Just looked at their site, and the images all show Mastercard logos on the cards. Isn't this just middleware between me and Mastercard?

I pin a webapp to my homescreen, open it and pay without any issues. Aren't webapps the way around this, and pretty common already?

There was an article on HN about the valuations of AI being out of touch with the question; what problem is being solved?

We use generative imagery/video at my job and it's adding value. I see value being added for coders.

There's real innovation happening, but I find it's mostly companies cutting corners making customer service even shittier than it already was.

> real innovation happening, but I find it's mostly companies cutting corners

There's a meme that I think fits: https://i.redd.it/20rpdamxef0f1.jpeg

I think for a long time, cutting corners so that the number can go up next quarter has worked surprisingly well. Genuinely, I don't think a lot of corporations view offering a better product as a viable means of competing in the 2025 marketplace.

For them, AI is not the next industrial revolution, it's the next overseas outsourcing; AI isn't a way to bring new value to customers, it's a way to bring roughly the same value (read worse) but at a much cheaper cost to them. If they get their way, everything will get worse, while they make more money. That's the value proposition at play here.

Does deleting your data even matter if it's already been sold to a data broker?

If you are a California resident you can request a deletion via the state's new DROP platform which is launching next year. That will send the deletion request to every registered data broker in the state who will then have 45 days to comply. Part of that compliance is sending deletion notifications to everyone downstream that they have shared or sold your data to in the past. The penalty for not responding to a DROP request is going to be $200 a day, per request.

Starting in 2028 CA registered data brokers will have to undergo audits to ensure that they have been complying with deletion requests to the fullest extent of the law. Now, maybe only 20% of actual data brokers are registered in California like they are supposed to be, but it's a start.

Shameless plug: I'm building a platform to help the data brokers actually delete the data they are supposed to, provide full auditing and accounting for that process, and automate privacy request handling: forgetmenaut.com

What mugshot extortionists do, is charge you to delete your mugshot, then move it to another domain that they own.

"will pay to delete info" is one of the more valuable pieces of data about you after all

There’s still value in turning the faucet off if you ask me. Especially if you’ve hardened security/privacy practices to better protect yourself moving forward.

I only got really serious about consistently using VPN’s, firewalls, adblockers, and more privacy centered browsers a few years ago. I would say over the last 8 to 12 months I finally started to see it pay off. I still don’t see a lot of ads if ever, and they are wildly off target when I do see them. Using email aliases that I regularly purge has also made a huge difference when it comes to password/info leaks in particular.

Now if I could only get my damn phone number under control… so tired of the endless spam texts