The "preceding year" bit doesn't seem to get much respect either, because it takes longer than that to separate the wheat from the chaff.

The problem comes with hardware which doesn't have a way (or, at least, a user-friendly way) to update its locale data. I recall having problems a decade or so ago with discrepancies between two computers because one of them hadn't been updated with the then-very-recent changes to Chilean law about summer time and the other one had.

But maybe an authoritarian dictatorship isn't a great example. Then turn your eyes to France and Spain.

On a point of order... Spain was in GMT until an authoritarian dictator decided that being in the same timezone as Nazi Germany would be convenient. France changed when it was occupied by Nazi Germany. Where you arguably get away with the examples is that there is a question as to why they haven't changed back.

There are use cases you're not covering. Last month I needed a photo of my sister-in-law's ID card to prove that I'd correctly transcribed her address (bureaucrats don't always understand that other countries do things like addresses differently) when applying for a document to make it easier for her to visit. If she'd had to be there in person we'd have had a circular dependency.

Maybe you use different OSes to me, but I expect whoami to be deterministic rather than stochastic.

More generally, there's a strong negative correlation between reliable contraceptive methods being available and birth rate. There's also a strong positive correlation between infant mortality and birth rate. Comparing the situation today with Victorian Britain as though the only thing which had changed is the working time directive overlooks those two significant differences (and surely many other relevant ones).

It's now the Department of Just ICE, but they haven't got round to updating the letterheads.

My Spanish bank this year forced me to install their app for verification because they discontinued the receipt of an SMS for the second factor. I am not amused: SMS works, but seemingly every other time I launch the app to verify an online credit card payment it insists on updating before it will let me do anything, and meanwhile there's a Verified By Visa timer ticking down.

record ambient conversations illegally

Only illegal outside of single-party consent states.

"Ambient conversations" include (and some would argue consist exclusively of) conversations in which you're not a party.

There is a legitimate use for people with certain disabilities, but sadly there's no way to use them for legitimate purposes without Meta having the opportunity to piggy-back on the usage and abuse them for illegitimate purposes.

One word: Meta.

The very first line, before the fine article even begins, says that it's a guest post by Henry Cohn, so the summary is simply false.

How do you propose that this would work? Would Flock have access to each police department's database of active cases? That would be a cure worse than the disease.