shnugwa Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 http://www.infowars.com/google-secretly-spying-on-computer-users-via-microphones/ http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/23/google-eavesdropping-tool-installed-computers-without-permission Private communications have been recorded in mass without consent and sent to third parties due to a feature of Google Chrome web browser called "Ok, Google". We all share concern over governmental agencies such as the NSA spying on individuals' communications (texts, phone calls, e-mails, Facebook exchanges, and more), but to what degree do we need to protect ourselves from monolithic corporations like Google, Apple, or Facebook? To what degree are these companys' stored communications shared with government agencies? I'm not fond of anyone monitoring my speech, whether it be government, corporation, or individual citizen. In the United States, there's a provision in the Constitution known as the "4th Amendment", which was spurred by the nation's founding generation having acute weariness of and hostile disdain towards a tyrannical government's desire to invade privacy via their confiscation of private documents or quartering of households. Now, in the information age, invasions of privacy of a far greater degree, perhaps perpetual recordings filed of all conversations within earshot of recording devices, are to be sent to unknown third parties for likely purposes of profit or surveillance by governments through collusive practices. Samsung Televisions are now equipped with microphones and cameras that record your conversation and facial reactions during TV viewing, and all collected data is sent to 3rd parties. If you've ever read George Orwell's 1984, then this should ring a bell, and if you possess any discernment whatsoever, raise great concern in you. I know it's fun to debate about transgenderism, and other race/gender/ethnicity/class/age/sex/hooplah sociocultural phenomena that arise in our deteriorating western society; hell, there are two forum categories with threads surrounding transgenderism alone each with hundreds of replies and thousands of views. If I'm to be honest, this irritates me. Clearly these matters touch individual lives and warrant discussion, yet out of hundreds of posts and tens of thousands of words exchanged, and much mental/emotional energy expended, little if any consensus has been achieved in these threads. I'd suppose that such issues serve the elites of this world quite well - divide and conquer at its finest, causing in-fighting and completely distracting all those engaged in debate from serious threats to individual liberty. And I propose that there are serious-as-fuck geopolitical and economic developments, such as the stability of the Dollar being thrown into question, looming potential for a war between the United States and Russia, or the threat posed to U.S. Sovereignty by legislation such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and corporate / government spying warrant just as serious a discussion. If not American, substitute the subversion of your nation's government by global financial institutions and the advancement of tyranny near you. So, that being said, what're your thoughts?
Kevin Beal Posted June 24, 2015 Posted June 24, 2015 I agree that it is irritating that so much time is spent on trivial crap like that. Ok Google is a google product that tries to anticipate as much as it can about what you would want out it's search services. Things like considering your location, what you're currently looking at, etc. If you get to work, it's aim is be more job focused, versus home which is more whatever else focused. It's using deep neural networks (and probably sparse distributed representation soon) to be a relevant as technologically possible to as wide a range of tasks as possible. They want you to be able to literally say "ok google, wash my car". This is not a secret. This is a feature that you can turn on/off. They alerted me today to it's existence with a little popover while searching. They showed me all the privacy settings I could manage, including this one. And it makes total sense for the product. I'm a big fan, personally. My concern is not with what Google knows, but whether or not they're sharing it with the NSA. Seriously. What's Google going to do with it?: Make smarter, more personalized services. I don't give a fuck if they know I watch porn or visit anarchist sites. Maybe I should and I just don't know what evil things they are doing with it (I doubt it). If the NSA, however, could come up to me and whisper in my ear "I know you've been watching tranny porn. Best you vote Hillary 2016, huh?" then yea. I got a problem with that. Haha. Or if they can strategize in some really unfair to fuck people over, like being able to see a whole map, when we only get to see the lit Starcraft circle. I would have a problem with that too. Personally, I just operate from the assumption that if someone looks hard enough, they can know anything about anything I do. That's why I don't bother with pseudonyms. 2
Renaissance Man Posted June 24, 2015 Posted June 24, 2015 I own an Amazon Echo. It's always on and gathers data about everything I do. Why am I comfortable with this? Because I like Amazon and want them to be efficient with selling me goods. Like any other relationship, if I give more information to people I trust it will make the relationship more beneficial. I hope Google is getting smarter. I hope Google knows when and where I take a dump. If it means making my life easier by blocking out websites I'll never use (or would like to use) so be it. 1
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