Re:Meta and Yandex are de-anonymizing Android users' web bro...
by refulgentis on Wednesday June 04, 2025 @01:59PM
(#44183618)
Thank you! This was a powerful reminder of how important it is to be careful with our words and cover all possibilities when commenting, and additionally, holding ourselves to account for our reading. I was a bit stunned at how I just sort of...flitted through? browsed? skimmed?...well, let's put it plainly: irresponsibly claimed to myself to have read and understood this. Meanwhile, I had completely neglected to notice this goes far beyond embarrassment. It's quite damning that I entirely missed that the consequences of someone knowing someones entire browsing history aren't just mere "embarrassment": first, there are plenty of contexts where it could even lead to state activity and my eventual imprisonment. We can even show that some countries punish the family still in a given country for the perceived "sins" (shorthand, i mean violating laws / actions against power, apologies for sloppiness here) of an individual outside the country. I shold have at least thought to acknowledge that it could go beyond embarrassment - your framing may even be too polite, to readers like me, who neglected to consider this.
Depending on the country that you or your family lives in, this could be far worse than embarrassment.