Jan Maarten

@janmaarten
77 Followers
108 Following
350 Posts
Accessibility specialist. Privacy advocate. Reluctant designer. Begrudging CPWA. Frequently rejected speaker. Prolific writer who never publishes.
websitehttps://janmaarten.com
pronounshe/him
pronounced"yon"
I didn't realize the facebook execs Mozilla acqui-hired last year have been promoted! I was assuming they were still just heading the ads division of Mozilla, but oh boy, I fucking wish.

Now the
former Senior VP of Marketing of facebook (2008-2022, the finest years of facebook) is the CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER of the entire Mozilla.

And the
former VP of Ads in Facebook (2012-2022), is now the Senior VP of Product of Mozilla.

Let me repeat this:

The guy who used to lead the facebook team that was literally "
advertising to teenagers based on their emotional state" is now the guy who decides the direction of Firefox as a product. But hey, let's keep giving Mozilla the benefit of the doubt uh? I'm sure these people-who-should-be-on-trial-in-the-hague are going to do great things for the community!
Mozilla Leadership

Mozilla

Happy Opt Out Of Github Copilot Data Collection Day, to those who celebrate.

https://github.blog/news-insights/company-news/updates-to-github-copilot-interaction-data-usage-policy/

Updates to GitHub Copilot interaction data usage policy

From April 24 onward, interaction data from Copilot Free, Pro, and Pro+ users will be used to train and improve our AI models unless they opt out.

The GitHub Blog

Trump's DOJ trying to do an end-run on Title II accessibility requirements for the web.

Don't let this happen!

What it all means, and what you can do to help...

#a11y #webAccess #accessibility #ADA #HTML

https://convergeaccessibility.com/2026/03/17/red-alert/

Red Alert: DOJ Web Rule in Danger

Last June, I wrote about the growing threats to the DOJ’s ADA Title II Web Accessibility Rule. That warning feels understated now. If you care about the accessibility of state and local government websites, read on. There are credible rumors…

Converge Accessibility
@heydon I need itttt

On reflection, I think the worst part of Cory Doctorow’s argument in favor of LLM use is this:

« Doubtless some of you are affronted by my modest use of an LLM. You think that LLMs are "fruits of the poisoned tree" and must be eschewed because they are saturated with the sin of their origins. I think this is a very bad take, the kind of rathole that purity culture always ends up in.

Let's start with some context. If you don't want to use technology that was created under immoral circumstances or that sprang from an immoral mind, then _you are totally fucked._ »

This is a form of argument beloved by awful people. I can’t be pure and perfect, they say, so there’s no point my trying to make better or less damaging moral choices.

Stop buying from Amazon? Walmart and Target aren’t perfectly moral. Stop driving an SUV? Your car pollutes too, and so do buses. Stop using Twitter? Facebook and Bluesky are far from morally perfect, and mastodon.social has poor moderation. And so on.

I see this kind of excuse all the time online. It’s a cousin to both whataboutism and Mister Gotcha. It also rests on a false premise. The idea that anyone is expected to achieve complete purity is a straw man. You’re not having sainthood demanded of you, people are just hoping you’ll consider *reducing* the amount of immoral and damaging behavior you engage in *when there are perfectly viable alternatives*. Sure, we can argue about whether the alternatives are truly viable, but the idea that if you can’t be perfect you may as well not even try to be better? That’s moral bankruptcy.

Mocking the desire for people to behave more ethically as “purity culture” is like mocking it as “virtue signaling”. It says things about the person doing the mocking, none of them good. It’s also deeply hypocritical coming from someone who has gone out of his way to avoid using DRM. Isn’t that “purity culture”?

Thank god Microsoft is shoving Copilot AI crap into everything. One gets the sense this isn't going to be an isolated occurrence. From Bleeping Computer:

"Microsoft says a Microsoft 365 Copilot bug has been causing the AI assistant to summarize confidential emails since late January, bypassing data loss prevention (DLP) policies that organizations rely on to protect sensitive information."

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-says-bug-causes-copilot-to-summarize-confidential-emails/

Microsoft says bug causes Copilot to summarize confidential emails

Microsoft says a Microsoft 365 Copilot bug has been causing the AI assistant to summarize confidential emails since late January, bypassing data loss prevention (DLP) policies that organizations rely on to protect sensitive information.

BleepingComputer
"Technology could serve life instead of serving capital." Ursula le Guin 1975
Lawmakers across the world that are considering bills that would make Discord’s approach the norm for every platform should watch this backlash and similarly move away from age verification mandates. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/discord-voluntarily-pushes-mandatory-age-verification-despite-recent-data-breach
Discord Voluntarily Pushes Mandatory Age Verification Despite Recent Data Breach

Discord has begun rolling out mandatory age verification and the internet is, understandably, freaking out. We’ve written extensively about why age verification mandates are a censorship and surveillance nightmare. Discord’s shift only reinforces those concerns.

Electronic Frontier Foundation
@chriscoyier There’s a lot of aspects to identity, and I feel like the axis of religious identity isn’t necessarily the same as the axis of one’s spirituality. One is communal and the other is more personal. It feels like both can go wrong in terms of these quadrants. But one can go bad much faster than the other.