Consumer reports recently added a privacy rating to their car ratings. I glanced at it a little last year. I think it rated if you could opt out and the reach of the sharing.

I do have to say that I'm generally disappointed with the discussion on this topic every tine it comes up. The majority of responses go contrast to the question. "Don't buy a car" or "fix up a junker" are generally not helpful if you've already decided that your top priority is to have a newer car. Another thread actually recommended to move to another country where you could walk everywhere. Seriously.

Most often a car purchase is a complex decision making process where you need to weigh multiple, often conflicting priorities where privacy is only one aspect. I get the impression that if people followed the advice of the majority of these comments, they'd be living in a tent off grid, hunting for food to stay alive, but living their privacy dream.

I heard something on a radio show during Covid on how to talk to people who have "gone down the rabbit hole". It was discussing MAGA as a cult. The guest on the show was a woman who was raised in a cult in the 70's and she "got out" and spent her time talking with others in the cult to help them to break free. I can't find a reference to the show, but I think it was Carrie Miller hosting.

My takeaway was that you can't come at people and tell them that everything they know is wrong and you will show them the way. They'll fight you. You need to deprogram them similarly to how they were programmed into the cult. Small bits, here and there to slowly guide them to questioning their beliefs. Once that happens, show them how to research and seek out information and let them know that they will be safe.

If someone found a link to the podcast/radio show, I'd be super happy.

Thanks for posting the contents of the image. This is especially important for folks using a screen reader and the source content is behind a paywall or login link.

Thank you for a thoughtful post with citations and quotes. After reading the whole page by Mozilla, it seems like they're taking steps to show advertisers how they can get what they want while preserving people's privacy. I can live with that. They're trying to build a win-win scenario.

I'll still block ads. I'll still reject cookies, but I feel like it's a reasonable feature THAT I CAN SHUT OFF. I'm still in control of my browser! Great!

Jeff? Is that you, son? I told you that it was nonnegotiable, now get off the internets, I'm expecting an important telephone call and don't want you tying up the lines.

While there are a lot of good technical suggestions here, I've found that a conversation goes a long way. In my experience, when talking with loved ones, explain your emotions. Not "I hate this" or "the governments are listening!", but those core emotions. "Having a device in my room that is always monitoring me makes me feel anxious and I don't feel comfortable in a place where I should feel safe." Make sure that the dialog is calm and remains about your feelings until you know that you're being heard. If you aren't, try other phrases or examples.

Once you've established your feelings, address their concerns and feelings (active listening). It sounds stupid at first, but it works. "I hear that you are frustrated when I don't come down for dinner immediately." Finally, propose some solutions that meet everybody's needs and that the parties can select one to try out for a week and evaluate it's effectiveness, trying new things until a mutually beneficial solution is found.

Good luck. Please post the outcome!

There was a shower thought the other day on Lemmy that said that the whole situation is a real life trolley problem.

My wife is 7 years older than me. We met in college. I think I was 22. We've been married for 25 years.

I was surprised to hear that a coworker suscribes to one of the streaming services to stream shows from PBS. First of all, it's free OTA. Second, I think they have an app.

Video guides are nice, but I prefer Grog's Knots. He even has an app for offline knot learning, say, when you're deep in the woods and it's raining hard and your tent's rain cover blows off into the lake and you thankfully brought a tarp and rope but don't know how to make one of those adjustable knots that you can just slip-tighten. You know, theoretically speaking.

On a side note and completely unrelated, bring one of those big grout sponges when you go camping. In addition to mopping up all the water in your tent, it makes a nice pillow if your inflatable pillow decides to run away in the night in a storm and go swimming in the lake.

TL;DR: I hate camping.

Any device that requires an app to function is an immediate deal breaker for me. Same for most things that require "the cloud" to work. Garage door openers, doorbell or other cameras, cooking appliances, door locks, cars, even a basic pedometer to name a few. All of these things will only work temporarily until the company decides it's end of life for any reason.

This is not uncommon in IT type jobs with individuals from a certain country. I was at lunch with a coworker when he was approached to do an interview for a cousin of one of his friends. I must have looked puzzled because he explained it to me and I was flabbergasted. He said that it was more common during phone interviews, but since "they all look the same" to white hiring managers, it still happens over video interviews.

That is the plan. Imagine an app that can provide personalized pricing to extract just less than the amount that would cause you to go elsewhere?

It knows when you get paid and can splurge. It knows when you are drunk or high and have less self control. It's the digital pricing tags at the grocery store, but personalized to you (and not with your best interests in mind).

Same for me. In addition to deflock.me and haveibeenflocked.com, are there any community resource sites for finding others in the same city that would be willing to start pushing on the city to cancel their contract?

I've seen this before and got a chuckle, so I gotta wonder who is downviting this and why?

Why does Android allow this? Google is an advertising company.

sent from my Google Pixel

Just imagine if the roles were reversed and some reporter was hanging out in a top secret war chat on Signal with high ranking US government officials!

I can't remember the details or if it applies to the town in question, but I remember a closing agent impressing upon me the importance of homesteading for tax purposes. Perhaps petitioning the city or county to increase property taxes for non-homesteaded properties will simultaneously decrease the local citizen tax burden and dissuade investment properties.

I wanted to quit nagging my kids to close the pantry door. It conflicts with the fridge door and they're both getting banged up pretty bad. I replaced one of the pantry door hinges with a spring hinge (and removed the latch mechanism from the handle) and now the pantry door closes on its own. Sometimes, I hear them fling the door open and hit the fridge anyways, but I giggle just a little when it bonks them on the head.

You're doing God's work!

Over my career, it's sad to see how the technical communications groups are the first to get cut because "developers should document their own code". No, most can't. Also, the lack of good documentation leads to churn in other areas. It's difficult to measure it, but for those in the know, it's painfully obvious.

I've always been fascinated with the Holocaust and so when there was an interview with a Holocaust survivor on 60 minutes, I had to watch it. The woman said a bunch of stuff, but what stuck with me is that she said that, "people need to be given permission" to act badly. The episode showed previously undiscovered notes and pictures from one camp, showing officers having a picnic and enjoying themselves after a hard day of???

Her point was that these people were given permission. I now see it everywhere. Food fight in the school cafeteria? There were a few instigators who gave permission to the rest. A city protest that turns violent? Again, a few vocal minority of the group started the violence and then the rest joined in. I see it at work and I also see it on-line. Anonymity and lack of accountability also enhances the effect.

Whether the instigators are real or bots doesn't really matter because they "gave permission" to the rest to misbehave.

Found the episode: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pictures-show-nazi-life-at-auschwitz-as-jews-died-in-gas-chambers-60-minutes/