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teamtrackmaster · 5 months

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The New Era Of Work: How Activity Tracking Is Shaping Employee

The effective tracking and management of activities of employee requires the use of various tools and techniques, including time tracking software, project management systems, communication platforms, and performance evaluation metrics. Time tracking software enables organizations to monitor the amount of time employees spend on specific tasks or projects, helping to identify areas of inefficiency and optimize resource allocation.

Project management systems allow teams to collaborate on tasks, set deadlines, track progress, and allocate resources effectively, ensuring that projects are completed on time and within budget.

Communication platforms such as email, instant messaging, and video conferencing tools facilitate effective communication and collaboration among remote and distributed teams. These platforms enable employees to share information, exchange ideas, and coordinate work activities, regardless of their physical location. Performance evaluation metrics, including key performance indicators (KPIs) and performance reviews, provide valuable insights into employee productivity, quality of work, and adherence to company standards.

Monitoring employee activity also plays a crucial role in ensuring compliance with company policies, industry regulations, and legal requirements. By tracking activities of employee, organizations can identify and address issues such as unauthorized access to sensitive information, violations of data security policies, and breaches of confidentiality. This helps mitigate risks and liabilities associated with non-compliance and safeguard the organization's reputation and integrity.

How Employee Activity Tracker Helps A Business?

An activities of employee tracker serves as a valuable tool for businesses in several key ways. Firstly, it provides insight into how employees allocate their time and resources, enabling managers to identify inefficiencies, streamline workflows, and optimize resource allocation. By monitoring activities of employee, businesses can track progress on projects, identify bottlenecks, and allocate resources effectively to ensure projects are completed on time and within budget.

Additionally, an activity tracker helps businesses ensure compliance with company policies, industry regulations, and legal requirements by monitoring employee behavior and identifying any potential violations or risks. This helps mitigate liabilities and safeguard the organization's reputation and integrity.

How Activity Tracking Is Shaping Employees According To The Current Environment?

In the current environment, characterized by widespread remote work and distributed teams, activity tracking is playing an increasingly pivotal role in shaping employee behavior, productivity, and overall performance. With the shift to remote work, employers are relying on activity tracking tools to monitor employee engagement, measure productivity, and ensure accountability in virtual work environments.

By computer activity tracker, such as time spent on tasks, project progress, and communication patterns, businesses can gain valuable insights into how work is being performed outside traditional office settings. This real-time visibility allows employers to identify potential bottlenecks, address productivity issues, and optimize workflow efficiencies to adapt to the challenges posed by remote work.

Moreover, activity tracking tools fosters a culture of transparency and accountability, encouraging employees to stay focused and accountable for their work even in remote settings. As remote work becomes increasingly prevalent, activity tracking is shaping employee behavior by providing the tools and insights necessary to thrive in the evolving work landscape.

Top 03 Employee Tracking Software

Toggl Track: Toggl Track is a popular activity tracking software that allows employees to log their work hours and track tasks and projects. It offers features such as one-click timers, customizable project tracking, and detailed reporting. Toggl Track is suitable for businesses of all sizes and integrates with various project management and productivity tools.

Hubstaff: Hubstaff is a comprehensive employee monitoring and time tracking software designed for remote teams. It offers features such as automatic time tracking, GPS tracking, activity monitoring, and productivity tracking. Hubstaff integrates with project management, accounting, and payroll tools, making it suitable for businesses looking for advanced time tracking and management capabilities.

Time Doctor: Time Doctor is a powerful employee time tracking and productivity software that helps businesses monitor activities of employee track time spent on tasks, and improve productivity. It offers features such as time tracking, screenshot capture, website and application tracking, and reporting. Time Doctor is suitable for businesses of all sizes, particularly those with remote or distributed teams. Also Watch: Leading Employee Engagement and Workforce Productivity Tool

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Conclusion!

In conclusion, the concept of employee activity stands as a cornerstone of modern workforce management, particularly in the context of evolving work dynamics such as remote and distributed teams.

Activities of employee tracking serves as a powerful tool for organizations seeking to optimize productivity, streamline workflows, and ensure accountability among their workforce.

By monitoring activities such as task completion, project progress, and communication patterns, employers can identify areas for improvement, address productivity bottlenecks, and allocate resources more effectively. This real-time visibility into activities of employee enables businesses to make data-driven decisions, optimize workflow efficiencies, and drive organizational success.

#Employee Activity #employee activity tracker #activity tracking software #computer activity tracker #employee tracking software #Youtube

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efficiencytracker · 6 months

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Beyond Busywork: Measuring What Matters In Employee Activity

From the bustling energy of daily tasks to the collaborative efforts that shape the future of businesses, the actions of individual employees collectively form the heartbeat of any thriving enterprise. In today's dynamic work environments, where competition is fierce and innovation is paramount, understanding and optimizing employee activity is not just advantageous—it's essential.

Employee activities encompass a spectrum of actions, ranging from routine tasks to creative problem-solving, from team collaborations to individual initiatives. It's the fuel that propels projects forward, the catalyst for innovation, and the cornerstone of workplace culture. In this article, we delve into the multifaceted nature of activity of employee, exploring its significance, its impact on organizational outcomes, and strategies to nurture and leverage it effectively.

As we navigate an era defined by rapid technological advancements, shifting market landscapes, and evolving workplace dynamics, the role of activity takes on new dimensions. Beyond mere productivity metrics, it reflects the engagement, motivation, and commitment of individuals towards shared goals.

Moreover, in an increasingly interconnected world, where collaboration and adaptability are prized assets, understanding how to harness and channel activity of employee becomes a strategic imperative for businesses seeking sustainable growth and competitive advantage.

From the traditional office settings to the virtual realms of remote work, the dynamic activities of employees are undergoing profound transformations. As organizations embrace flexibility and embrace diverse work arrangements, the challenge lies in fostering a sense of purpose and connection that transcends physical boundaries.

How can leaders inspire and empower employees to bring their best selves to work, regardless of their location or context? How can technology be harnessed to facilitate seamless collaboration and communication, enriching the tapestry activities of employees?

Is Using Employee Activity Tracker For Your Workforce Is Essential?

Using an activities tracker for your workforce can be highly beneficial and, in many cases, essential for maximizing productivity, optimizing resource allocation, and fostering accountability. By implementing such tools, organizations gain valuable insights into how time is spent, which tasks are being prioritized, and where potential bottlenecks or inefficiencies may lie.

Moreover, these computer activity trackers can help identify patterns and trends in employee behavior, enabling managers to tailor support and resources accordingly.

Additionally, in remote or distributed work environments, where physical oversight may be limited, activity trackers provide a means of maintaining visibility and ensuring that work is progressing as intended.

However, it's crucial to balance the benefits of monitoring with respect for employee privacy and autonomy, ensuring that these tools are used transparently and ethically to support—not surveil—workplace productivity and well-being.

Ultimately, while not essential in every context, activities of employees trackers can be valuable tools for enhancing organizational performance and empowering both employees and managers to achieve their goals effectively.

Benefits Of Activity Tracking Tool

Insightful Data Analysis: Activity tracking software provides valuable insights into how employees spend their time, which tasks they prioritize, and where productivity gains can be made. By analyzing this data, managers can identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement, enabling informed decision-making and resource allocation.

Optimized Resource Allocation: With visibility into employee activities, managers can allocate resources more effectively, ensuring that tasks are assigned to the right individuals based on their skills and availability. This helps prevent bottlenecks, minimize idle time, and streamline workflows, ultimately enhancing overall productivity.

Performance Evaluation And Feedback: Employee tracking software facilitates objective performance evaluation by providing concrete data on employee output and contributions. This enables managers to provide targeted feedback, recognize achievements, and address areas for development, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and accountability.

Enhanced Project Management: By tracking the progress of tasks and projects in real-time, activity tracking software enables better project management. Managers can monitor project milestones, identify potential delays, and allocate resources strategically to ensure timely delivery and successful project outcomes.

Remote Work Facilitation: In remote or distributed work environments, activity tracking software provides a means of maintaining visibility and accountability. Managers can monitor remote employees' activities, track their progress, and offer support as needed, fostering collaboration and communication across geographically dispersed teams. Also Watch: Leading Employee Engagement and Workforce Productivity Tool

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Conclusion

As we conclude this exploration, it becomes evident that beyond the surface level of busyness lies a realm where meaningful contribution, strategic focus, and purposeful engagement intersect. Organizations that recognize this reality and embrace a holistic approach to measuring employee activity stand to reap significant rewards.

Firstly, by shifting the focus from mere activity metrics to outcomes-driven analysis, organizations can gain deeper insights into the value generated by individual and collective efforts. This shift enables leaders to identify high-impact activities, optimize resource allocation, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Moreover, by measuring what matters in the activities of employees, organizations can cultivate a workforce that is not only productive but also engaged and motivated. When employees understand how their contributions align with broader organizational objectives, they feel a greater sense of purpose and fulfillment in their work. This, in turn, leads to higher levels of job satisfaction, increased morale, and ultimately, improved retention rates.

#Employee Activity #employee activity tracker #activity tracking software #computer activity tracker #employee tracking #Youtube

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workhubsoftware · 7 months

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Beyond The Surface: Exploring The Depths Of Employee Activity

Businesses are constantly looking for ways to optimize productivity and efficiency in today's fast-paced digital age. One area that has garnered significant attention is employee activity. Beyond the surface-level tasks and projects, lies a treasure trove of insights waiting to be discovered. Let's delve deeper into the realms of employee work and explore the tools and techniques available to unearth its true potential.

Understanding Employee Tracking Activity

Employee tracker activity encompasses a wide range of actions and behaviors within the workplace. From completing tasks and attending meetings to communication patterns and collaboration efforts, each interaction contributes to the overall productivity and performance of the workforce. However, traditional methods of tracking employee work often fall short of providing comprehensive insights.

The Rise of Employee Tracker's Activity

Enter employee work tracking software – a powerful tool designed to capture and analyze various aspects of employee behavior. Whether it's monitoring computer usage, tracking time spent on specific tasks, or assessing overall productivity levels, these trackers offer a glimpse into the day-to-day activities of employees.

Unlocking Insights with Activity Tracking Software

Activity tracking software goes beyond simply monitoring keystrokes or mouse clicks. By leveraging advanced algorithms and analytics, these tools can provide valuable insights into employee behavior. From identifying patterns and trends to detecting potential bottlenecks or inefficiencies, the data collected can help organizations make informed decisions and optimize workflows.

Enhancing Productivity and Performance

One of the key benefits of employee business tracking software is its ability to identify areas for improvement. By analyzing how employees allocate their time and resources, organizations can pinpoint opportunities to streamline processes, eliminate distractions, and enhance overall productivity. Additionally, by identifying top performers and replicating their strategies, businesses can foster a culture of excellence and drive better results.

Balancing Privacy and Transparency

While the benefits of employee occupation tracking are undeniable, it's essential to strike a balance between privacy and transparency. Respecting employee privacy rights and ensuring transparency in the use of attendance tracking software is crucial to maintaining trust and fostering a positive work environment. Clear communication, establishing guidelines, and providing employees with control over their data can help alleviate concerns and build confidence in the system.

Empowering Employees with Insights

Beyond its role in optimizing organizational performance, workforce activity tracking can also empower individual employees. By providing visibility into their own behavior and productivity metrics, employees can gain valuable insights into their work habits and areas for improvement. This self-awareness can drive personal growth and development, leading to greater job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Harnessing the Power of Data

In today's data-driven world, the ability to harness and analyze vast amounts of information is a game-changer. By leveraging workforce work data, organizations can gain a deeper understanding of their workforce dynamics, identify emerging trends, and anticipate future challenges. This strategic advantage enables businesses to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to changing market conditions with agility.

The Future of Employee Tracking Activity

As technology continues to evolve, so too will the capabilities of employee occupation-tracking software. From artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to advanced biometric sensors, the future holds exciting possibilities for unlocking the full potential of statement of work activity data. By embracing these innovations and harnessing the power of data-driven insights, organizations can drive greater efficiency, productivity, and success.

Navigating the Depths of Employee Tracking Activity: A Continued Exploration

As we navigate the depths of employee tracking work, it becomes increasingly evident that the journey is ongoing. With each new technological advancement and organizational evolution, there are new insights to be gained and new challenges to overcome. By staying vigilant and adaptive, businesses can continue to uncover hidden efficiencies, optimize workflows, and empower their workforce for success. In this ever-changing landscape, the quest to understand and leverage workforce work remains a vital pursuit, driving continuous improvement and innovation across all facets of the modern workplace. In this pursuit lies the promise of unlocking the true potential of employee tracking work, propelling organizations toward greater heights of productivity and success.

Conclusion

Employee work tracking software represents a rich source of untapped potential for businesses seeking to optimize performance and productivity. By leveraging the capabilities of activity-tracking software and embracing a culture of transparency and accountability, organizations can unlock valuable insights and drive meaningful change. The journey beyond the surface of employee activity is one filled with opportunities for growth, innovation, and success.

#Employee activity #Employee activity tracker #Activity tracking software #Computer activity tracker #Employee tracking software

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employeesproductivityhub · 7 months

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Beyond The Surface: Exploring The Depths Of Employee Activity

Understanding Employee Tracking Activity

The Rise of Employee Tracker's Activity

Unlocking Insights with Activity Tracking Software

Enhancing Productivity and Performance

Balancing Privacy and Transparency

Empowering Employees with Insights

Harnessing the Power of Data

The Future of Employee Tracking Activity

Navigating the Depths of Employee Tracking Activity: A Continued Exploration

Conclusion

#Employee activity #Employee activity tracker #Activity tracking software #Computer activity tracker #Employee tracking software

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ms-demeanor · 1 year

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any thoughts on the new post that staff went scorched earth on which is now making the rounds abt tumblr live? it basically screenshots all the tos and claims if you've ever opened the app (or in some rbs, unsnoozed live) tumblr has gotten your data. on the one hand i feel like this is fearmongering, but on the other its true that MOST sites have your data as is so its pretty standard. you seem pretty knowledgeable abt data gathering so i was wondering abt your take

This is going to be pretty unkind but watching tumblr users interact with staff and live is a great primer on how conspiracy theories happen.

Nobody on this fucking website knows how to read a ToS, nobody on this website knows how anything fucking works (sorry, this is not a dig at you but how would tumblr "get" your data from you clicking or unclicking live; the only data that tumblr has on you is the data that you have put on tumblr what data do people think that clicking the "new" button is scooping up that is anything beyond interactions or posts or IP addresses which are the things that tumblr already has information about like you do not introduce new information into the tumblr ecosystem by clicking a button you haven't installed anything you haven't changed permissions on your browser if everyone is so goddamned scared about live stealing their data i strongly recommend they stop using anything but public internet through an anonymizer and making sure location data is shut off on all of their devices and anyone who is flipping their shit about the type of data that live is collecting but who is using chrome on any device needs to chill the fuck out about live and flip the fuck out about google)

this is like that post about twitter's content policy that circulated the other day or that post about deviantart's content policy that circulated ten fucking years ago nobody knows how to read legal documents and nobody knows how to read technical documentation and this comes together into unholy matrimony on the no reading comprehension at all moral panic website

live never violated the GDPR it was just rolled out in the US first but the entire userbase decided that because it hadn't been rolled out simultaneously in the EU and the US that it was SO UNSPEAKABLY PRIVACY VIOLATEY THAT THE EU HAD BANNED IT FOR ITS CRIMES with, like, nothing whatsoever backing that up because, again, even at its most intrusive Live collects about as much data as Twitter or Yelp, both of which are *capable* of meeting GDPR standards with that level of data collection (even if musk sometimes makes decisions that violate GDPR).

Live is significantly less intrusive than any facebook product, than Amazon, and than any Google product. If you use youtube logged in, don't worry about live, the horse is out of the barn and tumblr is the least of your worries *regardless* of live. If you regularly use Google as a search engine please god learn how to evaluate and compare risks across platforms because Live is like a coughing baby compared to about a dozen things that most highly online people interact with every single day.

If you don't want to use live don't use live. Clicking the button doesn't magically transfer your secret FBI file to tumblr and even agreeing to the ToS doesn't share anything that tumblr doesn't already have if you don't continue to interact - if you don't interact with live after agreeing to the ToS it's not collecting any data except your non-interaction.

For everyone who is losing it over Live just turn off your goddamned location on your fucking cellphone and turn off your location on your goddamned computers and that's it, you're good, you're fine, relax. If your response to "turn off your location" is "but I need it for _____" then don't worry about Live, whatever "_____" is was already collecting and selling your data.

Do you use an activity tracker? Congrats, you have much, much bigger privacy issues to worry about than tumblr live.

Okay but also I yelled about that post and the very many ways in which it was incorrect in January.

And I happened to take an archive of the page at that time because I'm a paranoid motherfucker.

And if you want my guess as to why staff went "scorched earth" on that post it's probably because if you scroll down to the bottom of the page on the archive, OP calls on everyone looking at the post to send a kind fuck you to the CEO then tagged his tumblr.

If you look at the other posts that went scorched earth in relation to tumblr staff they were also posts that very pointedly directed a lot of ire at a single staff member.

I don't think that any individual tumblr staff members are above criticism and I don't think that staff as a whole is above criticism but part of learning to read a ToS is understanding that someone can be shitty and vague and use TERF talking points and skirt the line and be technically okay under the ToS while someone can have a legitimate gripe about another user being horrible and manage to violate the ToS by accidentally spinning up a harassment campaign or suicide baiting someone.

Shitty people like nazis and terfs thrive on being edge cases. They are very good at finding a boundary and standing juuuuuuuuust on this side of it and going "la la la I'm not violating the ToS, you can't stop me!" and that blows and it leads to a lot of people encountering a lot of shitty stuff on a lot of websites but personally I'm pretty glad that there's a lot of gray area because when you cut out gray area that's when you see things like It's Going Down getting banned as extremist content alongside white supremacists. Please continue to report nazis and terfs, and when possible go deep into their pages to report because a pattern of behavior is more likely to get recognized as hate speech than a single post that gets reported a hundred times. Please block as many people who it's harmful for you to interact with as possible because it's clear that staff is not going to do the kind of work protecting users that users would like staff to do.

However I just can't get angry on behalf of a blogger who got nuked for saying "Hey everyone who hates this feature that we all hate please go tell the CEO to fuck himself at this URL specifically" - that is an extremely clear violation of the ToS because it is absolutely targeted harassment.

So now tumblr-the-userbase is going off on its merry conspiracy way skipping through fields and lacking reading comprehension and saying "users are getting banned for reporting the crimes of tumblr live and its gdpr violations" and ignoring the fact that the post was nuked because the last line was saying "hey everyone, let's all individually tell the CEO to fuck off in messages sent directly to him that are certainly not going to include any threats, exaggerations, gore, etc. etc. etc."

If I were to make a post that had 50k notes and the last line was "and while you're at it, please send tumblr-user-ms-demeanor a personalized message telling them why they're a terrible person so they know what we think of them" it would absolutely be reasonable to say that was harassing that user. And that post did it with the CEO. Who is not above criticism (and I have my criticisms! I don't think he really gets tumblr and that's a problem!), but jesus fucking christ don't tag the goddamned CEO or any other staff member in a call to action asking users to send them messages saying "fuck off" this is literally the stupidest thing I've ever seen a tumblr conspiracy theory coalesce around.

Anyway thank you for giving me a place to vent i've been getting more and more pissed about this for three days. Everyone feel free to kindly tell tumblr user ms demeanor to fuck off.

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pretty-little-mind33 · 5 months

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Tangerine x fem!reader

Summary: You've been the Twins' handler for years now, and when Tangerine blows up at you one evening after a mission, he apologizes in an unconventional way.

Epilogue

Genre: SMUT (nsfm)

Warnings: implied fuck boy!Tangerine, bitchy!Tangerine in the beginning, reader is named Peach, unprotected sex, passionate sex, not much foreplay (they're desperate lmao), swearing, insecurities, praise kink, degradation, emotional, Tangerine is all over the place and bad with his feelings!

~ i'm so sorry i feel like this took forever <3 enjoy! @j23r23 ~

TANGERINE MASTERLIST

"He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not," you smile, your nails drumming on the desk as you pick at the petals of the roses in the jar near your computer. "Ah ha, he loves me. Knew you were so full of shit," you hum happily.

"Piss off," Tangerine loudly grunts in your ear and you tilt your head, scrunching your nose. You've told him not to yell like that—you've warned him that the earpiece is sensitive and you'll lose your hearing if he continues like this—but he never listens.

Being the Twins handler for almost four years now you've learned how to deal with their quirks.

Lemon, as ruthless as he is, is too trusting. He's also loyal to a fault and he'd die for Tangerine in seconds; something you've had to account for in your missions so it doesn't happen.

Tangerine on the other hand? Recklessness under the guise of control. He'd burn the entire world down for Lemon without hesitation, his temper as bright as the flames of a wildfire.

Unexplainably however, you were drawn to him the most.

While he pushes your buttons like no one else, you also tend to push him in ways that leave him wanting—no needing—more.

"Tan," you warn again, "don't talk so loudly, they'll hear you!"

"Stop your yapping in my ear then, luv," Tangerine snaps, his comment snarky and you hear a loud humph as it sounds like someone crashes into something.

Tangerine sounds out of breath and you use your mouse to click on the map on your computer. You zoom in and ask, "Where's Lem? You aren't supposed to meet any security for a while—"

"He's busy, darlin'. And your little shortcut turned out to be not so short after all," Tangerine says and you hear a loud grunt. It's obvious he's in the middle of a fight.

Your blood runs cold as you chew on your lip. Your hands quickly dance over the keyboard as you try and find another way for them—an easier way—

"Hey, Peach, will ya stop breathing so damn loudly, it's distracting me," Tangerine's voice interrupts your worry and you hold your breath when you hear a loud thwap and then a grunt—immediately accompanied by cursing and more hoarse shouts.

"Tangerine!" his name spills from your lips as you hear louder blows. "Tan?" you whisper when the line disconnects and a low buzz is heard in your ear. You fumble to discard the earpiece onto the desk in front of you and then you focus on finding Lemon.

If anyone can help Tangerine, it's Lemon.

With a frown, you activate the tracker you'd promised not to slip into Lemon's jacket, and a little red light blinks on your computer screen. He's not far from where Tangerine is. You lean over and connect to the microphone on your computer.

"Lemon?!"

You hear a crack and then the shuffling of clothes against the microphone in the tracker. "Peach?" Lemon grunts, "Ya cheeky lil' bird, I told ya not to track me," he lets out a breathy laugh, and another smack is heard, "Fuck me, these fuckers just don't die easily!"

"Lem? Where's Tan?" you ask, seeing that the tracker Tangerine wears voluntarily on his suit hasn't moved in a while. "Is he okay? I think the earpiece broke."

Something must have happened to his tracker too if it's malfunctioning.

"Yeah, which is why I say I should wear it—but he's bossy and he's your favorite," Lemon says.

"I don't have favorites!" you insist, your cheeks burning.

"Sure, whatever," Lemon chuckles and then adds, "Ah, speaking of the devil—I can see 'im now. Damn, he's beat up ain't he. Bullocks. Y'know your little plan was shit, Peach, security swarmed us almost immediately!"

You pinch your eyes and guilt settles in your stomach. "I know, I know, I'm sorry,"

You hear Tangerine's voice distantly as he grumbles, "Fuckin' arsehole broke my earpiece when he punched me—I lost contact with Peach," he complains and you hear shuffling. Your stomach fills with unwanted butterflies at the sound of his voice and how your codename rolls off his tongue.

"She can hear ya," Lemon says, his smirk evident in his tone, "Say hello, Peach."

"She tracked ya?"

"Yeah, and bugged me too apparently."

"What the fuck, my tracker doesn't do that," Tangerine says and you hear an infliction in his voice.

"Yeah, cauz you always have the earpiece."

"Because she likes me better,"

"That's what I said!!"

"Oi, you wankers, I can still hear you," you interrupt, "Will you just come back to the van now? The mission's a bust," you finish. While they continue to bicker for a moment, Lemon finally shuts down the tracker—by breaking it you assume—idiot—and it isn't until the van door slams open that you hear and see them again.

"Oi, now you're takin' the piss," Tangerine exclaims, glaring at his brother as he runs a hand through his mussed hair. He enters the van and you stand. Your eyes scan over his appearance; his suit is torn and bloodied and he has a gaping cut on his forehead. His ear is also bleeding from when you assume the broken earpiece had shattered.

"Christ," you whisper and walk over to him. Lemon smirks as he walks by the both of you and collapses onto the second chair near your desk. He's less beat up than Tangerine—who'd taken on more men you assume—but you remind yourself to check on him later anyway.

Tangerine senses you come up to him and he tenses when you hold his cheeks in your hands and check his wounds. "Tan, this looks bad," you say.

"Peach, I'm fine," he grumbles and turns his head away. He sounds grumpier than usual.

"Look, I'm sorry—I'm sorry I messed up, I—"

Suddenly, Tangerine explodes. His hand comes up around his ears as he scrunches up his nose. "Will ya just stop talkin' for one fuckin' second?!" he yells and even Lemon, who had been a silent bystander to the conversation, looks up from where he's bandaging his hand.

Your eyes widen and you blink at Tangerine. "W-what?"

He presses his index on his temple and narrows his eyes at you. "I have a fuckin' headache 'cause of you and you talkin' my fuckin' ear off all the damn time! And now I can barely hear because it's ringing so fuckin' hard!" he points to the blood inside his ear.

You flinch at his tone and try to control the tears threatening to spill as he harshly berates you.

"Right," is all you say, "sorry," your voice sounds small and you push by him and out to the front of the van to start the engine.

* * *

When you arrive outside their house—well, your house too since you've been living with them for the past three months—you don't talk to Tangerine. You don't even look at him.

Instead, without a word, you walk up to your room, tears still brimming, and slam the door behind you.

Your stomach hurts and your nails dig into your palms as you run a shower. You desperately want to wash away any memory of what happened tonight.

It isn't uncommon for you and Tangerine to fight—but he's never shouted like that and never in response to your worry.

Once you finish with your shower and walk out of the bathroom, just a towel wrapped around your body, you jump when you see Tangerine standing in the middle of your room.

He'd clearly freshened up too but, unlike yours, his hair is freshly dried. You aren't surprised—you know he hates sleeping with it when it's wet.

He's wearing a casual pair of beige slacks and a white T-shirt. The fabric strains against the muscles in his arms as he crosses them across his chest and you look up, feeling a burn in your cheeks.

Tangerine's ear has been bandaged and his cuts and bruises look kindly tended to. Lemon, you assume, he's always been soft on his brother even when he's acting like a jerk.

Tangerine is staring at you intensely, his blue eyes shining a shade darker than usual.

"Shit, stop being creepy," you grumble, holding your towel tightly around yourself. "Have you come to say you're sorry for acting like a prick or just stare a hole into my head?"

Tangerine's eyes narrow and he shakes his head. He stalks closer to you, pink lips parted and his hands find your hair near your nape. He pulls you in, seemingly unbothered by the squeal you make or how you're unable to move your hands to push him away.

Not that you'd want to push him away anyway.

"The fuck you think you're doing?" you hiss, staring at him, "have you gone mad?"

Tangerine just continues to stare into your soul. "You're so damn annoying," he mutters.

"I'll scream and Lemon will come and beat the shit out of you," you threaten, challenging him. You know Lemon would never do such a thing and you'd be a fool to scream.

"But, fuck me, I like you so damn much," he finishes his sentence, and then his lips find yours. His hand tightens in your hair as he kisses you. There's no tenderness in his kiss, no hesitation or remorse, just pure passion as he wraps his arms around you and holds your back as he pulls your chest to his.

You clutch the towel, making sure it feels secure, and kiss him back. You make a small sound behind his lips but you can't deny the heat in the kiss or how badly your stomach tightens just right. The steam coming from your bathroom is taunting as it surrounds you; sticky and warm.

"Tan," you mumble as his hand comes around your jaw and he turns your head to kiss your neck.

"Shut up," he growls, "you talk too damn much." He squeezes his eyes shut and the words fall easily from his lips as they press to your skin.

"God, you don't understand how hard it is for me; hearing your sweet voice in my ear while I'm trying not to get fuckin' stabbed or shot to death! You don't know what you do to me, darlin'. You have no fuckin' clue. It's fuckin' torture," he says as his hand tightens in your hair and you whimper.

"Tan, m-my towel," you tell him, struggling to hold it up as his body presses against yours.

This makes Tangerine snap out of whatever trance he's in for a moment and he looks down at you. His eyes have softened just a little and his tone is sultry when he asks, "Let it fall. I don't care. Do you?" His lips quirk up. "I've dreamt of you naked a thousand times, luv."

Your eyes round at the intensity of his words. You want to tell him to fuck off—that you've never thought of him like this. Never imagined his lips on yours or the way he'd feel inside you. But then you'd be a liar, and you aren't a liar.

Instead, you drop the towel, your eyes still intensely locked onto his. The cold air sends a shiver up your spine and Tangerine's hands find the skin on your back instead of the towel. His eyes haven't left yours and he looks surprised that you'd done it. He hasn't looked down and his cheeks have turned a dusty pink.

"What?" you move your hands up to his cheeks and hold them, "you said you'd dreamt of this. Well?" With as much confidence as you can muster, tilt his head to your naked body. You can feel your hands tremble against his cheeks, all kinds of insecurities and uncertainties bubbling inside you and just as you're going to pull away from sheer embarrassment, Tangerine speaks;

"Fuckin' hell, you look so much better than in my imagination," his hands slide up the curves of your hips and breasts. His touch is surprisingly gentle for how passionate he'd been in the beginning.

You watch as his eyes roam around your body and he runs a hand over his jaw, staring at you with pure admiration. "You belong in a fuckin' museum," he whispers behind his hand.

"Alright, lover boy," you roll your eyes and shift to move away but his hands find your hips and he hoists you up into his arms. You gasp, your arms finding his shoulders and your legs cling to his waist as your wet hair sprinkles water over his face. It's a weird position to be in considering you're naked.

"Tangerine!" you cry as he carries you over to your bed and you squeal when he drops you and hovers over you.

"Let me worship you, darlin'," he whispers as his knee slides in between your legs and he kisses your lips again. He disconnects them and looks at you seriously, "Please," he pleads and your eyes widen.

Tangerine never says please.

You find yourself nodding, too lost in the haze of it all to hear the small voice in your head screaming how stupid this is.

He'll throw you away after. He doesn't care. He'll hurt you. He'll break your heart!

You kiss him again, his lips moving against yours rhythmically. You're so lost in pleasure that when he sits up on his heels to strip his shirt, you whine and grasp at his arms. "Shhh, I'm here, dove," he chuckles, enjoying the power he has over you. When he leans over you to kiss you again, this time your hands find his abs and you can't help but explore them.

"You countin' them, luv?" he chuckles after a moment and his lips find your nipples as he squeezes one of your breasts in his hands. You make an embarrassed sound that quickly turns into a moan when he positions your hips just right so the fabric of his slacks hits your clit.

"I know, I know," Tangerine teases as he senses how needy you're becoming. "Shit, you're just a little slut, aren't ya, luv? Knew you'd wear those dresses to tempt me—didn't ya?"

You nod. You had. You didn't think it worked—he always played it so cool.

"You should know I would wank one out after seeing you—your thighs so visible and," he pauses and uses his hands to spread you open until he sees what he wants, "and that pretty pussy. So fuckin' pretty—

—you let me have a peek sometimes didn't you, naughty girl? Knew you did it on purpose," Tangerine says. He sounds satisfied with himself that he'd found you out and his grin widens when you nod.

"Just for you," you whisper, looking up at him with hooded eyes. "Please, Tan," you whine, you're already so wet for him.

"What do you want, hm? Tell me," he smirks and dips his head down to kiss your neck as his hands wander around your skin. He sits back up and removes his slacks and boxers. Your eyes downturn on his cock and you bite your lip. God, is he really this beautiful everywhere? How fucking unfair.

Tangerine's hand comes up to your chin, "Where do you want me?"

You look into his eyes, unsure how to ask him for what you want. Tangerine smiles, his thumb touching your lip. He's gentle, his eyes softer now, "Peach," he leans in and kisses just behind your ear. You shiver. "It's okay. Tell me where you want me," he smiles against your skin.

"Inside me," you say, your voice small

Tangerine hums and tucks some of your hair behind your ear, "Where inside you, luv? I want to hear you say it for me."

You feel your cheeks warm and you stare up at him. "In my pussy," you say and Tangerine's eyes light up and he smirks.

"My pleasure," he says and shifts his hips until you feel his cock press against your pussy. He feels you tense as your hands tighten around his shoulder.

"Hey, it's just me," he says, pushing in slower now. He looks concerned as one of his hands finds your hair and pushes the strands away from your eyes.

Yeah, that's the issue, you want to tell him but you just nod, squeezing your eyes shut.

"Look at me," he says as he pushes inside you fully. You gasp, arching into him and your breathing becomes harsh. He's so thick and long. Tangerine doesn't move and you let out a whine, your eyelids fluttering. "I said, look at me. I won't move until you look at me, darlin'," he whispers sternly.

When you finally look at him he smiles, "Do you trust me? I'm not gonna hurt you—promise."

You nod, biting your lip. Of course, you trust him. "I trust you," you answer breathlessly.

"Good girl," Tangerine praises and kisses your forehead. He starts to move his hips, pulling in and out of you with torturous strokes. He feels so good.

As he fucks you, he leans his forehead on yours, occasionally whispering praises into your ear as he tells you how pretty you look with him buried inside you.

"So fuckin' pretty with my cock inside your pussy, hmm," he grunts, continuing the pounding of his hips. "You close, luv? Already?" He teases you with a smirk and kisses your lips. You let out small moans, skin warm and sticky as you nod.

"Good," he smiles and uses his thumb to rub your clit, adding pressure as he fucks into you. "So good for me. All for me, hmm?"

"Y-yes," you groan, squeezing your eyes shut.

"Open your eyes, Peach," he demands and you do so instantly. "I want to look into your eyes when you come apart around me."

With that, the tension breaks inside you. Your body feels weak from the pleasure and your chest rises and falls rapidly once your high finishes. You let yourself relax into the mattress for a moment, ignoring the sudden stream of thoughts—good and bad—that race into your mind. Tangerine's lips touch your forehead again and then he pulls out, finishing on your stomach with a grunt.

You blink, feeling the bed dip and then his warmth disappears. You panic a little but you're too weak to move. If he wants to leave, let him, you convince yourself as you stare at the ceiling. However, when you feel something cold and wet across your stomach, you flinch and scramble to sit up.

Your eyes are wide and Tangerine pauses, removing the washcloth from your skin. He frowns a little, "Hey, what's wrong?" he asks softly. You stare at him. He's still shirtless but he's pulled up his trousers.

"You aren't leaving?" you ask, looking around the room and you suddenly feel very bare.

Tangerine's frown deepens but he doesn't speak for a moment as he washes away his cum from your skin and, after discarding the washcloth, he reaches behind him to hand you his shirt. You accept it without thinking and put it on, wrapping your arms around yourself as you continue to stare at him.

He shifts, sitting beside you with one leg off the bed. He still hasn't answered and you start to feel an impending pit in your stomach.

"Why would I leave?" he asks calmly, his voice doesn't have a hint of concern in its tone.

You fiddle nervously with the hem of his shirt, looking down. Your hair, now half-dried, is a mess from the pillows and you push it down and around your ears in an effort to compose yourself in front of him. "Well, I- I just assumed that you would—"

Tangerine tilts his head. "You think I would fuck and ditch, did ya? Ya think so low of me, Peach?" It feels like he sounds almost amused.

You shake your head but your nerves don't stop. "I mean, what do you expect me to think, Tangerine?" you look into his eyes and continue, "You come in here, all pissed at me—you yelled at me earlier and made me feel all shitty about myself—and then out of nowhere you kiss me and then we—"

"Fuck." Tangerine finishes bluntly.

You narrow your eyes at him. "Yeah, that," you let out a breath, "So, please, tell me. What am I supposed to think? What do you want from me now? Because I can't be one of your fuck toys, Tan. I refuse to be that girl. I- I care about you—" you feel your emotions get caught in your throat and you feel your eyes sting. Furiously, you wipe your eyes with your hands, refusing to cry in front of him.

Tangerine hasn't said a word. He's looking at you but you can't read his expression. You hate it. You shut your eyes, ready to call it quits, and tell him to leave, but then you feel the bed dip again and you feel his hands cup your cheeks. Your eyes snap open.

"Don't cry," he whispers, his thumb sliding under your eyes and catching your tears, "Please, don't cry because of a stupid bastard like me," he cracks a smile, hoping you'll smile too but when you don't and he sighs, "Okay, I was a dick, a real fuckin' dick, and you didn't deserve any of that. I'm sorry."

You nod, still listening to him, "You really were a dick," you whisper.

Tangerine chuckles and nods too. "Yeah. I was," he pauses and moves his thumb across your cheeks as if admiring you some more, "Do ya really believe I'd fuck ya for this to be a one-time thing, luv? That I'd just throw ya away after?"

Your cheeks feel warm. "I- I don't know,"

"You do know. You think I would do that to ya," Tangerine says, his voice low.

"I mean—that's what you do don't you? I've known you for years, Tan. All those girls—"

Tangerine suddenly laughs and his hands drop from your face. "Peach, you aren't those girls," he says, suddenly serious, "I wasn't just making it up when I said how hard it is for me to listen to you in my ear all the time. Not because you're annoying—which sometimes you are but that's beside the point—but because I haven't been able to stop thinking about you for years. You're all I goddamn think about. Do you understand how hard that is for me?"

You just frown, shaking your head a little. "No. This doesn't make sense. Why now—why not yesterday? Or months ago? Or years ago?"

Tangerine runs a hand in his hair and lets out a breath. "Because I didn't want to but I snapped, I snapped, okay? I'm not fuckin' proud of it. I yelled at you and I felt so bad after I didn't know what to do with myself anymore—

—you're always there for Lem and me, and I realized, after that fuckin' earpiece broke, that I hated not having your pretty voice in my ear anymore. It felt like I'd lost you—do you have any idea how scared that made me feel, even when I knew it was irrational and that you were completely safe?" His words come out jumbled and strained. "I fuckin' hated it, I hated feeling like that so I snapped," he finishes.

You stare at him, his words hitting you hard. You've never seen him like this and it scares you, but it also turns you on some more. Why does he have to be so fucking hot? "And I'm sorry. I am. I would never throw you away. I don't want to throw you away after this—especially after fucking you—that's the last thing I would want! I– I-"

You stare at him some more, your eyes wide, "You what—?"

Tangerine pauses, "I love you," he says, articulating every word so you hear him clearly.

"You love me?"

"Yes."

"As in love love?"

"Fuckin' hell Peach, ya want me to scream it at ya or somethin'? I'm in love with ya. I love ya more than anythin' I fuckin' have. You're my everything. I love you so damn much."

All your anger, doubt, and shame instantly vanished into thin air. He loves you. All this time he'd loved and he was just shit at expressing his emotions? You laugh, covering your mouth with your hand as happiness overwhelms you.

"Are ya laughing at me?" Tangerine's voice cuts in the air and you focus on him. He looks surprised and hurt.

Your smile falters and you shake your head. There is so much you want to tell him that you're at a loss for words. He looks so pretty like this, sitting in front of you, and your hands find his cheek instead of using words.

Your fingers skim the bandage that's still wrapped around his ear and you want to ask him if it still hurts. You want to ask him so many things. He's staring at you, chest heaving, and you don't think as you kiss him.

It's softer than the previous passionate kiss you'd shared. Only, Tangerine reacts with as much eagerness as earlier. His hands find your back and he presses you against him, your lips sliding against yours. It's intense and lovely all in the same.

"I love you too," you say quietly between kisses.

"Say it louder," Tangerine suddenly hums, his eyes shut in pleasure. You think he needs you to talk louder because one of his ears is bandaged and hurt.

So, you do as he asks and it earns you another kiss, however when Tangerine mutters, "I wanna hear ya say it again," you know he heard you fine. His voice is so love sick you just grin and wrap your arms around him, your hands bunching in his curls.

"I love you, Tangerine," you say breathlessly, "I love you."

"You have no idea how happy ya just made ma, luv," he responds instantly, running his hand over your cheek as he looks into your eyes. "God, I'd die for ya," he mutters and you frown, slapping his arm a little.

"Don't talk about you dying, you git," you reprimand, and Tangerine smirks.

He kisses your neck and with a teasing tone he reassures you, "Ya have nothin' to worry about, luv. I'd much rather live for you. You have all of my heart, darlin'. It's all yours," he guides your hand to press your palm against his chest and you feel how quickly his heart is beating.

"This beats for you."

You smile and kiss his lips once more as you bring his other hand to your chest too. "And I'm yours," you whisper. "Only yours."

And until then, you'd never seen Tangerine's grin widen as widely as it did when you said those words.

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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Company that makes millions spying on students will get to sue a whistleblower

Yesterday, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia handed down a jaw-droppingly stupid and terrible decision, rejecting the whistleblower Ian Linkletter’s claim that he was engaged in legitimate criticism when he linked to freely available materials from the ed-tech surveillance company Proctorio:

https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/ca/23/01/2023BCCA0160.htm

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/20/links-arent-performances/#free-ian-linkletter

It’s been a minute since Linkletter’s case arose, so I’ll give you a little recap here. Proctorio is a massive, wildly profitable ed-tech company that sells a surveillance tool to monitor students while they take high-stakes tests from home. The tool monitors the student’s computer and the student’s face, especially their eye-movements. It also allows instructors and other personnel to watch the students and even take control of their computer. This is called “remote invigilation.”

This is ghastly in just about every way. For starters, Proctorio’s facial monitoring software embeds the usual racist problems with machine-learning stuff, and struggles to recognize Black and brown faces. Black children sitting exams under Proctorio’s gimlet eye have reported that the only way to satisfy Proctorio’s digital phrenology system is to work with multiple high-powered lights shining directly in their faces.

A Proctorio session typically begins with a student being forced to pan a webcam around their test-taking room. During lockdown, this meant that students who shared a room — for example, with a parent who worked night-shifts — would have to invade their family’s privacy, and might be disqualified because they couldn’t afford a place large enough to have private room in which to take their tests.

Proctorio’s tools also punish students for engaging in normal test-taking activity. Do you stare off into space when you’re trying through a problem? Bzzzt. Do you read questions aloud to yourself under your breath when you’re trying to understand their meanings? Bzzzt. Do you have IBS and need to go to the toilet? Bzzzt. The canon of remote invigilation horror stories is filled with accounts of students being forced to defecate themselves, or vomit down their shirts without turning their heads (because looking away is an automatically flagged offense).

The tragedy is that all of this is in service to the pedagogically bankrupt practice of high-stakes testing. Few pedagogists believe that the kind of exam that Proctorio seeks to recreate in students’ homes has real assessment merit. As the old saying goes, “Tests measure your ability to take tests.” But Proctorio doesn’t even measure your ability to take a test — it measures your ability to take a test with three bright lights shining directly on your face. Or while you are covered in your own feces and vomit. While you stare rigidly at a screen. While your tired mother who just worked 16 hours in a covid ward stands outside the door to your apartment.

The lockdown could have been an opportunity to improve educational assessment. There is a rich panoply of techniques that educators can adopt that deliver a far better picture of students’ learning, and work well for remote as well as in-person education. Instead, companies like Proctorio made vast fortunes, most of it from publicly funded institutions, by encouraging a worse-than-useless, discriminatory practice:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/24/proctor-ology/#miseducation

Proctorio clearly knows that its racket is brittle. Like any disaster profiteer, Proctorio will struggle to survive after the crisis passes and we awaken from our collective nightmare and ask ourselves why we were stampeded into using its terrible products. The company went to war against its critics.

In 2020, Proctorio CEO Mike Olsen doxed a child who complained about his company’s software in a Reddit forum:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/01/bossware/#moral-exemplar

In 2021, the reviews for Proctorio’s Chrome plugin all mysteriously vanished. Needless to say, these reviews — from students forced to use Proctorio’s spyware — were brutal:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/04/hypervigilance/#radical-transparency

Proctorio claims that it protects “educational integrity,” but its actions suggest a company far more concerned about the integrity of its own profits:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/unauthorized-paper/#cheating-anticheat

One of the critics that Proctorio attacked is Ian Linkletter. In 2020, Linkletter was a Learning Technology Specialist at UBC’s Faculty of Education. His job was to assess and support ed-tech tools, including Proctorio. In the course of that work, Linkletter reviewed Proctorio’s training material for educators, which are a bonanza of mask-off materials that are palpably contemptuous of students, who are presumed to be cheaters.

At the time, a debate over remote invigilation tools was raging through Canadian education circles, with students, teachers and parents fiercely arguing the merits and downsides of making surveillance the linchpin of assessment. Linkletter waded into this debate, tweeting a series of sharp criticisms of Proctorio. In these tweets, Linkletter linked to Proctorio’s unlisted, but publicly available, Youtube videos.

A note of explanation: Youtube videos can be flagged as “unlisted,” which means they don’t show up in searches. They can also be flagged as “private,” which means you have to be on a list of authorized users to see them. Proctorio made its training videos unlisted, but they weren’t private — they were visible to anyone who had a link to them.

Proctorio sued Linkletter for this. They argued that he had breached a duty of confidentiality, and that linking to these videos was a copyright violation:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/17/proctorio-v-linkletter/#proctorio

This is a classic SLAPP — a “strategic litigation against public participation.” That’s when a deep-pocketed, thin-skinned bully, like Proctorio, uses the threat of a long court battle to force their critics into silence. They know they can’t win their case, but that’s not the victory they’re seeking. They don’t want to win the case, they want to win the argument, by silencing a critic who would otherwise be bankrupted by legal fees.

Getting SLAPPed is no fun. I’ve been there. Just this year, a billionaire financier tried to force me into silence by threatening me with a lawsuit. Thankfully, Ken “Popehat” White was on the case, and he reminded this billionaire’s counsel that California has a strong anti-SLAPP law, and if Ken had to defend me in court, he could get a fortune in fees from the bully after he prevailed:

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1531684572479377409

British Columbia also has an anti-SLAPP law, but unlike California’s anti-SLAPP, the law is relatively new and untested. Still, Proctorio’s suit against Linkletter was such an obvious SLAPP that for many of us, it seemed likely that Linkletter would be able to defend himself from this American bully and its attempt to use Canada’s courts to silence a Canadian educator.

For Linkletter to use BC’s anti-SLAPP law, he would have to prove that he was weighing in on a matter of public interest, and that Proctorio’s copyright and confidentiality claims were nonsense, unlikely to prevail on their merits. If he could do that, he’d be able to get the case thrown out, without having to go through a lengthy, brutally expensive trial.

Incredibly, though, the lower court found against Linkletter. Naturally, Linkletter appealed. His “factotum” is a crystal clear document that sets out the serious errors of law and fact the lower court made:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aB1ztWDFr3MU6BsAMt6rWXOiXJ8sT3MY/view

But yesterday, the Court of Appeal upheld the lower court, repeating all of these gross errors and finding for Proctorio:

https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/ca/23/01/2023BCCA0160.htm

This judgment is grotesque. It makes a mockery of BC’s anti-SLAPP statute, to say nothing of Canadian copyright and confidentiality law. For starters, it finds that publishing a link can be a “performance” of a copyrighted work, which meant that when Linkletter linked to the world-viewable Youtube files that Proctorio had posted, he infringed on copyright.

This is a perverse, even surreal take on copyright. The court rejects Linkletter’s argument that even Youtube’s terms of service warned Proctorio that publishing world-viewable material on its site constituted permission for people to link to and watch that material.

But what about “fair dealing” (similar to fair use)? Linkletter argued that linking to a video that shows that Proctorio’s assurances to parents and students about its products’ benign nature were contradicted by the way it talked to educators was fair dealing. Fair dealing is a broad suite of limitations and exceptions to copyright for the purposes of commentary, criticism, study, satire, etc.

So even if linking is a copyright infringement (ugh, seriously?!), surely it’s fair dealing in this case. Proctorio was selling millions of dollars in software to public institutions, inflicting it on kids whose parents weren’t getting the whole story. Linkletter used Proctorio’s own words to rebut its assurances. What could be more fair dealing than that?

Not so fast, the appeals panel says: they say that Linkletter could have made his case just as well without linking to Proctorio’s materials. This is…bad. I mean, it’s also wrong, but it’s very bad, too. It’s wrong because an argument about what a company intends necessarily has to draw upon the company’s own statements. It’s absurd to say that Linkletter’s point would have been made equally well if he said “I disbelieve Proctorio’s public assurances because I’ve seen seekrit documents” as it was when he was able to link to those documents so that people could see them for themselves.

But it’s bad because it rips the heart out of the fair dealing exception for criticism. Publishing a link to a copyrighted work is the most minimal way to quote from it in a debate — Linkletter literally didn’t reproduce a single word, not a single letter, from Proctorio’s copyrighted works. If the court says, “Sure, you can quote from a work to criticize it, but only so much as you need to make your argument,” and then says, “But also, simply referencing a work without quoting it at all is taking too much,” then what reasonable person would ever try to rely on a fair dealing exemption for criticism?

Then there’s the confidentiality claim: in his submissions to the lower court and the appeals court, Linkletter pointed out that the “confidential” materials he’d linked to were available in many places online, and could be easily located with a Google search. Proctorio had uploaded these “confidential” materials to many sites — without flagging them as “unlisted” or “private.”

What’s more, the videos that Linkletter linked to were in found a “Help Center” that didn’t even have a terms-of-service condition that required confidentiality. How on Earth can materials that are publicly available all over the web be “confidential?”

Here, the court takes yet another bizarre turn in logic. They find that because a member of the public would have to “gather” the videos from “many sources,” that the collection of links was confidential, even if none of the links in the collection were confidential. Again, this is both wrong and bad.

Every investigator, every journalist, every critic, starts by looking in different places for information that can be combined to paint a coherent picture of what’s going on. This is the heart of “open source intelligence,” combing different sources for data points that shed light on one another.

The idea that “gathering” public information can breach confidentiality strikes directly at all investigative activity. Every day, every newspaper and news broadcast in Canada engages in this conduct. The appeals court has put them all in jeopardy with this terrible finding.

Finally, there’s the question of Proctorio’s security. Proctorio argued that by publishing links to its educator materials, Linkletter weakened the security of its products. That is, they claim that if students know how the invigilation tool works, it stops working. This is the very definition of “security through obscurity,” and it’s a practice that every serious infosec professional rejects. If Proctorio is telling the truth when it says that describing how its products work makes them stop working, then they make bad products that no one should pay money for.

The court absolutely flubs this one, too, accepting the claim of security through obscurity at face value. That’s a finding that flies in the face of all security research.

So what happens now? Well, Linkletter has lost his SLAPP claim, so nominally the case can proceed. Linkletter could appeal his case to Canada’s Supreme Court (about 7% of Supreme Court appeals of BC appeals court judgments get heard). Or Proctorio could drop the case. Or it could go to a full trial, where these outlandish ideas about copyright, confidentiality and information security would get a thorough — and blisteringly expensive — examination.

In Linkletter’s statement, he remains defiant and unwilling to give in to bullying, but says he’ll have to “carefully consider” his next step. That’s fair enough: there’s a lot on the line here:

https://linkletter.opened.ca/stand-against-proctorios-slapp-update-30/

Linkletter answers his supporters’ questions about how they can help with some excellent advice: “What I ask is for you to do what you can to protect students. Academic surveillance technology companies would like nothing more but for us all to shut up. Don’t let them silence you. Don’t let anyone or anything take away your human right to freedom of expression.”

Today (Apr 21), I’m speaking in Chicago at the Stigler Center’s Antitrust and Competition Conference. This weekend (Apr 22/23), I’m at the LA Times Festival of Books.

[Image ID: A girl working on a laptop. Her mouth has been taped shut. Glaring out of the laptop screen is the hostile red eye of HAL9000 from '2001: A Space Odyssey.' Behind them is a tattered, filthy, burned Canadian flag.]

Image: Ingo Bernhardt https://www.flickr.com/photos/spree2010/4930763550/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Eleanor Vladinsky (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canadian_flag_against_grey_sky.jpg

CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #security through obscurity #copyfight #education #cdnpoli #whistleblowers #pedagogy #canada #intimidation #corruption #slapp #ian linkletter #proctorio #censorship #remote invigilation

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drdemonprince · 2 years

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Heads up ask a manager reported recently on ppls companies monitoring mouse jigglers, ik you've recommended mouse movers in the past (game changer for me!) But can you talk more about the type of software that tries to out them? Thx

If your mouse jiggler is a piece of software, it's likely your employer can identify that it's been installed if they otherwise have access to what's on your device. But I have good news! There are physical mouse jigglers that employee trackers cannot detect.

Just to give you a taste of what a "physical mouse jiggler" search will bring up for you on Amazon:

There's this guy, which has a brightly lit LED pattern that swirls and sets off your mouse's sensor and is $29. It can plug into your computer or into the wall as a power source, but the mechanic for keeping your mouse "active" is not interfaced with your computer at all.

And there's this guy, which is USB chargeable and has a plastic disk that physically rotates under your mouse

Then there's this guy, which is completely mechanical and does not plug into anything, and merely needs to be wound up.

If you do not want to spend any money on a mouse jiggler, you can also follow @omgitsseddie's tip: dig up an old phone, ipad, or other flat-screened device that lights up, plug it into the wall, and then leave a swirling animated gif or looping video on its display. Place your mouse atop the screen and voila! constant mouse tripping.

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csuitebitches · 10 months

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2024 Planning

I started planning for 2024 today. I’ve learned a lot this year, made mistakes, had some successes and now it’s time to take all my learnings, good or bad, and go to the next level.

I prefer starting next year’s routine from 2023’s November and December so that by the time January rolls around, I’m settled into the routine. If there’s any revisions necessary, I can do them without starting my new year on the wrong foot.

I maintain my goals on mostly short and medium term basis. This includes daily, weekly and quarterly planning (I don’t do monthly because it doesn’t work for me).

This may seem complicated (actually, it looks more complicated than it is but it’s just what helps me) but let me show you how exactly I do things.

I keep two diaries. One for daily and weekly and one for quarterly. I have a habit tracker on my phone for my daily non-Negotiables (exercise, meditation, reading and language).

The quarterly diary is my big big diary. Every quarter, it lists out all the big plans, what i want to do and who i want to be. It’s all the messy thoughts I have, all my dreams, my weaknesses, my strengths, etc etc. The only “practical” part of the diary is that there is one general plan made at the end of my mad scribbling. It has the general idea, feedback I’ve received from other people and compilation of all the advice I’ve gotten from my mentors.

2. The daily - weekly diary breaks the plan into manageable bits. I write out the week’s plan (who do i need to meet, who do i need to follow up with, any major presentation coming up, any assignment, what am i reading this week) and write a one sentence daily update on it.

I can’t use a habit tracker for this because i’m not tracking meditation or exercise on here. I’m tracking my career goals, my ambitious goals, into smaller goals. A habit tracker wouldnt cut it because I would have to elaborate more on certain things.

For example:

“20-27th Nov: Weekly list

budget presentation on Monday

1 event to attend on Tuesday. Topic: XYZ

Reading: the inheritors

reach out to mentor, schedule a meeting

7 language essays and 7 videos

Monday, 20th Nov.

work presentation: complete.

Feedback received: i need to work on XYZ.

points they raised that didnt cross my mind: XYZ

follow ups required and if yes, with who: XYZ

reading: complete. Interesting point they brought up: XYZ

essay for the day: complete.

Video complete:

Tuesday, 21st Nov

mentor meeting scheduled

event went well. Met: A, B, C who work in XYZ companies. Follow up with them next week for coffee/ drinks.

essay: complete

video: complete”

Having two diaries helps me because i can find my bigger goals without having to go through the daily entry mess. I like having the two separate.

Nov ‘23 + Dec ‘23 + Q1 2024’s goals include:

Social (meeting new people, maintaining networks)

Intellectual (biographies, documentaries, industry reports)

Personal (soft skills, language studies)

Work (presentations, courses, conferences)

A major change I’ve making this year is actively working on every single weakness I have that I know is a potential strength. I’m ignoring weaknesses that I know are 100% weaknesses like coding because there’s just no way I can sit in front of a computer and learn all that, it’s absolutely not my cup of tea and does not make me happy.

I made a list of every single weakness i have and I’m embarrassed about and ashamed of. 2024 is the year of NO shame. I’m not letting my intrusive thoughts win.

Next to each weakness I wrote out a potential solution.

Ex: not picking up the language i’m studying as fast as i want to -> write 1 short essay and a 1-2 minute video of me talking about anything in that language every single day

I’m not allowing any unnecessary negative self doubt or self talk happen. Constructive criticism is one thing, being a bitch to yourself is another. I plan to learn a lot next year.

I’ve created a manageable exposure therapy plan for myself - I aim to meet 3 new people every month and follow up with 5 new connections every month, whether it’s over chat or irl.

I’ve made a list of business biographies I’m going to read. This year I reached my reading target earlier than anticipated which I’m very happy about. Next year I’m focusing on books that are solely about business, technology and psychology.

#powerful woman #c suite #strong women #ceo aesthetic #personal growth #that girl #productivity #getting your life together #balance #2024 planning #planning my year #Goals #goal setting #how to plan #diary #journal

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natashaslesbian · 4 months

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Nats daughter is going on her first mission and it doesn't go well. She's hurt and lost somewhere until Nat finds her and brings her back home

Send Out An Army

Word Count: 1.4K

————

Natasha was beside herself with worry. Her one and only baby girl off on her first solo mission. You’d been arguing with her for weeks, trying to convince her you were ready. It was only natural that she was worried but you had gone through the academy training just like everyone else. Natasha finally agreed to let you go when she sat in on your training session with Steve and you managed to knock him on his ass three times. You left a few hours ago and so far Nat had tried training, reading and even resorted to doing her paperwork to keep her distracted. She was in her office now, trying her best to keep her eyes off the clock.

It was quiet in Natasha’s office, so the sound of her mobile ringing took her by surprise. An unknown number appeared on the screen so Nat was skeptical about answering. She brought the phone up to her ear whispering a hello and listening to the crackle coming from the other end. “Hello?” Natasha asked again, being met with the same silence. She was about to hang up when a small voice called through “mama?” It whispered. “Y/n?” Natasha said, pulling the phone back up to her ear “baby are you okay?” She asked with a panicked voice. “Hurts mommy” you mumbled “what hurts baby? What’s happened where are you?” Natasha frantically asked as she made her way to find Tony and the rest of the team. “Lost” you coughed through the phone.

Natasha came bounding down the stairs where she met Clint and Steve in the kitchen. “Natasha?” Clint said, seeing the fear in his best friends eyes. “Y/n baby talk to me, where are you? What hurts?” The redhead said as she dragged the boys down the hall with her. “I don’t know mama” you cried as Natasha switched her phone to loud speaker “baby have you activated your tracker?” Your mom asked as Clint filled Tony in best he could of the situation. “Lost it. I’m scared mommy” you mumbled. “It’s alright sweetie we’re gonna find you I promise” Natasha cooed down the phone. “Stark where is she?” Steve asked as he joined Tony at the computers. “I’m not sure, somewhere in Bulgaria” he said. “How can you not know where?” Steve said frantically “it’s not standard procedure only Fury knows the exact location” Tony said, trying his best to hack into S.H.I.E.L.Ds files as quickly as possible. “Then call Fury!” Clint shouted.

You began coughing loudly over the phone “mommy” you cried. “It’s okay baby girl take some deep breaths for me alright we’re gonna find you” Natasha said as calmly as she could. Tony continued to scan the files as Steve headed off to gather the rest of the team and prepare the quinjet. “Mm tired” you said through the phone “y/n I need you to stay awake for me okay sweetheart” Natasha said, fighting back her tears. “Y/n?” She questioned when you failed to answer her “y/b baby talk to me” she pleaded. “Tony find her now!” Clint shouted, taking the phone from Nats hand “y/n its uncle Clint, can you tell me where you are? What’s around you bug?” He asked, pleading for you to respond. The silence was deafening as the three waited desperately for your voice to come back through the phone. “She’s in Yambol!” Tony cheered as he finally cracked your location “okay Steve’s on the jet let’s go” Clint said. “She’s dead I know she is” Natasha cried “hey don’t go there yet, we’re gonna find her” Clint comforted as he guided the redhead to the jet.

~~~~~

It felt like weeks you had been lying in the grass, the sharp pain had long ago turned into a dull ache and you were struggling to keep your eyes open. Your cries fell into the open space and you fought to keep your breath, the warm pool of blood being the only thing keeping away the cold. “Mom” you whined into the empty space, pleading for your mother to come and find you. You held on for as long as you could until your eyes finally fluttered closed. In your last consciousness your ears began to ring, sounding like a small crunch of leaves along the ground. Your mind started playing tricks on you, the sound of your mom calling echoing through your head.

Your shoulders began to shake and a soft hand against your cheek pulled you back into reality. “Y/n come on open your eyes baby” a familiar voice called. “Mommy?” You mumbled as you pealed open your eyes “I’m here sweetie, mamas got you” Natasha cooed as she lent over you protectively. “You found me” you smiled up at your mom “yeah we did baby” Nat said as she gently stroked your hair “we?” You sleepily asked. “Hey kid” Clint said as he came to your side and began tending to the open wound on your abdomen “we’re gonna get you home alright” he said. You groaned as your uncle pressed down on your injury, quietly crying out in pain. “Shhh sweet girl it’s ok, you’re okay now” Natasha comforted you “thought I was gonna die mama” you weakly said.

Natasha lent her body down beside yours to give you a tight hug, avoiding your wound “oh my baby I’m so sorry” she said. “I should never have let you come this is all my fault” your mom cried. You slowly reached up your hand to wipe away your mamas tears “no mommy” you whispered “you saved me” Natasha took your hand in hers and gently kissed it. You cried out again as Clint pressed down on your abdomen “sorry kiddo” he empathised “so tired” you groaned, eyelids fluttering closed “no no come on sweetie keep your eyes open for us ok” Natasha pleaded “you’re gonna be alright baby we’re gonna get you home” your mom cooed. You tried to keep your eyes open but being back in your mamas arms you couldn’t help but bask in her comfort. Before long you lost the battle, falling into unconsciousness. “we need to get her to the jet” Clint said to Natasha.

~~~~~

You felt a gentle scratch along your scalp as you began to wake up, unsure of where you were and almost who you were, until you opened your eyes. “Hey baby girl” Natasha said as she rose to her feet by your side. Her red hair was messy with loose pieces falling by her face, the bags under her eyes were a give away as to how long you had been out. “Mommy” you croaked out “you look tired” you said. Natasha let out a small laugh as a stray tear fell from her eye “oh y/n, I’m okay I promise, you’re the one who needs looking after right now” she said “we look after each other mama” you smiled, attempting to sit up but stopping as a sharp pain shot through your abdomen, reminding you off why you were in the infirmary. You sighed loudly as Natasha softly took a hold of you “easy baby, just lie back ok” she said as she helped you to lay back down “you get some rest ok, we’ll talk later when you’re properly awake” your mom said as she placed a soft kiss on your forehead.

It was a few hours later when you woke up again, your mom still sitting by your side. “There’s my girl” Natasha said “look who’s here to see you” she said as she pointed to the man on the other side of your bed. “Uncle Clint” you smiled “thanks…for what you did” you said sadly “hey none of that” Clint said as he saw your eyes well up “don’t you dare go blaming yourself kiddo, missions go wrong, whatever happened wasn’t your fault” he said. “It was” you cried “what did happen sweetie?” Your mom asked. “The brief said the facility was abandoned, but when I got there it was crawling with agents” you began, your mom placed a comforting hand over your own. “I set off the alarm trying to get in through the back door, I tried to get away and I thought I’d managed but when I stopped in the woods an agent came up behind me. I didn’t think he had any weapons so I fought him without mine but he pulled out a knife. I fell down when he cut me and I thought he was gonna kill me but they called him back to the facility” you sobbed.

Natasha felt the anger rise in her chest “the brief was wrong?” She asked “imma kill Fury” she said, answering her own question. “Mommy don’t go” you called after her as she headed for the door. “I’ll go, you stay here” Clint said as he guided Natasha back over to your bed “you’re not as scary as me” she giggled as she sat back down with you “no” Clint said “but the least I can do is warn Fury of angry mama Nat” he said as he pulled the door closed. Your mom turned her full attention back to you as she sat next to you on the bed “I’m here baby girl” she cooed “it wasn’t your fault ok” she said as she brushed your hair away from your face. You dropped your gaze, still feeling guilty despite what Natasha said. “Hey” your mom said as she lifted up your chin “I am so proud of you” she said “why? I failed” you whimpered. “I’m not talking about the mission, I’m proud of you y/n” Natasha said, leaving a soft kiss on your hairline.

“How did you find me?” You sleepily asked “Tony hacked into S.H.I.E.L.Ds data base” Natasha said. “He did?” You questioned “yeah he did” Nat answered “everyone was so worried “I’ve never seen Bruce move so fast” your mom giggled. You let out a small laugh at the thought. “I didn’t think they’d all come” you said “I knew you’d find me mama but I didn’t think everyone else would come to get me” you mumbled, almost falling asleep again. “They’re your family baby, of course they’d come” your mom cooed “you know they care about you right?” Natasha asked “I know” you smiled up at her “you’ve got a whole army of love and protection behind you y/n, don’t ever forget that” Nat said as she tucked you up in your baby blanket, she made sure you had it the second the team brought you to the medical bay. “Rest up okay baby” your mom cooed. “Can you read to me mommy? Please?” You asked with half closed eyes. “You never have to ask twice sweetie” Natasha said as she pulled your book from her bag, another essential she’d grabbed along with your blanket. Her soft voice lulled you into a comfortable and deep sleep. The deepness with which she spoke her words causing a gentle hum throughout the room. Your mom continued to read long after you had fallen asleep, comforting both you and herself.

————

Taglist<3

@saraaahsstuff / @dannipotatoo / @tobiaslut / @a-simpfortessa-lesbriean / @marvelnatasha12346 / @yelenasdiary / @mousetheorist / @ashadash0904

#marvel #natasha romanoff #black widow #marvel fic #nat x reader #avengers #natasha x daughter!reader #clint barton #tony stark #steve rogers

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wolfjackle-creates · 1 year

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Ghost!Robin Part 11

Time for another WIP Wednesday! I'm not sure if I'll have anything for next week. I'm working on a one shot right now as I can and wrapping up stuff for my final week of work which is taking a ton of time. Though I did get on a roll today and wrote a bit more than I'm posting, so maybe I'll have something.

Story Summary: Danny was invited to dinner at Wayne Manor to meet Jazz's boyfriend and his family for the first time. He worked hard to make sure no ghost business would interrupt the evening. But when he arrived, all he could focus on was the ghost of the dead Robin that seemed to haunt Jason. Looks like he was breaking his promise.

First, Previous

Word Count: 1.4k

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“Hn. What is the range on these devices?” asked Bruce.

Danny shrugged. “My stuff? From anywhere. I track through the Infinite Realms, not by Earth. GIW? Jason-Robin, they’ll be able to detect something from probably ten miles out of city limits, but they’d need to be within half a mile to get an accurate location. The Fentons? Mile or so. They get an exact location or nothing.”

Tim asked, “Is it likely the Fenton’s will come to Gotham?”

“Not sure,” admitted Danny. “But they sell commercially, so other ghost hunters might have their equipment. Jazz, pass the Fenton Finder?”

Damian couldn’t keep the incredulity out of his voice when he finally saw the blocky silver device with a circular, green screen on it and bits sticking up out of the front. “Why is there a light bulb attached to it?”

Even Robin looked at the device with a raised eyebrow and sent out a silent this real? his way.

“It flashes when a ghost is nearby,” Danny replied to both of them.

Tim hummed in interest. “Are the visible antennae necessary? Why are there multiple?”

“Most of my parents designs were cobbled together with whatever they could cannibalize from other household electronics and junk yards. Hence the less stream-lined appearance compared to the Guys in White’s stuff.”

He flicked the switch to turn it on and instantly the light bulb was flashing red, the radar screen turned on showing several dots in close vicinity to the center, and a robotic voice said, “You are surrounded by multiple ghosts. You’d have to be an idiot to not notice the ghosts all around you.”

Danny let it read out it’s warning again before flicking it back off. He had to laugh at the looks of complete bafflement on basically everyone’s faces. Even Bruce raised an eyebrow at it.

“Yeah, that’s my parents for you. FentonWorks designs are at least easy to spot. Not the the Guys in White’s stuff is much better. That horrible white on everything…” Danny shuddered. “I hate white.”

Bruce hummed. “Will you be able to provide us with some of these devices so we can study them on our own?”

Danny bit at his lower lip. “Probably. But it’ll have to wait until after I get you the information on how to safely work with ectoplasm. If Tim and Barbara are your big tech people, they’re not liminal at all and will have to be careful when handling it.”

Tim added, “We do have extensive experience working with toxic chemicals. Many of the Gotham rogues use chemical warfare.”

“Right. Yeah, I’ll have Tucker send you the safety sheets on it and we’ll see what devices I’ve got or can make duplicates of to get to you. I’ll be sure you get all three styles of hand-held trackers and their schematics. Maybe I’ll even be able to get you the schematics for a larger tracking system like what my parents have set up in Amity.”

Barbara nodded. “That would be great. What sort of set up do your parents have in your home town?”

“So they’ve set up sensors all over the city that detect ectoplasmic activity. The signal gets sent back to the computer in the ops center they built on top of their house, and they can pin the exact location of any ghost to within a foot or two anywhere within, like, five miles of the city limits. That data is also shared with the computer in their GAV.”

Jason bumped Jazz’s shoulder with his. “I know I’m gonna regret this, but what’s the ‘GAV’?”

Jazz sighed and answered. “It stands for Ghost Assault Vehicle. It’s a modified RV that’s basically a tank. Jack and Maddie simply have to press a button and a dozen ghost weapons will protrude from the vehicle and aim for any nearby ghost. And that’s without Maddie shoving her entire upper body out the window while holding a bazooka.”

“Yep. I regret asking. How badly am I gonna want to murder your parents by the time I’m done learning about them?”

“They are not my parents.” Jazz’s voice was hard.

At the same time, Danny answered, “Depends. How do you feel about genocidal mad scientists?”

Jason just let his head bang on the table. Robin flew over to him and patted him on the back. Jason seemed to subconsciously lean into the touch.

“Now,” said Danny. “I promised I’d show the rest of you these scanners up close.”

“That would be appreciated,” said Bruce. “We also have a few more questions about you and your parents.”

“And I need you to tell me more about these Lazarus pits because those sound like they’re a disaster.”

Alfred cleared his throat. “And I believe that will have to be the end of this meeting tonight. It is getting late and at least some of you will insist on going on patrol tonight still.”

A few people grumbled at Alfred’s words, but no one argued.

Danny made his way to the other side of the table and went over how to use the devices again. He pretended not to notice the way Jazz flinched when he turned on the Fenton Finder and it called out its warning again.

Jason did put an arm around her in response, though, so he figured she’d be all right.

“So that’s that,” he said once he turned off the last device. “I won’t be showing you any weapons until after we get you up to date on ghost biology and culture. If you run into issues in the meantime, you can call Jazz or me and we’ll take care of it.”

Bruce nodded. “We’ll be following up with our own experts as well.”

“Of course,” agreed Danny. “I figured. Now, you had some more questions?”

Tim asked, “You mentioned to me and Alfred that a member of Justice League Dark stopped by Amity. Can you tell us more about that?”

“I mean, there’s not much to tell,” said Danny. “It was John Constantine. And at the time I had no idea how famous he was. Would’ve asked for an autograph if I had, but oh well. This was shortly after I defeated Pariah Dark, the previous Ghost King. He came in, asked if I needed help. I told him I got it covered, he gave me a phone number, and that was that.”

Bruce hummed. “Yes, that sounds like Constantine. We will speak to him.”

“Why?” asked Danny. “It was exactly what I wanted. A check in to confirm I was okay and someone to reach out to on Earth if I got in over my head. It’s just by that time I started getting allies in the Realms. The big concern Earth-side was ghost hunters. And the worst of them were government sanctioned so I wasn’t sure if I should reach out to the Justice League since you guys also work with the US government.”

Jason let out a noise that Danny could only think of as a growl. “He should have spent enough time there to answer questions like that.”

Danny snorted. “Less than a week before he arrived, our entire town was removed from Earth and brought into the Infinite Realms for multiple days. Something would’ve been very wrong with him if he’d stuck around longer than it took to confirm it wasn’t likely to happen again.”

“I’m sorry,” asked Steph, “what is that about your entire town being transported off earth?”

“Don’t you know? My friends and I figured that’s why you sent Constantine to us.”

Barbara shook her head as she clicked around her computer. “There’s nothing in the Justice League files about it.”

“Huh. Well that’s how I became the Ghost King. The previous king was released by an idiot and lured to Amity. Ended up bringing the entire town into the Realms. His goal was to take over the town then the rest of earth. I defeated him in single combat while some other ghosts helped hold back his armies. No one bothered to tell me until later that that meant won his titles as well.”

Dick was frowning at him. “Why did you have to be the one to defeat him?”

Danny just blinked at him in confusion. “Who else was there? My accident is what activated the portal and started letting ghosts through. By making me half ghost, I had the powers necessary to contain the ones who caused problems. My parents were incompetent at best. So I just did what had to be done. Besides, if I hadn’t been an idiot, the portal never would’ve turned on in the first place. So it was my responsibility to fix it.”

----------

And no one at the table liked that answer! The end of the dinner is finally in sight! I know I'm overlooking characters. I'll do some editing to make sure everyone gets a say before I eventually get around to posting this to AO3. (It's a good part of the reason I haven't started cross posting, tbh. That and I like to have stories fully finished before I start posting.)

Hope you all enjoy.

Tag List Part 1:

@addie-lover-of-stories, @justwannabecat, @gin2212, @amercurio, @regonold, @overtherose, @readerzj, @sjrose1216, @echoednonny, @deeterzz, @blu-lilac, @number-one-jew, @rowanaway-fromthisbs, @vythika96, @tired-yet-awaken, @themirrorghost, @emeraldcorpral, @all-mights-asscheeks, @darkhinauniverse, @blep-23, @phandomhyperfixationblog, @larkcoe1, @thegatorsgoose, @job-ross-the-second, @britcision, @lenacraft, @bubblemixer, @androgynouslordofescapism, @purefrickingspite, @leftmiraclechaos, @lizisipancardo, @starlight-sparks, @miraculousandmore, @gildedphoenix, @sometimesthingsfallapart, @letmesayfuxk, @phoenixcatch7, @skulld3mort-1fan, @abaowo, @dhampir-princess, @idkmrpianoman, @sarina-elais, @ballzfrog-blog, @undead-essence, @spookytragedyshark, @flyingpansaurus, @akintoabitch, @marivictal, @8-29pm, @justreadingthefanfics, @happybear135, @kisatamao, @spoopyspoony, @adorablechaos, @sara0055, @screamingtofillthevoid

#dpxdc #danny fenton #jazz fenton #all the bats #anger management #my writing #were finally moving past the distrust!#at least a bit #constantine felt a chill go down his spine #he's gonna be spending longer than he'd like avoiding bats after this night #danny has no idea what he just unleashed on the wizard

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teamtrackmaster · 4 months

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Keystroke Tracker: The Ultimate Guide to Monitoring Employee Activity

Do you ever sit back and wonder what's happening on your company computers when you're not looking? Are employees diligently hammering away at tasks, or are there occasional detours into the world of online shopping or social media? The truth is, you might be surprised. But what if there was a way to gain complete transparency, to see every keystroke and action with crystal clarity?

Enter the world of keystroke tracker. These powerful tools are revolutionizing employee monitoring, giving employers an unprecedented view into their workforce's digital activity. But are keystroke trackers the ultimate answer to boosting productivity and ensuring security, or is there a darker side to consider?

In this comprehensive guide, we'll delve deep into the world of keystroke tracking, exploring its benefits, drawbacks, and everything in between.

What is a Keystroke Tracker?

A keystroke tracker is a software application that records every keystroke typed on a computer. This data can include:

Letters and numbers typed

Special characters used

Punctuation marks entered

Program commands and shortcuts

The software runs discreetly in the background, capturing this information and storing it for later review.

How Does Keystroke Tracking Software Work?

Keystroke tracking software operates in two primary ways:

Kernel-Level Monitoring: This method involves the software installing itself at a deep system level, granting it access to the raw data stream from the keyboard before it reaches specific applications. It provides a comprehensive record of all keystrokes, including login credentials and messages typed in chat applications.

Application-Level Monitoring: This method tracks keystrokes within specific programs or applications. It offers less intrusive monitoring but might not capture activity outside designated programs.

Here's a breakdown of the typical functionalities of keystroke-tracking software:

Real-time Monitoring: Certain programs allow employers to monitor employee activity in real-time, providing immediate insight into their work habits.

Keyword Filtering: Employers can set up keyword filters to flag specific phrases or activities, allowing them to identify potential security breaches or misuse of company resources.

Activity Logs and Reports: The software generates detailed logs and reports that categorize keystrokes, track application usage, and measure overall productivity.

Benefits of Using Keystroke Tracking Software

Proponents of keystroke tracking software tout several potential benefits for businesses:

Enhanced Productivity: By monitoring application usage and identifying unproductive activities, employers can encourage employees to focus on work-related tasks.

Improved Data Security: Keystroke trackers can detect suspicious activity, such as unauthorized login attempts or sensitive data being copied, helping to prevent data breaches.

Compliance Monitoring: In industries with strict regulatory requirements, keystroke tracking can ensure employees adhere to data security protocols and record-keeping regulations.

Training and Development: Analysis of keystroke data can reveal areas where employees might require additional training or support, allowing employers to bridge skill gaps and enhance overall efficiency.

Legal Considerations of Keystroke Monitoring

The legality of keystroke tracking software varies depending on geographical location and specific company policies. Here are some key factors to consider:

Employee Consent: In most jurisdictions, employers are required to obtain explicit employee consent before implementing keystroke monitoring. This consent should be clearly outlined in a written policy detailing the monitoring scope and purpose.

Data Privacy Laws: Regions with stringent data privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, impose limitations on how employee data can be collected, stored, and used. Employers must ensure compliance with relevant data privacy regulations.

Transparency and Trust: Open communication with employees regarding the use of keystroke monitoring software is crucial for building trust and fostering a positive work environment.

Alternatives to Keystroke Tracking Software:

While keystroke trackers offer a comprehensive approach to employee monitoring, some businesses might prefer alternative methods:

Website Blocking and Time Tracking Software: These programs restrict access to non-work-related websites and track time spent on different applications, promoting focused work.

Employee Productivity Monitoring Tools: These software solutions analyze document creation, email activity, and meeting participation to gauge employee productivity without resorting to keystroke monitoring.

Performance Reviews and Open Communication: Regular performance reviews and open communication channels can foster a culture of accountability and productivity without infringing on employee privacy.

You Can Also Watch:

youtube

Conclusion

keystroke tracker presents a powerful tool for employers seeking to monitor employee activity and optimize workflow. However, it's crucial to weigh the potential benefits against legal considerations and employee privacy concerns. Businesses should explore alternative solutions and prioritize clear communication with employees before implementing keystroke monitoring practices.

By carefully considering these factors, businesses can leverage technology to enhance employee productivity and achieve their organizational goals while maintaining a culture of trust and transparency.

#keystroke tracker #keystroke software #monitoring keystroke #keystroke monitoring #track computer activity #workforce management software #keystroke technology #Youtube

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copperbadge · 8 months

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Nice.

[ID: The score tracker of Endeavor OTC, a phone app designed to help treat ADHD. It is headed "Your Focus Score" and shows that between January 21st and January 26th, the day I'm posting, my score rose from 67 to 69, putting me in the top 10%, though 10% of what is not entirely clear.]

In addition to being funny, this is my highest score in Endeavor, a little infinite-runner style game where you navigate a track in a spaceship while shooting creatures that fly at you. (If you're curious, I have a tag about it here.) It's meant to help people with ADHD develop focus and while I haven't had astronomical results, I have seen improvements, so I've kept at it -- six weeks on, two weeks off.

This is my third "course" and it's consolation that I'm slowly moving upwards; my first course I went from my baseline of 36 to 62 very quickly, but my second course I just sat at 62 the entire six weeks, which was disheartening. Interestingly, I started improving again when I started listening to a podcast while playing.

The game has sound that can't be turned off unless you mute the phone, so you can't play anything else while the game is active. Without something to listen to while playing, I was getting frustrated with the game and not doing my best, so I started finding random episodes of podcasts I like on youtube and putting them on the computer nearby. It certainly has helped settle my mood.

I'm now part of a study Endeavor is running on app usage, focus, and attention, and I'm kind of hoping I'm not sabotaging something by listening to podcasts while I play, but I guess I'll find out eventually.

#endeavor otc #sam has adhd

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workhubsoftware · 8 months

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Virtual Witness: Solving Mysteries with Computer Activity Tracker

In the realm of solving mysteries, technology has become an indispensable tool. While detectives of old relied on keen observation and meticulous note-taking, modern investigators have a powerful ally in the form of computer activity tracker software. These virtual witnesses provide valuable insights into the actions and behaviors of individuals, shedding light on otherwise opaque situations.

The Rise of Computer Activity Tracking

With the proliferation of digital devices in both personal and professional settings, the need to monitor and track computer activity has never been greater. Whether it's ensuring productivity in the workplace or investigating suspicious behavior, computer activity tracking has become a crucial aspect of modern life.

Understanding Computer Activity Tracking

Computer activity tracking software monitors and records various actions performed on a computer. This can include websites visited, applications used, documents accessed, and even keystrokes typed. By compiling this data into comprehensive reports, investigators can reconstruct timelines and uncover patterns of behavior.

Solving Workplace Mysteries

One of the most common applications of computer activity tracking is in the workplace. Employers utilize employee monitoring software to monitor employee productivity, identify potential security breaches, and investigate incidents of misconduct. For example, if sensitive information is leaked, computer activity tracking can pinpoint the source of the breach and provide valuable evidence for disciplinary action or legal proceedings.

Enhancing Security Measures

In addition to monitoring employee behavior, computer activity tracking plays a vital role in enhancing overall security measures. By identifying unauthorized access attempts, detecting malware infections, and flagging suspicious activity, tracking software helps safeguard sensitive data and prevent cybersecurity threats.

Uncovering Digital Footprints

Just as every physical action leaves behind a trace, every digital interaction leaves behind a digital footprint. Computer activity tracking allows investigators to follow these digital breadcrumbs, piecing together a comprehensive picture of an individual's online behavior. It can be invaluable in criminal investigations, corporate espionage cases, and various other scenarios where digital evidence is crucial.

Balancing Privacy and Oversight

While the benefits of computer activity tracking are undeniable, it also raises important questions about privacy and oversight. Employers must strike a balance between monitoring employee activity for legitimate purposes and respecting their right to privacy. Implementing clear policies and safeguards, such as obtaining informed consent and restricting access to sensitive data, can help mitigate concerns and foster trust within the workplace.

Ensuring Compliance and Accountability

In regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, and law, compliance with industry standards and regulations is paramount. Computer activity tracking software helps organizations ensure compliance by monitoring employee productivity actions and enforcing adherence to established protocols. Additionally, it promotes accountability by providing a transparent record of activities, mitigating the risk of fraud or misconduct.

The Future of Computer Activity Tracking

As technology continues to evolve, so too will the capabilities of computer activity-tracking software. Advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning will enable more sophisticated analysis of data, allowing investigators to uncover insights and patterns that were previously inaccessible. However, with these advancements come new challenges and ethical considerations, underscoring the importance of responsible use and oversight.

In Conclusion

In an increasingly digitized world, computer activity tracking has emerged as a powerful tool for solving mysteries and uncovering insights. From workplace productivity to cybersecurity, its applications are diverse and far-reaching. However, it is essential to approach its use with caution, balancing the need for oversight with respect for privacy and individual rights. By harnessing the power of virtual witnesses, we can navigate the complexities of the digital age and unlock solutions to the most challenging mysteries.

Exploring New Horizons

Looking ahead, the potential of a computer activity tracker extends beyond its current applications. In the realm of law enforcement, for instance, it holds promise as a tool for tracking and apprehending cybercriminals. By analyzing patterns of online activity, investigators can identify suspects and gather evidence to build stronger cases. Similarly, in the field of psychology, computer activity tracking offers opportunities for understanding human behavior in unprecedented ways. Researchers can use data gathered from digital interactions to gain insights into cognitive processes, emotional states, and social dynamics. As technology continues to advance, the possibilities for computer activity tracking are limited only by our imagination. By embracing innovation and harnessing the power of virtual witnesses, we can unlock new horizons and propel society into a future where mysteries are solved with greater precision and insight than ever before.

#Computer Activity Tracker #Employee Tracking #tracking computer activity #computer activity tracking #work tracking software

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employeesproductivityhub · 8 months

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Virtual Witness: Solving Mysteries with Computer Activity Tracker

The Rise of Computer Activity Tracking

Understanding Computer Activity Tracking

Solving Workplace Mysteries

Enhancing Security Measures

Uncovering Digital Footprints

Balancing Privacy and Oversight

Ensuring Compliance and Accountability

The Future of Computer Activity Tracking

In Conclusion

Exploring New Horizons

#Computer Activity Tracker #Employee Tracking #tracking computer activity #computer activity tracking #work tracking software

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thinking1bee · 3 months

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You Haven't Failed Part 7

Requested by Anonymous

Pairings: Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Tags: Spidey!Reader, Venom!Reader, So Much Angst, Fluff, Established Relationship, Graphic Depictions of Injuries, Blood, Violence, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Smut

Everything Taglist: @sammy90682 @nobody13 @owloftheshadows @captain-josslett @camslightstories @worldovart @finleyfray @acertainredhead @sammm9068 @reginassecretlover @ara-a-bird

Additional Notes: The Venom suit in this fic is heavily inspired from the Spiderman 2 game for the ps5. I loved how the suit functioned and wanted to add that to the story

“These HYDRA agents are like goddamn cockroaches,” you mumbled into your comm.

After a few days of R&R, Nick had to send you, Wanda, Bucky, and Natasha on an emergency mission. He didn’t even take the time to brief you on what the mission was. He handed you all folders and told you to get on the carrier jet ASAP. You flipped through the folder when everyone was airborne and groaned after reading the contents. Somehow, another HYDRA base had sprung up despite HYDRA, as a group, being on the brink of eradication. Nick got word from S.H.I.E.L.D. that the base went live a few months ago and they were back to experimenting on people. He knew that both Wanda and Bucky would have a personal interest in the matter, and you saw just how right he was when Wanda’s face hardened into stone. She shared a look with Bucky, a look of solidarity and understanding, before she remained silent for the duration of the flight. You knew Wanda’s past with HYDRA and respected her need to focus. You gave her a single kiss on the forehead, one that earned you a soft and weak smile, before you turned your attention back to calibrating your suit.

Before leaving for your mission, Tony ran initial diagnostics and tests. He activated the suit and told you to be still while FRIDAY gathered the data needed to ensure the suit was calibrated to your homeostasis. From inside the helmet, you watched as FRIDAY measured your blood pressure, your BPM, oxygen saturation, neural interface, and several other things you didn’t recognize.

“What is all of this for?” you asked him as you watched screens and panels flash in your helmet.

“FRIDAY is measuring and recording all of this data because of a fail safe I installed in my servers. Any time you’re in life threatening danger, FRIDAY will try to keep you alive until you receive the care that you need. Additionally, if you’re in danger, there’s a tracker in the suit. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world. I’ll find you and so will Wanda.”

“Wanda?”

Tony nodded as he typed into his computer. “Considering how much she cares about you, I’m sure she’ll want to be the first to know if something happens.”

You watched as he finished typing, and then he faced you. He gave you your phone back.

“What did you do to it?” you asked suspiciously.

“Use it to watch Pornhub.”

You stared at him through the eyes of your mask, and he waved a hand.

“I installed a copy of Stark servers onto your phone and Wanda’s. This is just in case something happens to me. You’ll still have access to your suit and FRIDAY.”

“You installed literal gigabytes of information on a cellular device?”

He scrunched his face and shrugged. “Yes and no. What you have access to is on a cloud. The cloud is connected to your phone, and the suit can connect to your phone via Bluetooth if need be.”

“Okay, for the 64 million dollar question. What do I look like?”

Tony smiled proudly, and you watched him grab a large mirror before he positioned it in front of you. With Peter’s original suit, the primary color was blue, the secondary color was red, and the spider emblazoned on his chest was blue and outlined in gold. There were also gold highlights sprinkled throughout the suit. With your suit, the primary color was a shiny metallic black. Your legs and a part of your arms were that color. The secondary color was blue, which adorned the majority of your torso, and the spider emblem on your chest was a solid silver. You loved it but you couldn’t help the chuckle that left you.

“What happened to not making it ostentatious, Tony?”

“I can’t not be flashy, kid. I toned it down. At least give me that.”

You laughed as you looked at your hands. You turned them under the light and watched as the fluorescence made the metal shimmer.

“How do I take it off?”

“All you have to do is think about it. FRIDAY will do the rest.”

You did so and watched as the suit began to ripple, the nanotech appearing to liquify before the suit began to retract from your body. You watched as it turned into a thin bracelet on your wrist.

“Cool,” you commented as you eyed the black band.

That happened several hours ago. Now, you were crawling through the freezing vents of the HYDRA base. You were in the middle of nowhere, ass deep in the frozen tundra of Antarctica. It was cold as hell, but luckily, the base was better insulated from the elements considering that it was underground. Your mission details were clear. End the experimentation and free the hostages that were being experimented on. Not much was known about the base, so everyone had to explore while remaining unseen. The divide and conquer method was the faster approach, and you were slowly making your way down through the vents. You tried to eavesdrop on the ongoing conversations, but most of the scientists and guards were either German or Russian. You wished that Wanda or Nat was with you. They would have been able to listen in.

“I can’t understand a damn thing,” you whispered quietly.

The moment you said it, FRIDAY flashed to life in your helmet. You watched as the AI began to record the conversations, and as they talked, you were provided with subtitles.

“This is so fucking cool!”

You listened for only a second, but you heard them talk about more HYDRA bases popping up all over the world, and how it was easier to recruit more scientists and soldiers now that S.H.I.E.L.D. thought that they had the upper hand. FRIDAY continued to record, but you kept moving. Eventually, you came across a vent, and when you looked through it, you saw what was happening inside. You watched with a mixture of disgust, anger, and sympathy as people were injected with various substances. Screams of pain filled the air. Your jaw clenched as you spoke into your comm.

“Guys, I found it. It’s on floor 7A-3.”

“Understood,” came Natasha’s voice. “We’ll be there in 10.”

The plan was to wait until everyone got there, and then, everyone would come together to plan an attack. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. The room suddenly went dark before an alarm was activated. Flashes of red light filled the room before a voice spoke over an intercom.

“Intruder alert! Intruder alert!”

You knew for a fact that you hadn’t given away your position.

“Uh, guys?” you asked nervously.

“Fuck! Fuck!” came Bucky’s voice. You could hear gunfire over the comm. “Shit! They spotted me!”

“Bucky, where are you?” Wanda demanded.

“Floor 6.”

That was only one floor above you.

“I’m on my way, Bucky.”

You went to start crawling when agony exploded in your head. A loud, harsh, dissonant alarm blared through the intercom, and every time it went off, the cycle of high-pitched screeches repeating over again, you felt your mind split in two. You cried out, your hands grabbing your head. It was like someone was slamming a sledgehammer onto your skull, the pain tearing through your body.

“Y/n??”

You barely heard who called your name. You flipped onto your back, your body writhing and your back arching as screams tore through you. FRIDAY flashed a warning screen through your helmet, and if you could have seen past the tears that blurred your vision, you would have seen your entire body highlighted in red on the screen. Immediately, that same warning message was sent to Wanda and Tony.

“Y/n? Y/n?? детка?!”

You couldn’t respond to her. Your body smashed into the sides of the vent as screams of pain tore from your chest. The vent wasn’t able to support your thrashing, and before you knew it, the metal groaned and buckled. You crashed into the ground, your body thrown from the safety of the metal column as more tears cascaded down your face.

“Make it stop!” you wailed.

You couldn’t see it, but black tendrils, like the ones you saw in your stomach all those days ago, unfurled from your body again. They started at your chest and spread out to cover your limbs in thick, slimy, flesh. These were girthy, and with every stabbing blare from the alarm, the tentacles writhed hectically.

“Stop!” you cried out again.

The tentacles kept moving. They covered every inch of you until you were cocooned in a black mass of tissue.

“Stop it!”

The tentacles flattened and melded together. Like a second skin, it covered you thickly, the unknown mass imbuing you with a strength you’ve never felt before. You felt that second layer harden into something flexible, and then, you felt fury explode inside of you.

“I said STOP IT!!”

Those words had come from your mouth. You screamed them, but that wasn’t your voice. It’d been too deep, too inhuman to be you. Your eyes snapped open, and you no longer saw the flashing screens in your helmet. You realized rather quickly that you weren’t in your suit. You were in something different, something new. Your gaze now pulsed when the alarm rang, the room spinning around you, but you felt a mental clarity that you never had before. Your furious gaze turned to the source of your pain, and you extended your arm, your intention to web the speaker and rip it off the wall. However, instead of webs, was a massive ball of tentacles. They exploded from your arm and crashed into the wall. The cement cratered under your strength, dust and fragments of the destroyed speaker raining onto the floor before the tentacles retracted and folded back into the black suit you were now wearing. You took a deep breath, the haze of pain clearing from your head as you stood to your feet.

You were covered in nothing but black, the spider emblem on your chest now a stark white instead of silver. You felt great. Powerful. Unstoppable. God-like. Every breath you breathed went straight to your cells and you reveled in the way you felt so refreshed. You heard a small pop before something ricocheted off you, and you looked up to see that one of the agents had just tried to shoot you. The bullet that deflected from your body embedded itself into the nearby wall. You clenched your hands into fists, your neck and shoulders rolling as you felt the tension bleed away from you. There was no one here besides you and your targets, and this time, no one was going to stop you from wreaking hell in this room.

Part 8

#ladies of marvel #the avengers #wanda maximoff #wanda maximoff x reader #reader insert #x reader #fem!reader #spidey!reader #venom!reader #graphic depictions of injuries #graphic depictions of violence #angst #so much angst #fluff #smut #violence #blood #feelings #lgbtqia

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