The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Computers => Topic started by: mountaineer on February 12, 2018, 02:34:56 pm
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The House That Spied on Me
Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu
Wednesday 1:25pm
In December, I converted my one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco into a “smart home.†I connected as many of my appliances and belongings as I could to the internet: an Amazon Echo, my lights, my coffee maker, my baby monitor, my kid’s toys, my vacuum, my TV, my toothbrush, a photo frame, a sex toy, and even my bed.
“Our bed?†asked my husband, aghast. “What can it tell us?†...
Thanks to the Internet of Things, I could live in my very own tech-mediated Downton Abbey. That’s the appeal of smart homes for most people, and why they are supposed to be a $27 billion market by 2021. But that wasn’t my primary motivation. The reason I smartened up my house was to find out whether it would betray me.
I installed internet-connected devices to serve me, but by making the otherwise inanimate objects of my home “smart†and giving them internet-connected “brains,†I was also giving them the ability to gather information about my home and the people in it. ... Full story at Gizmodo (https://gizmodo.com/the-house-that-spied-on-me-1822429852)
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I got nothing.
Heck, I'm still fighting like hell to stay away from smart phones and texting... a cell phone at all, even.
The idea of active mikes or cams on my person or in my home is just downright creepy.
Even the SmartTV - I busted that sombich on purpose, right off the bat... The amount of traffic it required, even when dormant, just left me uneasy. At least the ROKU is off (no longer on network DHCP) when the TV is off. And the computers I use rather than the SMART side of the SmartTV remain wholly in my control. Mo bedda.
I can't imagine the need for IoT gadgetry in the house. Coffee makers, tooth brushes, beds, sex toys? Any supposed convenience is completely offset by privacy issues.
The only real convenience I can see out of any of it would be for clocks to be able to access time servers... That would be legit, if that was all they could access, and nothing else. But then, If people didn't screw around with time twice a year, that'd hardly be necessary either.
Good article though. It is interesting to me that the frustration level was the main complaint - considering that convenience seems to be what sells IoT. No doubt ubiquity will resolve a lot of those issues eventually, but I think I'll stick with manually operating my home.
The morning ritual of making coffee as an instance, is a comfort to me... to the point of going back to a stove top percolator next time around. IMHO, the magic is in that ritual, not in the automation thereof.
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The Eight Sleep tracker sent its data through a nonstandard port that I wasn’t monitoring, so I wasn’t able track what was happening in the bedroom.
Sure, Surya, sure!
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No IoT "smart house" here.
I've still got knob-and-tube wiring!
Don't own a smartphone.
I don't even answer the "dumb" phone!
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Ditto, @Fishrrman ! We're not fans of technology, either.
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I'm very glad for Alexa, and Google Home helps my blind Dad immensely. I can't see spending what it costs for smart outlets, though.
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I'm very glad for Alexa, and Google Home helps my blind Dad immensely. I can't see spending what it costs for smart outlets, though.
They’ll be mandated in the building code sooner or later.
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I tried connecting my toilets to the internet but it shorted out my router every time I flushed...
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LATEST
Amazon devices will soon automatically share your Internet with neighbors
Amazon's experiment wireless mesh networking turns users into guinea pigs.
Dan Goodin - 5/29/2021, 3:10 PM
If you use Alexa, Echo, or any other Amazon device, you have only 10 days to opt out of an experiment that leaves your personal privacy and security hanging in the balance.
On June 8, the merchant, Web host, and entertainment behemoth will automatically enroll the devices in Amazon Sidewalk. The new wireless mesh service will share a small slice of your Internet bandwidth with nearby neighbors who don’t have connectivity and help you to their bandwidth when you don’t have a connection.
By default, Amazon devices including Alexa, Echo, Ring, security cams, outdoor lights, motion sensors, and Tile trackers will enroll in the system. And since only a tiny fraction of people take the time to change default settings, that means millions of people will be co-opted into the program whether they know anything about it or not. The Amazon webpage linked above says Sidewalk "is currently only available in the US." ...
Amazon has published a white paper (https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ots=1&tag=arstech20-20&linkCode=w50&nodeId=GRGWE27XHZPRPBGX)detailing the technical underpinnings and service terms that it says will protect the privacy and security of this bold undertaking. To be fair, the paper is fairly comprehensive, and so far no one has pointed out specific flaws that undermine the encryption or other safeguards being put in place. But there are enough theoretical risks to give users pause. ...
FULL STORY at ars technica (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/amazon-devices-will-soon-automatically-share-your-internet-with-neighbors/)
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The most important part of the article:
Amazon’s decision to make Sidewalk an opt-out service rather than an opt-in one is also telling. The company knows the only chance of the service gaining critical mass is to turn it on by default, so that’s what it’s doing. Fortunately, turning Sidewalk off is relatively painless. It involves:
Opening the Alexa app
Opening More and selecting Settings
Selecting Account Settings
Selecting Amazon Sidewalk
Turning Amazon Sidewalk Off
I just did it.
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I tried connecting my toilets to the internet but it shorted out my router every time I flushed...
That's pretty funny.
But consider the poor woman who connected her sex toy to the Internet, only to discover that now, every time she has an orgasm the TV automatically turns on The Handmaid's Tale.
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The most important part of the article:
I just did it.
Doing this now….
I couldn’t figure it out @Cyber Liberty so I removed the the Dot and the Fire stick. They’re in the sock drawer. I watch Netflix and Prime on my iPad so I should be good. They’re off my WiFi network.
If I decide on a tv stick later, I’ll get a roku
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Doing this now….
I couldn’t figure it out @Cyber Liberty so I removed the the Dot and the Fire stick. They’re in the sock drawer. I watch Netflix and Prime on my iPad so I should be good. They’re off my WiFi network.
If I decide on a tv stick later, I’ll get a roku
You do it from the Alexa app on your phone...
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You do it from the Alexa app on your phone...
It wasn’t working, I followed the instructions. I saw no sidewalk in the settings so it was easier just to take them all out.
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Doesn't seem to show up on the Amazon Fire Stick I have.
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Doesn't seem to show up on the Amazon Fire Stick I have.
My understanding is Amazon's new Sidewalk "feature" affects only Alexa, not Fire Stick or Ring.
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Why would I give Big Tech permission to monitor, collect info, and profit from selling info about the minutia of my insignificant deplorable existence?
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My understanding is Amazon's new Sidewalk "feature" affects only Alexa, not Fire Stick or Ring.
Thanks.
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Sidewalk will work with Amazon Echo devices, Ring floodlights and Ring spotlight cams.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/amazon-s-new-sidewalk-feature-will-share-internet-connection/ar-AAKFvn3