Redgoldsparks

They have a Global Device Identifier (GDID) Tracker that functions as a fingerprint for your PC that can surpass VPNs, proxy servers and countries. Although it can't survive a clean reinstall of Windows (it can survive updates), because Microsoft forces you to go to the internet and log in into a Microsoft account, they will be able to get to you.

Microsoft kept it secret and it was only found out when the FBI tracked a hacker thanks to the information Microsoft gave them.

You should be paying attention to this, and possibly consider moving away from Windows. If a government, especially the US government, doesn't like you for some reason, this could be seriously concerning.

This article specifically notes:

For journalism, activism, or domestic abuse situations, skip Windows and use Linux routed through Tor instead of a commercial VPN. A GDID doesn’t care which VPN you use, only that it’s still the same Windows installation.

Other important quotes:

What has researchers uneasy is everything else the case reveals. Costin Raiu, a well-known malware researcher, asked on the Three Buddy Problem podcast how much of this exists on other platforms, and whether it is linked more permanently to hardware. Matthew Hickey, another security researcher, called Windows “surveillance software”.

Two things back that up:

There’s no consent screen. A GDID gets assigned when you sign into a Microsoft Account. Apple’s advertising identifier needs an App Tracking Transparency prompt and a visible reset; Android’s works the same way. GDID has neither, and a Windows reinstall only gets you a new number Microsoft can still get back to the same account.

Then there’s activation. Massgrave, the group behind Microsoft Activation Scripts, notes that Windows setup sends hardware info to Microsoft and gets identifiers back, the same tokens later used for Store access and licensing: “It’s impossible to prevent Windows from getting a GDID without breaking activation and UWP app[s].” Anyone who lost a license after swapping a motherboard has already met a smaller version of this.

Here's the complaint filed to the court, the primary source for the case mentioned in the article. You can find mentions of GDID on page 30 of the document or 34 of the PDF.

I also made a PDF version!!

[ survey.gendercensus.com ]

The 13th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 13th August 2026.

It’s short and easy, for most participants it takes 5 minutes or less.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful!

Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

Thank you so much!

[ Link to survey ]

PS: You can see some regularly-updated statistics about incoming data here, with lots of demography and graphs to peruse!

Please call your representatives: VOTE NO on the FEDERAL BOOK BANNING BILLS HR 2616, HR 8705, and HR 7661!

Transcript below the cut.

If you don't know who your Senators or Representatives are, you can use Ballotpedia's Who Represents Me tool! (Note: there's a field for you to input your email address on their page, but it's not necessary to get your results. They just need a mailing address to confirm who your reps are.)

Once you've got names, you can look up and save your Reps' phone numbers in your phone. I find this makes it easier when I'm wavering about feeling brave enough to place a call. Just pressing a button instead of going and looking up the phone number all over again makes it just a liiiiittle easier, and sometimes that makes the difference between calling and not calling!

I appreciate that the infographics here are marked with a date! (6/10/26), because posts like these circulate for a long time, and I think it's helpful if exact dates are given so that people know what the status of the bill is at the time this was posted or reblogged, and whether it is at a point where the recommended action is still useful or not. It's also good to let folks know where they can easily check on the status of bills like this. (These links also have the full text of the bills available for reading, if that is your thing.) For example: HR 2616 (Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act) unfortunately passed the House on 5/20/26 (as mentioned in the infographic). It was received by the Senate on 5/21: "Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions". 8 Democrats joined the Republicans in voting to pass this bill in the House. Had they not, the bill would still have passed (D206 to R209). But it's still worth it, if you are one of their constituents, to give them hell about it and tell them how strongly you do not want to see them vote for the other bills mentioned here (info from govtrack.us): Cleo Fields (LA-6), Laura Gillen (NY-4), Donald Davis (NC-1), Marcy Kaptur (OH-9), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34), Eugene Vindman (VA-7), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-3). At this time, there is no info that I can find that says exactly when the next steps in the Senate will take place. Here are the Members of the committee on HELP (oh my god...). If your senator is on there, you might want to concentrate on contacting them at this time. It's possible this bill could be killed in committee.

Here is the bill's page on Govtrack.us. Here is the bill's page on BillTrack50.com.

Here is the bill's page on Policy Engage (trackbill.com).

Onward:

HR 7661 (Stop the Sexualization of Children Act) was introduced in the House on 2/24/26, and referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce.

As of 3/17/26, a committee consideration and mark-up session was held, and the bill was "ordered to be reported (amended)". No further actions on the bill are shown on the various tracker sites at this time.

Here is a page listing the members of the House Committee on Education and Workforce. (lmao: all the Republican members get their photo listed with their name; and then the Democrats are just a list at the bottom, without photos.). There are 20 Republicans on the committee, and 16 Democrats.

Given the way the voting on HR 2616 went, it's useful to contact your Democratic reps if they are on the committee, as well as your GOP reps.

Here is the bill's page on Govtrack.us

Here is the bill's page on BillTrack50.com

Here is the bill's page on Policy Engage (trackbill.com)

Finally:

HR 8705 (CHARLIE Act) was introduced in the House on 5/07/26, and referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce.

As of 5/21/26, a committee consideration and mark-up session was held, and the bill was "ordered to be reported (amended)".

No further actions on the bill are shown on the various tracker sites at this time. Please see above for a link to the House Committee on Education and Workforce, showing its members. They are the ones to contact about it at this time.

Here's the bill's page on GovTrack.us

Here's the bill's page on BillTrack50.com

THREE EVENTS IN MARYLAND IN JULY!

Because my year continues at a breakneck pace, I have three more public events coming up in July, all in Maryland.

From July 23- 25 I will be attending the Graphic Medicine International Collective Conference at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. This conference is ticketed, and fairly expensive, so if you are planning to attend I assume you've already made your travel plans. I'll be speaking on one panel and also leading a workshop with Dr Sarah Peitzmeier, my co-author on BREATHE: JOURNEYS TO HEALTHY BINDING.

Friday, July 24: Session IV - 4:45-6:00PM Workshop - Why Not Both? Developing Educational Graphic Medicine Comics that Use Both Narrative and Instructional Teaching for Greater Impact (Gilman 132) Facilitators: Sarah Peitzmeier (University of Maryland School of Public Health) and Maia Kobabe (author)

Saturday, July 25: Session V - 10:45AM-12:15PM - Panel Discussion - Keywords/Keyimages in Graphic Medicine (Mudd 26) Organizers: Lisa Diedrich (Stony Brook University) and Briana Martino (Simmons University) Panelists:

• MK Czerwiec & Ebru Ustundag, BODY MAPS

• Maia Kobabe, NON-ADJACENT SEQUENCE

• Emmy Waldman, OCD

• A. David Lewis, CANCER

• Anna Mukamal, THERAPEUTIC PERFORMANCE

• Marianne Pe-t, LAYERS

• Paul Flippen, DRUGS

• Liz Argall, LOSS OF CONTROL

• Sofia Varino, SOLVING/SOLUTIONS

Saturday, July 25, 7pm- New Books in Graphic Medicine: Comics and Healthcare Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, 3128 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD. Featuring the work of Maia Kobabe and Sarah Peitzmeier, Lisa Diedrich and Briana Martino, Elly Teman and Zsuzsa Berend, MK Czerwiec, A. David Lewis, Sydney Halpern, Laura Godfrey-Isaacs, Grace Farris, and more! This event is free and open to the public, though you can RSVP here to give the bookstore a sense of the audience headcount. This page also has longer bios for all of the participating authors.

Tuesday, July 28, 6pm- I'll be talking about OPTING OUT at People's Book in Takoma Park, MD! This event is free and open to the public, though you can RSVP here to give the bookstore a sense of the audience headcount. I'll be in conversation with Sarah Peitzmeier. We are still trying to figure out if we can get Lucky to attend on zoom or something, since they won't be present in person for this event. I will bring some of my zines to sell at the shop, so if you'd like a copy of The Nonbinary Bunny I will have that and some of my other self-published work. I'm also happy to sign copies of GENDER QUEER or BREATHE!

free/pay what you want printable pdf!

i am once again making a silly little zine abt covid safety but this time it is very unserious and not educational at all so if ur new here and dont know what the Heck i am on about. here's a place to start!

id:

slide 1:

a photo of the front cover of a black & white printed zine held up in front of a quilt in the background. top text of the zine cover reads: "reasons I love wearing my mask in public" with bottom text in parentheses: "besides the on-fire garbage can that is public health these days." a cartoon drawing of Maria, a pale genderfluid person with a buzzcut and glasses, is winking and doing a peace sign. she is wearing a boat-style mask with a star mask chain and crayon earrings.

slide 2:

top text: "1: I haven't had a man tell me to smile in 6 years." Below is a drawing of Maria walking down the sidewalk wearing a black mask, a cat cropped t-shirt, patched jeans, & star earrings. They are carrying a Mitski tote bag and look unbothered with their eyes closed as a man who looks a lot like the distracted boyfriend meme holds up a finger as if he was about to speak, but just looks confused as his speech bubble reads "..." Bottom text: "I simply cannot go back."

slide 3:

Top text: "2: I don't have to make facial expressions." Below Maria is waving and wearing a polo shirt, blank face emoji earrings, & an apron that says "JOB" with a name tag attached. Maria stares blankly behind her mask. Bottom text: "autism wins!"

slide 4:

Top text: "3: I can sing to myself on walks without being spotted by traffic." Below is Maria strolling down the sidewalk with cars in the background, wearing a mask, a baseball cap, and a Phantom of the Opera t-shirt. Maria has a speech bubble of floaty text singing "aangel of muuusic" with music notes floating around.

slide 5:

Top text: "4: mask chains!" below is a boat-style mask with a mask chain made of letter beads that spell "yippee." Bottom text: "another layer of accessory-maxxing."

slide 6:

Top text: "5: adds to my aura of being the mysterious and unknowable coworker." Below Maria stands in their job apron with a black mask & mushroom earrings surrounded by question marks. Text around Maria reads "what do they look like??" "we are literally on the clock!!" "wouldn't you like to know weatherboy!!"

slide 7:

Top text: "6: nobody knows I'm eating fruit snacks." Below is Maria with her mask on wearing strawberry earrings looking nonchalant as text points to her saying "maria acting normal." In the bottom left corner we see through the mask like an x-ray showing Maria chewing as she holds a scooby-doo gummy. Text pointing to this drawing reads "the REAL maria."

slide 8: