Suddenly it's 1960.

Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google have replaced ABC, NBC, PBS and CBS.

Your "personal computer internet appliance" is a black-box running rented software, just like in the 'dumb-terminal time-sharing' era.

Correct answer.

Using any form of biometric 'login' under the US's "justice" system is supremely ill-advised.

When the dust settles, it'll be just like Ma Bell in 1975: There will be the "Internet Company" just like there was the Phone Company, with a probable 'bonus' of an extra "National Internet Corporation" modeled on the BBC.

Storage has never been cheaper.

There's going to be a seppuku session in somebody's IT department.

Off to the wrecking-yard and auto-parts house to get more spares for my '99...

If you're going to monitor me like an airline pilot, you can pay me like one.

The SEC or FTC or someone should sue Reddit for using the word 'decentralize' in connection with a feature that's only available within...Reddit! I don't care how many 'blockchains' and other buzz-terms they surround it with.

Usual info-free article with clickbait headline. Tinfoil-heads will call it a "troll / honey-pot", designed to attract and identify 'troublemakers'.

And from that comment section, it's working.

Nothing on Reddit can be proved to have come from a "user", and it's been that way since the "Great Spezzing of 2016", where 'spez' admitted to falsification and alteration of 'user' content.

Communication wasn't "lost", it was thrown away through malpractice.

Google up "Commercial Signage Displays".

...useless tech

Oh, it is "useful"; to the real 'owners' of "your" car...

I wonder if it was done on purpose after it came out that the Pentagon had typo'd ".ml" instead of '.mil' and exposed a lot of sensitive emails...

Yeah? What's that; 14 seconds of their profits?

They're also easily disconnected in case you don't want to be in a statistic like:

Air bags were previously blamed for the deaths of 31 children and 20 adults--mostly smaller women--in low-speed crashes they otherwise could have survived.

My wife (a 'smaller woman') will not sit behind one.

...Behaviors and lifestyle choices. They do not rise to the immutable characteristics that qualify for civil-rights protection.

And yes; I've seen the sleazy Wiki edit that attaches "perceived" to the definition of "immutable". 'I just have to believe...' belongs in a child's fairytale book.

"Never mind..."

"Just don't you worry yore purty little haid, darlin'; Big Brother™, in partership with the Manufacturer's Cartel will keep you safe from the nasty States-Righters who want you raped and red-lined."

-- The Big Guy, on the way to deposit his latest "campaign-contribution"

"Leak, or leak not: There is no '...will leak'."

-- Yoda

Claiming that "you're gonna..." accomplishes nothing, and paints a target on your chest. Also it tips off your adversary and allows them time to:

1. Dig up dirt on you
2. Publish 'mitigating data' to soften the blow of your activity.

Good points, but we must not relax under the comfortable blanket of "standards", because the Big Boys™ are busily unraveling them.

A prime example is Google's "Chrome" browser, that's weaponized 'web-standards' in the most anti-competitive manner possible. Worse is their bullying of "web standards bodies". This is specifically aimed at neutering Mozilla and independent browser-extension developers who throw up obstacles to their dominance.

Google wants to eliminate the possibility of users avoiding their data-vacuuming, ad- spamming and universal tracking. That's what's behind their endless propaganda about 'speeding up your web experience'.

Once they "succeed", all 'unapproved' extensions, 'users' and browsers will just be "unable to connect" with what used to be the greatest communication and data-sharing system in human history.

Concerned users should become familiar with the politics of "international standards bodies" that affect our ability to use the internet.

Then force the companies to accept convenience-store gift cards....