A 50-something French dude that’s old enough to think blogs are still cool, if not cooler than ever. I also like to write and to sketch.

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Joined 2 måneder siden
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Cake day: 4. juni 2025

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  • what about the phones in people’s pockets that could be recording and the security cameras inside buildings?

    People are not supposed to be recording every thing all the time. But that’s a valid point you’re making as that trend is changing: cc cameras are everywhere and, well, people seem obsessed with the idea of recording (and sharing) every single thing they do (I’m surprised there is not pooping social networks… as it’s one thing all people have in common ;). So, I would say, it depends people, the place they’re in, and its policy.

    Say, our personal place has no camera and no recording at all (no smart shit either, not even smart light bulbs or smart doorbell). And when we invite people they can be assured there will be no recording as we would not allow anyone to record anything without asking our (and anyone else present) explicit permission. And if anyone would not agree with that choice, well you know: our home, our rules—they would get kicked out of our home as quickly as needed which may already have happened maybe.

    It also depends the laws in your country. here in Europe (I live in France), with the GDRP we can count on a relative level of privacy: people are not supposed to be sharing any picture of a person without their consent. But in reality that is very relative and very… subject to not persist much longer, as surveillance of every move and of every word of their citizens, sorry, I meant to say ’ the protection of the children’ is our representatives latest excuse to screw us a little more and to deprive everyone of a little more of their rights. I imagine they have not asked for thought control (to make sure some hidden pervert has no dirty thought when seeing a little children in the street or on the TV) just because the technology is not here, not yet.

    Imho, what matters the most is to keep reminding (or teaching) people around us that there is no need to record absolutely everything they do or every place they go to. And that there is such a thing as intimacy and privacy.



  • There is virtually no way to meet like-minded people who live near me because there just aren’t enough people or communities on there. Even on Lemmy (which I know isn’t totally private, but still beats Reddit) doesn’t have the volume needed to come across a lot of people who live near me. I want to meet people. I want to have friends in real life.

    I don’t live in an urban planner’s utopia. I live in a car-dependent suburb on the outskirts of a city. You can’t just walk outside and meet a bunch of people, not with all of the “get off my lawn” types everywhere. You have to go somewhere else to meet people.

    I hate to say it, but I don’t see how it’s feasible to meet up with normal people without some corporation or the government finding out where you’re going and who you’re associated with, at least not in the U.S. where I live.

    Meeting people IRL (normal or not normal people, whatever that means) is how it is done. Without depending on any app, corporation or government. As a matter of fact, it is how those two started being a thing: people met and started doing things together and realized things would be even simpler if they formalized things and established some common rules.

    Also, the first smartphone dates back from around 2007. That was 18 years ago. And there was no ‘app’ to speak of with that 1st smartphone, there was not even an app store to install apps from (this would take a few more releases before it was introduced). Do you think, not living in big crowded cities, people could not meet before 2007? ;)

    Meeting people IRL is simple, and it is still free and legal to do it privately (for the time being at least). But it can also be frightening when all you’re used to is ‘apps’.

    Like you said you have to go somewhere, anywhere you fancy, on feet or by car, public transit, whatever. The idea being to go where other ‘like-minded’ people are.

    What will help (a lot) is to have some common interest, hobby or activity that you can use as a motivation. Say, participate in the town meetings, go to the church (no matter what one thinks about religion it’s still a a way to meet people from your community), go pick a book at the local library.

    And repeat it. Regularly. So, other people will start noticing you. So you will start noticing other people and a conversation can start. Just people together.

    Hobbies are another great way to meet people IRL.

    I like playing chess and watercolors (and books), DIY. But it could be anything.

    Games? Find a local place where people meet to play board games. There is none? Go the public library and see with the librarian if they know anyone that would be interested to start such a club with you. Librarians will often a lot of people. The smae with, say, knitting, or photography, reading, writing, running,…

    It’s only very recently people decided they needed an app and, could it really be a coincidence, it is around the same time it has become so hard for younger people to meet people irl.






  • I don’t remember.

    Seriously. I’m almost 60 and I only remember when I turned 20 (I was studying and working hard, and there was that bright future waiting for me, or so I thought) and when I turned 40 (I was already bald and if I did manage to get a career it was also the year my spouse and I decided we had to get out of that crazy stupid endless race called ‘a career’ and try to live a much simpler, and much less shiny, life ;)



  • I actually used to pay for YouTube Premium for quite a while. It was $7/month and I split it with someone so it cost me $3/month to eliminate the very slightly annoying ads, which was well worth it.

    I could have written that. I was fine with paying for YT, even though they asked too much to my taste I paid for years, but I decided their attitude was way too hostile (and too dumb) and decided to cancel my Premium membership.

    I watch a lot less YT nowadays, like a lot, and I do it on Waterfox with those extensions: uBO + SponsorBlock (and YT Enhancer). So far, beside a few slow downs and the occasional refusal to play a video, it seems to be working fine.





  • They can just ignore it and if they get caught those fines are just a “cost of doing business”.

    I think we won’t have to wait that long to see if they keep on ignoring it or if, like I think they will do, they will coerce the EU into curbing its (probably too) many regulations.

    The only way is not to use any of them.

    Not that simple when more and more services are not just ‘nice to have’ or for fun but required.

    I can not use streaming services (and I don’t), I can not play online. I can not use YT, and so on. But I cannot not use my doctors, right?

    Here in France, our medical appointments (and more and more of our medical data) are hosted by the ‘Doctolib’ platform which uses… MSFT servers (note that it would not be much better it they were using AWS or Google). Add to that that almost all doctors are using Doctolib which makes it so you can hardly get an appointment without using that service even when you take said appointment by phone since on their side of the call they will then record said appointment on Doctolib, because it’s what they’ve been taught to use and associate it with the email address you probably have already given them if they need to contact you (email that most of the time will be either Gmail or Msft).

    On the same line, for years I used to receive most of my medical analysis and exams (of which I have… quite a few every single year) through snail mail or directly after the examination, as a print out. I stopped to, they’re now all stored on Doctolib and even if I did not have an account, it’s stored on all my doctors accounts…

    Last year, the last of the many doctors not using it did not even inform us they had started using Doctolib. One morning, after calling them for my next appointment, I simply received confirmation through Doctolib by email and on their app.

    Worse (?), another doctor of mine is using Gmail for all her email with her patients, email that is used to send and receive test results, share intimate informations,… I explained the issue to her, even suggesting a couple EU-based alternatives. She plolitely listened to me and then shrugged telling me Gmail worked fine and was free. She is a good doctor, mind you, but like too many she simply can’t be bothered with changing her habits.

    Imho, in the case of services like those and email, thd solution is not to stop using them: even if I don’t use them myself, that doesn’t change much the moment my correspondents keep using them, or even if said email is at one time or another hoisted on US-owned server.

    A better solution would be to make it much more obvious that we should use EU-based solutions, because it’s in our best interest, and make it much more rewarding too, maybe, and make it simpler. And then, sometimes make it mandatory as in required by some law to use EU-based solutions but how would that be a thing when most of our elected are just… well, they are what they are, and that’s not a compliment.

    A longer term solution should also be to give younger people (it’s too late for the vast majority of the older generations, even more so for mine), to give them a minimal but real (not the usual bullshit) computer education and to also give them some notions on the value of privacy in a democratic society, be it digital privacy or not. But how would that be a thing in the same as education as almost entirely given up on teaching kids even fundamentals skills like doing math, reading and writing?




  • 100% agree. This should be as easy as creating a new account.

    Alas, this :

    Maybe the EU will pass some legislation that will carry over to the US . . .

    Is highly unlikely.

    The EU just knelt once more to the USA (and to Trump) and that won’t end here. I have little doubt USA next target in the EU will be most if not all regulations regarding data handling/protection. US businesses need data more than ever (at the very least because of AI), including EU citizens data.



  • I just don’t see the point of telling people what they already know,

    Like I said previously, if the web was only populated by non-redundant content (and books written alike) it would not be the Web we know and our bookshelves would be empty too. Also, the thing is that I’m probably too old to understand the ‘needs’ of younger generations but I consider repetitions, alongside with failing (aka trying and not doing great, aka spending time trying) as keys to any true learning. So, saying what you seem to consider obvious is not something I’m anywhere ready to stop doing, sorry but feel free to block me if it’s too much of a nuisance ;)

    But others will surely vote you up and vote me down, so I guess I’m in the minority.

    Does it matter? We share our opinions, which could be the start of something interesting, why should we care what bystanders can think about that? Even less so, I already explained that in a couple other discussions (repetitions, always repetitions) that I consider people silently downvoting without making the minimal effort of explaining their motivation/reasoning not worth of my attention. Alas, not only am I stating the obvious, and I’m a useless commenter but it looks like I’m also very mean. Looks like there is not much to like in me.


  • This in particular makes little sense, and IMO the whole comment is nihilistic and defeatist and generally not very helpful. Just my opinion.

    Most modern democratic societies have matured/thrived on a few key notions, including the idea that we, their citizens, had some fundamental rights among which were a few freedoms and at the very least some notion of privacy/intimacy. Those same fundamentals rights and values our actual leaders, so vocal about their unadulterated respect for democracy ad its values, happily are sitting on, when not pooping on.

    Hope this makes a little more sense. If not, well, ok next time I will try in French.

    As a side note, since you seem to consider comments should serve a purpose (if only, would you imagine what a nice place the Internet could be if it was only populated by useful participation and people willing to contribute to building a better place?), do not hesitate to tell me why this comment of mine made little sense to you (you know, it may help me understand your own comment) instead of just telling me it’s useless and nihilistic which, I don’t think I’m taking a huge risk here, you did not intend to use as a compliment. But, like you said, that’s just my opinion.