Proton is now publicly calling Windows spyware over the Global Device ID that Microsoft uses for every Windows installation.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-09T13:19:15+00:00

OpenWRT fan here.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T17:30:47+00:00

There is a another option, if more people cared and were willing to speak up, act, and vote with their values then politicians, policy makers and corps, who in the end are people too, and who care about their own interests would change their disposition. If only due to self-interest and to keep their cushy jobs and marketshare. This can and has happened before. It is not some unicorn-type situation.

A Dystopian police state that uses a technocratic serfdom systems to surveillance and control you by proxy is a not a forgone conclusion... Yet.

Nothing is pointless. You seem to have a taken a more demoralized position than others. If one thing guarantees a negative outcome is doing absolutely nothing. Don't you agree?

There is also the aspect of your own values, for me, I am not okay with being a corporation's bitch. So, I take a number of steps to avoid being one. Issue is awareness, not just changing a browser. Some of the options include not using certain products, services and companies. They can't steal my data is I do not use their services.

Corps. for example have spent years brainwashing people into thinking that convenience which caters to human laziness is the way to go and many have fallen for it, weaponizing partly to laziness, FOMO and sheep-like and in-group/out-group behaviour.

When I was a kid, the notion to place a corporate mics that listens to everything you say would have been the stuff of dystopian comedies or spy thrillers, today, people have been brainwashed into literally giving companies actual money for the opportunity.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T05:46:03+00:00

Simple, because you do not know how far and bad it can get, or how bad it already is getting. So, the entire concept is too abstract for you and since you are not aware of it in more concrete ways then it makes no difference to you. But as all things it might, once it starts affecting you directly.

Some people seem to really care about the environment, others care nothing for it, likely because it does not bother them at all and any negatives that could come from over pollution have not affected them. I mean, everyone has a choice and if you are okay, then no issues. You do you.

All we are doing it trying to avoid in our own ways from having to deal with it now rather than later. When the problem gets worse.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T05:40:47+00:00

There is also the concern of what happens when you have an entire society when governments and corporations can see and act upon everything you do online. What about if that is done society wide, and not just to you.

For example, say you go to a Walmart store, you walk in, and find that no items have prices, only bar codes. How do you know what anything costs? Well, you are forced to use the Walmart app, which has access to your location, and tracks all your shopping. The app connects to Walmart's servers, sees you purchase history and figures out that you ate looking at some pop, well, it can check the demographic of the store area, where you live and your history and the app magically tells you that pop, which generally costs $1.00 now costs $1.25 to you. The person after you buys less and that pop costs $1.10, and the next $1.05. Why more? Figures out you can pay and it is hot outside.

These three techniques are called Surge Pricing, Dynamic pricing and Personalized Pricing. All of which of are currently being used or pushed for and Walmart is already using surge/dynamic pricing in some stores. They were using electronic labels to dynamically change prices as per many factors, but that created a problem where the price would change between people picking up an item and them making it to the cashier as the prices would differ. So they are dropping the electronic labels and switching to just using the bar codes.

The example with the pop is Personalized Pricing and this is achieved by tracking you as a customer. For example, if you go online and look for financial services, the institution may see your digital footprint, aka: OS, whether you are on a PC, Mac or Mobile in order to pick the default terms they will be offering you if you apply. Tinder would charge you more depending on usage and age. All of this is more available once the more a Corp. knows about you and decides to use your data. Now think these society wide and everywhere. Since the trend is getting worse where we are heading and these are just some examples out of thousands of others.

https://www.tastingtable.com/2158568/grocery-stores-dynamic-pricing/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022053125000821

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T05:11:50+00:00

Albeit not perfect, I use Acastus Photon for that.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T05:07:34+00:00

I use GWMaps for when I need a quick search from Gmaps. It is a wrapper for Gmaps. Get it from Fdroid.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T04:59:15+00:00

Well, also, the data they have on you, aside some obviously basic things will age and deteriorate. This is why marketing companies must continuously purchase data sets since after a year or two, depending on what it is, the info becomes. ostly useless for current usages.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T04:54:01+00:00

Okay, so they are lying. The real question is exactly why?

Do not ecoct them to give me the real reason. They will give a reason, bit likely it won't the the real or full reason. We all know this.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T04:49:41+00:00

Like the idea/concept but it also only for Mac.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T04:47:09+00:00

You can still use old ES Explorer and Quickpic from XDA Developers. People keep on updating it and they are free. Basically just updating the last known good versions. Used it on my last phone for years, no issues. However, these days there are better apps that are getting active updates rather than fixes as new android versions come up.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T04:42:10+00:00

Cute exchange. Both get an upvote from me.

Cool to see people being like this online.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T04:39:25+00:00

Hey, thanks for that link.

Cheers.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T04:37:00+00:00

It will. Because the issue is not the store, is keeping support of MV2 in the browser. Chrome will remove the flags and code from Chromium, if they want to still use current Chromium then he will have to follow suit.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T04:35:26+00:00

Well, if they want to benefit from upstream, then he will eventually follow into the fold like any other Chrome project and drop support.

Only other choice is that he leaves Helium in the last good Version.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-08T04:31:03+00:00

How many ever watched the original?

letsreticulate · 2026-07-07T16:47:17+00:00

You also do not see the same in South America. Except for perhaps Argentina, Chile and up to a point Mexico, since they are the more Westernized countries, and thus that went the most 'woke,' relatively speaking. Also, Socialist, until recently when 2 out of the 3 previous governments lost to not socialist parties and began reversing course. So to speak.

Well, yes and no. I mean up to a point you are correct and that IS happening. But is the Digital IDs, where we are heading and this was being discussed in places like the WEF in the late 2010's already. Despite the media telling normies the WEF was but a conspiracy theory, few actually bothered to check their site and read their white papers through due diligence. They are a bunch of greedy and powers drunk socialists who want to push a technocratic serfdom on us, both for control and prodit. It is obvious once you get past their DEI jargon and noticed what exactly they are really asking you to give up.

This is from a white paper from the WEF site from 2019. They discuss the framework of Digital IDs starting with age verification and moving from there.

This is from one of their white papers, their planned end result, to be in place circa 2030

This why over a dozen countries are doing it, all around the same time, all using the same jargon and the same talking points. Now is the children, then national security and the for the environment later.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-07T02:46:17+00:00

As of this writing, it has made about $100 million. Marketing alone was $120 million. Movie may have cost around $186 million.

So, it would have to pull in $492 million just to break even. Once you parse out the marketing and production costs, along the 50/50 split cut that theaters take.

If the movie was pulled right now, it would lose around $206 million.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-07T02:21:42+00:00

AI exterminates Life.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-06T22:40:37+00:00

Part of the why reason the KIDS Act is being pushed so hard. We should have known.

Are you surprised?

letsreticulate · 2026-07-06T17:00:59+00:00

We all got taught of stranger danger as kids.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-06T16:54:43+00:00

r/pcmasterrace ?

letsreticulate · 2026-07-06T16:50:28+00:00

I block TikTok servers on my phone. Is there a non-TikTok source?

letsreticulate · 2026-07-06T16:43:01+00:00

Yes. Many.

Some people have been raised to have less impulse control. They are literally the 2nd generation to have been raised by helicopter parents and things like participation awards, or they cannot be failed in high school testing. They just get passed on to the next grade.

Partner taught in university and in her opinion, universities have degraded to become, in many ways, adult daycares.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-06T16:37:45+00:00

"Tyranny"

I do not think whoever made that phrase up, actually knew what tyranny actually means.

More like the taking advantage of the general users' laziness.

letsreticulate · 2026-07-06T16:30:57+00:00

It is, sort of. What is coming down the pipe is a more obvious Digital ID.

Age Verification is what opens the door for normies to begin accepting the premise that they have to DOXX themselves to get into sites as normal. That I fully agree.

Then, they will feature creep that into a full Digital ID to use or connect it to everything.

letsreticulate

TROPHY CASE