drasticchanges

27th April 1981 🇦🇪 🇬🇧 Secret UK document written by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (‘the Iron Lady’) after her visit to the UAE in 1981. She expresses admiration for Dubai Airport and frustration about Heathrow Airport by comparison. She says she was surprised…🧵

The issue is that a lot of people genuinely believe DuckDuckGo and Ecosia are the privacy-preserving options on this list. They market themselves that way. We read both privacy policies. DuckDuckGo runs on Bing. Ad clicks are managed by Microsoft's ad network, and the privacy guarantee on those clicks is a Microsoft commitment [not a technical control, straight from DDG's own policy]. Their revenue model depends on Microsoft serving those ads. In May 2022, security researcher Zach Edwards found DDG's browser was allowlisting Microsoft trackers on third-party sites (Bing and LinkedIn domains). Founder Gabriel Weinberg confirmed the same day: their Microsoft search syndication agreement contractually prevented them from blocking Microsoft-owned scripts. Ecosia is the more interesting case. Policy states every query automatically sends your IP and search terms to Bing or Google. Bing retains IP for 6 months, cookie IDs 18 months. With consent, Ecosia layers Microsoft Clarity on top, which captures session recordings up to 30 days. Their AI chat pipes queries to OpenAI, retained 30 days. The only major consumer search engine with an independent web index outside Google, Bing, Yandex and Baidu is Brave Search. iOS won't let you add it.

Is it really "absolutely free"? More storage for you means more data for Google ✨ Just sayin' 🤷‍♂️

Pulling the handbrake at that speed rarely ends well

France has made planned obsolescence a criminal offense, becoming one of the first countries in the world to treat deliberate product shortening as a serious crime. Manufacturers caught intentionally designing electronics, appliances, or other goods to fail prematurely or become unusable—whether through hardware flaws, software updates that slow performance, or other engineered limitations—now face steep penalties: up to 2 years in prison and fines reaching €300,000, or as high as 5% of their average annual turnover in the most serious cases. This landmark law, building on France’s earlier consumer-protection framework and reinforced by high-profile scandals (such as the 2017–2018 investigations into smartphone “battery-gate” slowdowns), explicitly targets both physical and digital tactics used to push consumers toward frequent replacements. The legislation is more than just punishment—it’s a cornerstone of France’s broader “right to repair” agenda. By criminalizing practices that drive premature disposal, the government aims to: - Slash the massive environmental footprint of electronic waste, - Protect consumers from hidden “forced upgrades,” - Encourage manufacturers to prioritize durability, repairability, and longer-lasting support. France’s tough stance sends a clear message to global tech and appliance companies: the era of disposable-by-design products is ending. By leading the charge on sustainability and consumer rights, the country is helping shift the world toward a more circular economy—one where goods are built to last, repaired when needed, and discarded only when truly necessary.

✅ The Telegram Login SDK now supports native iOS and Android apps. Only Telegram lets developers verify users’ phone numbers for free — something that’s otherwise expensive. 🫰 Expect more apps adding “Continue with Telegram".

@CMShehbaz @realDonaldTrump Thank you Pakistan for being Pakistan 🇵🇰

Mr President, on behalf of the people of Pakistan, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, and on my behalf, I express my deep and profound appreciation for your kind and gracious words. @realDonaldTrump

🇰🇼 Kuwait, 1960's

what were they doing before?

Survival, despite the burdens of life

@IRANinBULGARIA @IraninSA @IranInThailand @Iran_in_UK @MosenBagheri It's like 5 year olds are running the embassy. Clearly no country left.

While everyone else was fighting, IraninBulgaria brought the storm. @IraninSA @IranInThailand @Iran_in_UK @MosenBagheri

❗️X lost its 4th court battle today against a European user — a tech lecturer who filed a GDPR data request after getting shadowbanned. He just wanted to see his data. X intimidated the plaintiff after their first loss by sending two lawyers to one of his lectures at Leiden University. X then asked the court to impose a gag order on him, claiming he was talking about the case during his lecture — which he wasn't. Elon Musk promised more transparency on X in 2022, including on shadowbans — where an account isn't actually banned, but its posts are quietly suppressed and hidden from search results. X has been doing exactly the opposite ever since the ownership changed. For example, X is the only tech giant exploiting a loophole against Out-of-Court Dispute Settlement Bodies in the EU — by simply not paying them. These are independent, certified entities designed to resolve disputes between users and platforms over suspensions, shadowbans, etc. Because X doesn't pay, all of these bodies refuse to take on X cases. X users are the only major platform users in Europe who are effectively forced to sue in court just to get their rights.

@MEGAprivacy I absolutely love you post. It explains things in a way the average consumer can understand. Kisses 💋

Trusting one app with your privacy is like locking your front door and leaving every window open 😬 The lesson here is: even Signal, one of the most secure messaging apps, can't save you from a loophole it doesn't control. It's a reminder that digital privacy isn't an app. It depends on how secure your endpoint, your device and OS, actually are.

@durov I didn't expect you could answer that question. Yet you are focal about how secure you are.

@durov Please help me understand, Telegram is Not E2E encrypted by default (except for secret chat that is manually selected and it's limited to one to one chats) and hard to find. Yet you claim you are secure than default E2E encrypted chats? How is it more secure?

WhatsApp’s “E2E encryption by default” claim is a giant consumer fraud: ~95% of private messages on WhatsApp end up in plain-text backups on Apple/Google servers — not E2E-encrypted. Backup encryption is optional, and few people enable it — let alone use strong passwords.

@sciencegirl The moral of the story is you must not chase the boys

What is the moral of the story

OnePlus is launching a new smartphone every month in China. This time, the OnePlus Ace 6 Ultra’s official first look is out. Launching this month in China. Specifications: 📲 6.78-inch 1.5K OLED LTPS display, 165Hz refresh rate ⬛ Dimensity 9500 SoC 🍭 Android 16 📸 50MP main (OIS) + 8MP ultra-wide dual rear cameras 🤳 16MP front camera 🔋 8500mAh battery 🔌 100W wired charging 🔩 Metal frame (antenna lines visible) 🔑 Plus key (customisable)

@IRANinBULGARIA Arabian Gulf

Write one sentence for Iran, and your voice will be heard.

He's not wrong but... if WhatsApp's E2EE has a backup loophole, Telegram's E2EE is an opt-in 'Secret' 😂 Telegram's "secure messaging" reputation doesn't hold up under scrutiny. By default, not a single message you send is end-to-end encrypted. E2EE only applies to "Secret Chats," a feature buried in a submenu that users must manually activate for each individual conversation, on each device, every single time.