The author has a Master’s in informatics. That’s pretty much like an MBA. I wouldn’t expect more than buzzword-bingo from someone like that.

The only way to combat this is to vote the assholes out at the end of their term.

Extreme leftists are getting a little too comfortable all over the world it seems.

Wow, beautiful analogy! I’m going to use that in my professional career if you don’t mind. Also with your permission I’d like to give you credit with a link to this comment, if that’s OK with you, of course.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Apple’s CSAM scanning. You know, hang on to the photos as evidence, and, for an added bonus, sell more iCloud storage because the “System Data” now exceeds the free iCloud data storage quota. Win-win!

If it is indeed a boneheaded mistake, then it’s probably because of over reliance on RPC-type calls from the front-end that displays the data, to the back-end that actually handles the data. User deletes photo, and the front-end, instead of actually deleting it, tells the backend to do it… and then hides the photo from view, maybe updates its index of photos marking them as “deleted” regardless of whether the backend actually deleted the photo.

Then an OS update comes along, and rescans the filesystem, and report a bunch of new photos to the front-end, that then happily add them to the GUI to the user’s surprise.

Modern APIs and software architectures are a bloated, unnecessarily complex mess, and this is the result.

Whoah, isn’t FUTO the non-profit that Louis Rossmann works for? This is great news!!

Wasn’t Google Plus used to be called Circles? Man, I feel old!

If this is their attitude to a clear self-inflicted fuckup, then that’s plenty reason for me to avoid them and their services. It’s not like their services were distinct in any way… just a dime in a dozen cloud provider.

Google reminds me more and more of Microsoft of the 90s. That’s exactly the kind of compatibility breaking asinine move MS would do 30 years ago. Sigh…

What happens if you redirect all traffic to a sinkhole, rather than to 127.0.0.1? Do the devices still freak out when they talk to a web server which returns a 404? Just morbidly curious…

The Orion browser for iOS/iPadOS supports both Firefox and Chromium extensions, however, the support is quite buggy and limited. Nonetheless, a valiant effort by Orion devs.

According to LocalSend docs these are the ports that need to be opened: Multicast (UDP) Port: 53317 Address: 224.0.0.167 HTTP (TCP) Port: 53317 AFAIK macOS firewall is app-based, at least in the GUI. So depending on how you installed LocalSend, you may have to add it to the list of allowed apps: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/mac-help/mh34041/mac

You may be able to add the ports above to /etc/pf.conf manually, but AFAIK messing with pf on macOS is not recommended.

The other thing I wanted to ask is about Vallum. If you have it running on that Mac, would it not “take over” the macOS firewall?

Interactive (i.e. end-users) Clients should be using OAuth instead of app passwords. This will allow your users to use their own Office365 credentials for SMTP.

For servers and non-interactive clients (e.g. copiers/printers/toasters/coffee makers) I would suggest something along the lines here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/mail-flow-best-practices/how-to-set-up-a-multifunction-device-or-application-to-send-email-using-microsoft-365-or-office-365#compare-the-options

It loads and UI seems to work, but it still doesn’t actually block ads or click them.

I’m guessing this is a school and not a university? At a university students have more clout/rights, at least on paper.

In any case, getting your own machine is the way to go. You can run whatever you want on it. You could still (cautiously) use the school network, as long as you use a VPN; basically treat the school network as a “hostile” environment. That’s assuming VPN use is not against the school rules. :)

Is there an IT policy at your school? I suggest perusing it for 2 reasons:

1. Understanding the consequences of tampering/tinkering with the spyware.
2. Understanding how much authority the IT department really has, and whether or not what they’re doing with the spyware constitutes overreach.

#2 in particular is for your own knowledge/benefit. Since you’re not an employee, but a student, you may have some inherent rights under this policy, which the IT department may be violating.

Yikes, that’s terrible!

Lots of Firefox fanboys on here I see…

Librewolf is probably a safer choice.

The Brave ad blocker is based on uBlock Origin, AFAIK, so no, you don’t need it.