Posted on 08/20/2019 4:42:25 AM PDT by CA_soon_gone
Has this happened to you? A couple of nights ago I was awoken by the sound of a mountain lion howling just outside the kitchen window. If you've never heard this it's a very unique sound. My wife and I talked about it in the kitchen the next morning. My cell phone was sitting on the counter at the time. Last night I was killing time watching random youtube stuff. I decided I wanted to find some videos on mountaineering. I went to search and started typing. I had just started and entered mount.. and the very first suggestion was "mountain lion scream". Are they always listening?
I agree, I was just having some fun.
Open source intel gathering is powerful.
Some paranoid people have this idea that Google has employees spending day and night with headphones on listening to every household conversation with these Alexa devices and transcribing them for posterity. Then these employees go out for beers after work and laugh among themselves about the "private" conversations they overheard.
Which is ludicrous. Not even the federal government has anywhere close to the number of employees that could listen in on even a tiny percentage of households.
Besides, generally speaking, Google employees couldn't care less about the conversations we have at home. I know we like to flatter ourselves sometimes that we are somehow important but most of our lives are excruciatingly boring to outsiders (who themselves live excruciatingly boring lives for the most part).
Now if you mean "listening" in terms of the Google devices capturing conversations so that Google bots can parse metadata for the targeting of advertising, then you would be correct. To test my theory, go ahead and have conversations about instant hot water heaters. Shortly, you may start getting ads for Rinnai, Rheem and Bosch instant hot water heaters (among others).
Now some might find that creepy but that's how Google gets most of their revenue and that is also why most of Google's basic services (i.e. search engine; Gmail; browser, etc.) are FREE to the consumer.
In other words, if we all insisted on total privacy and no targeted advertising, then we need to be prepared to pony up some monthly payments for all these services we currently take for granted as being "free".
Actually nothing is truly free as I just pointed out.
As bug free as ... your computer and cell phone and gps?
yes.
“Now some might find that creepy but that’s how Google gets most of their revenue and that is also why most of Google’s basic services (i.e. search engine; Gmail; browser, etc.) are FREE to the consumer.”
It is beyond creepy.
Definite not free. You pay by allowing them to mine the intimate details of your life. The overlords at google believe themselves better than the rest of us. They don’t just use that information to place ads, they manipulate search suggestions, trending, search taking and results to control. They hate conservatives.
In my opinion, forced self censorship is the most evil. An always on listening device where what you say can be stored, and a company that has demonstrated that it will censor conservatives. Evil to it’s core.
Outside the range of your listening devices, have you can your wife agree upon a topic you don't generally discuss. For example, retiring and moving to Canada, renting a billboard to sell your house, buying a kayak, or any other odd but plausible topic.
Each day you agree on a topic and bring it up throughout the day near the listening device.
Each day, discuss a different topic.
Do that for a week, every day, and see what your results are.
Report back to us.
The thing that really bothers me is their arrogance to do things like I shared above with Youtube. They are taking liberties they more than likely have no actual legal right to take. Like secretly accessing your location, camera, and microphone without any agreement to their terms. These are not just simple cookies, this is direct access to your local machine.
And if you have not registered with them, then you have not legally agreed to any terms of use like this. So in the case with Youtube they are doing this without a legal contract and agreement giving them permission to access these as a default when you go to their page like they are. Not even a notice/disclaimer that they are doing it.
I am CERTAIN our phones are listening to us. One night before going to bed my wife discussed on the phone a piece of practice management software with a colleague. The VERY NEXT morning a representative of the company that makes the software called my wife on her cell phone. The software is made by a very small, hardly known entity. My brother and I were once discussing a very particular LED bulb meant to replace metal halide bulbs in bay lighting. The very next day Facebook had ads featuring, yep you guessed it, the very bulbs we were discussing. This has happened on other occasions too where the ads the following day were too specific to be merely coincidental. However, knowing they are listening can be used to your advantage.
We should all start saying things like: "It's funny how all of us Democrats are supporting Trump this time!" and see what happens. :)
I just tried it. I typed mount into google search. Did NOT get mountain lion. Top three were:
-Mountain men
-Mountain Brook, Ala
-Mountain dew
I was using youtube search not google (is there a difference?) Regardless, I can’t believe mountain lion scream is at the top of anyone’s search list.
You are on the money and not crazy. I have had it happen many times myself over the last few years. Google does own Youtube and use similar monitoring tactics.
As I shared above, Youtube does indeed access your location, microphone, and camera without your knowledge or permission registered or not.
Not sure if Apple is up to the same kind of tricks but they do appear to take security and privacy matters seriously.
I would give up Google entirely but I am a bit tied into the Gmail/Google App ecosystem due to my employer using it as their main collaboration platform. Also, I've tried other search engines and always end up going back to Google search engine. Maybe someday a search engine will exist that rivals Google.
It appears the Trump Administration is taking aim at Google. Will be interesting to see where it goes.
Indeed. I do not have a google account. I have never agreed to any TOS. My wife has gmail through work. My contact info is there. They take that, correlate it with my Unique Machine Identifier and phone IMEI and use that with google ad sense on 80% of websites to track me. I have never agreed or consented to any of this. How is this even legal?
Get an old microwave, does not need to work
At night put your phones in it
Shielding will prevent and interaction between the device and others seeking to monitor
Faraday cage effect prevents location , microphone access or any functions that allow for unfettered access
I turned off Microphone and camera access on my laptop. Use a monitor for visual and close the lid so camera sees nothing. Disabled microphone access on all apps and turned off Cortana
At night I turn on DND and turn off my phone and let it charge. Turn it on and use till the next cycle
Voice activation is not for me, I know the info goes into a data pool about me and what I am searching for
I use a VPN as well as other tools to shield me from Location monitors. Applications now frequently ask me to prove I am who I say as they have cataloged my IP address that appears when in normal wireless use on network. It is a continuous game of cat and mouse, but I will not relent
Semi-permanent tracking cookies should be illegal unless you have agreed to it. They should not follow you after you have left the site where you acquired them, but they do. And because they deny this fraud they are being allowed to continue. It will take a huge stink to bring attention to it and put them on the spot.
It is time to explain this issue with the websites who support and use these services. Just clicking a link to a webpage is not consent to be abused, because they have no disclaimer giving you heads up that this is their auto-load cookie policy before you go there or when you land there.
The only thing available is self defense against it with Ad blockers and script blockers, but they are even starting to demand you turn these off to read their site. Fine... Good bye. Enough people start using these and they will change their tune or suffer a huge reduction in traffic and in turn revenue.
Same here...
Bkmk
Absolutely the “Don’t Be Evil” was a joke. You notice even then they didn’t define “evil”. Although oddly enough the anagram for Don’t Be Evil is “Bend to Evil”.
Apple has positioned itself to say they actually care about your privacy. Their iPhones, on idle with no use ping the apple servers 10 times a day, and compared to the 3000 plus an android does, they are definitely less intrusive.
Try Qwant or start page and see what you think for search. There is always DuckDuckGo.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.