elle

since that browsergate site about LinkedIn seems to be gaining traction I figure I should mention:

• yes, LinkedIn does do what's being claimed (though, it's that it probes for specific extensions you're running, using features in chrome's API - it doesn't "search your computer")
• it does seem to have been doing this since at least as far back as 2017, and there has been intermittent reporting on it over the years
• I'm fairly confident the copy on the site was generated by (or at least went through) an LLM, so idk that this site is the best way to spread the issue around

edit: and as someone else noted in the replies, looking through the list of extensions of scans for... they're pretty much all "AI"/scraper/automation plugins. so, should LinkedIn be doing this, or even able to do this in Chrome? no! but also, it does seem like the stuff they're scanning for is all extensions that shouldn't exist to begin with tbh

edit 2: please see @vantiss@social.treehouse.systems which proves this is just a shitty campaign by people who made an addon called "Teamfluence" that got blocked by LinkedIn

while playing a word game with @YKantRachelRead@social.treehouse.systems, I submitted "memos"

her response, out loud: "mee-mows?? what, really?"

me: "...like the plural of memo, memos?"

her: "....oh"

listening to a YouTube video I'm linked, blissfully forgetting it's 2026, only to suddenly go "...wait something feels off here" a minute or two in

then I read the transcript with it and it dawns on me that it's almost definitely a LLM-generated script

I check the rest of the channel, see they're putting out 15-20m videos every day, all with the same style, narration, and background music, and the earliest videos make it that much more clear im correct

oh and ofc the channel has >20k followers x.x

PSA: It seems Crunchyroll was breached, according to reporting from multiple other websites so far

(edit) I've swapped the first link to BleepingComputer, since they've now better confirmed things and added more details.

It seems that, since it was support tickets that were accessed, the only cases where credit card numbers were leaked were those where users included them in tickets. So, you should likely be okay not getting a replacement if you never send anything like that to their support

while passwords aren't listed in the stolen info, it's not a bad idea to change that too (and do the same anywhere else you potentially use that same password)

does anyone happen to have that one post handy that was something along the lines of "i keep hearing so many people say there's at least one thing genAI can be useful for, but nobody can agree on what that thing is, other than it's not the thing they happen to have the most knowledge about or the most expertise with"

e: found it! see the replies if you're interested

RE: @YKantRachelRead@social.treehouse.systems

I'm seeing the "night market" COVID study being passed around again, so I guess I'll boost this again in response

meows at you

yes, specifically you

remember:

Remember, that if you're still masking, you really are often offering some hope in a very "be the change you want to see" type way! A bit of story time on that:

I went to get my phone battery replaced yesterday, and the person at the front desk was wearing an okayish-fitting black surgical mask. I didn't say anything at that time, despite striking up a nice little conversation about the endless ads they had on the TV behind him.

When I went back to pick my phone up, I brought an extra 3M Aura, and broached the topic lightly, with a "It's really nice to still see someone else masking! That's pretty rare today", and he talked a bit about how he agrees, and really can't afford to get #COVID again - and mentioned his sense of smell still hasn't fully returned since the first time when a customer infected him. That seemed like enough of an opening - I brought the Aura out and offered it to him, asking if he'd be interested in an upgrade.

He was clearly curious and asked about it more - after I (very) briefly explained why it would be so much more protective, he was delighted! Like, his eyes legit lit up, and he even talked about how now his ears wouldn't be sore anymore, and how much more comfortable it looked.

I mentioned that the model info was on the front of the mask, and told him where he could get more of them dirt cheap - he said he was going to pitch that to his boss, and otherwise buy them himself

He was trying! He just had no reason to know there was anything better out there - after all: how often do you see someone masking at all these days in the wild, much less with a quality respirator?

It felt really good :>