Grouchy

I hear your frustration, but there are other options. They won't necessarily be the same, or perhaps equivalent in every way, but they do exist. You don't have to use the same corporations over and over again.

The act of collecting the location data should be illegal. Selling it should never have been possible.

Run your own instance. It's the only way you'll be able to set your own policies. Otherwise you're subject to policies of the instance you're on and those policies may change at any time.

It's developers working on their time to build an app they want. You don't have the right to demand they do things your way.

Mastodon and friends are built as open conduits with very little in the way of safety or permissions. Spam should be expected.

It's not a Fediverse vulnerability. It's a Mastodon vulnerability. Don't want spam? Use a better fediverse technology.

I take the host my own instance path. It's safer and more stable than relying on a third party.

Good question.

Have you considered hosting your own instance instead? Seems like that would solve the issue.

Add some memory and hard drives and slap TrueNas or Unraid on it.

Wallabag might work.

I use Koel. https://koel.dev/

Install it at a host of your choice and access it in a web browser or with mobile apps.

Yes. Synapse is the server side part of Matrix. You install it at a Matrix host, or on a VPS, or even a Raspberry PI device. See https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse#installing-and-configuration

Once up and running you connect a client like Element to it.

Conversations, Cheogram, Dino are the ones I've used.

I use Matrix too. I've hosted my own Synapse instance for almost a year now. It works great. Easy to maintain and upgrade.

You make a valid point, but I have to disagree about the need to collect the data without consent. I think the key here is opt-in. The way cellular devices currently work there is no way to use one without the location tracking. That is not technically required. It's a design choice on the part of the telecommunications companies. Let's imagine a telecommunications infrastructure that does not and technically can not track identifying location information. With such an infrastructure, the potential for abuse is immediately gone. Then let people opt-in to location tracking services using apps or other features on their device on an individual basis. I'm not against giving people individual choices. It's the forced location information gathering that needs to go.

Host your own Synapse instance and lock it down to your users.

Prosody here in addition to Matrix. :)

That's lip service to privacy with spyware in reality.

That bad?

Last time I used Windows on my own was back in the XP days. I saw some of the early Vista and it was even worse. I can't imagine what the recent versions are like.

Yes

I've don't think I've ever used an Adobe product. While they may be huge in specific fields, there are other options. Yes, extra time, training, and money will need to be used to move to alternatives, but what's the other option? Continue giving Adobe money and support their monopoly? Be the change you want to see.

You are correct. Streams is Fediverse software that you install on a server.

I initially misunderstood your question, so deleted my post. Sorry about that.

There's always options.

• Refuse to use the applications and consult with the school board with your concerns. Involve other parents and start a movement.
• Use a different local school system. Is there a local private school that's better?
• Home schooling is another option.

I'm not saying any of those are easy options. In fact, you may have no good options today. But you don't need to stay that way forever. Explore what options you could have next year, or the year after. What can you work toward?

At the end of the day, the more everybody gives in and allows the abuse to happen, the move it will be normalized and accepted. If you don't like what is happening, then make changes in what you accept in your life.

Host your own instance. Then you have full control.