### Issue 1851 - Tuesday 23rd May, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Facebook fined almost $2b for breaching GDPR by sending EU citizen data to USA
- Leaked survey of European Council member states opinions on encryption bans
- Instagram's "Project 92" Twitter clone based on Activity Pub appears to be real
- IcyDock's hot-swappable external M.2 SSD slots, Teenage Engineering's TP-7 field recorder & Philips' 24" LCD and 13" e-ink screen combo
- Cheap refurb Sony headphones, Apple Watch S7, Apple gift card, Apple Store cashback, Superloop & Exetel NBN, Samsung SSDs, Plex Lifetime, 10% bonus load on TCN gift cards, 20x EDR points on Netflix & TCN gift cards

## The News

### Facebook fined almost $2b for breaching GDPR by sending EU citizen data to USA

Facebook copped a 1.2 billion euro fine for shitting on the EU's GDPR rules for years. The Irish DPC (because Facebook's EU business is based in Ireland for those sweet tax loopholes) found that "Facebook transferred data of EU-based users of the platform to the United States, where data protection regulations vary per state and have been deemed inadequate to protect the rights of EU data subjects" back in July 2022, but decided not to fine Meta for it. The European Data Protection Board said that's bullshit and to fine Meta, so here we are. The EU and USA have been trying to get a treaty going (the EU-US Data Privacy Framework) to US companies can avoid getting fined like Meta, but nothing's been formalised yet.

### Leaked survey of European Council member states opinions on encryption bans

Also in the EU - a leaked "European Council survey of member countries' views on encryption regulation" found that "the majority said they are in favor of some form of scanning of encrypted messages, with Spain’s position emerging as the most extreme". The Spaniards want to go as far as to make end-to-end encryption illegal. Think about that for a minute. Unlike other jurisdictions (USA, UK, Australia) that go around saying they want a backdoor in to E2EE, Spain is straight up advocating to ban it entirely. The justification for this, is as usual, scanning for CSAM (child sex abuse material). Finland, Estonia, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands appear to disagree, so that's some relief. Wired was good enough to publish the entire document if you wanna read more.

### Instagram's "Project 92" Twitter clone based on Activity Pub appears to be real

Lia Haberman got her hands on a confidential slide deck Instagram has been sending "select creators" about Project 92 - a "a new, decentralized, social network" based on ActivityPub, like Mastodon. You log in with your Instagram account and all the data is carried across, like followers and your username, bio and so on. 500 character posts with photos, links and videos. Reposts, likes and replies. Sounds a lot like Twitter to me. Leveraging that Instagram userbase will be huge as the worst thing I've found with all these Twitter "replacements" is the lack of your mates on there. Instagram also doesn't have the same bad stench around it like Facebook, so yeah, it's probably got a good shot at getting some huge traction.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### IcyDock's hot-swappable external M.2 SSD slots, Teenage Engineering's TP-7 field recorder & Philips' 24" LCD and 13" e-ink screen combo

Here's some cool gadgets I've seen recently:

- The IcyDock ToughArmor MB842MP-B, a PCIe card with two exterior facing slots that allow for hot-swapping M.2 PCIe SSDs. You chuck the SSD into an aluminum caddy thing, then you can take them in and out of the computer as if they were oversized Sony Memory Sticks. The hot-swap bit requires mainboard and firmware support.
- Teenage Engineering's TP-7 field recorder. It costs US$1499, doesn't have a screen, "only" records in 24-bit/96kHz (32-bit float audio is where it's at now), no XLR inputs and no external storage - but it looks fucking beautiful and has a "motorized tape wheel" featuring a "a delicately engineered brushed motor with ball bearings, and a highly sensitive hall sensor that lets you virtually grab your recording".
- Philips chucked a 13" e-ink screen on the side of an otherwise mediocre 24-inch 6-bit 2560x1440 monitor and called it the 24B1D5600/96. Each screen operates independently - the LCD plugs in over DisplayPort/USB-C and the e-ink screen needs its own USB-C connection. Very nice, but could be useful for reading PDFs while working I guess? I'd like to try it.

## Bargains

- Refurb Sony WH1000XM4 noise cancelling wireless headphones - $279 from Sony's eBay store
- Apple Watch Series 7 45mm/41mm - $464/$394 from The Good Guys
- 8% off Apple Gift Cards from Card.Gift
- Apple Store 7% cashback (no cap! but some exclusions) via Cashrewards
- Superloop 1000/50 FTTP/HFC NBN - $99/m for first 6 months
- Samsung T7 Shield 4TB Portable SSD - $375.60 from Amazon USA
- Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSD - $78 from Centrecom
- 20% off a Plex Lifetime Pass - $128 from Plex
- Bonus 10% loaded on TCN Him/Home/Kids/Teens gift cards (JB, Officeworks, EB, Good Guys & others) at Aldi
- 20x Everyday Rewards points on TCN Teen & Netflix gift cards
- Exetel NBN 50/20 & 100/20 plans for 6 months - $53.50/$68.95 per month from Exetel

## Image Of The Day

I saw the very first DVD at the Toshiba Science Museum in Tokyo when I visited back in 2018. Eraser, along with The Fugitive, Blade Runner and Assassins were the first titles released on the new format.

## The End

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