Only a month until #FOSDEM. My Flo mask has arrived. I have Eurostar tickets and a hotel room. I have people to meet, and I am happy to meet more!. I feel that I should have some stickers to hand out. But I do not. I have not written my presentation.

HSBC has chosen to block its mobile app on my phone because *checks notes* I've got a password manager, Bitwarden, installed via F-Droid. Its solution is for me to remove Bitwarden. My solution is to stop using HSBC's app.

I saw a headline on a UK tabloid paper yesterday, alleging that the majority of people in the UK support a social media ban for under 16s. There is a proposal for this before Parliament at the moment, and I think that it has some fundamental flaws. ## A proposed legislative amendment to attempt to ban under 16s in the UK from common messaging services, sharing family photos, using Wikipedia, and doing much else online, by imposing age assurance on everyone

A proposed legislative amendment to attempt to ban under 16s in the UK from common messaging services, sharing family photos, using Wikipedia, and doing much else online, by imposing age assurance on everyone

Updated 2026-01-19: the amendment has been amended, to give the Secretary of State some discretion over which services are in scope:

#OnlineSafetyAct #children #SocialMedia

# FACT warns illegal streamers following joint investigation with police The UK's Federation Against Copyright Theft (infringement, but anyway...) has obtained a list of people who have allegedly purchased streaming devices preconfigured to access infringing streaming services, and has emailed them. > During investigations into Edge and operators of another illegal streaming service (currently pending a criminal prosecution), law enforcement seized details of customers who had purchased access to so-called “loaded” Firesticks, Android, or Kodi devices. Those customers have now been contacted directly to warn them of the dangers of continuing to use illegal streaming services.

FACT

FACT warns illegal streamers following joint investigation with police

FACT, the UK’s leading IP protection organisation, has contacted over a thousand individuals across the UK via email and text, warning them to i...

Building a social media service for children? Think through the legal issues, especially data protection, very early on in planning. Building an age verification service? Think through the legal issues, especially data protection, very early on in planning. It is not the snappiest of catchphrases, I'll admit.

🖼

2026 may well be the year (for me) of "basic phone with Bluetooth, and mobile device running postmarketOS". Now *that* could be fun...

Santa Jaws

Because of private stuff that has happened this year, I've woken up thinking about people who might like to celebrate today but who are not celebrating, or who are not celebrating with the people with whom they'd really like to celebrate. I am particularly thinking of LGBTQ+ people with unsupportive, even dangerous, families, and people who have lost loved ones. I don't have anything pithy or clever to say, just that I am thinking of you.

Happy "look, it is very sweet of you, but honestly I am fine in the kitchen on my own, and I will get it done faster if I am left alone, but if you really want to be involved, perhaps you could sit over there, out the way of me with hot things, and peel these" Day, to those who celebrate.