Is Ubuntu Becoming the New Windows?
Our top stories this week:
- Ubuntu’s AI plans have Linux users looking for a ‘kill switch’
- Europe's Attacks on Anonymity
- Copy Fail
- Woman’s Talkspace therapy app sessions exposed in court
- RightsCon Canceled After Zambia Requires ‘Full Alignment’ With ‘National Values’
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Updates from the Team
News
It was a slower week this week as we're gearing up for some exciting new content. In the meantime, enjoy an update on how Firefox is quietly adding Brave's rust-baed adblocker and our weekly Data Breach Roundup.
Jonah Aragon
Sources
Ubuntu’s AI plans have Linux users looking for a ‘kill switch’
Users are getting worried after Ubuntu announced plans to start rolling out AI features. Canonical's VP of Engineering has said that all AI features will be shipped as Snap packages, meaning they can be removed. He goes on to say that AI features will be opt-in. New installs will ask during setup if users wish to add them or not. The features will focus on things like accessibility (text-to-speech and speech-to-text, for example) and agentic features like troubleshooting and automation. Regardless, many users have voiced concerns and have even expressed potentially switching distros.
Stevie Bonifield
Europe's Attacks on Anonymity
This week we saw two unfortunate developments that threaten anonymity in Europe. First, Turkey is moving to ban anonymous VPNs. To the surprise of no one, this is being packaged as protecting children. Those same measures also include parent-controlled "child SIM'" cards and a limit on how many mobile numbers a single person can register. Second, Greece wants to ban anonymous social media. In this case, the argument is to reduce online toxicity.
Cindy Harper
Sarantis Michalopoulos
Copy Fail
This week also saw a major new Linux vulnerability make headlines. This a privilege-escalation issue that's different from other attacks for a few reasons, such as working on all major distros, being hard to detect, and potentially being able to break into other containers in environments such as shared hosting.
Xint
Woman’s Talkspace therapy app sessions exposed in court
A woman's Talkspace transcripts were exposed during a court proceeding. This article largely uses this particular incident to explore what makes chat therapy different from traditional therapy (in terms of privacy) and explores some of the concerns with these apps in general, as well as Talkspace specifically, who plans to use their vast wealth of data to train an AI chatbot therapist.
Annie Gilbertson
RightsCon Canceled After Zambia Requires ‘Full Alignment’ With 'National Values'
RightsCon is a global conference focus on human rights, one which attracts advocates, technologists, journalists, academics, policymakers, and more. In a sudden move that caused chaos, the host country of Zambia cancelled the even just days before it was set to begin, when many were already en-route. The reason given was to "ensure full alignment with Zambia’s national values, policy priorities, and broader public interest considerations.” An unconfirmed report suggests foreign pressure from China as some of the expected speakers included Taiwanese delegates. The article notes Zambia doesn't have a particularly high press freedom rating.
Justin Hendrix
Forum Updates
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