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Hmmm - someone else is 'watching me'


Peaklander

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44 minutes ago, smallfry said:

I do wonder, now that tech is/has destroyed so many employment opportunities for so many "manual" workers, and given that the population is rapidly growing, what will become of all those who will not be able to find gameful employment in the future ?

What are they going to do ? Who is going to pay for them ? As far as I can see, this situation is only going to get worse.

Are so many going to employed "spying"on others ? Will we, one day, be in danger of being arrested for something we have said or done in the comfort and "privacy" of our own homes ?

I find this all quite a scary prospect.

Dear Maggie I believe during her reign, talked about how this is going to free up workers who will have loads of free time so we would see a movement of workers to the entertainment and service industry. I guess she meant that those that can afford not to work are customers and those that can't would serve them! She certainly did not mention funding them!!!

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10 hours ago, SteveG said:

The voice devices from the main players are only listening when the wake word is uttered, or in Siri’s case anything vaguely resembling the wake word 🙄. Then everything is analyzed- most of it aimed at answering your question/instruction.

OK, but it is listening to hear the word! Is this local or via the cloud?

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3 hours ago, smallfry said:

Will we, one day, be in danger of being arrested for something we have said or done in the comfort and "privacy" of our own homes ?

The Scottish government is trying to get this through parliament at the moment, often know as the 'hate crime bill'. If they think you expressed an opinion that *might* lead to someone forming an idea that is radical in nature, you can get locked up for it.

Read up on it, it scares many people, effectively makes offending someone a criminal offence, even if completely unintentional. 

 

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On 11/22/2020 at 4:44 PM, simonr said:

Yesterday I was talking to my wife (Dr Sarah) about the trouble I was having decoding the wiring of the Contactors in my Lathe (which I'm converting to Mach 4).  I don't have a scematic so it's a long process with a multimeter to figure out the wiring.

I've not searched google, nor typed in anything about contactors into any site apart from here.  Today on Amazon, the "more items to consider" and "Items you may like" both have 3 Phase Contactors in the list!  Likewise on eBay, the "Recommended for you" selection includes Contactors.

The only way they could know is via Siri on Sarah's phone or the Ring Doorbell.  It's too much of a random coincidence!

I was talking to Chris (GBMud) on Zoom a week ago about a film (Raiders of the lost arc) - and he says it's now popping up as one of the recommendations on Prime.  When I look on Prime - there it is too as the first in the list!

While all the companies deny that they evesdrop via smart devices - and it's near impossible to prove, the circumstancial evidence seems overwhelming!

OK, I'm late to this party, but I have to agree that I am experiencing a worrying number of 'coincidences'.

Recently I was speaking with my boss in the office about a new product we are working on for a customer. This is the kind of project that should not be talked about publicly prior to its release. Anyway a day or two later I'm online on my home PC (I forget what site) and an ad pops up for items related to our discussion. The product isn't exactly an everyday type of thing, so coincidences would seem pretty unlikely. We both use Android phones, so draw what you will from that.

Some months back one of SWMBO's friends popped round and they had a chat out on the driveway for 15 minutes or so. No more than 10 minutes later said friend is being suggested to me as someone to be friends with on a certain social media site . Clearly some proximity algorithms were at work to ascertain this connection.

Now have a think about how many government secrets get leaked and fall into the hands of the media. I bet most MPs use a smart phone without disabling the voice assistant features, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the press can buy data just as easily as any marketing machine.

Our eldest daughter is desperate for us to get an Alexa. We've already dropped the disappointment on her.

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29 minutes ago, mickeyw said:

Our eldest daughter is desperate for us to get an Alexa. We've already dropped the disappointment on her.

https://mycroft.ai/?cn-reloaded=1

I had a Mycroft Mk1 - which was pretty good, though it sounded like a Dalek!  I have a Mk2 on order, but the development has been slow.  It might save some dissappointment?

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54 minutes ago, mickeyw said:

OK, I'm late to this party, but I have to agree that I am experiencing a worrying number of 'coincidences'.

Recently I was speaking with my boss in the office about a new product we are working on for a customer. This is the kind of project that should not be talked about publicly prior to its release. Anyway a day or two later I'm online on my home PC (I forget what site) and an ad pops up for items related to our discussion. The product isn't exactly an everyday type of thing, so coincidences would seem pretty unlikely. We both use Android phones, so draw what you will from that.

Some months back one of SWMBO's friends popped round and they had a chat out on the driveway for 15 minutes or so. No more than 10 minutes later said friend is being suggested to me as someone to be friends with on a certain social media site . Clearly some proximity algorithms were at work to ascertain this connection.

Now have a think about how many government secrets get leaked and fall into the hands of the media. I bet most MPs use a smart phone without disabling the voice assistant features, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the press can buy data just as easily as any marketing machine.

Our eldest daughter is desperate for us to get an Alexa. We've already dropped the disappointment on her.

I agree. I used to be firmly in the camp of SteveG - but recent experiences have somewhat tainted that. And that is WITH all that carp disabled, mind... Very creepy.

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Surprisingly hard to avoid internet connected devices these days. Bought some lights recently (for the house) - the one my son chose for his room is one of these daft IR remote controlled colour changing ones. Fine - his room. When I picked them up, that one can be controlled from a mobile app or an Alexa, etc..., which wasn't advertised or mentioned in the shop. Nope, not happening.

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Well, as "free / gratis" doesn't exist you know you worth something in other ways..

ICT / InterNet security is an ongoing war with one of the the main problems is identifying your enemy..

We take it rather seriously and sent serious money on it but in the end of the day, not having it connected to the Internet is one way of limiting problems. But ease of use, getting basically forced to use the internet for everything makes it very, very difficult not to run risks...

But why I want a microphone in my living room connected to internet without a mechanical off switch is beond me..

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  • 4 weeks later...

Excerpt from this article online re US usage https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/12/9/22160427/amazon-alexa-google-assistant-siri-holidays

I cannot vouch for the info but a comment interested me.

Direct copy from page.

When Amazon’s Ring cameras were hacked, strangers could see inside children’s bedrooms. (Ring says that in this instance its systems and network were not hacked directly. The company told Recode that bad actors obtained Ring users’ login credentials through hacks of other companies and then used those credentials to gain access to Ring accounts. The company now has mandatory two-factor authentication on its products.) Ring also has partnerships with hundreds of police departments across the country, and its app was found to include multiple trackers that sent user information to Facebook, among other companies.

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