I don't have a smartphone and I keep running into more and more of these QR codes. If I, as a citizen, am required to get a smartphone for these QR codes, to do citizen-like things, then it should be a utility and prices for hardware and services should come way down.
Not even way down, actually provided. You dont pay for wheelchair accessibility or braille on the signs.
I mean we all pay for it with taxes and increased prices, but the wheelchair user isnt forking out personally.
My entry level job requires that I use 3 separate apps. How do you get around that?
Probably by not having an entry level job. The companies love to make money off people any way they can, but potentially losing a highly skilled, long term trained employee would be worse than losing the income from the apps' data they can sell.
You get by without a smartphone? I was really late to get one but you just can't function in today's society without one where I'm at. In the Heart of Darkness here.
You can function in today's society just fine, it's just less convenient.
But the problem here is not only that you need a smartphone to begin with, but also one specifically from either Google or Apple. Having something else (like a phone with Sailfish or GrapheneOS or any other custom rom) also doesn't work.
I am switching to graphene OS first chance I get, it should be this summer, damn the consequences.
I lived most of my life without any type of cell phone let alone a smart one. I'm going back to our roots, to reject this techno fascist bullshit it's only downhill from here on their gear.
Welcome to the resistance
Yes, please. The more users we have on Graphene the harder we are to ignore as a user base.
Switch to GrapheneOS anyway. If a website forces verification with a phone that passes strict Play Integrity with no other options, then don't use it, or use a $30 Walmart phone if you must.
In china it's the norm. And I was feeling the same way, until I realized china takes way better care of its citizens vs USA. Everything is convenient, healthcare, etc.
This YouTuber goes into pretty good daily life of avg Chinese users.
In rural areas, don't many Chinese not have running water? That doesn't sound like they are taken care of.
The great Chinese achievement last century was lifting hundreds millions out of people poverty. That wont be everyone and some will still be living rough.
I don't know the answer to that, I've only been to Beijing.
But overall, id argue with healthcare, public transit, building a new hospital when covid hit specifically for it, it seems like they're doing better than nickel and diming them to death like USA. It costs money to breath here. Their EV setup is off the charts too. Even Ford CEO complimented it and drives a Chinese EV.
https://www.businessinsider.com/ford-ceo-jim-farley-xiaomi-tesla-chinese-ev-2026-4
Chinese new chargers - https://youtube.com/shorts/KhoRJQUA6dA
Yeah I'm not picking up my phone to use your website. Bye.
Yes, I "like" the surprises scanning a unknown QR code. I hate this crap, same as this short URLs, it's not different from clicking on shady ad banners. A trustworth website don't need this shit, hiding its domain.
The QR code point to https://recaptcha.net/qr/mMs9S9g8
I just scanned it and now the entire nation of Bangladesh has my phone number
Congrats on your million dollars though!
It must be illegal
I would assume this was trying to deliver malware if I ever saw it
It arguably is malware.
It'll certainly cause more people to get malware by normalizing people to scan QR codes on a whim without thinking
reCAPTCHA protects. your privacy and does not share your details with this website or app.
We foxes promise not to let any predators into the henhouse.
They said it wasn't shared with the website. They didn't say it wasn't shared with anyone at all.
Reminds me of those privacy policies. "We don't sell your data!" in the big type. When you dig more into the fine print... they don't! But they do "share it within their partner family of companies". And then THOSE companies sell it. Or sometimes, sell inferences made from it, even if not sell the data.
Isn't scanning random QR codes super risky? This is just begging to be abused....
Ah yes, my very real human ability of scanning QR codes. Truly an inherent characteristic of humanity.
Prove I'm human? Sure... [closes tab]
That's what google's been using to lockout non official Android forks like GrapheneOS. You can click on the eye icon at the bottom to get the regular captcha though... for now.
If you click the eye icon at the bottom you can go back the original captcha. For now at least.
Also I have no idea why archive.is uses reCAPTCHA from google! You've set up monaro as your only donation system so clearly you care about privacy but you haven't implemented an open source captcha?
Yeah, their privacy, not yours, evidently
Any service implementing this shit will be on my list of never using it again. Even if my bank do such shit I'll be moving to another one. Zero tolerancy. This is beyond the limits.
Send an email to their webmaster if you haven't already. The more of us, the better.
These are so useless. A barrier that is likely already broken by bots.
Btw I suggest URLCheck on F-Droid, it registers as a browser and allows you to check, clean, un-shorten links and so on before opening them
crosspost it to c/actually_infuriating
I won't click on those Captcha pictures, so I'm sure as hell not scanning a QR code.
and what if i don't have a mobile device?
Well, the bots do. Like 90% of viewbotting, click farming, follower buying etc is sold by people running phone farms.
Good thing that everyone has a smartphone as a secondary device. God forbid you would not be able to scan a QR code, what are we, the middle ages?!?! (and I'm not even starting on the absurdity of why you would want to do it, that's another point)
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
