Beware the smart device: Alexa and Siri can hear this hidden command – You can’t

[Gefn]

If you REALlY want to be freaked out, check out "Amazon Key"

No way. Do I want delivery to my car!! Unless it's a carhop

[240B]

Great episode of the Twilight Zone, @berdie . The late June Foray was Tina.

I wondered how many people would get that reference. LOL
Wasn't around when the show aired but have seen all the reruns on SyFy. Every New Year they run a marathon. So, I've watched them a few times while nursing a hangover. I think I know almost all of them by now.

[Gefn]

I wondered how many people would get that reference. LOL
Wasn't around when the show aired but have seen all the reruns on SyFy. Every New Year they run a marathon. So, I've watched them a few times while nursing a hangover. I think I know almost all of them by now.

I've seen them on Netflix. Great show. Nice to see actors before they were famous like Burt Reynolds, William Shatner, Peter Falk, Jack Klugman, etc. @240B

[240B]

I've seen them on Netflix. Great show. Nice to see actors before they were famous like Burt Reynolds, William Shatner, Peter Falk, Jack Klugman, etc. @240B

Absolutely. This is Telly Salvalas.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSy8Ko1vSKQ

[Gefn]

Kojack! Now I know why he always had a lollipop in his mouth. He was quitting smoking!

[Cyber Liberty]

If you REALlY want to be freaked out, check out "Amazon Key"

No way. Do I want delivery to my car!! Unless it's a carhop

That is shot full of "Nope."  My SimpliSafe would not like it....

[Smokin Joe]

I don't want no "smart house".
I want it dumb -- like me!

Things just go better that way.

[berdie]

Great episode of the Twilight Zone, @berdie . The late June Foray was Tina.

yeah, @Freya when I learned that the Talking Tina was also Rocky the Squirrel it took a lot of the spooky out of that episode. LOL

[Gefn]

yeah, @Freya when I learned that the Talking Tina was also Rocky the Squirrel it took a lot of the spooky out of that episode. LOL

She was also a one armed bandit in Vegas. The old man jumped out the window.....

[Victoria33]

@Freya

My fancy HP laptop computer wants me to turn on a gizmo on computer that can identify my voice, then answer questions I asked it or find something on my computer if I tell it to.  I will not turn on the gizmo so it can identify my voice. I want my computer to stay dumb.

[roamer_1]

@Freya

My fancy HP laptop computer wants me to turn on a gizmo on computer that can identify my voice, then answer questions I asked it or find something on my computer if I tell it to.  I will not turn on the gizmo so it can identify my voice. I want my computer to stay dumb.

@Victoria33
Yep. That's Cortana. Poor Cortana can't get a break around here... None of my machines have an active mike or cam - most of my machines don't have the ability unless I literally plug in the mike and cam... On my laptops the mike and cam are deliberately disabled programmatically... My TVs have no mike or cam, and if they did, they would be permanently disabled. ... Only my tablet (which is off most of the time) and my phone have the capability... and that only because I don't know how to block it yet.

The phone is a tricky business though. It really isn't useful without the ability to speak to it. I can't run that itty bitty keyboard without my glasses on, and even at that, it is a bother.

[240B]

The interesting (scary) thing about Cortana is that is cannot be disabled or uninstalled even on the admin root level. Microsoft has built up walls around it (and Bing) so that it is impossible to get rid of them no matter what. There used to be a hack where Cortana could be disabled at the root level. But MS has now blocked the hack. So now, there is absolutely no way to do away with it. So that begs the question, Why? Why is MS so adamant that all of its users use Cortana and Bing? What do they want? What are they getting out of it?

And I agree. I wouldn't want my voiceprint on file with Microsoft just out of general principle. Which is what happens if you use the Cortana voice services.

Also I have no camera and no microphone, unless I physically plug them in whenever I need to use it.

[Gefn]

@Victoria33
@roamer_1
@240B

I've blocked the camera on my MacBook, iPad, and iPhone by placing a band aid over them. I've turned off Face Time, if I need a camera, I just remove it.

Now I know, when I plug my phone into my car, I can use Siri to do things like change radio stations, make calls, tell me the weather and use the gps. Weird! it's over Bluetooth. She'll even read any texts I may get while I'm driving but that I don't do.

[BassWrangler]

If you REALlY want to be freaked out, check out "Amazon Key"

No way. Do I want delivery to my car!! Unless it's a carhop

Is that the one where you give them a key to your home? No thanks. The FedEx and UPS guys always seem like normal I folks, but some of the Amazon delivery people I've seen here are a bit sketchy looking.

[roamer_1]

I've blocked the camera on my MacBook, iPad, and iPhone by placing a band aid over them. I've turned off Face Time, if I need a camera, I just remove it.

@Freya
Yes, I did that too, for years... and still can... but it does not address the mic, which is, I believe, more of a threat to privacy than anything. I am not conversant w/ Mac, but both Win and Droid are natively designed to listen anymore, and the software that governs that is a monkey-knot...

So I just wrote a little gizmo to shut the mic off at the driver level (disables the driver), and in normal operation, if I do turn it on through the app, will automatically shut it back off after a length of time - I have that set to 5 minutes). I can turn it on indefinitely,, which I do for Skyping, as an instance, but in that case, the app is visible and always on top in the corner of the monitor... Until I manually disengage the drivers again.

This worked so well that I included shutting the cam off too, under the same method. so now, cam and mic come on at the same time, and shut off the very same way.

I dunno yet, but I will probably be releasing it as beta later this summer... Right now it is a hack... I need to make it universal for joe-six-pack to use.

Now I know, when I plug my phone into my car, I can use Siri to do things like change radio stations, make calls, tell me the weather and use the gps. Weird! it's over Bluetooth. She'll even read any texts I may get while I'm driving but that I don't do.

Yeah... the phone is the tough one. I am really new to owning a smart phone. And I do not like that it listens. Right now I do not have the 'assistant' going, so I think I still have to push on the little mic icon for it to be listening, but that is nowhere near good enough.

[BassWrangler]

The interesting (scary) thing about Cortana is that is cannot be disabled or uninstalled even on the admin root level. Microsoft has built up walls around it (and Bing) so that it is impossible to get rid of them no matter what. There used to be a hack where Cortana could be disabled at the root level. But MS has now blocked the hack. So now, there is absolutely no way to do away with it. So that begs the question, Why? Why is MS so adamant that all of its users use Cortana and Bing? What do they want? What are they getting out of it?

And I agree. I wouldn't want my voiceprint on file with Microsoft just out of general principle. Which is what happens if you use the Cortana voice services.

Also I have no camera and no microphone, unless I physically plug them in whenever I need to use it.

@240B

Did you try the instructions here?

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-disable-cortana/

Looks so simple even a child could do it.

[240B]

@240B

Did you try the instructions here?

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-disable-cortana/

Looks so simple even a child could do it.

@BassWrangle

Those instructions are out of date. That was how it first came out. You could turn it on and off at will. They got rid of that switch and it was always on. So some windows experts came up with a way to disable it at the root level, by disallowing it to startup. Microsoft then, in their lastest update disabled the ability to disable it. So now, there is nothing a user can do, that we know of, to turn it off. Microsoft are being real a-holes about keeping Cortana enabled regardless of what the user wants. I just want to know why? Why is MS so hot and bothered about Cortana? Nobody knows.

[240B]

Is that the one where you give them a key to your home? No thanks. The FedEx and UPS guys always seem like normal I folks, but some of the Amazon delivery people I've seen here are a bit sketchy looking.

Amazon delivery people do not work for Amazon. Many of them are temp contractors and even Amazon does not know who they are. Giving them a key to anything would be very unwise.

[BassWrangler]

@BassWrangle

Those instructions are out of date. That was how it first came out. You could turn it on and off at will. They got rid of that switch and it was always on. So some windows experts came up with a way to disable it at the root level, by disallowing it to startup. Microsoft then, in their lastest update disabled the ability to disable it. So now, there is nothing a user can do, that we know of, to turn it off. Microsoft are being real a-holes about keeping Cortana enabled regardless of what the user wants. I just want to know why? Why is MS so hot and bothered about Cortana? Nobody knows.

@240B

The article is less than a month old and mentions the recent April Windows 10 update. Are you sure they are out of date? No disrespect intended, but I think your info may be out of date. Privacy was one of the big themes of the recent Windows 10 update. I admit I didn't have a chance to try it yet.

You may not know that I work for Microsoft. Every fiscal year all employees have to take some training. This year it was about privacy, and there are lots of rules and procedures in place regarding collecting data and handling it in such a way that customers privacy is protected. if it's not anonymous the customer has to consent the collection and have a clear way to opt out initially or later. We hired whole legions of privacy experts to police this stuff and give engineers the knowledge and tools to do it right.

Regarding Microsoft's reasons for sticking to Cortana, I wish I could say more, but suffice it to say we probably would agree on more than not.

[Cyber Liberty]

@BassWrangler

The linked article says the first item when you click "setup" is a switch to enable or disable Cortana.  It's not there on my machine, although "Hey Cortana" is.

[240B]

@240B

The article is less than a month old and mentions the recent April Windows 10 update. Are you sure they are out of date? No disrespect intended, but I think your info may be out of date. Privacy was one of the big themes of the recent Windows 10 update. I admit I didn't have a chance to try it yet.

You may not know that I work for Microsoft. Every fiscal year all employees have to take some training. This year it was about privacy, and there are lots of rules and procedures in place regarding collecting data and handling it in such a way that customers privacy is protected. if it's not anonymous the customer has to consent the collection and have a clear way to opt out initially or later. We hired whole legions of privacy experts to police this stuff and give engineers the knowledge and tools to do it right.

Regarding Microsoft's reasons for sticking to Cortana, I wish I could say more, but suffice it to say we probably would agree on more than not.

@BassWrangler

Does not work on my computer, Windows 10. On mine, it cannot be disabled. You can disable functions on it like to keep it from using voice, but there is no way to disable it. Even if you go to Task Manager and disable the process Cortana, it starts itself right back up automatically. It is a Frankenstein App, you cannot kill it. (on my computer)

[Suppressed]

Law Enforcement Has Been Using OnStar, SiriusXM, To Eavesdrop, Track Car Locations For More Than 15 Years
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170116/09333936490/law-enforcement-has-been-using-onstar-siriusxm-to-eavesdrop-track-car-locations-more-than-15-years.shtml

[Gefn]

@Suppressed

My car has a gps gadget that will tell my smart phone where it is - say at a mall, or anywhere.

I'll tell you about it later I'm going to sleep 😴

[Smokin Joe]

Law Enforcement Has Been Using OnStar, SiriusXM, To Eavesdrop, Track Car Locations For More Than 15 Years
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170116/09333936490/law-enforcement-has-been-using-onstar-siriusxm-to-eavesdrop-track-car-locations-more-than-15-years.shtml

Back about the time Judas Priest was on trial because someone heard "Do it" playing their album backwards, there was a case in Nevada where the Feds were being sued by (I think, Onstar) over using the then fledgling technology to tap conversations held in a vehicle by a couple of suspects. The crux of the case was that the service provider could not provide the contracted for service while the Feds were overriding the software to use the hardware to listen in. (early 1990s).

[BassWrangler]

@BassWrangler

Does not work on my computer, Windows 10. On mine, it cannot be disabled. You can disable functions on it like to keep it from using voice, but there is no way to disable it. Even if you go to Task Manager and disable the process Cortana, it starts itself right back up automatically. It is a Frankenstein App, you cannot kill it. (on my computer)

@240B
Ok, are you running the latest Windows 10 update? If not, here's how to get it :

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/04/30/how-to-get-the-windows-10-april-2018-update/

I'll take a look at it when I get home from work this evening, and let you know what I find.