this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
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The line between helpful tech and quiet surveillance is blurring — and our devices no longer feel fully under our control.

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[–] DylanMc6@lemmy.ml 13 points 4 hours ago

All monopolies should be split into different smaller companies which would then be given to the workers who would collectivize them.

[–] thuhtoosan@programming.dev 11 points 4 hours ago

I think that's the reason why I always change the operating systems of my devices – Fedora Linux for my PCs and custom ROMs for my phone. The stock ones don't feel "personal enough" to me anymore.

[–] Gsus4@mander.xyz 12 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

It is not user experience, it is user manipulation. We are so so far beyond Stallman's warnings about enslavement through corporate software design.

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

They aren't building things for our benefit, they're building things for their benefit. All the idiots who gleefully bought devices with surveillance and tracking and data collection, normalized it. Now everyone has to use some of this shit or their life suffers. The masses showed them they can take from our private lives whatever they want and the masses of fucking morons will happily pay them to do it. Why the hell would they stop taking when the consumer market has lost any sense of caution?

[–] ABetterTomorrow@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 hours ago

We need to stop supporting them. We’re just helping them build their empire to leave us behind sooner than later.

[–] Typotyper@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 hours ago

I down graded phones for simplicity and control

[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 22 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Laughs in every computer I own is Linux and my mobile is GrapheneOS

Cries a little for everyone else

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I switched to gOS and had to go back for NFC payments and auto.

It is great to see though, those are just necessities for me. Having gone back, I can say I hate pixel launcher and can't even change keyboard

[–] BeardedBlaze@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I'm genuinely curious, what makes NFC a necessity? And what do you mean by auto?

[–] 0tan0d@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Its trains when I travel for me. I am not giving up my tap to pay.

[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I might just be old, but I can do that with my debit and credit cards without involving my phone, so I couldn't care less.

[–] 0tan0d@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

Lifestyle creep is real. I was like you before. Keep fighting the good fight and I will join you once Linux figures out NFC.

[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 1 points 51 minutes ago

Brother/Sister if that is the good fight, I seem to be missing my cape. Happy new year :)

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 10 points 7 hours ago

Big Tech keeps building smarter devices

Smarter or just louder?

[–] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 12 points 8 hours ago

Our devices are no longer fully under our control, it's not a "feeling".

[–] paultimate14@lemmy.world 19 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Sure, I might own the hardware

Not for long. The goal seems to be to make RAM, flash memory, and GPU's so expensive that most consumers will need to purchase low-powered client devices and subscribe to cloud computing business models. It's a handful of companies who are cornering the markets, controlling the supply, and seeking rents.

[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I don't really see that happen. It would mean developers (or crappy AI code generators) would have to write efficient code for the low-powered client devices. The web is basically already other people's computers and look how memory hungry browsers are, or maybe more specifically the websites/apps that run in the browsers.

[–] piranhaconda@mander.xyz 1 points 7 hours ago

I bet it'll be more like a subscription for an LLM upgrade, since they're shoving "AI" into the OS, it'll need a bit of local processing power but then you pay to connect it to a beefier server

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 14 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I watched something on Netflix the other day.

It immediately then showed an ad for that same movie I'd just watched, telling me the last day to watch is in a few days.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 8 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

The other day my spouse was trying to watch a movie on prime I think it was, it started by playing an advertisement for the movie she chose to watch. I told her a copy was on the jellyfin server. She said I pay for this so I want to use it. It hit a 2 min 40 second ad break a little later and I saw her glare at me out of the corner of my eye, I chose to pretend to watch the commercial and not look at her, didn't want that conversation.

[–] LiveLM@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 hours ago

I saw her glare at me out of the corner of my eye

As if you were the one putting the Ads into Prime lol

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 18 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

The more Windows tries to manage my files for me the less I’m able to find where anything is.

I wish Windows 2000 still ran modern games.

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 22 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (3 children)

Linux does. Not all, but a lot, and more every day.

It's been years now, and it still hits me sometimes how insanely nice it is that my computers now work the way I want them to.

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 3 points 4 hours ago

Interestingly, Linux also runs old Windows games better than modern Windows.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 7 points 8 hours ago

Yeah, that was an unexpected nice thing about switching to Linux, though also the whole point. Like I knew that I wanted to take control back over my computer and OS, but I was surprised at just how much nicer it is when defaults are set without any profit incentive. There just wasn't "spend time disabling MS attempts to get me to use their other software" or "dig deep for how to change a setting MS would really rather you don't change" periods and it made me realize that that was where I'd spend a majority of the "computer maintenance" time on windows.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

remind me about the odds on whether a specific distro will work with my gpu or cpu

[–] gnuplusmatt@reddthat.com 3 points 6 hours ago

odds are pretty good these days, and if you're worried dont switch now, but next time you buy hardware buy it with the intention that you may switch and opt for some Linux friendly hardware, which is pretty simple - avoid nvidia and realtek (avoid realtek on windows too if I'm being honest), make sure things are compatible with standards.

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Odds?

Just look it up, or tell me what you have.

Regardless of what you have, the "odds" are good.

If you have something unusual that causes problems, that's too bad, but it doesn't stop the rest of us from having a good time. And now that I'm on linux, I can make sure something will work before I buy it, and if it doesn't, I can return it.

It's only at the time of when you switch you need to think about whether your existing hardware will work.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

it says created for windows vista on the front if that helps

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

It'll work.

I just installed plain old boring Debian on three (3) random decommissioned office PCs the other day and every single piece of hardware in them worked out of the box including the Wi-Fi cards.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

What's so hard about C:\users\skisnow, it's pretty intuitive. Also I don't think that has changed for almost 2 decades now. (XP was last I remember it being different).

Unless your talking about OneDrive or some shit.

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 1 points 53 minutes ago* (last edited 51 minutes ago) (1 children)

What’s so hard about C:\users\skisnow, it’s pretty intuitive

Except it only plays out like that if you follow their entire plan for how you want to structure your files and do it exactly how they want. Yessir, I put my pictures in Pictures and my documents in Documents and my music in Music and my videos in Videos like a good boy and everything is taken care of, until the moment I have to do something very very slightly different to Microsoft's plan for my life, like get a second SDD or install one of the many many many applications out there that prefer to put themselves in the top level directory and store their own data in there.

Unless your talking about OneDrive or some shit.

You mean the OneDrive that gets bundled with every Windows along with an account that you have to really fight the computer to not give you? Why wouldn't I be including that?

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 1 points 7 minutes ago

You can move your home folder anywhere you want, like the second SSD you mentioned. This can be done with both a GUI and the command prompt. I'm forced to use a Mac OS for work, and use linux for my devices. But file systems on Windows are easy. Complaining about forced injections of ads or ai makes sense, but their file system is fine.

[–] Puddinghelmet@lemmy.world 14 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Repost: The power and influence of billionaire tech companies over the government is enormous. Ofcourse workers/users don't get any (privacy) rights in america, none is lobbying for them lol, nobody in Washington is fighting for us

  • A measure you would normally impose on convicted criminals or terrorist leaders is now being used by the U.S. against these three people:
    • former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was responsible for European legislation including on social media;
    • Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, who researches online hate, A US judge has temporarily blocked the detention of this British social media campaigner Imran Ahmed, who took legal action against the US government over having his visa removed. Mr Ahmed, a US permanent resident, had warned that being detained and possibly deported would tear him away from his American wife and child. 😳;
    • and Clare Melford, who maps disinformation with her organization.

All three are now banned from entering the United States because they criticize and restrict American social media platforms such as X and Facebook.

  • Trumps inauguration lmao
[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

their power and influence wont stop 100 million people breaking down their gates, grabbing them out of their beds, and throwing them into woodchippers.

[–] Asfalttikyntaja@sopuli.xyz 8 points 10 hours ago

I’m holding my breath, do it quickly.

[–] regedit@lemmy.zip 11 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

The more this shit goes on, the more I find myself aligning with the villains in James Bond films. Burn this whole system to the fucking ground!

[–] okmko@lemmy.world 6 points 12 hours ago

Moves hands up thighs Oh Mr. Bond

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[–] DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

No no absolutely not Big Tech built a large spy network and now all of your lives are hot linked to every CEO across the planet.

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