More Surveillance?

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My echo dot has been sitting on a shelf in the closet unplugged, and will stay that way because of these very concerns.
Regards,
Jim
 
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Some pretty scary stuff out there, as I recently heard about a couple who had no pets, but for 3 days, with their phones OFF, talked about getting a cat, we need cat food, blah blah blah, as some type of test.

The phones were within earshot.


In 3 days, they received Facebook ads for.....wait for it........cat food.

Now, I don't know if this is true or not, but if it COULD be done, then what would stop those who would?

While I don't dispute technically it is possible a cellphone's mic can be remotely turned on, maybe even when the device is "off", I find this scenario implausible on simple grounds.

Two people with smart phones and Facebook accounts, both having their phones off for three days? Riiiight... LOL.
 
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Meh. James metaphors notwithstanding, this ship has sailed.
When you purchase using anything but cash, that info is collected and sold.
When you service your car, info collected and sold.
Credit\loans - collected and sold.

All email info - sold (there are a few that claim to be private - I doubt it).
Netflix? Amazon music\movies? Pandora? You think they don't collect that?
Location? Collected and sold.

This is just off the top of my head, I'm sure that there are exceptions.

Now, I do have a friend who tries to stay away from all of this stuff - mostly cash, no insurance, no smart phone, no internet. It can work, but he acks that it makes things difficult sometimes, and he does call me to look up things in the net, since he can't.
And there is the Tor browser as well - but that only goes so far. Duck Duck search helps too.
 
It would be great if the technology was used to catch real criminals instead of selling cat food. Than again, not much profit in actually stopping crime.

Let your phone listen to random weirdness via YouTube. Fight the system by filling it with garbage.
 
Wow, I'd have never thought that being a laryngectomy patient and needing a speech prosthesis to talk would be a good thing. When I talk I sound like the girl with the raspy voice in the cancer ad. Voice recognition apps/programs do not recognize my voice. When I call for something I always end up speaking to a person. When I receive an automated phone call the voice recognition programs hang up on me.
 
The collecting system works, the routing and using of it not so much.
I was looking for a new microwave oven.
In this post I put my statement NOW using capitals, I HAVE PURCHASED AN OVEN MONTHS AGO. Hopefully, the message will be picked up, since as I have bought it already, months ago and I still get the advertisements.:D

Maybe it is my mistake, I did not tell any site I was looking for ONE microwave oven only.....
:beerchug:
 
It would be great if the technology was used to catch real criminals instead of selling cat food. Than again, not much profit in actually stopping crime.

Let your phone listen to random weirdness via YouTube. Fight the system by filling it with garbage.

Well, I for one, appreciate ads targeted to something I might actually be interested in rather than, say, feminine hygene products.

Not that I'm interested in cat food either, but it's the concept that matters.
 
Having read this thread, I just went to my Amazon echo 'History' page and sure enough, right there on the Amazon servers is a long list dating back to when we first bought our first Echo with recordings of everything that has been captured. You can listen to the recordings online. I must say it is kind of creepy hearing myself, my wife, my kids recorded online like that. The creepiest ones are the ones that say "Text not available. Click to play recording".

Has me seriously thinking about unhooking these things.
 
I'm a recordist. I record everything (concerts at least), and, that freaks me out. There is no f'n way that one of those things is getting anywhere near my life.
Still no cell phone either.
 
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Interesting read .. alas, it's time for my morning cup of coffee. ;)
 
Having read this thread, I just went to my Amazon echo 'History' page and sure enough, right there on the Amazon servers is a long list dating back to when we first bought our first Echo with recordings of everything that has been captured. You can listen to the recordings online. I must say it is kind of creepy hearing myself, my wife, my kids recorded online like that. The creepiest ones are the ones that say "Text not available. Click to play recording".

Has me seriously thinking about unhooking these things.

I've spot checked a fair number of ours since we got them. All I've found is stuff like "turn off all lights" or "turn on TV" or "what happened on this day in history".

The ones that have said text not available have generally been stuff like "uhhhh....".
 
After reading all the threads so far and referring back to my original post about the Echo Dot, I try not to fear technology, I try to learn what it will do and then use it wisely. I have friends who won't use any of it, and after awhile their lives become much harder (think of the cashless society, which is already here, in some locations). I think back to when my elderly mother had trouble even making a phone call, so I promised myself then, that I would at least try to keep up with the basic's (although I still don't use a smart phone, but that's mainly because I'm retired and am usually near my landline and computer). I understand how a younger person absolutely must keep up with technology, or they will be left in the dust, in a very short period of time.
 
FZ was hip to it years ago with "I'm the Slime" while the song was more about television programing (They don't call it programming for nothing) you can just as easily swap internet for "TV Set"

Here's some lyrics to his point the "Until the rights to you are sold" was a chilling prophecy

"It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold"

 
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