I've been trying to delete as many online accounts as possible to reduce the threat of my personal information / duplicate passwords / my cell number getting out there. I know, it's probably not worth the effort but it does at least clean up my password manager and MFA app.
I've tried had trouble getting my personal information scrubbed and my account deleted at Robinhood and LendingTree. Both have policies that claim they're unable to delete user accounts due to federal regulations.
Here's the bit from Lending Tree: https://www.lendingclub.com/legal/privacy-policy
Data Retention: Due to the regulated nature of our industry, we are under legal requirements to retain data and are generally not able to delete consumer transactional data, credit or deposit account application data, or other financial information upon request. Certain regulations issued by state and/or federal government agencies may require us to maintain and report demographic information on the collective activities of our membership. We may also be required to maintain information about you for at least seven years to comply with applicable federal and state laws regarding recordkeeping, reporting, and audits. Criteria used to determine the period of time information about you is retained are primarily related to legal requirements and usefulness of the information for the purposes it was collected.
In both of these cases, I haven't used the account in many years (RH: 2020, LT: 2018). It serves no purpose to maintain this account other than to exist as data for some malicious actor to acquire and act upon.
With data leaks happening practically every day, I'm really not comfortable with financial agencies with varying degrees of security keeping my information forever. I would think it would be in their own best interest to comply with a deletion request to prevent anyone from scamming them.
Also, I can't tell you how many websites I've lost access to because my phone number was tied to log in. I previously had a company-issued cell phone and not longer have access to that. Any website that requires a phone number for MFA is just horrible. I'm trying to sign into another financial site now and apparently I'm not able to do so without a phone number I had eight years ago.
Wondering if anyone is familiar with this federal regulation that requires they hold on to this information and if there's some sort of way around this either with a lawyer or federal form or something.
It's a bit shocking to me when I see people online putting 9/11 conspiracies in the same box as "MAGA" conspiracies (for lack of a better term, sorry).
For reference, I was 24 in 2001 living in central NJ. Even without social media or fake news websites or what cable news has become today, I have vivid memories of people having the firm belief that there was something up with the attack on 9/11. Was this just my social circle?
Jet fuel melting steel beams was one of the more fringe and unfounded (and quickly debunked) ideas but the rest of everything on that day was questionable. Tower seven falling, the missing plane debris at the pentagon and central PA, the military / president not responding to known threats, if a person with limited flight time could hit a tower, the fact that Bush attacked a country that had nothing to do with the event, and so much more are still, I thought, reasonable questions - especially when looked at together.
This is not about rehashing each theory. Or maybe it is? Have I missed that everything has been debunked?
I mean, I still believe 9/11 was an inside job or at least high level officials, including Bush, were aware it was going to happen and did nothing to stop it. I thought this was still a common opinion of most or many Americans over the age of forty.
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/russian-misinformation-social-design-agency-sergei-kiriyenko-20240904.html
The disinformation campaign involved tricking Americans with propaganda posted to websites meant to mimic legitimate news sources as well as enlisting unwitting American influencers to spread it.
https://www.fooddive.com/news/why-egg-prices-are-becoming-expensive-again-bird-flu-demand/725884/
Anytime I watch a video that's somewhat different to what I've previously watch, YT floods my recommended section with these video types. I don't mind some relevant recommendations but it's too much. There's only like six different types of 'genres' being recommended to me now and I've already watched most of these videos.
I know you can use the don't recommend this channel and not interested options. These don't really apply to what I want. I just want more other things.
YouTube is likely the world's largest and most interesting and unique collection of content and I'm seeing the same handful of shit day after day. I'm bored of it being boring. I mean, I like photography and would like more photography content - just not from the same dozen or so creators because I've already watched all their videos.
I'm not interested in the main menu items like trending, music, gaming, etc. I want quality stuff that's creative and informative. I will never click on thumbnails with surprised faces and arrows. Apparently my super power is the ability to discern and easily ignore content that's clearly click bait and rage bait. I guess the issue is that I'm not interested in content that's created to satisfy the algorithm. Algorithm content is all the same.
Do you ave any hacks to purge recommendations or to get new interesting content to appear?
Are there other long-form platforms (not TikTok) I should be looking at outside of YouTube?
Is anyone self-hosting a genuinely snappy and robust media hosting service for themselves? What's your setup look like?
The best thing about Apple's Photos on my iDevices is the speed at which everything loads. Even videos (usually) load reasonably fast over LTE. The user interface is decent enough and has a high percentage of features I'd like to have on the go. The on-device AI is awesome (recognizing / organizing faces and objects and locations).
I'd like to get away from iCloud for numerous reasons: the subscription, the chance the UX gets worse, privacy, ease of data ownership and organization, OS independence, etc.
I currently have a QNAP TS-253A with 8GB RAM, Celeron N3160 1.6GHz 4 core, (2) Seagate IronWolf 8TB ST8000VN0022 at about 98% capacity, Raid 1 . I mostly use it for streaming music and videos at home but I also stream music outside the house without issue. Movies don't stream at HD immediately but once they cache up they're good within a minute.
Some people have suggested this hardware should be sufficient. I feel like it's archaic. What do you think?
I've tried Immich but find it to be slow and very limited with features. I've even tested hosting it on Elestio but that didn't go too well. I'm not opposed to paying for offsite services but at that point it just seems like I should stick with iCloud.
I already have Plex running on my NAS so I use that for archiving but it's way too slow to use for looking at pictures, even locally. QNAP has the photo app QuMagie with facial recognition and it seems alright but it's agonizingly slow, if it works at all.
All of the self-hosted apps, in my experience, are well outside the scope of iCloud Photos' speed and feature set. If I could even just test one that matched its speed, I could better assess whatever features they have.
What I'm not sure of is if I'm hitting a wall based on the apps, my hardware, or even my ISP (Speedtest reports upload: 250mpbs). The fact that apps like Plex and QuMagie suck even locally suggests to me it's not an ISP issue (yet).
My NAS is already at capacity so it's time for an upgrade of some sort. While I'm in the mindset, I wanted to see if there's a better product I could use for hosting. My space and finances are not without limits but I'm open to ideas.
I realize I'm not a multi billion dollar company with data centers around the world but I feel like I should be able to piece something together that's relatively comparable for less than an arm and a leg. Am I wrong?
I'm on MacOS and typically use Safari as my main browser. I have several other browsers installed on my computer which I use for different things or just to try out from time to time. Orion is one I haven't tried in a while.
I've launched Orion and found that when I previously used it I saved some tabs - one of them being Ebay. I am not signed into my Ebay account in Orion but when I open this tab I'm seeing "Your Recently Viewed Items" and it's very much showing me the items I viewed in Safari just moments earlier.
Orion promotes itself as a privacy focused web browser.
Privacy by design, like no other browser.
Orion has been engineered from ground up as a truly privacy-respecting browser. We did it by embracing a simple principle - Orion is a zero telemetry browser. Your private information will never leave Orion by default.
And to protect your privacy on the web, Orion comes with industry-leading anti-tracking technology as well as a powerful built-in ad-blocker.
How does one browser know what the other browser is doing regardless if I'm, signed into my account on a particular website?
In my experience, the retail shopping environment has been on an increasing rate of decline over the past decade+. Post-covid, it seems corporations have figured out how to maximize profit, in part, by reducing labor and tailoring towards online sales.
I grew up in a time when people would complain about salespeople pestering them by simply asking if they needed help with anything. Now, I would love to have someone help me with a purchase.
I recently bought some sneakers in a store and it turned out I probably bought the wrong ones for my needs. A knowledgable salesperson likely would have saved me from wasting my money on the wrong purchase. Most of the supermarkets in my area are self-check out only. These stupid things never work for me so it takes me forever to simply scan a few items. At some stores, items are locked up behind glass so I'm not even able to make a purchase - pushing me to buy from an online retailer instead.
I try to go out of my way to find stores that have humans working there. I try not to buy things online and try to support my local businesses. This is becoming increasingly more difficult and I fear the day will come soon where I'm not able to shop in a physical store.
Especially in this post pandemic world, I crave human interaction. I crave a brief interaction with someone who's a member of my community.
There's a small two-location food market I shop at weekly. It's a fifteen minute walk where I do at least 85% of my shopping. Most of the produce and goods are procured within a hundred miles. There are no self-checkouts. I've gotten to know the people who work there. We talk about produce and the neighborhood and the weather. I freaking love that place and legit do not know what I would do without it.
I imagine I'm in the minority. I imagine most people, especially younger people, desire not interacting with others. Some people find it difficult to engage in real life. Some people are fraught with the impact social media addiction has struck upon them - be it the fear of judgement or bigotry or simply not knowing how to interact respectfully with others.
I remember a time when people would say they trust online reviews more than salespeople who get paid on commission. Is this still a prevalent idea? I'll admit that I typically ignore reviews because reviews have become their own industry. However, there are times I've bought a product, found it to be trash, then saw some reviews, buried below the 'paid' ones, warning me to stay away.
I feel strongly, I am fearful, that as we shift more and more of our shopping online - easily enabled by [Click To Buy] buttons and mobile wallets - corporate capitalism is gaining ground on mom and pop shops. Never mind the rise of the likes of Temu. Moreover, the Walmartification of everything is diluting our sense of community.
It's because we only shop online and in warehouses, it's because we have no choice but to not engage with anyone, it's because we're increasing our reliance on 6" in-our-face screens, it's because we don't ever need to leave the comfort of our home that our neighborhoods and society are doomed to crumble.
I'm looking to replace a 6TB G-Drive for my Mac. I'm considering the OWC Express 1M2 NVMe enclosure along with a WD Black 4TB SN850X.
The drive is mostly used as my photography drive. I work off of it with Capture One. About 20% of it is archive data.
I'd like to upgrade to SSD for the sake of longevity and speed. And because I find the ticking and knocking my existing drive makes to be annoying. And because MacOS does this weird thing where opening random apps causes the external HDD to spin up and stalls operation. I fear everyday that this seven year old drive is suddenly going to die on me.
Just looking for some suggestions if anyone's familiar with these OWC + WD products or if you'd recommend something else.
https://newrepublic.com/article/183866/americans-want-authoritarian-president-trump
Donald Trump’s strongman image is a plus for many voters.
@oxjox
@lemmy.ml