The #AI Tools #CBP Is Using to Scan #SocialMedia

Customs and #Border Protection ( #CBP ) is using various artificial intelligence tools, including ones that can quickly identify people of interest by pulling data from social media, according to documents published by the agency last week and marketing material from the contractors.
#privacy #security #facebook #Twitter #instagram #profiling #surveillance

https://www.404media.co/the-ai-tools-cbp-is-using-to-scan-social-media/

Meta’s toxic, profiling-based content feeds are affecting our lives and well-being – and today, @edri, @Freiheitsrechte, @bitsoffreedom, and Convocation Research + Design (CoRD Labs) filed a #DSA complaint against it.

Meta is violating the #DigitalServicesAct by making it hard for people to choose news feeds that are not based on #profiling.

We deserve to take back control over our own online experiences!

Read more about the complaint https://edri.org/our-work/civil-society-files-dsa-complaint-against-meta-for-toxic-profiling-fueled-feeds/

Very excited to have filed a formal complaint against #Facebook & #Instagram today under the #DigitalServicesAct.

Together with @bitsoffreedom, @Freiheitsrechte & Convocation Design+Research, @edri represents an Irish user and found that #Meta uses #DeceptiveDesign patterns to discourage people from choosing the #newsfeed that's not based on #profiling.

That newsfeeds option is a key requirement under the DSA and deceptive design is prohibited. So there you go.

https://edri.org/our-work/civil-society-files-dsa-complaint-against-meta-for-toxic-profiling-fueled-feeds/

Here's a Heaptrack - a heap memory profiler for Linux - success story: 10x memory peak reduction from 140GB to 14GB in the genotyping domain: https://github.com/PacificBiosciences/sawfish/issues/15#issuecomment-2800538226
More on Heaptrack: https://github.com/KDE/heaptrack #Linux #Profiling #MemoryReduction
https://github.com/PacificBiosciences/sawfish/issues/15#issuecomment-2800538226

Finnish Post has decided to start using your data for service planning and development. What for? Well of course for "personalized content and targeted advertising". This is opt-in by default.

"My data may be used for service planning and development, as well as for delivering personalized content and targeted advertising using profiling.
Profiling refers to automated processing of personal data where the information is used to evaluate personal characteristics, such as interests or service usage. The purpose of profiling is to enhance the customer experience and ensure that the customer receives relevant and interesting recommendations and services."

Notably for some reason this is separate from "Marketing consents" and is enabled by default.

You can turn off this option at: https://my.account.posti.fi/settings

#question for #Python developers who do #multiprocessing

- What tips / tricks do you have for minimising the pickling / serialisation overhead?

- Are there any tools for #profiling what is being pickled?

- Bonus: what's your favourite Python profiler and why?

Science fiction novelist, journalist and technology activist Cory Doctorow @pluralistic speech at the 2025 Ursula Franklin Lecture. >

https://vimeo.com/1059798497

#enshitification #monopsonies #twiddling #LockedUsers #LockedSellers #GAFAM #lecture #AlgorithmicWageDiscrimination#speech #SurveillanceCapitalism #interoperability #competition #regulation #WorkersPower #BigData #sellers #users #TechnoFeudalism #employment #ratings #Uberisation #queries #JediBlue #profiling #enshitified #internet #abuse #DataBrokers #AntitrustLaw #TechLayoffs #RegulatoryCaptures #TechnologicalAbuse #privacy #value #GiantPileOfShit #TechnicalMechanism #rankings #unions #digitalisation #nursing #speech #lecture #video #coporatocracy #monopoly

→ Indigenous Nations Mobilize Against ICE Targeting and Profiling
https://truthout.org/articles/indigenous-nations-mobilize-against-ice-targeting-and-profiling/

“We should not have to prove our citizenship, […] We are the original people in this country, but we’re in a #scary time right now, and I don’t want any #American #Indian to get lost in the #system. [ICE] ‘lost’ children the last time they did this. They lost little brown children that will never be reunited with their parents. And that is horrible. […]”

If you want to learn how to recognize gang members by clothing and tattoos, here are a couple of simple examples.

Clothing as a sign of gang membership:
Expensive business suits.

Tattoos as a sign of gang membership:
"A Tradition of Violence is a podcast about deputy gangs that operate within the LA County Sheriff’s Department."

https://cerisecastle.me/podcasts

Pro tip to spot performance issues that manifest as CPU hogs on the #Linux desktop: configure GNOME System Monitor (or any resources monitor applet like the "Astra monitor" GNOME Shell extension) to *not* be in "Solaris mode", i.e. to NOT "divide CPU usage by CPU count".

That way, you get bigger numbers that are easily noticed, and when you see "12%" on a 8-vCores system, you instantly know that the process you're looking at is pegging 100% of one virtual CPU core.

Super creepy: seeing the amount of info #Google and #Meta collect on you. If you let them:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/28/all-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy

Die Menschenrechtsaktivistin Tanya O’Carroll hat den Social-Media-Giganten Meta erfolgreich dazu gezwungen, ihre Daten nicht für gezielte Werbung zu verwenden. Die Vereinbarung ist Teil eines Vergleichs zu einer individuellen Klage, die sie 2022 gegen Metas Tracking und Profiling eingereicht hatte.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/21/meta-settles-u-k-right-to-object-to-ad-tracking-lawsuit-by-agreeing-not-to-track-plaintiff/

#Verbraucherschützer warnen vor #Rabatt-Apps.

Oft sind die Einsparungen gering, während persönliche Daten umfassend ausgewertet werden. #Supermärkte und #Discounter analysieren #Einkaufsverhalten, Vorlieben und sogar #Gesundheitsinformationen für gezielte #Werbung.

Nutzer sollten #Datenschutzeinstellungen prüfen und sich nicht von vermeintlichen Schnäppchen täuschen lassen.

https://www.heise.de/news/Supermaerkte-und-Discounter-Verbraucherschuetzer-warnen-vor-Rabatt-Apps-10313951.html

Pipeline release! nf-core/taxprofiler v1.2.3 - v1.2.3 - Bouncy Basenji Patch!

Please see the changelog: https://github.com/nf-core/taxprofiler/releases/tag/1.2.3

Who knows how to #speed up #Python
code? The library #RecurringIcalEvents is used widely but is #slow! If you have #Python experience and you want to make it faster, this is much appreciated!

The library is well tested and you can shuffle code around if needed. I will help, too.

Code: https://github.com/niccokunzmann/python-recurring-ical-events