Post #2351234

2026-03-20 05:01 UTC

@cas@social.treehouse.systems i am waiting for the moment when these folks who partake in this misguided shitstorm learn about the kind of PII the good old GECOS field on Linux/UNIX carries... And once people are over that the next shock waits for them! There's a file in /etc/ that contains a hash (i.e. a unique identifier!) of your most personal, private, secret data: your password. And linux systems even kinda insist on you on providing that on first install! Can you believe that?

Replies (7)

@pid_eins@mastodon.social 2026-03-20 05:06

@cas@social.treehouse.systems It's as if UNIX carries AN ENTIRE DATABASE of PII in /etc/ without any consideration for user's privacy! Unbelievable! I think we all need to *demand* from Kernighan and Ritchie to immediately drop /etc/passwd and related files from UNIX, and stop helping the government with collecting this kind of data. It's really appalling that no one has called them out on this yet! The shock! The horror!

Open ##2351235
@truh@shark.community 2026-03-20 09:17

@pid_eins@mastodon.social @cas@social.treehouse.systems the mockery really doesn't help...

Open ##2351255
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk 2026-03-20 12:03

@pid_eins@mastodon.social @cas@social.treehouse.systems I even have some sympathy for the big companies wanting to get this from the OS; they know there's no way that they can implement age verification on website access - kids will find a way arounf it and they'll still get blamed; this pushes the problem away from them.

Open ##2351256
@vepr_jako_pepr@mastodon.social 2026-03-20 16:00

@pid_eins@mastodon.social most people arent entering any sort of information to be picked up in the GECOS field. It's a serious concern, i understand theres alot of hurt going around, and that this cant be stopped within the bounds of linux when the state employs violence, but individuals are just that, not linux bound, and can pass into political life.. And ig people probably do think that centralised structures like systemd would have the most sway. And are probably hoping for a plan from such a centraliser.

Open ##2351257
@LiComAce@mastodon.social 2026-03-21 19:51

@pid_eins@mastodon.social @cas@social.treehouse.systems Tracks aren't built unless trains are planned to run on them.

Open ##2351259
@tris@chaos.social 2026-03-22 11:11

@pid_eins@mastodon.social @cas@social.treehouse.systems I use non-unique machine ID of whonix, I use "qwerty" as password, "user" as user and "localhost" as hostname" and Ubuntu so I'm not unique, no one can fingerprint me, losers /s

Open ##2351260
@woltiv@mastodon.social 2026-03-24 20:02

@pid_eins@mastodon.social @cas@social.treehouse.systems What a bad faith misrepresentation.

Open ##2351261