This is interesting. There are somewhat similar sentiments among anarchists in the US who think “burning it all down” is the only way to fix the system (rebuilding it from the ashes). In their fantasy, it’s worth it to them to just destroy any and all parts of the current system and spread fear and chaos. Not the same idea, but I can see some overlap in mentality.

We love our moral panics here in the US. Especially Satanic panics.

I like candidates with signs that don’t get stolen!

The Facebook bots are probably trying to make every lesser site feel bad about itself by comparing them to the much cooler and popular sites.

I checked my “content library” and I still have the option to download. Which is good, as I back everything up in Calibre. Maybe there are some regional factors here, or it may depend on which Kindle device(s) you own?

It has that facemask under the nose look going doesn’t it.

Thank you for the update! I would like to keep using it. I’ve been very happy with Bitwarden both as a password manager and a TOTP authenticator. I have even recommended it to my boss as an enterprise solution for us to use at work, and so far we are planning on replacing our current password database solution with Bitwarden.

Unfortunately, with “enshittification” being so common these days, it was very easy to believe they were also going to the dark side. I will remain cautiously optimistic after learning it was a packaging bug.

Here’s a link to the post on X (yes, I hate X, too) in case anyone else is doubtful:

https://x.com/Bitwarden/status/1848135725663076446

Yup, thanks. Was thinking along these same lines.

Goddammit. It’s getting to the point I’m going to have to figure out how to write my own app for this.

I’m not against passkeys. They have some real advantages. And I understand more than you think.

My comment is primarily about the preferred ecosystems that tend to come along with these newer solutions (like Apple’s iCloud or Google’s Password Manager) and how the corporations take advantage of user laziness and bandwagon jumping.

They may not force you to be exclusive with them, but they definitely want you to be. And over time they will likely make it more and more inconvenient not to be locked in with them.

For contrast, I use BitWarden for password management and Bitwarden Authenticator for TOTP (and I keep safe copies of TOTP secret keys elsewhere). This is a generic open-standards-first approach to things, with relatively easy recovery should you lose something. You can export your passwords. You have copies of your secret keys. You are in no way locked in to BitWarden forever.

Passkeys can also work within that type of operational framework! Like TOTP which normally uses RFC6238, Passkeys tend to use CTAP or WebAuthn. All of the above are open standards. And this is a good thing!

But do you really think Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc, want to play nice long term? Hopefully they will. But I have also run into evil nonsense like LastPass, which even though they also used open standards, their software would not allow you to do simple things like recover your own secret keys, export your data, etc. (Not to mention the embarrassing security breach they had and the wretched response, the main reasons to dump them).

While I am not directly comparing an idiot company like GoTo Tech with Apple et al, they all have the same types of big brain MBA types working for them who love to constantly brainstorm new ideas on how to screw the users over by taking features away and calling it a “software upgrade”.

So, passkeys as a security mechanism: sure, this gets my vote. But trusting the big corporations not to change the rules on us later…come on, get real. They love limiting or removing portability and recovery options whenever they can.

Bottom line: don’t assume passkeys are inherently good or bad. It’s simply a security standard that can work well if implemented correctly. Passkeys make logging in easier. But will they also make recovery / export / migration easier…? Because if it’s not easy, people won’t do it.

Whenever I read an article about security (and read the comments, even here on Lemmy) I’m constantly frustrated and depressed by a couple of things.

1. Corporations making things shittier with the intention of locking customers in to their stupid proprietary ecosystem. And of course, they are always seeking more data harvesting. Security itself is way down the list of their priories, if it’s even there at all.

2. Users being lazy trend-followers who quickly sacrifice their security on the altar of convenience and whatever shiny new FOMO thing is offered up for “better security”.

It’s a very bad combination. Doing security right is a bit inconvenient (which users hate) and expensive (which corporations hate).

Some call this Cunningham’s Law. It is remarkable how people will ignore a question, but trip over themselves to correct someone. Pedants are going to be pedantic (but may have a useful answer occasionally).

The developers where I work sometimes use this trick on our users. When they can’t get a response from the users on a request for design input or feedback on something (which happens a lot) the devs will sometimes release some piece of garbage looking thing, and then the users will very quickly put in support cases with the requested info telling them the missing stuff, etc.

Human nature is why we can’t have nice things.

I remember reading a very long (but fascinating) 11 part series of posts a couple of years ago on reddit about scummy stupid Blizzard. Here it is, if anyone still cares.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/riq4fq/games_world_of_warcraft_part_1_beta_and_vanilla/

Book banners bringing attention to books that scare them is galaxy brain in action.

I’m never leaving the house again. I mean, I kind of wanted to do that anyway, but this is the excuse I needed.

I feel like Walz’s answer re: The ACA is his best response so far.

“Guns don’t kill people, weak windows kill people…or…something.”

Yup. He’s very slick and relaxed up there. Completely full of horrible ideas and deception, but he’s unfortunately doing better on the optics and sound bitey-ness.

Me: Opens wallet. Moth flies out.

I tried Zenni. What they sent me was not good. I’m not saying they are bad overall, this is only anecdotal evidence, but it was way off from what I needed.