Anti-Corporate Movement

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18769750

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/19208598

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/19172415

Google's campaign against ad blockers across its services just got more aggressive. According to a report by PC World, the company has made some alterations to its extension support on Google Chrome.

Google Chrome recently changed its extension support from the Manifest V2 framework to the new Manifest V3 framework. The browser policy changes will impact one of the most popular adblockers (arguably), uBlock Origin.

The transition to the Manifest V3 framework means extensions like uBlock Origin can't use remotely hosted code. According to Google, it "presents security risks by allowing unreviewed code to be executed in extensions." The new policy changes will only allow an extension to execute JavaScript as part of its package.

Over 30 million Google Chrome users use uBlock Origin, but the tool will be automatically disabled soon via an update. Google will let users enable the feature via the settings for a limited period before it's completely scrapped. From this point, users will be forced to switch to another browser or choose another ad blocker.

Archive link

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/19179773

Every artist, performer and creator on Patreon is about to get screwed out of 30% of their gross revenue, which will be diverted to Apple, the most valuable company on the planet. Apple contributes nothing to their work, but it will get to steal a third of their wages. How is this possible? Enshittification.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18643442

Starting soon at 18:00 UTC (a little over an hour from now).

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12299373

Today I encountered something new and dystopian:

You can airplay from your iphone to an appletv but now youtube drops and locks the quality at 360p, making the content unwatchable on larger screens.

Once you disable airplay, the quality jumps back to 1080p. If you choose 1080p before and enable airiplay after, it still changes.

This hasnt been an issue for years. this new anti consumer move prompted me to order another raspberry pi to put kodi on.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18508087

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12250966

Link to sign EU initiative: https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home

Guides on how to sign EU initiative: https://www.stopkillinggames.com/eci

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/15126981

This comes after a sea of games have been lost due to the creators turning off the servers. While community remake projects like RELB for Lawbreakers, Loadout Reloaded and a server emulator for The Crew exist, they're miles behind where we'd be if publishers just released a way to host our own servers before killing their creations. They need more signatures from European citizens and then the proposal goes to a board who decide what to do with it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/26203588

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18182378

Filed in 2022, the Texas lawsuit said that Meta was in violation of a state law that prohibits capturing or selling a resident’s biometric information, such as their face or fingerprint, without their consent.

The company announced in 2021 that it was shutting down its face-recognition system and delete the faceprints of more than 1 billion people amid growing concerns about the technology and its misuse by governments, police and others.

Texas filed a similar lawsuit against Google in 2022. Paxton’s lawsuit says the search giant collected millions of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and records of face geometry, through its products and services like Google Photos, Google Assistant, and Nest Hub Max. That lawsuit is still pending.

The $1.4 billion is unlikely to make a dent in Meta’s business. The Menlo Park, California-based tech made a profit of $12.37 billion in the first three months of this year, Its revenue was $36.46 billion, an increase of 27% from a year earlier.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/26116105

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/889819

The EU General Court in Luxembourg ruled that the designation was warranted under the European Union's new Digital Markets Act (DMA) because short video app TikTok exceeded relevant thresholds including global market value and the number of EU users.

Labeled companies are prevented from forcing users in the bloc to consent to have access to a service or certain functionalities.

ByteDance had argued that its global market value largely came from China, rather than the EU.

It also said TikTok does not operate an exponential user expansion model and that it was acting as a "challenger" to digital monopolies operated by established platforms such as Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and Alphabet, which owns Google. Both companies are also designated as "gatekeepers."

But the EU General Court rejected those arguments, finding that TikTok could no longer be considered a "challenger" on the market, unlike when it joined back in 2018.

The judges concluded that TikTok had "succeeded in increasing its number of users very rapidly and exponentially" since then, and that its large number of European users does indeed contribute to its global market value.

cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/15200191

cross-posted from: https://ttrpg.network/post/7528051

It's disappointing that copyright infringement could cause these people to spend time in prison, but the predatory practices of the companies they where competing with are punished with no more then fines. A "cost of doing business" for the corporate aristocrats. This is the threat the upper class uses on the rest of us, and all too often do not suffer themselves.

"Rules for thee, but not for me" - Corporations

It's disappointing that copyright infringement could cause these people to spend time in prison, but the predatory practices of the companies they where competing with are punished with no more then fines. A "cost of doing business" for the corporate aristocrats. This is the threat the upper class uses on the rest of us, and all too often do not suffer themselves.

"Rules for thee, but not for me" - Corporations

cross-posted from: https://feddit.nl/post/16896074

cross-posted from: https://feddit.nl/post/16834299

Meta releases Threads API for developers to build “unique integrations”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/17575132

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/17016346

Jong, currently a customer/technical training instructor on Apple's global developer relations/app review team, said that she only became aware of a stark pay disparity by chance.

"One day, I saw a W-2 left on the office printer," Jong said. "It belonged to my male colleague, who has the same job position. I noticed that he was being paid almost $10,000 more than me, even though we performed substantially similar work. This revelation made me feel terrible."

[...]

According to the complaint, several of Apple's policies favoring men have further entrenched the alleged pay gap. That includes Apple's performance evaluation system, which women suing alleged rewarded men in categories such as teamwork and leadership but "penalized" women for excelling in those areas.

Apple also seemingly has "a policy or practice of selecting individuals who have 'talent' and compensating those persons more highly than other employees." But neither Jong nor Salgado—although both have held various leadership roles—were ever designated as "talent" deserving of a pay increase, the lawsuit said. They've alleged that this Apple policy is biased against women, more often rewarding male "talent" while female talent goes unacknowledged.

"More men are identified as having talent," the complaint said.

Separately, Jong has also alleged that Apple subjected her to a hostile work environment after a senior member of her team, Blaine Weilert, sexually harassed her. After she complained, Apple investigated and Weilert reportedly admitted to touching her "in a sexually suggestive manner without her consent," the complaint said. Apple then disciplined Weilert but ultimately would not allow Jong to escape the hostile work environment, requiring that she work with Weilert on different projects. Apple later promoted Weilert.

As a result of Weilert's promotion, the complaint said that Apple placed Weilert in a desk "sitting adjacent" to Jong's in Apple’s offices. Following a request to move her desk, a manager allegedly "questioned" Jong's "willingness to perform her job and collaborate" with Weilert, advising that she be “professional, respectful, and collaborative,” rather than honoring her request for a non-hostile workplace.

As a result of Weilert's promotion, the complaint said that Apple placed Weilert in a desk "sitting adjacent" to Jong's in Apple’s offices. Following a request to move her desk, a manager allegedly "questioned" Jong's "willingness to perform her job and collaborate" with Weilert, advising that she be “professional, respectful, and collaborative,” rather than honoring her request for a non-hostile workplace.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16800913

Microsoft QA Contractors Say They Were Laid Off for Attempting to Unionize