Perl is the only language that looks just as incomprehensible before and aa rot13 transformation.

Lol. You're not wrong.

I'm kinda jealous. I don't miss maintaining production Perl code, but Perl was more fun to code in.

Lisp is the more logical choice.

Relevant XKCD. Python has replaced Perl, but things have otherwise changed quite little.

The only way to know if you are competent coder is for other coders to tell you. If none are telling you, your imposter syndrome isn't.

Or, considering that they're mostly introverts, if they look approvingly in the general direction of your shoes...

"Best friend I ever had... We still don't talk, sometimes."

You're not wrong to give the benefit out the doubt and believe their PR person isn't lying.

But I'm not inclined to give that benefit of the doubt. I don't trust these folks farther than I can throw them. I don't, myself, need proof, to believe they would try this crap.

And this is definitely evidence.

Security researchers would've noticed this.

They did notice. Malicious apps that use everything they can to spy on you are old news.

To your point - this isn't confirmation that any of the big players are listening directly. That would probably have been caught by security researchers, although it would be really difficult in Google's or Amazon's case, as they run proprietary software at a very low level.

The news here is two fold;

1. Cox got caught buying that data, and when confronted about it, Google, Amazon, and Meta all failed to deny that they also buy that data from those malicious app makers.

2. This is strong evidence that someone is routinely collecting that data. That's news. We've suspected for awhile that, at minimum, the malware apps do. Occam's razor says at minimum, we should now assume many malware apps are using microphone to collect speech and submit it elsewhere for analysis.

The unprovable part of this that smells much worse is: a kid in a basement writing malware does not have the computing power to turn tons of raw voice recordings into useful correlated data.

That kid needs an ally with a lot of computing power. Google, Meta, and Amazon all have a motive here and have the necessary computing power.

And all three worded their denials pretty carefully, I noticed.

In summary: Google, Amazon and Meta all deny that they directly access your microphone, and all three failed to actually deny purchasing voice data from third party apps that definitely do use your microphone and pair that with your ad targeting profile.

This is getting more attention because an internal slide deck from Cox Media Group was leaked. Based on rthe nature of leaks, it's safe to assume that Cox isn't the only organization up to this, they were just thee least careful.

So yeah, they're listening to anyone who isn't incredibly careful what apps they install and what permissions they give those apps.

Exactly as we all have suspected for years, while they gaslight us promising that they definitely don't.

Notice that they're still denying it, and trust that as you will.

like never hand someone an unfolded pocket knife, no matter how safely you do it

Yeah! Without a proper backspin toss, it's not going to land in their palm correctly, or in time for their next throw.

This is particularly interesting, since modern organizational theory tells us that Boeing's primary customers would be much better off with a shift in power toward Boeing's workers, away from it's current leadership.

Purchasers of huge airplanes cannot afford to purchase airplanes built under leadership that cuts corners the way Boeing's leadership lately has.

The striking workers may have an unusual ally here - in Boeing's customer base, which notably includes the US Government and parts of it's Armed Forces.

I think they forgot to pay themselves to use their product.