Bas Grasmayer

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DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Who Criticized Them in Email The Department of Homeland Security is using a little-known tool to go after its critics.

"Both Google and Meta received a record number of subpoenas in the United States during the first half of 2025 as Trump’s second term began, with Google receiving 28,622, a 15 percent increase over the previous six months."

newrepublic.com/post/206088/...

A decade before 'Moltbook', there was SubredditSimulator.
www.reddit.com/r/SubredditS...

Meta's Secret Weapon in the AI Race? All Your Personal Data
www.cnet.com/tech/service...

People who have stopped using Google as their search engine: which do you use now and how happy are you with search results generally?

Was looking up the lyrics to the Ghostbusters theme...

Are EU leaders actually so naive as to believe that a greater European military presence in Greenland might appease Trump?

It's not about normal geopolitical interests: Trump cares foremost about the billionaires who want the territory's resources.

The US's defensive position is an excuse.

I put off switching from Google to Proton for years. It took minutes The price of convenience when your life's turned into training data.

This Saturday morning, I woke up early and finally snapped.

I ditched Gmail for @proton.me... and boy, would I have made the switch earlier if I had known it would only take me minutes.

(I'd seen the advertising claims. I was sceptical. I was wrong.)

www.calmfluffy.cloud/p/i-put-off-...

Brussels plots open source push to pry Europe off Big Tech : Call for Evidence casts FOSS as a way to break US dependence

Yes, please. www.theregister.com/2026/01/11/e...

Hacker Dressed As Pink Power Ranger Dismantles Racist Websites Live on Stage At the Chaos Communication Congress in Germany, it was morphin' time for hacker Martha Root, who took down several white supremacist websites during their presentation.

Not all heroes wear capes… www.pcmag.com/news/hacker-...

Delete by default A challenge for YOU + some personal updates + new challenge in October!

Delete by default privacy strategy: www.calmfluffy.cloud/p/delete-by-...

Be aware of what you share. Assume that what you disclose may leak. That can be tomorrow, or that can be in 20 years. Keep in mind that even things you type, but don’t end up sharing, may be logged. Be aware of what you click. Everything you do in the app is tracked, including which links you choose to open, e.g. if you’re doing research. Avoid sharing information that could be used against you or others, should it become public. Respect your friends’ privacy. Don’t put their addresses, full names, or other personal info into ChatGPT. Use nicknames to create more ambiguity. Regularly clean ChatGPT’s memory feature. Does it really need to remember that you went on a holiday to Italy in 2023 with your ex-partner? Use the temporary chats feature. OpenAI claims these chats won’t be used to train their models, are deleted from OpenAI’s servers after 30 days, and don't show up in your history or memory (source). Stop OpenAI from using your data for training. You can opt out by using ChatGPT’s data controls. Imagine your private challenges from your Italian holiday somehow making their way into someone’s replies years down the line? If using third-party apps with ChatGPT, be cautious. This is a Cambridge Analytica scandal waiting to happen all over again. Keep yourself informed about potential risks. I highly recommend listening to the Darknet Diaries podcast to better understand why your data is valuable to actors with bad intentions, even if you think you have nothing to hide.

My privacy guide for ChatGPT: www.calmfluffy.cloud/p/meta-knows...

News orgs win fight to access 20M ChatGPT logs. Now they want more. OpenAI's loss in privacy fight could lead to sharing even more deleted chats.

This is your reminder to periodically delete all your data on AI platforms, because you can not know whose hands your chats will fall into.

My recommendation is to completely delete your account, and, if in EU, to submit a specific GDPR data deletion request.

arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/n...

There seems to be some confusion over record labels’ suing AI companies, only to turn around and partner with them.

The lawsuits are part of the negotiation strategy.

It’s a very common strategy in IP-heavy industries.

(See also: UMG vs TikTok)

Deezer/Ipsos survey: 97% of people can’t tell the difference between fully AI-generated and human made music – clear desire for transparency and fairness for artists - Deezer Newsroom Deezer and Ipsos unveil a first-of-its-kind study exploring attitudes and perceptions around AI and music, conducted across 8 countries with 9000 people. The survey shows overwhelming support for labe...

“participants were asked to listen to three tracks and determine whether or not they were fully AI-generated – 97% of the respondents failed”

newsroom-deezer.com/2025/11/deez...

How you hear these two tones might depend on if you grew up in California or the United Kingdom. Noam Hassenfeld, host of the Unexplainable podcast, talks to researcher Diana Deutsch about why people from different countries hear tritones differently.

(podcaster wedding vows) My fiance, soon-husband, works at Anthropic

Please stop using AI browsers Agentic AI browsers are dangerous, and even some of the biggest browser companies think so.

“Enjoy the futuristic capabilities of these browsers by all means, but remember that even Opera's 10% success rate with one particular prompt injection attack means that you need to be lucky every time, while an attacker only needs to get lucky once.”

www.xda-developers.com/please-stop-...

Innovation at major labels often looks like:

1 Startup has new tech they want to apply.
2 Get shown the door at the label.
3 Investors and founders take risk, develop tech, and launch without proper licenses.
4 Label sues.
5 Startup and label settle with licensing deal.

Major label: INNOVATION!

2025 and German media still call female DJs “DJane”. 🤦‍♂️

The “Forever” Stakes of Generative AI Ownership On synthetic data and dead labour

I wrote about AI + why artists need ownership (incl. governance) or they’re up shit creek!

A simple but important argument! And I messed w/ David Harvey’s “Paths of Capital Accumulation” diagram to make it 🤓FUN!

+ a Neil Young song 🧛🔵🏖️!

musicx.substack.com/p/the-foreve...

When I was still on TikTok I noticed another phenomenon: clips of parties in the 00s with embittered comments about how “we” millennials did it so much better than the younger generation.

My generation is turning into what we disliked about online boomers.

There’s a generational changing of the guards happening.

What tacky boomer memes on Facebook were for the previous generation of the internet..

Corny millennial AI slop is for this generation.

Busy Simulator Pretend you're busy by playing a bunch of app notification sounds. Made by Brian Moore.

Stress response all over. busysimulator.com

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

Calm & Fluffy October Offline Quest - Create Your Retro Ticket Create your personalized offline adventure ticket with beautiful 16-bit pixel art. Take a break from screens with style!

I've also built a little tool to set your parameters for the quest, what exceptions you'd like to make, etc.

It creates a ticket as a reminder.

Have fun!

offline.calmfluffy.com

Why I’m spending my October evenings offline And how you can join me on this adventure for peace & health

Earlier this year I left my phone at home for a month and was offline every time I went out.

In October I'm inverting that: I'll go offline at home, every day at 8pm.

You can join the adventure •‿•

Read more here: calmfluffy.substack.com/p/why-im-spe...

Not just this one •‿•

I wish you were wrong more often, Mike…