@neil Yes, quite. And that is what I thought your view would be.

@neil I should add: even having said all that, I can at least acknowledge that there is a case for IDs being checked before permitting apps to ship via their own store. I wish it wasn't the same company that's harvesting so much other personal data, but I do think it is preferable that apps are not published with no verified responsible person.

Once again, I'd be a lot more comfortable if identity verification could be done by a provider of my choice with only a token being passed to the store.

@neil During the last five years, I spent a fairly significant amount of time developing an android app. I got a developer account and had an alpha release on the play store.
Unfortunately, personal circumstances took my focus away from it for some time, and by the time I got back to it, my account had been deleted after I hadn't responded to one of their requests.

I found the sign up process unpleasant and intrusive, so the idea of going through it again is not appealing. Naturally, I thought about putting my app on another store. The idea of that company being in control of what I can provide to other people to run on their devices was enough to make me quit. I won't be releasing my work as long as this restriction is being held over us.

@bitchboss @knowmadd @MissGayle
Right. Of course, LLMs, lacking creative thinking, aren't able to come up with this by themselves.

@aliide @theorangetheme @mttaggart right!? So the biases get embedded in their black box, and all they can say is "sorry, the computer says no", and no-one can question it because no-one really understands it.

@aliide @theorangetheme @mttaggart
Yeah, I do get a little frustrated with the big "skynet" doom scenario stories that for the time being are unlikely, when things like obfuscation of responsibility, (at least attempted) manipulation of populations, and drastic economic shifts are pretty much here already and certain to cause harm.

@nina_kali_nina Interesting. I got a much more "we're doing this, but in as privacy protecting way as we're able" impression from their press release the other day.
I'm satisfied I made the right decision regardless of how they presented it. (Closing my account).

@aliide @theorangetheme @mttaggart
You would think that your point about original work would apply to software engineering too (I think it does), but there seemingly are managers out there - or at least directors applying pressure - who want their engineers to use it.

@ottaross @dramypsyd
Okay campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties cos it's cold out there today.

@Em0nM4stodon I agree with you on the risk, but try telling an 'ordinary' person that and they'll think of you as conspiracy nut. I'm glad to see the message is starting to get through very slowly, but I doubt it's going to stop the current wave of ID 'verification'.
And it's not like there isn't a real risk to children in forums full of strangers. Until there's a social change with regards to that risk, I can't see there being any change of direction with regards to the other.

@jehannette @The_Whore_of_Blahbylon er... isn't that their point?