#privacy

Doug has created Carrot, a European voice assistant for the Rabbit r1, which allows users to interact with their device using voice commands. Carrot uses the European AI provider Mistral and is designed to be intuitive and private, with features such as reminders, to-do lists, and weather updates. The project aims to provide a TechFreedom-compliant alternative to traditional voice assistants, with a focus on data minimisation and user control.

Doug is considering a new zine, tentatively titled Field Notes on Ambient Surveillance, which explores how surveillance has become normalised in everyday life. The zine would examine the ways in which seemingly benign technologies, such as read receipts and location histories, contribute to a culture of ambient surveillance. Doug believes this topic offers fertile ground for a zine, as it highlights the ordinary, yet pervasive, nature of observation in modern society.

The note explores combining Private Access Control Tokens (PACT) with Verifiable Credentials (VCs) to add rate-limiting and anti-fraud protections. Unlike static VCs, PACT credentials are spent with use, proving human-scale activity rather than identity. This hybrid model could help secure credential presentations against bot abuse and agentic AI acting on behalf of users.

Mozilla's PACT proposal addresses the growing tension between website anti-abuse measures and user privacy by using anonymous "trust stamps" that prove a visitor is legitimate without revealing their identity. The system separates roles into anchors that issue cryptographic endorsements, moderators that turn them into usable tokens, and browsers that present them, preventing tracking across sites. If adopted, PACT could reduce CAPTCHAs and VPN blocks for privacy-conscious users, though governance

Anthropic now requires government-issued ID for some Claude features, using Peter Thiel-backed Persona. The author worries this could enable nationalist or fascistic export controls on AI usage. They outline three responses: comply with obfuscation, run everything locally, or join a cooperative compute network.