#anonymity

[prokopetz]

Tumblr's unlimited name changes policy is fantastic because there are several blogs I follow who are forever gushing about their perfect beautiful girlfriends, except it's a different blog name in the "perfect beautiful girlfriend" spot every other week, and I have absolutely no way of knowing which of several possible explanations is really going on here, which is as it should be.

[learnwithmearticles]

A Violation of Two Amendments

If you’ve seen a lot of posts online about KOSA, it’s because it has the potential to drastically change the internet.

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is a proposed bill receiving U.S. Democratic and Republican support.

It pulls on strong concerns about the safety of children, especially the fabricated concerns of LGBT+ topics propagandized by conservatives. It would permit the government to censor the internet at will, restricting what information is available online for everyone, even people in other countries.

The bill would permit attorneys general to prevent basic information about healthcare, mental health, world news, and more from being accessible online, keeping adults as well as children from finding important information and resources.

There are valid concerns about the internet and its ability to harm people, especially children. I have written a thesis specifically about the relationships between mental health and social media. In no way would I ever advocate for increased censorship in the way that this bill does.

It specifically violates the First Amendment of the Constitution, inserting governmental control over people’s speech, the sharing of news, and the sharing of opinions. This would be placing the responsibility of parenting on the government, and allowing them to determine exactly what children -and adults- are allowed to learn.

Furthermore, it is disguised as a bill to ‘protect children’, and that phrase itself has unfortunately become a dog whistle for conservatives referring to LGBT+ topics existing in the world. This bill is extremely dangerous to young LGBT+ individuals.

It is also dangerous to people of different races, nationalities, economic backgrounds, and gun owners. This is because it would virtually mandate age verification. This poses danger for children, people facing domestic abuse, and houseless people, as well as violating the Fourteenth Amendment, which asserts that the state cannot exert undue control over its citizens’ private lives.

Many organizations and websites have initiated petitions and calls to action to express disapproval of this bill, outlining its rights violations, and helping individuals find out how to contact their senators. Some of those resources are linked below.

Additional Resources

1.https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/dont-fall-latest-changes-dangerous-kids-online-safety-act

2. https://www.stopkosa.com/

3.https://www.change.org/p/save-our-free-and-open-internet-stop-the-kids-online-safety-act4. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/censorship-wont-make-kids-safe?nowrapper=true

[techploration]

How Do You Hide DNA?

The TV trope answer is rubber gloves and bleach. You do your best to not leave any, and destroy what is left. This is also the Gattaca approach, where in a society stratified by DNA you avoid detection of your ‘inferior’ DNA by … exfoliating?

This approach has obvious flaws. Imagining that you’ll never shed a hair or eyelash or slough off some skin cells seems naive. Encasing your body in a DNA encapsulating shroud is hardly subtle or convenient (hazmat chic has yet to happen). So what do you do?

You add some Noise

You know what is a lot easier than making sure no one ever gets a hold of your DNA? Making sure no one can reliably get a hold of your DNA, and that your DNA never shows up on its own.

You might think I’m going to suggest hacking your own DNA so that it changes constantly— let’s call that phase 2.

Phase 1– DNA spore cloud

Imagine this but all DNA

You set up simple bioreactor farms to churn out DNA strands (this tech already exists), get your sequence source from Ancestry.com and you get to work laundering DNA.

A misting of this DNA soup would make all other DNA functionally invisible— how are you going to separate out one set of DNA from the others?

And with the randomness of the seed data (and data breaches), your DNA being present has no legal bearing on you having been there in person.

Oh, and Phase 3 is we hack lichens to generate human DNA spore clouds and add them to architecture as a passive form of DNA cloaking

[unhingedperson]

vēnor 🍷✨

[intersectionalpraxis]

I deactivated my account late last night after seeing this, and they emailed me back saying one of my reviews didn't meet their guidelines. I won't be re-activating to 'appeal their decision' by changing it because I haven't used this site in forever. But my 'review' when I used to work for a problematic wellness retail chain was mostly about rampant micro-management, a lack of proper pay raises -especially since there was zero commissions for the amount of work you do in-store, to not being compensated properly for work outside of your duties (and the blurring of those responsibilities because I would often do things a store manager would do or an assistant even when I stepped down -like training). I wrote it very professionally, without profanity, so it makes me wonder what the hell I said that was so inappropriate.... interesting Glassdoor.

[in-tenebris-et-in-solitudine]

[yrluvjane]

SNEAK PEEK - ANONYMITY

Dear Y/n,

I can imagine the skepticism you must feel as you read these words, as they come from a complete stranger. But please, hear me out. Let me tell you about myself, and hopefully, you'll feel a little less hesitant about reading on. I promise that you won't immediately reach for the lighter.

Sometimes, when I close my eyes and focus, I can almost remember the day where we first met. You were undoubtedly the most beautiful and kindest person I had met, and that day was one of my most cherished memories. I think if I looked deep down, even then, I would have realized it. There was just something about you, something that made you stand out in a crowd.

Signed,

P.

[kiruliom]

gentle reminder that anonymity online is so so important and that you dont have to disclose anything about yourself, ever, you shouldnt have to be cornered into giving out idk your disabilities, triggers, AGAB, race, anything! you have the right to not disclose anything, you dont owe anyone an explanation for anything. it doesnt mean youre a liar or that you have malicious intentions, its just a way to keep you safe both online and possibly in real life.

also it's very very easy to lie on the internet, if youre forcing someone into giving out info about themselves because you dont trust their intentions how can you trust them enough to know theyre telling the truth when they're cornered

[solidude-of-solitude]

[prokopetz]

The whole “you must publicly disclose every emotional vulnerability you’ve ever had and every trauma you’ve ever experienced as a minimum buy-in for participating in social life” thing kind of makes sense on platforms that want to strongly link your online identity with your real identity, in a horrible, surveillance-culture-poisoned, mutually-assured-destruction sort of way, but it’s just plain senseless on deliberately anonymised platforms like Tumblr. When lying about yourself is trivial and maintaining multiple disconnected identities – including disposable “burner” identities – is both easy and encouraged, going full disclosure is painting a target on your back for no reason. Literally anybody who’s so inclined can use that stuff against you without exposing themselves at all.

[philosophybits]

Capitalism is above all anti-personal, the power of anonymity over human life. Capitalism uses man as goods for sale.

Nikolai Berdyaev, The Fate of Man in the Modern World

[melyzard]

This girl is...amazing. And - I hate to be the person diagnosing someone over the internet BUT - possibly very autistic.

(Also, she has a kinda sick backstory, helping her mom look for corrupt kickbacks in the New York Justice Department when she was a kid.)

[the-lights-are-loud]

It's weird to think that thousands have heard my words, but will never know my name or face

[titleknown]

While thinking about that terrible internet bill that California might pass (Call Governor Newsom ASAP if you live there and tell him to Veto it), it’s worth noting what these various terrible “protect the children” bills are wanting to do, as talked about in the article linked above, so we can prepare to fight against it.

Namely, all of them require age checks. And there’s a growing industry based around age checking that is pushing hard for this. That is not a coincidence.

And, it gets even scarier when you find out how this industry’s products work. Namely, they basically wants to mandate you record your face for the ability to basically visit any website at all, using “biometrics” to determine your age.

Anyone who knows about the way AI and “biometrics” handle faces; and more importantly how utterly inept it is at it, should be terrified about this digital phrenology becoming mandatory. Doubly so when you remember they’re going to store their data and it is inevitably going to leak.

Hell, according to activist Ashley Lake, they’re already using this sort of thing in the porn industry, and it is a fucking security nightmare.

They’re just going to get more and more bold on this push towards mass-surveilance in the name of “Protecting the Children,” so we need to stop it before it becomes embedded in the structure of our lives

So keep an eye out for these fuckers trying to normalize their product and; more importantly; keep an eye out on how we can fight back.

[randomfandomsstufff]

The best thing about tumblr is that not a single one of my irl knows about it and I can finally be the anonymous person I always want to be and I can talk about the stuff I want to talk about without having the feeling of anyone judging me.