Amazon Echo

Is there a way to bulk opt out of everything that doesn't involve suicide?

I think some degree of awareness of what these devices can do (or potentially do) is normal and healthy, but I just LOL at people who put black tape over their webcams on their laptops...

Do you really think you, essentially a nobody (not meant in disrespect, really), has any importance to anybody, corporate or government? No. Get over yourself and use a tool that is somewhat useful.

The fact that these devices can listen when not being spoken to is a given, and nobody should be surprised when they go on talking about roast beef or whatever and then Amazon sends them an email about specials in their meat department, or kitchen essentials.

i think intimate information on the behavior of people who buy things and potentially vote absolutely has importance to corporate and government interests yes.

Opt out. OPT OUT!

  On 1/3/2017 at 6:09 PM, DerWaschbar said:

i think intimate information on the behavior of people who buy things and potentially vote absolutely has importance to corporate and government interests yes.

Dude...Tapatalk's mind-reading algorithmic advertising is offering me solutions to IRL problems it shouldn't know I have

I am a bit creeped out

Really? Tapatalk just shows me stuff like this:

It's literally never shown me a relevant ad.

flol

Well said, DerWaschbar. 

I think it might be interesting to run a little experiment where you start mentioning something you've previously had absolutely no interest in- let's say you hate sports and suddenly decide to start talking about motocross or curling or something in and around your phone or Echo... and see whether you get targeted ads to do with that area after a while.

It'd at least be a way to distinguish between very accurate algorithmic profiling (which is indeed where we're at) and legit always-on voice recognition machine learning, which is a bit more overtly dystopian. That said, algorithmic profiling for marketing is so advanced that there's almost no need to do something like the voice creeping thing.

  On 1/2/2017 at 4:22 PM, chenGOD said:

Siri is just functionally retarded.

Apple in a nutshell.

  On 1/3/2017 at 10:26 PM, doublename said:

Really? Tapatalk just shows me stuff like this:

 

 

It's literally never shown me a relevant ad.

Did you know Dr Phil was recently embroiled in a bombshell lawsuit?

Also I think Tapatalk is trying to diagnose me with leukemia...

lol that's google home fucked then

Tapatalk is giving me advice about the hernia operation I had 30 years ago.

"People who think that practical advantages are more important than freedom are going to lose their freedom."

What a beautiful summary of why I hate these unnecessary, internet-connected spy devices.

Amazon Earwig

  On 1/3/2017 at 5:06 PM, Joyrex said:

I think some degree of awareness of what these devices can do (or potentially do) is normal and healthy, but I just LOL at people who put black tape over their webcams on their laptops...

 

Do you really think you, essentially a nobody (not meant in disrespect, really), has any importance to anybody, corporate or government? No. Get over yourself and use a tool that is somewhat useful.

 

The fact that these devices can listen when not being spoken to is a given, and nobody should be surprised when they go on talking about roast beef or whatever and then Amazon sends them an email about specials in their meat department, or kitchen essentials.

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I still stand by what I said then - that being said, when Amazon starts giving away video feeds to local authorities without consent, then it starts to become a slippery slope. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that yet - on one hand, if it keeps our neighborhoods safer and gets criminals off the street, then what's the worry - I guess the salient question is how far are they going to take it before all that information collected about you is used against you to deny you healthcare coverage, a better interest rate, etc.

There's a lot of data on you that can be very easily leaked. Keeping a listening device in your home is absurd for several reasons. Shit, your data doesn't even get leaked most of the time, it's sold:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/21/opinion/location-data-democracy-protests.html

  Quote

 

Even those we identified in the data who were public about their activism were unnerved by their movements’ getting catalogued in databases that can be bought, sold, merged or hacked.

“Personally, I’m happy to protest Trump and have people knowing about it,” said Eric Hensal, who lives in Takoma Park, Md., and appeared in the dataset at a 2016 picket line protest at the Trump Hotel in Washington. “But there’s so much somebody, say, a state actor could determine just by a travel pattern. It’s honestly frightening.”

 

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Keeping a piece of tape over your laptop camera or mic is really just a healthy amount of paranoia. If you don't have that then you don't know enough or you just don't value your privacy.