From what I’ve gathered, I think you’re right to assume it’s legally safer to refuse to unlock rather than wipe. Also, worth noting that you can be compelled to unlock with biometrics, but not a password. On grapheneOS this means simply shutting off/restarting your device as it requires a pw after a fresh boot, even if biometrics is enable.
RE “If you’re not paying, you’re the product,” also doesn’t always apply when it comes to not paying EG: Linux and other FOSS products.
Not that I know of, unless self-hosting. I’ve gone back to ripping CDs and sometimes buying DRM-free HQ audio. Probably getting my purchases profiled, but at least I can download it and no one else has to know when, what, & how much I’m listening to.
For easier access I have a Jellyfin server on my home network. I plan to switch to navidrome or similar for a better, dedicated music experience as well as setting up secure access over the internet for me and my friends and family.
For those not in NJ trying to avoid this, pay in cash and punch in a random phone number at the register.
You may need to try a few numbers at self-checkout to find a working one, but it’s surprisingly easy. Rotate the numbers to dirty up the data of these parasites.
Can’t help but imagine this would result in having to “read” and sign a 70 page ToS and 30 page Privacy Policy before we can buy groceries.
That’s the only one I could confirm, but probably because my config game is weak.
Beyond the obvious problem of paying but not owning, it’s impossible to watch/listen without that data being stored on a massive corporation’s server and likely sold to hundreds of advertisers. Last I saw Spotify had over 300 venders they share data with. I’ve seen sites with over 1000.
So you’re not only paying for something you don’t own, but you’re also paying to have a larger profile in the surveillance capitalism machine.
I didn’t read the article, so I’m not sure how hung up they are on physical media, but the title is about owning vs renting/subscriptions. There are still places were digital copies can be purchased and downloaded to own, DRM-free. Personally, I prefer to store bits on HDDs and SSDs rather than CDs. Of course, that option is limited. Digital music can still be owned (eg bandcamp,Q-something,etc), same for audiobooks (shout out libro.fm), ebooks less so, but still possible and workarounds exist (deDRM).
Movies and TV are where it really runs dry. There’s a few indie creators you can buy from directly, but for everything else, if you don’t want to have a bunch of dvd/blu-ray cases taking up space your only non-rent/subscription options are borrowing from the library (my jam, but a limited collection), or pirating.
vlc for watching.
mpv for listening.
This is “Lines of code = productivity” levels of stupid and lazy. I want to work with people who are well rested, not ones who run themselves ragged and are always on the verge of burnout.
Maybe Meta has to payout unused vacation time and laying off someone who used vacation time is cheaper than someone who has a lot of vacation time? Still be dumb but not surprising if the only measurement they’re going off of is $.
If you want to do ANYTHING creative in a digital medium in 2026, you’ll be forced to pay them a monthly fee.
This is giving Adobe too much credit. They suck, for sure, and are monopolistic and have set the industry back, but if people want to do creative things, there are manageable options outside of Adobe. Especially if you focus on alternative software for a particular niche (photography, illustration, compositing, etc).
I love FOSS and Obsidian is literally the only close-sourced software in my stack, but open source is not necessary to prevent enshittification, not if you have interoperability. As long as data is stored in md files, if the obsidian team makes bad moves people can pack up and migrate to logseq or other competitors. While the 3rd party plugins add enhancements that might bog down switching, many of those plugins are open source and could be ported.
Slightly better is still the direction we want to head in. Not sure how else we get off the racketing-effect/boiled-frog path we’ve been on.
If you’re interested, the linux unplugged podcast had a recent episode on their experiences. I’ve never loved the tone of “hey, look, this is inevitable” when it comes to ai, but I can see its utility when well-scoped with conservative permissions and oversight vs letting it loose or vibe coding. Now if only hardware wasn’t artificially inflated I might think it was worth dabbling locally.
Yeah, people have their own threat model and trade-offs they’re willing to make for security/convenience and it’s probably a lot lower for most people than if they knew more about the landscape and gave it careful thought. It sounds like other mobile devices might reencrypt after reboot. IDK about the pw v. bio, though, but if it’s like Grap.OS just convincing them to reboot their device before going through TSA checkpoints or other areas where their device might get confiscated may improve their security with minimal effort.