Spooky story

[Fergus]

Driving back home from town today I took a road that has just opened after 18 months closure due to repairs.

It's a short road, within town walls, with some very desirable properties. I noticed a house for sale, and commented to her indoors, 'that wont take long to sell'.

We got home and I was checking the local news on my phone when up pops an estate agents advert for that very house and ONLY £3.65M

The second picture is whats seen from the road.

www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/59327484/?search_identifier=472b0c5a8da359608d9b018d76da8f2c

Spppoooookkkkky or what.

[saul]

How much of your car is modern and connected?  I can see geolocation tracking for all sorts of embedded services picking up on your comment and the algorithms chunking away to coordinate your push notification ad processing.  Or it could have all been your phone doing the lifting.  It's not spooky, it's infuriating.  There is no real privacy in the world anymore but it isn't something nefarious to pry and spy and restrict and control - it's all to sell soap.

[HiBeat]

Starting off the meaning of the post, that is one special property and lovely as they get.  

Back on topic, we turn off the automatic monitoring from our "smart speaker", "smart TV", iphone and android phones, Amazon boxes, Blink and Nest cameras, etc etc luntil such time as we want to use an audio command, which we limit to nearly never but on occasion.

Stories abound that "siri" or "google assistant" are always listeing (of course) and next thing you know up pops an ad on your news feeds, etc.    My neighbor was talking to her son about Wrigley chewing gum, a subject they had never ever spoken of before, and her Facebook populated with an ad for Wrigley gum 20 minutes later.   That was 3 years ago.   

There is NO doubt the snippets of audio that await your "Hey Google" or "Siri" or "Alexa" or such are tied to the money trail of making personalized ads.

So the take-away includes how easy it is for "law enforcement" or "hackers" to listen in to any thing you say if you don't turn off the 'listening' feature.

Privacy is sold out for the almighty dollar (or GBP) and only the naïve will think it is otherwise.

[cd_god]

Can I say "Told Ya So"

Off the grid

Jus' Sayin'

[trilo]

Just changed to an old basic phone with key pad. Fed up with this crap. 

I always laugh when people say that companies don't record voice through devices. Well obivously they don't record huge shit loads and store em away (well sometimes they do that aswell), but to mostly it is a short clip which is instantly deleted after the algorithm has scanned for certain keywords. 

I don't want wanna be or sound like a foil hat, but it's hard to use any device these days without giving up alot of your privacy.

No need to inject 5G chips with COVID shot when we all carry a smart phone and other digital crap connected to WWW 24/7. 

[victor]

Speaking as someone with +20 years in the mobile phone / smartphone industry - if you buy a phone with an OS developed by an advertising company - what do you expect?

It's a good idea to go into your settings and limit as much as possible (and to your comfort + convenience levels) things like location tracking, ad tracking, cookies, etc.. On your smart speaker (at least for Sonos) you can turn off the microphone.

If you invite the snoops in, don't be surprised when they snoop.

[Fergus]

Unfortunately iPhones are a PITA to find most of these settings let alone change them. I will though try.

My wife has one as well and it's the only time I hear her swear is when she's trying to find or set something. iCloud even gets the F word.

[victor]

Not so. iPhone is actually pretty easy.  It's one of the reasons why I switched and pay for an iPhone out pocket, despite getting all the latest best Android kit for free.

Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> leave on (or not) and then go through the apps and switch them to either "Never", "While Using" or "Always". 

I use "Never" for most apps, or "While Using" for ones that need it (such as maps).

Next, Settings -> Privacy -> Tracking and switch "Allow Apps to Request to Track" and switch off.

[saul]

The other take away from this is Drive Older Cars.  I drive a 2003.  The only computing tech in the whole thing is the engine management computer.  Hell, the head unit still has a cassette player. 

[pip]

Don’t get me wrong, I hate all this shite. But really, other than trying to sell me stuff does it really matter that much? I know Josh lives off grid and more power to your elbow mate but I find it easier sometimes to just ignore the bloody ads than piss about with phone settings. If Bill Gates wants to track me, and I don’t know why he would, well I’m not all that bothered really. Honestly, who would be interested in tracking a bunch of watch nerds? We must be among the dullest people on the planet!

[trilo]

Aug 23, 2021 15:49:04 GMT -8 pip said:

Don’t get me wrong, I hate all this shite. But really, other than trying to sell me stuff does it really matter that much? I know Josh lives off grid and more power to your elbow mate but I find it easier sometimes to just ignore the bloody ads than piss about with phone settings. If Bill Gates wants to track me, and I don’t know why he would, well I’m not all that bothered really. Honestly, who would be interested in tracking a bunch of watch nerds? We must be among the dullest people on the planet!

For me it's a question of principle. In EU companies are forced by law to delete all information about user if they ask it or delete their information through the services itself. My friend had closed his Facebook 4 years ago but still was able to find his personal information in a leak that happened recently. 

I understand that these things are "free" and therefore we are required to sign contracts etc., but I'm done with it when they force us to read the stuff and act according to it, but at the same time these companies are unable follow the rules which they state in the contract I have signed. 

Also at early 2000's all the information I put online didn't feel like a big thing. Now I have realized that it was a wild west back then when internet felt like "safe" place. Now I have started to delete my data online (futile I know, but still trying). I mean I would never give my address, email, phone number etc. to an unkown person on a street, yet we do it all the time for those we know even less than some  random person on the street. 

But yes, generally I agree. Doesn't really matter if someone knows stuff about me (government and health services etc.). For me it's more about is the data in a safe place and how much data I have about my self for others to see.

And on the topic, it feels creepy when google maps asks you to rate a location after you visited it... When this happened to me (I think it was after a major update on maps few years ago) I turned off everything I possibly could. 

[victor]

Aug 23, 2021 9:52:43 GMT -8 saul said:

The other take away from this is Drive Older Cars.  I drive a 2003.  The only computing tech in the whole thing is the engine management computer.  Hell, the head unit still has a cassette player. 

Gotcha beat there - I've got an '84 and a '93 and an '02 in my driveway (and two of them still run!). Not sure if it's winning to be bragging that my cars are older than my kids....

[59yukon01]

Aug 22, 2021 4:48:21 GMT -8 saul said:

How much of your car is modern and connected?  I can see geolocation tracking for all sorts of embedded services picking up on your comment and the algorithms chunking away to coordinate your push notification ad processing.  Or it could have all been your phone doing the lifting.  It's not spooky, it's infuriating.  There is no real privacy in the world anymore but it isn't something nefarious to pry and spy and restrict and control - it's all to sell soap.

Not yet it isn't 😱

[small]

Aug 24, 2021 6:49:00 GMT -8 victor said:

Aug 23, 2021 9:52:43 GMT -8 saul said:

The other take away from this is Drive Older Cars.  I drive a 2003.  The only computing tech in the whole thing is the engine management computer.  Hell, the head unit still has a cassette player. 

Gotcha beat there - I've got an '84 and a '93 and an '02 in my driveway (and two of them still run!). Not sure if it's winning to be bragging that my cars are older than my kids....

Well Victor I have to say I never appreciated my 2003 daily driver as much as I do after driving my 1978 Spitfire all summer, the 1994 jeep Grand Cherokee is the sacrificial winter ride...I buckled when I bought the '03 in '12, I'd been holding off so I wouldn't have to run it through emissions testing here in Illinois, All OBD1's are exempt.   

[small]

I'm being listened to all the time. A coworker had his phone on him, I did not have mine. He was telling me about an Aussie news outlet he started reading. I'd never heard of it before. Net day scrolling through my news up pops the site!

Sunday was with my daughter having a discussion about dying from drinking too much water. I typed and misspelled something like; "Lethlity of frink..." and before I could finish, and correct it, "auto suggest" it populated "Lethality of drinking too much water" It could have been too much soda or booze why did it pick water???   

AI is real and it's listening. 

[trilo]

Recent years I have reduced the use of technology and trained to silence in most situations. Still learning with the silence thing

Not everything needs to be said and heared. 

But seriously, I'm secretly hoping that shit hits the fan and a solar storm strikes or whatever. I might just make it through. As long as I can grow my own tobacco...

EDIT: And my philosophy with all this is that since almost everyone is making their lives "easier" and moving towards the same direction with the tech, I want to go into the other direction because there is something good to be found since less people are looking for it. Even generally speaking you'll find good and interesting things from there where there are less people. Then when time passes on the tourists and masses come and ruin it all.