Eric SchultzMar 21

A small set of people are merging changes to various Linux components to make sure every application knows your birth date.

This is being done rapidly by people with questionable justifications and being merged with no youth and few marginalized people involved.

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/accountsservice/accountsservice/-/merge_requests/176#0b07c0cc4d49be119f65cdb2037440f56eed647a

user: Add BirthDate with polkit-gated GetBirthDate and SetBirthDate methods (!176) · Merge requests · accountsservice / accountsservice · GitLab

Summary Add a BirthDate field to the user account interface. For non-homed users, the value is stored...

GitLab
Show threadArtemysiaMar 21
@wwahammy why the fuck are people complying in advance? Where is the commitment to software freedom?
Show threadEric SchultzMar 21

@artemis I don't know why.

And I'd say "why are people complying at all?".

Show threadCassandrichMar 21
@wwahammy @artemis Everyone involves in proposing and merging these needs to be deemed untrustworthy and unwelcome in real FOSS.
Show threadEric SchultzMar 21
@dalias @artemis 1000% agree. It's shameful.
Mike TelahunMar 23
Show threadCassandrich
@wwahammy @artemis Like seriously. Even if you weren't going to consider complying with this unthinkable, adopting something like this that's a policy matter should be a process that requires a proposal and feedback from the community, with a long enough time window for that to happen. Not rushed-through changes by shadowy actors who show up just to do what some malicious external authority demands.
Mar 21 at 2:40amWeb
Show threadMisuse CaseMar 21
@dalias @wwahammy @artemis This feels like an open-source supply chain attack. We have already seen it happen with state-sponsored actors putting exploitable bugs into Linux. The people doing this may be other state-sponsored actors, or sponsored by private companies.
Show threadCassandrichMar 21
@MisuseCase @wwahammy @artemis Between AI slop and age gating nonsense, we have some strong new signals of who can actually be trusted in this domain and who can't.
Show threadViolet MadderMar 21

@MisuseCase @dalias @wwahammy @artemis

And it's absolutely doing my fucking head IN, that we have all these people saying, "Oh welp it's the law" like all of this shit is a totally normal obvious foregone conclusion, immutable law of the land no takes backsies look they all voted for it blah blah blah blah

MEANWHILE BOMBING HOSPITALS IS TOTALLY COOL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW MEANS NOTHING WHATSOEVER SO MUCH WET TISSUE PAPER (*edit* oh and as I was just reminded by a blind person in my feed, how about ACCESSIBILITY laws, you shits with fucked priorities, when are we gonna bother complying with THAT shit huh??)

People sure pick and choose which laws to act like they care about. Jumping to comply this far in advance of shit designed to destroy ALL PRIVACY and digital freedom is entirely fucked.