Indie game developer/programmer.
Programmer on BAFTA/GDC award nominated ManifoldGarden .
Former Symantec/Norton.
Made Promeatheus, Costa con Carne (H3VR mods), and the game Wondee.
| @garretpolk | |
| Pronouns | he/him |
| YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@NunSuperior |
| Home page | http://www.garretpolk.com |
"This is just the latest operation that didn’t go off as planned, amplifying the sense amongst the California Guardsmen that the whole spectacle is idiotic and shameful.
Treating Los Angeles as a foreign country with insurgents to be defeated, military and homeland security intelligence views MacArthur Park as a viper’s nest of illegality."
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/exclusive-operation-excalibur-in
⚠️ On July 7, Gemini AI will access your WhatsApp and more. Learn how to disable it on Android. | Tuta
Gemini AI needs to be disabled on Android or it will override your privacy settings and gain full access to your texts, calls, and WhatsApp - even if you’ve turned off Gemini Apps Activity. But what does this Android update really mean, and how can you stop it? Let’s take a deep dive!
Updated, because... you know. #Covid for doctors, hot new masks, voice amplification while masking, very accurate at-home tests, The #LongCovid Game (Haunted Woods), community connections, what to do if you catch Covid, clean air tools, testing tips, and more:
Adobe is now processing all your PDFs in the cloud, by default. The setting to “Enable generative AI features in Acrobat” was on, and I didn’t know it until I opened a document and Adobe asked me if I wanted a document summary. It’s annoying to have to click “No,” so I opened settings to disable the prompt.
THE PROBLEM
I sign Non-Disclosure Agreements for many of my clients. Adobe is a potential leak of protected information. I don’t know what Adobe does with this information. I don’t know what they store, or for how long. I don’t know what country (or countries) the data is stored in. I don’t know what LLMs are trained with this data. And I don’t need to know. What I need to know is that they won’t use default opt-in as a legal excuse to wiretap my information.
I recommend that you check your Adobe settings on all devices, for all Adobe accounts.
Adobe is now processing all your PDFs in the cloud, by default. The setting to “Enable generative AI features in Acrobat” was on, and I didn’t know it until I opened a document and Adobe asked me if I wanted a document summary. It’s annoying to have to click “No,” so I opened settings to disable the prompt.
THE PROBLEM
I sign Non-Disclosure Agreements for many of my clients. Adobe is a potential leak of protected information. I don’t know what Adobe does with this information. I don’t know what they store, or for how long. I don’t know what country (or countries) the data is stored in. I don’t know what LLMs are trained with this data. And I don’t need to know. What I need to know is that they won’t use default opt-in as a legal excuse to wiretap my information.
I recommend that you check your Adobe settings on all devices, for all Adobe accounts.
@fifonetworks But there is something you now know, that you didn't before...
Adobe is yet another data-felching rat bastard corp.
This is why, as you may recall, I take issue with the lack of clear local-remote boundaries in how IT products are presented. A FOSS app store like F-Droid will make the distinction clear, but that appears to be the exception.
@fifonetworks IIRC, #Adobe was considered the no. 3 adtech platform circa late-2010s, and their magic vehicle for tracking ad exposure was #Acrobat.
AI is a new justification to turbo-charge the process of grabbing users' private information.
It's too bad Adobe is alienating some of their most influential customers like this. What do they gain? A reputation for stupidity (failure to understand customers, customer needs; treating all the same, 'one size fits all" & all that) & evil (do the worst that will offend the most by default). It's not as if there's that much 'customer loyalty' left in the bag... & equivalent or better s/w exists In many cases (hello Affinity!). You have to hope Adobe will get better advice/ advisors at some stage. But don't hold your breath. 😐
> What do they gain?
One possibility is a feeling they have jumped on the right bandwagon, illusory though it may be.
@electron_wizard @roman78 @fifonetworks
I forgot about Sumatra. It was my go to in my Windows days. There's even a portable app version. Throw it on a USB drive or a dropbox account and take it wherever.
Thank you. I just switched out the Adobe PDF Reader for Sumatra, because of your post.
One less big tech program on my computer.
Truth is, I mostly need something to look at my receipts and stuff when I do bookkeeping. Can't remember the last time I filled in a form.
I'm sure there are other options if I ever have to.
@Firlefanz @electron_wizard Foxit is okay-ish if you need to fill out form or want to use a lot annotations. most browsers can deal with pdf forms, too.
But Sumatra is really really good for reading.
Adobe is a trash company. I'm surprised there's an option to disable the AI feature.
Years ago I wanted Acrobat Reader to stop putting a shortcut on my desktop every time it updated (roughly monthly). AdobeCare told me to install another Adobe software (an administrative policy editor, basically) to make the change as I couldn't do it in Acrobat Reader itself. I couldn't make heads or tails of that program.
I'm on Linux now though, so I should be safe. No Adobe here.
@munroe @fifonetworks gotta say - moving to linux to esape Adobe... that is a whole mood.
I do understand it tho!
Oh, I didn't move to Linux to escape Adobe, it's just a side benefit.
I just jumped off Windows 10 early (mid-2023) when they announced End-of-Life. I had kind of wanted to switch when I bought this PC in 2019 but I wasn't ready to commit at that point. In 2019 I got this PC and it came with Windows 10. I had used WindowsXP before that, long past its End-of-Life. Now I don't remember why it took me so long to commit to the switch to Linux.
@munroe @fifonetworks nice.
for me, I took one whiff of that stupid Win8, and I made the jump.
Been dual booting for a while before that with the Last Good Windows (7).
I feel for folks trapped in windows by some obscure software requirements (or work compliance reasons)
I stuck with XP for so long because I had to use Vista at work for awhile and really did not like it. (I always ran XP in the gray/boxy Win9x desktop mode, as I also think the green/blue XP is garish.)
When Win7 came out, I heard good things, but the turn-over to Win8 was so fast that I was still on XP. When Win10 came out and I heard it was "the last version of Windows" I was like "Well, they're going to a subscription model" so I avoided it for many years.
I wanted to go to Linux rather than Win10, but I did want to use the computer for games and in 2019 I don't know if Linux+Proton was ready yet. So I stayed on Windows.
So with Windows11, when I was finally on Windows10 (which turned out to be relatively OK aside from all the online integration), I couldn't see any benefit to the consumer for the upgrade. All the benefit was to Microsoft with a new money grab and more telemetry.
So I finally got to Linux. Yay!
@kaasbaas @munroe @fifonetworks anyway, you can use the most of free software alternatives also with Windows.
Therefore, gnu/Linux is better option ;P
(Edit! I thought Adobe bought Figma a few years ago, but apparently the merger failed. My bad…)
@fifonetworks They’ve also been training AI on user documents for Figma for almost a year now. It’s opt out! https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/articles/17725942479127-Control-AI-features-and-content-training-settings
Honestly it’s merely a matter of time before they do it with Creative Cloud too. Too few seems to care… :-/
I don't need advanced PDF editing options so I'm quite happy with using Skim instead of Acrobat Reader.
https://skim-app.sourceforge.io
I switched from Adobe Creative Suite to Affinity (one-time purchase instead of monthly subscription). Occasional Photoshop users could even try this free web app: https://www.photopea.com
Yikes.
Although all three Generative AI boxes were unchecked (set to off) when I looked in my settings, so apparently not on by default in the case of my account. Whew. But thanks, will look again every so often.
@fifonetworks What will this mean to Adobes business with European customers, which currently seeking a independence and sovereign place for their processing and data?
At least AWS and Microsoft have reacted by announcing a more independent data-center in the EU. Now Adobe is constructing a short cut for (sensible) data? For AI Learning?
WTF Adobe 😡.
We should advise not to use their products anymore!
This kind of hidden feature is just impudence.
Trusting Adobe? 🤪 A joke
@fifonetworks Just a second aspect for everyone.
Have you implemented it (data loss prevention tool) and you using it effectively and company-wide for data loss prevention?
May you have to think again, thanks to the Adobe short circuit.
Ultimately, if you read AI in the product description, you should proceed as you would with medication: Ask your doctor or pharmacist about risks and side effects.
(Security doctor and Professor privacy)😉
AI does not forget!
@albertcardona @fifonetworks ...what's a good Adobe alternative for reading and signing PDFs? 🥹
Edit: on windows
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