this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
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Yeah that tracks. A reminder: if a product is free and you cant figure out how they make money then YOU are how the product makes money.
Just for the benefit of anyone who doesn't know: aussie.zone is "free" because we (the users) pay for it. We don't need to serve you ads.
We won't sell what you say or upload, either - but keep in mind that everything you say here is federated and essentially public. Someone will probably come along at some point and scrape all our data. We won't know it has happened and the open nature of the fediverse makes it impossible to prevent. So keep all that in mind.
How much is hosting? I'd be happy to chip in and pay for a month or a percentage of the year or whatever. Sometimes I wonder about hosting charges when I upload images.
Our present costs are about $85/mo. We're pretty much funded at this point with existing donations through to the end of the year.
Lodion does periodical updates in the Meta Community on how hosting and finances are going.
Indeed, and I did hear that many years ago. I interpreted that to mean that ads would be served. And potentially they would also spy on you to serve targeted ads. Furry nuff.
However they're taking data and personal photos from as far back as 2007 and nobody knew about AI back then. Changing the terms (often retroactively) and not allowing opt out is not cool and you won't convince me that anybody signed up for this. The overreach is insane.
Is it though? To be blunt: these fuckers are evil. If anyone was still harbouring under the illusion otherwise needs to wake up. Itβs a bit like people complaining about Optus: how many times have they gotta screw their customers before the customers go βoh, Iβm getting the raw end here!β
I know all of this. I've been knowing this. Unfortunately these practices are reaching into every platform, just ramping up and being forced into every conceivable thing possible (not just social media) and it's becoming inescapable. Refusal to engage is becoming less of an option.
I remember participating in citizen science programs helping to train AI to recognise cancer cells, and being excited at seeing how it was being used to generate simple legal forms for people who couldn't afford a lawyer. Now it's just being used to strip mine for profit, undermine workers rights/cut jobs and churn out deepfake revenge porn before regulations come in.