India “was criticized for making #CoWIN the only way for Indians to book a vaccination appointment, excluding millions who didn’t have access to a smartphone or the internet.” Now a massive vaccine database #breach exposes IDs of millions of Indians. This serves as a good example for why people need a #rightToBeOffline.

@rms @freemo A parallel has already played out w/the #rightToBeOnline. Putting everyone online enables the gov to assume everyone has online access, at which point they push you to use their anti-tor captcha-pushing garbage websites. So we need a #rightToBeOffline, so we can invalidate the assumption that we are online.

US lawyers: state secretaries have been pushing CAPTCHAs to citizens who attempt to lookup a registered business. If you take the offline analog approach & write to the secretary of state requesting records, they ignore it. Is that legal? Do citizens have a right to access that info, or is that right only for online people? #askFedi #rightToBeOffline

Lawyers: state secretaries have been pushing CAPTCHAs to citizens who attempt to lookup a registered business. If you take the offline analog approach & write to the secretary of state requesting records, they ignore it. Is that legal? Do citizens have a right to access that info, or is that right only for online people? #askFedi #rightToBeOffline

When bankers try to push you to do something online, how do you respond? Do you explain to them their website is a broken #JavaScript infested Tor-hostile piece of shit w/2FA that assumes everyone has GSM svc & will disclose their ph.№ & that their non-FOSS app is spyware? Or do you lie to keep the conversation short by saying “I’m offline”? #AskFedi #banking #rightToBeOffline

We used to have a choice whether to be online, have a mobile phone, and a bank acct. Has anyone noticed that we’ve started to lose these choices as they become mandatory? #warOnCash #rightToBeOffline #fuckGSM

Americans: if your retirement plan admin demands that you sign up for e-statements and they neglect to send you a paper statement automatically, they are violating federal law. Some giant FIs have a policy to force you to take some kind of action to get paper statements (such as registering online to opt-out of e-statements). It’s illegal. #rightToBeOffline #knowYourRights

I don’t suppose it matters either way what reason I give. People like me (who insist on digital social justice) are in such a tiny drop-in-the-ocean minority that orgs & govs aren’t bothered if say 1 person per year forces them to enter form data manually. #rightToBeOffline

@Kalvo @PhoneBoy Wow really? I’ve avoided MS products for decades so I’m out of touch with some of their shenannigangs. This is another reason we need the #rightToBeOffline.

So in effect taxes will indirectly finance a right-wing lobby. It’s also a little unsettling that as we get closer to ppl having the #rightToBeOnline, the #rightToBeOffline will have more work to do. Yes both rights are needed, but the #rightToBeOffline is unknown and off the radar, when it should be recognized at the same time.

When a gov. agency forces you to solve a #reCAPTCHA, don’t do it. Don’t be a pushover. Do shit the old-fashioned way (fax or snail mail). And if the old-fashioned way fails plz tell me b/c I’m tracking these cases. #rightToBeOffline

@ruffni@mstdn.io well since you are on mstdn.io, every instance has different visibility scopes. So I’m not too surprised. But not seeing my own 1st post locally is a bug. There's also an inconsistency, because at least after my 2nd usage I was able to search and get both posts, but for example I have some earlier posts using the #rightToBeOffline tag & I still can’t reach them by searching.

@dsfgs Did they overcome? Was there an offline way to accomplish what they needed? I’m very interested in tracking cases like that where the gov gives no offline alternative. #RightToBeOffline

Did the government force you to do something online as a precondition to accessing a public service or information? Did they fail to support an offline means? If yes, plz reply w/details particularly if was unjust (like forcing you solve a reCAPTCHA in the process). Mention forced interaction w/tech giants as well as which government. Thanks! #askFedi #rightToBeOffline

@weirdwriter @maloki @bookandswordblog @fluffy @jalcine @viennawriter Yeah I suppose you’re right. Living documented in a developed country does make me privileged. Even if I bottom out I’ll still have access to homeless shelters & food aid. But ethical payment alternatives already exist. My effort is best spent on the #RightToBeOffline project.

Americans who applied for unemployment: were you forced to solve a #Google #reCAPTCHA as part of the process to get the unemployment check? If so, which state? Was there an alternative offline approach? #RightToBeOffline

Most #rightToBeOffline articles refer to EU laws about teleworkers (& pandemic time non-teleworkers) whose bosses expect to be able to reach them at any time. Nothing about my drive for the right to be offline, which is that technology is fucked up by incompetence on an astronomical scale, and people need an offline workaround in fucked up situations.

Did a search on the #RightToBeOffline. Even using the best search engine (#sercxi), two articles were unreachable from Tor -- thus ultimately contributing to rationale that people need a right to be offline.

I will never open an acct at a financial institution (“FI”) that blocks Tor, but sometimes an FI starts blocking Tor after I have an acct there. In that case, I demand paper statements & paper tax docs. I’m happy to make them pay postage as a backlash for technological incompetence. #RightToBeOffline

@SigmaOne @tindall @aral IMO people need a #rightToBeOffline, which would solve a lot of these problems at a higher level. After people got the right to be online, the backlash is suppliers assume everyone is online & then they make further assumptions about software. #Email is broken so I’ve gone back to sending paper letters via post.