badsynthesis

@badsynthesis@infosec.exchange
40 Followers
178 Following
1.1K Posts
Security, working on automated risk analysis at scale. Also board games, virology, fairy tales and D&D
Fascinating poster from the American Holocaust Museum. Thank goodness we aren't exhibiting any of these right now.

That's 5D-educational chess.

#FuckGenAI #ChatGPT #GenAIsucksCamelDong

Hello Americans on Mastodon, I know we don't feel like there's much to celebrate this July 4th. It's been a rough several years.

So I want to talk about how we're making history right now.

Corporations that publicly endorsed Trump's megabill. These are not companies that supported the bill by donating to the politicians that voted for it (although most did that too). These are companies that endorsed the bill publicly and were featured on a White House webpage. People should know the companies that made this choice.

#BigFuglyBill #BBB #BigBillionaireBill #TrumpDidThis #RepublicansDidThis #GOPKakistocracy #Project2025 #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol

last day of my internship today so i got a souvenir

⚠️ In four days Gemini wants to scan your phone ⚠️

Stop #Google now: 👉 https://tuta.com/blog/how-to-disable-gemini-on-android

#GeminiAI #Google #Android #PrivacyMatters

On this the anniversary of the Night of the Long Knives, it's important to recognize what is happening here. It isn't hyperbole when it's accurate. - White Rose Resistance

This ca. 5,000-year-old Neolithic polished flint axe with its original ash wood handle is remarkable well preserved.

During the Neolithic period in Denmark, as agriculture began to expand, farmers had to clear the forests, which involved felling trees and burning away brushwood in preparation for cultivation. They used polished flint axes for both tree felling and timber work.

Fount at Sigerslev bog, Denmark, dating 3,100-3,000 BC.

On display National Museum Copenhagen

#archaeology

I'm going to echo @johnquiggin here - the USA is now basically a dictatorship that its public doesn't really want to believe is a dictatorship:

https://johnquigginblog.substack.com/p/the-end-of-us-democracy

I remember reading someone commenting in 2014, I think, about how there would be no obvious sign that the USA's democracy was failing at the time, but the signs would only be obvious in hindsight. Historians would point to some event or person and say, "This was one of the key decisions that caused the USA to slip into an authoritarian dictatorship".

Remember, this was the time of the Tea Party, of unrelenting opposition to everything Obama did. It was a time where the Republican party pushed the USA to the brink of failing to pass its budget simply to make it look like the Democrats were 'the baddies'. It was a time where the Republican party showed that it had abandoned any semblance of co-operation, and was only interested in destroying anyone and anything it disagreed with.

I work for a company with its headquarters in the USA. I talk to those people living there. And the thing that disappoints me, to be honest, is that they keep on going and hoping that 'this all won't affect [them]'. Any half competent student of Germany coming up to WWII can see exactly how that attitude played out for the German public: ignoring the killings and the imprisonments and the regime setting itself up with no opposition and no supervision.

To the people in the USA who I know I say: get out while you still can.

Because you think you'll have plenty of time. You think you'll be able to find another country that will take you on your time-table, when you need to leave. You think you're never going to need to leave because you're as American as anyone else, or you live in a nice town, or you have good friends, or it's going to be so difficult.

I don't think we're going to end up at another world war as the end-point; I don't think the USA is going to seriously invade Canada or Greenland or China or Mexico or anyone else.

I think the end point is that the vast majority of USAdians will find themselves struggling to earn enough to keep themselves clothed and fed, while they watching the Republicans and its cronies enriching themselves. They'll discover that protest is illegal and that people they know have 'disappeared' into prisons or worse. They'll find that they - as immigrants or as same-sex couples or as mixed-race families or as just ordinary citizens who don't slavishly follow the Trumpublicans - are targeted for vigilante violence.

The real problem for the USA is that all the real money is going to already flee. Bezos and Musk and Buffett and Gates and so on will just move to New Zealand or Lichtenstein or a Caribbean island; their money will already be in international banks and trusts and funds that the USA can't touch. The Republicans will squeeze the poor people tighter, but the rich people will have already have left.

The end of US democracy

I’ve held off posting this in the hope of coming up with some kind of positive response, but I haven’t got one.

John Quiggin's Blogstack
Sinaloa cartel used phone data and surveillance cameras to find FBI informants, DOJ says
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/sinaloa-cartel-hacked-phones-surveillance-cameras-find-fbi-informants-doj-says-2025-06-27/
×

⚠️ In four days Gemini wants to scan your phone ⚠️

Stop #Google now: 👉 https://tuta.com/blog/how-to-disable-gemini-on-android

#GeminiAI #Google #Android #PrivacyMatters

@Tutanota welcome to AI agents. Apple will go the same way, Microsoft in Windows as well. And the users will love the benefits, the simplicity.

@Okuna @Tutanota Idk, looks like the user's opinion is not even a concern from a PR standpoint now.

Notice how they're explicitly stating this is to make things easier for *gemini*, not you.

@Okuna @Tutanota Of course, most people find thinking hard enough to successfully wipe their ass as painful. Let alone reading an entire news article, or holding a real conversation.

AI may allow you to finish a higher quantity of tasks, but it fails miserably in the quality department.

@nuintari @Tutanota Or as one of my students put it, why do I have to learn? We have Wikipedia.
@Tutanota Would anything happen if Gemini was not installed, like an automatic install of Gemini and auto-scanning after the possible installation?
@countdracula @Tutanota
As of now, you can still have Google Assistant instead of Gemini, but it won't last, and soon Gemini will most likely be a system app.
I guess it depends on the phone too, if you have the latest Google Pixel, it might already be forced on you.
If you have something like a Google Pixel 6 or 7, I know for a fact that until very recently you could still disable/uninstall Gemini and have Google assistant instead. (Which you can fully disable too)
@martin @Tutanota I guess I'll wait to see if it's forced onto my Motorola.
@countdracula @Tutanota
To any European who wants to get away from the Google BS, I would recommend a Fairphone with e/OS/
You can get it shipped to the United States (and Canada most likely too), but you have to check because it might not work with your carrier.
@martin @Tutanota I already have cellphones collecting dust. I'm not about to buy yet another one.
It's a good idea for those who might be switching from a "dumb" phone, though.
@countdracula @Tutanota Yeah, I don't have a Gemini app (possibly because I've been sulkily refusing to install updates, which may not be the best)
@vashti @Tutanota I updated mine, and it wasn't part of the updates on my Motorola.
@countdracula @vashti @Tutanota Moto G54 here. 'droid 13 has all I need (including 80% charge limit, only about 10 years after I first asked!) so I've also been sulkily refusing 'droid 14 :-)
@countdracula can happen if you have play srore installed/enabled. I suggest you to keep play store disabled and use aurura store in its place
@countdracula @Tutanota I second this question, I have Google Assistant disabled in the system for approximately a year (was not able to remove completely), but it does not seem to install "Gemini" in this setup...or thoroughly hiding this fact...
@torf @Tutanota My phone runs Android 14, and it was a voluntary installation, for now anyway.
@Tutanota I've read the post, but I'm not sure if it is enough to disable Gemini altogether? I've never used it.

@meraord @Tutanota Good thing I just switched to eOS.

https://e.foundation/

e Foundation - deGoogled unGoogled smartphone operating systems and online services - your data is your data

your data is YOUR data

@meraord @Tutanota On my phone, Samsung S21 with Android 15, I was allowed to disable the Gemini app in Settings > Apps.

Later, I uninstalled it using the dev tools, but that's less straightforward.

Edit: Since this is being boosted, if you want to uninstall it with dev tools, the app ID to do so is com.google.android.apps.bard

@veronica @meraord @Tutanota i would say try canta+shizuku if any of you find adb too complex

@meraord @Tutanota Install RethinkDNS and block all connections that goes to and from Google. Allow the connections you have to use like for Google Play Store.

By doing this, it will be impossible for Google Gemini to connect to the internet, hipefully making it useless.

Either that or install a custom ROM. If you have a Pixel phone, GrapheneOS is highly recommended. Very easy to install too.

@Tutanota They store data for 72 hours because that's how long it takes for them to train models on your data. Then they can delete it because they don't need it anymore.

@Tutanota Easy to use description. Layperson-question: I don't have this Gemini app on my phone (Galaxy A21s, EU law) and remember that I had already deactivated the search assistant. Does this app appears automatically in 4 days? Or is it hidden somewhere?

(BTW; I even don't believe that Google doesn't collect data if deactivated.)

@Tutanota As far as I can tell, there is no Gemini on my phone, due probably to the fact that I only install and update via a third-party website, have no Google account on it, and have as much dialled-down and disabled as possible.
@Tutanota I currently have both Assistant and Gemini disabled on my Google Pixel Fold (original). No Gemini app to select and change the settings of. Will keep an eye on it and see what happens after the 7th.
@LaserdiscTurtle Great, do keep us in the loop when you spot anything.
@LaserdiscTurtle @Tutanota just use @GrapheneOS why you are on google android. Solve with a single chop
@Tutanota billionaires will not be satisfied even when they have complete access to our personal lives.
@chaz6 @Tutanota they want access to our minds, to rip us off and sell us back our own thoughts. They truly are the enemy of everything human
@Lazarou @chaz6 @Tutanota why I imagined anime-like scene where protagonist, attacked by powerful mind-reading villain, exposes own pain and traumas, causing villain's brain short-circuit and meltdown?
@chaz6 @Tutanota They will never be satisfied. These are people who want more itself.
@Tutanota Genuine question: if I completely disable Gemini on my Pixel I am sent "back" to Google Assistant.
Is my data actually safer in that case?
I see it reads the screen anyway if I activate it (mostly by mistake) and it absolutely does not have the same settings as Gemini.
@Tutanota WTF is Gemini? Do I need to care about it?
@TimWardCam @Tutanota It is Google's AI assistant. It is on every Android device and in the google browser as the "AI summary" function. Failure to explicitly opt out of this on July 7 will result in Gemini digesting absolutely all of your personal information. Once this happens, nothing can stop "prompt injection" from being used to extract it by a malicious actor, and it will have the capability to perform actions on your behalf that require touching sensitive personal information, and even the most basic weak privacy boundaries are breached. This system is reprehensibly invasive and broken, but it is being pushed out anyway. This deserves everyone's attention.
@somebody Exactly, we must raise awareness now!

@Tutanota Would be more importqant if you'd answer the questions here from people who don't find the app. Please add that to your article.

@somebody

@somebody @Tutanota Once Upon A Time my Android phone (from around 2019) had some sort of Google assistant AI thingy - you could say to it "alarm in 25 minutes" or "walking directions to lighthouse car park" and get something sensible. But that feature disappeared a couple of years ago, and despite the attention of a phone nerd I could never make it come back.

@somebody I searched my android phone for the Gemini app and can't find it in my app register. The article fails to say where to find it!
I already disabled the search assistant, so did it disable Gemini? Does Gemini come later on my phone by magic? Is it different under EU law?

@TimWardCam @Tutanota

@Tutanota does any of this apply if I don't have gemini installed as an app?
Couldn't find the setting, but it's probably because I manually installed Gemini

@Tutanota

If we uninstall the Gemini app, won't that do it?

@Tutanota Can I just disable the application?
@Tutanota I think that those care about AI and privacy and security are not using Google's version of Android
@Eat_Your_Paisleys @Tutanota I think people can come to care about privacy. Not everyone, but it’s worth spreading the message of how important it is. Not just for an individual, but for the people our their lives whose communications, photos, etc. are on our devices
@Tutanota I don't have a Gemini app, but I'm using a Pixel with my Google account. Is there somewhere else where I can disable this, or do I not have to worry?
@Tutanota Step one says "Open the Gemini app from your Android device". But doesn't tell me how to do this. This is typical of the "how to do X on your phone" instructions I come across.
@TimWardCam It's also my problem: I don't find that app in my app register. Nothing in the article tells me if it comes automatically in some days or if it is hidden somewhere. @Tutanota
@NatureMC @TimWardCam @Tutanota Right, if this thing is on my phone, I can't find it. Useless article.
@NatureMC @TimWardCam @Tutanota
No sign of Gemini in my apps, but clicking on (Google) Assistant tells me to switch to Gemini. Thankfully that then tells me I've already disabled it at the domain level :)

@robert I can't click on Google assistant because I disabled it long before.

The article of Tutanota is just useless without showing screenshots where to find it on Android/Desktop.

@TimWardCam @Tutanota

@NatureMC @robert @TimWardCam @Tutanota

this.
Can't find Gemini App, no icon, not in my settings, not via searching my Android for "gemini".

I know it's there somewhere though!
Cause sometimes on my lockscreen there are notifications popping up (not the regular push ones but fancy ones at the bottom) offering to ask Gemini something. Never used it, swiped away those prompts.

Haven't found out what triggers these messages.
I have disabled almost all Google things, even the well hidden stuff.

@megaphon @NatureMC @robert @TimWardCam @Tutanota
Einstellungen/Settings - Google - Google Assistant, da habe ich es eben gefunden.

@Bakerella @NatureMC @robert @TimWardCam @Tutanota

Das hatte ich auch gefunden, aber es gibt keinen Button zum deaktivieren oder deinstallieren, nur die Optionen WEITER oder NICHT JETZT. Gehe also davon aus, dass dieser Menüpunkt nur ein Angebot 🤪 ist, dessen Nutzung ich nicht freigeschaltet habe.

Danke für den Hinweis mit dem Google Assistant; da war zwar fast alles deaktiviert, aber nicht *ganz* alles; daher wohl die gelegentlichen prompts, doch mal bitte Gemini zu benutzen.
(Nein.)

@Bakerella
(übrigens auch noch ein Ding für den Smartphone Unterricht von K1: was für Google Sachen kann man wo deaktivieren und warum sollte man das tun?)
@megaphon ich hatte auch noch nicht viel weiter geschaut, war aber froh, das wenigstens irgendwie gefunden zu haben