Posted February 18, 2019 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6716885/Smart-TVs-Amazon-Alexa-gadgets-tell-youre-CHEATING.html Do you control your gadgets, or do they control you? 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 18, 2019 One of many reasons that I don't have one of those damned things. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 19, 2019 8 hours ago, gr8owl said: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6716885/Smart-TVs-Amazon-Alexa-gadgets-tell-youre-CHEATING.html Do you control your gadgets, or do they control you? With tech, for me, it is a give and take relationship. But I am VERY privacy conscious with tech, so prefer few or no smart devices. I recently told a friend that I wouldn't want a device that was smarter than I was. He asked, "So you're going to buy stone tablet?" Regarding worries about cheating, I am single (divorced), unattached and prefer it that way. It sure makes this hobby much simpler for me. I don't have to look over my shoulder to see who might be watching. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 19, 2019 To be fair, the researcher and the article are making a lot of assumptions a default configuration of a basic device don't have right out of the box. If you have a smart home, or even smart lighting, and you enable your app to track you by your phone, thereby knowing when your proximity to your home is so it can adjust the heat, turn on lights, unlock the door, etc. All of these things require the end user to actively configure (or have configured for them) parameters which yes, could track a person. However, just because you have Brand A device in your home and another person has the same device, you going in proximity to their device doesn't automatically know you are there. Currently you are more likely to be outed by your phone more than a smart device. But...as we go down this road, and we begin to develop more and more creative uses for these devices, and just like with friends on Facebook, you add friends to your smart device so that when Bob comes over your home knows to play Led Zeppelin because that's what Bob likes, then you could see this being more realistic. The article seems to be a 'be very afraid' of technology kind of article without a lot of real substance to back it up. The potential is really there, but even the article says in apartment buildings based on behavior you could infer something happened, meaning I come home, turn on the lights in apartment 1B, then I leave and turn off the lights and then the lights go on in apartment 3C, it could mean I went up to 3C. Could also mean 3C came home. It's always smart to protect your privacy, and urge your elected officials to start putting something in place here in the US that they have done in the UK (GDPR, which goes to great lengths to make companies make your data your own) so we can have similar control over our data. Note the Amazon devices all come with a button you can press so that it stops listening to you. There is also the unplug it from power option! 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 19, 2019 This is all about a digital footprint . We all MUST control who gets our information! 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 19, 2019 30 minutes ago, Seeker5280 said: This is all about a digital footprint . We all MUST control who gets our information! I'd guess most people turn on their new phone and never consider turning off the location tracking. Then, although they need a warrant, police can track your every move, if they really want to. Real time, or historical, where you've been. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
