π Newsletter #003 - A Less Open Android? & Canadian Tire PII goes Global
This newsletter is a roughly bi-weekly roundup of short-form content I've found interesting, as well as a tl;dr of any longer posts I may have written in that timeframe. It starts at #003 because I am trying out this new format here on Bear for the first time. Enjoy!
β¨ In This Edition β¨
- Short-Form Content:
- Canadian Tire goes global (with their PII leak);
- Twitter's algorithm apparently does do the thing that some people had been suspecting it was doing all along;
- OpenClaw deletes Director of AI Safety's entire inbox (not satire);
- OpenAI removes "safely" from their mission; and more.
- Long-Form Content: We Can't Have Nice Things (Unless We Fight for Them): Google is Planning on Locking Down Android
- The Post-Script: Following Keep Android Open
π Short-Form Content
- In an apparent bid to show how out-of-control the global ad surveillance networks really are, 38 million people just had wild amounts of their PII leaked by massive retailer Canadian Tire, even if they've never been to Canada.
- The data is in: Twitter's algorithm can, and evidently does, shift users more towards the right, an effect that also was not quick to subside. Maybe we as a society should stop treating Twitter as a de-facto press release and announcements channel for all sorts of organizations, governments, and institutions. Just a thought.
- In what may be described as the end of an era, Mozilla removes the note on never selling your personal data from Firefox. RIP. πͺ¦ On the plus side, they added an "AI kill switch" to the product, so that's something, I suppose? Still beats Chrome and Edge.
- Meta's Director of AI safety let that OpenClaw bot thing delete her entire inbox. This bears repeating: The director of AI safety. This bodes well for all of us.
- OpenAI has removed the word "safely" from their mission, and also their AI safety researcher quit, saying "the world is in peril", which are both Really Good Signs, I'm sure.
- AI has had basically no impact on productivity and added basically zero growth to the US economy. Just in case you were maybe thinking that all those circular investments weren't a sign of a bubble about to pop.
π° Long-Form Content
I had planned on following up my most recent post on Feeding the Fire - Psychology, Engagement, and Algorithmic Media with a discussion of Network Effects. However!
Big changes are coming, if Google has its way, to how app development for Android is going to work, which is a time-sensitive matter and thus felt a lot more urgent.
The tl;dr:
- Google is planning to require every Android app developer to register (with PII like address, DoB, and ID verification) starting Sept 2026 - which will likely apply beyond Google Play, thus threatening ""sideloading"" and alternative app stores.
- This would likely have severe negative impacts on FOSS ecosystems like FβDroid, as well as FOSS development on the whole, shrinking app choice and privacy-friendly options.
- Google frames this as being necessary for "security" reasons, whereas gatekeeping may be what is actually happening here. This all is even more jarring on the background of Android having started out as the "open" mobile OS.
- The are steps you and we all can take to voice our opposition; you can read them in detail, along with the full article, right here on BearBlog.
π―The Post-Script
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