found this useful resource to clap back

The potential for data collection is massive.

I was tinkering with a firechat inspired mesh messaging concept as an indie iOS dev. I could not dismiss arguments about potential privacy concerns w/ persistent background apps advertising and scanning - but the lack thereof certainly dampens innovators too.

That episode came on in 2012, and it has felt like it took > 10 years to fully recover. It certainly wasn't helpful and to the contrary extremely reinforcing when the whole snowden story broke.

This is a dreadful pit to fall into.

Pretend with me for one moment: You are single, you're looking for love in all the wrong places, mostly on OKCupid. An employee working within the NSA has stumbled upon your information in realtime in a PRISM data slurp, and has taken a personal interest - maybe they think you are weird, and they are not above abuse of their powers - and that they want to exert their "godlike" powers to toy with you - surveil you, pwn your computer, screw with your mind, etc. Keep pretending this is remotely close to reality! What recourse would you have? Would a FOIA request ever validate your claims? Where do you even begin to try to reconcile with this, as a firmly held belief?

.... My voices are illusory, they require a prompt. It can be water running, it is horribly triggered in large crowds. I still have panic attacks in Ikea (but who doesn't?)

.... I got better. It took 10 years of my life to get it back, mostly. It takes a lot out of me to even begin to try to share any of this.

I hope this post helps someone. You too can get through it.

I appreciate that the article calls out the trash as being like an oil slick, which is a sticking point I think we all can be upset about, and use our agency to demand change.

Don’t buy plastic to wear. Tell manufacturers (brands) they are grotesque for using plastics in clothing.

Maybe the repeated parsing and checking for legibility is the foil that improves memory retention!

I had perhaps foolishly hoped to at least get a fun universal remote out of it, and it’s somewhat possible yet the software just isn’t there to bring a robust family of device RF and Bluetooth commands together. It’s no harmony remote.

I realize it is a drug, but not sure if that’s even supposed to be in the drugs.

Is this really a story of drug dealers cutting the drugs that people wanted.. into a lethal concoction?

(Sorry I really don’t know, are users looking for fentanyl?)

I remember my car breaking down and needing to walk to a rest area, to use a pay phone to call for help.

That and using pay phones generally as a convenience when I would bike miles into town, well that isn’t really available anymore.

I’ve had to knock on a door to ask a stranger to use their phone.

I’ve had to ask a store to use their phone.

A lot of this seems so strange now, like I cannot picture myself needing to rely on strangers and stores!

They are in the range of $10 Put in an expense report if IT doesn’t have one for you?