EDIT: A rough timeline of events here:
  1. In 2024, a user noticed this odd traffic on their local network, took a screenshot of the graph, and posted it to Twitter
  2. After discussing the issue with other Twitter users, the original poster realized that this graph was actually a mistake with their router or something. This reporting software was reporting some other device’s network traffic as being the washing machine’s traffic. The washing machine was actually only using a reasonable amount of data.
  3. Despite this past revelation, in 2026, someone put together a “meme” of sorts comparing the supposed events in that 2024 graph to what people in the past had predicted the future to be.
  4. For whatever reason, that “meme” was put through AI post-processing of some sort. Was the attempt to “upscale” this image after it had been passed around and been automatically compressed down by various platforms? Or was it someone using some newfangled AI-assisted compression technique in an attempt to create a smaller file size than any of the more traditional compression techniques? No idea. Whatever reason was, the image was left with a bunch of nonsense text on the graph portion.
  5. I saw this “meme” and decided to share it here without scrutinizing the text on the graph. As mentioned in my first point, this graph was originally posted years ago, so I was already familiar with it and did not feel the need to read into it in the image I was sharing. I felt safe assuming it was just the same graph that I remember seeing years back.
  6. After users here called out the nonsense text, I just recreated the “meme” from scratch. I grabbed the original screenshot of the graph from Twitter and a stock photo of clouds, and then combined them along with some text so that this is more-or-less the same exact “meme”, just without the AI gibberish.
  • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    You say that, until your hammer data is used to detect improper use, which your employer’s insurance can use to deny a claim.

    Or it can be used to void a warranty. Or it could detect G-forces of your commute to work and raise your car insurance rates for hard accelerations. Or a biometric sensor in the handle can tell your boss if you can work another 30 minutes before there is a financially significant risk of heatstroke.

    You get the idea, that data is useless, until some hairbrained jackass packages it and sells it’s to an even more unscrupulous asshole.

    • BilSabab@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      i wonder why the governments haven’t close this shop given how fucked up this whole thing is… oh wait…

          • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Period tracking apps are selling the data of minors to states where abortion is illegal in order to to see if they become pregnant (or un-pregnant).

            Need I go on?

            • BilSabab@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              if you feel like it.) We’ve got an entire government superapp that gets breached so regularly it is a running joke in Cybersec circles. Some shit that shouldn’t be an application or probably should use better security tools. And we have data hoarding mobile/internet service provider who keeps on buying every other company while anti-monopoly committee says it’s fine even though they probably should get broken up into a dozen of companies but who the fuck cares about competitive economic environment.