ambiguous fonts in phishing before. Worth reading.