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Sooz
9th February 2015, 08:36
We are all busy, working, parenting, nourishing friendships, being a responsible citizen in light of what we all know here.

Here are some good tips:

http://www.activistpost.com/2015/02/5-things-busy-people-can-do-to-fight.html

gardener
9th February 2015, 19:45
Hello Sooz yet another good thread, if only the public would take note of how serious this is, stop being a box watcher, start renewing old friendships, do all the things you said you would get round to fixing but never did as for shopping how about starting a bartering system and exchanging things you will never use or wear? then all that time you spend watching the box can be put to good use, forget diet pills get your backside off the couch and find jobs needing doing and if you are lucky enough not to need anything doing then perhaps we could start a organic growing in your neighbourhood, and share not just the proceeds but the food, real food stuff to eat that doesn't make you ill, and in the process all that gardening will keep you so busy you wont need diet pills. respectfully gardener x

Hermit
9th February 2015, 21:27
So anyone see the news today about Samsung's voice activated television set, and the warning they've issued?

Update: Samsung has now provided the below statement with additional details about the working of its Voice Recognition SmartTV feature to TechCrunch in response to this article. The company also suggests consumers with “product concerns or questions” should contact it directly.

In all of our Smart TVs we employ industry-standard security safeguards and practices, including data encryption, to secure consumers’ personal information and prevent unauthorized collection or use.

Voice recognition, which allows the user to control the TV using voice commands, is a Samsung Smart TV feature, which can be activated or deactivated by the user. The TV owner can also disconnect the TV from the Wi-Fi network. Should consumers enable the voice recognition capability, the voice data consists of TV commands, or search sentences, only. Users can easily recognize if the voice recognition feature is activated because a microphone icon appears on the screen.

Samsung does not retain voice data or sell it to third parties. If a consumer consents and uses the voice recognition feature, voice data is provided to a third party during a requested voice command search. At that time, the voice data is sent to a server, which searches for the requested content then returns the desired content to the TV.

An Internet connected TV that eavesdrops on the stuff you say when you’re sitting on the sofa is just the latest overreaching privacy intrusion to come to light in the tech sphere.

It’s unlikely to be the worst, and sure won’t be the last. But as more of these egregious, overreaching policies come to light — and as more of the objects with which we are surrounded in our homes, cars and lives are networked up and brought online, and thus given (at very least) the technical ability to snoop on us — there is a growing imperative to clean up the darker corners of the digital commerce sphere. To set some boundaries on what is and is not acceptable. Or risk growing consumer mistrust.

When all the objects in your home have networked ears that are fine-tuned for commercial intelligence gathering, where will you go to talk about “personal” or “sensitive” stuff?



source: http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/08/telescreen/

As with sex, the best way to keep your weenie happy is not to dip it.

Or, as they say in the drag queen circles, "Save a tree. Eat a beaver."

Turn off the beast, head into your garden, and enjoy! Or walk through the snow and pretend. ;)

Sooz
10th February 2015, 06:22
Thanks Milneman,

Thought you all might be interested in this Newsletter below. Also re-think all those smart chips that are now in our appliances that talk to each other. The smart chips started being built into appliances over 10 years ago. Now it's all coming together. Think about the smart meters which is the next instalment, together with driverless cars and their black boxes.

Truly food for thought. Spread it around....

I say boycott Samsung.

Your Samsung TV Thinks You Use Cocaine
February 10th 2015, by Sam Volkering, London, UK

________________________________________
In today’s Tech Insider...the most astonishing sentence I’ve ever seen in a privacy policy...don’t mention cocaine or the Thought Police might kick in your door...perhaps this is all the beginning of a new social class...and more...

Here is an excerpt from the Samsung Global Privacy Policy - Smart TV Supplement:
‘Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.’

Erm, sorry? Samsung will capture personal or other sensitive information? And transmit it to a third party? What third party? Marketing companies? Other Samsung businesses? The police?

This information from Samsung is in relation to its Smart TVs and their ‘smart’ voice recognition function. With this policy, there should be a boycott on Samsung Smart TVs. We should not need to filter private conversations in own homes. The bottom line on this is Samsung should not record and transmit any conversations. Ever.

Will the smart world turn against us? Every day our world changes around us. Technology finds its way into every aspect of our life and slightly alters how we do things. The speed with which technology moves means these changes happen fast. One day you have a TV with a remote control. The next your TV has voice recognition. It’s crazy this kind of feature is even possible.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about tech from my childhood. How only 20 years ago we had TVs with knobs you had to turn to change the channel. Now you can ask your TV. Astonishing. This kind of thing is only because of modern technology — high tech software and hardware to recognise your voice and act on your command. But must we forego a few liberties to enjoy this technology.

In a world with smart technology, we have to give up a lot of information. For a device to be ‘smart’, it needs to know stuff. It needs to know stuff about you, what you like and the things you do. For instance, a Nest Thermostat learns when you’re at home, the temperatures you like and conditions within your home. It learns all this by collecting data all the time. It never stops collecting data. It always learns and adapts to your life.

This is the premise of smart technology. It must collect huge amounts of data about you to help tailor things to your preferences. Netflix does the same thing. It will collect information about your viewing habits to help recommend movies and programs to you. And Samsung’s smart TVs are exactly the same. To live up their ‘smart’ name, they need to learn. They need data and information to be smart. And with that information they can tailor their functions to your lifestyle.

But where do you draw the line as to what kind of data and information it can collect? And how do we know at what point the information collected won’t be used against us?
The sentence in Samsung’s privacy policy questions where the line exists. The BBC reports that Samsung said they,

‘...did not retain voice data or sell the audio being captured. Smart-TV owners would always know if voice activation was turned on because a microphone icon would be visible on the screen.’

That’s fine to say but hard to trust. The ‘third party’ as outlined in the privacy policy is still unknown. It’s likely to be the company that provides the voice recognition, but that’s a guess. And until Samsung tell consumers exactly who has access to their ‘personal or other sensitive information’, there should be a boycott on their smart TVs.
The raw facts are Samsung shouldn’t collect anyone’s audio recordings. It’s likely the recordings just go to a server, which processes the information for a better viewing experience. But then how secure is the information at that server?

Why your TV thinks you’re a cocaine user. Here’s a theoretical possibility.

Let’s say there’s a person with a Samsung smart TV. They ask the TV to change to a new channel using voice recognition. Immediately after they begin a conversation about cocaine use. The TV records the entire conversation. Samsung transmit this audio it to a third party, as per their privacy policy. While under analysis, a red flag appears because of the word ‘cocaine’ in the recorded audio.

This automatically triggers an alert to police. Next thing a team of police arrive on the door step and search the house for drugs. All because of a conversation unknowingly recorded.
That might be a bit of a stretch...or maybe it’s not.

There’s so much information about us flowing around everywhere. We already have to be careful what we say or do for fear of repercussions. But you’d think in your own home you’d be pretty free to do or say what you want. Well maybe Samsung just proved even at home we’re not really safe. If they can bury a sentence in a privacy policy that gives them authority to record our conversations what’s the next step?

Will the webcam record our movements? Will everything pass on through a police filter? When you criticise the government, will the Thought Policekick in your door? Are we heading towards a big brother existence? Are we already there? Is this the beginning of a new social class?

We have to be very careful in a world of smart technology. Right now we have the ability to limit what information we give up. We can control how ‘smart’ our devices can get.
But in the near future we might not have such control. We might not have a choice. Your options will be to either accept that everything about you will be up for grabs or you don’t get to use a particular product or service.

It feels like the world’s moving to a scary crossroad. You’re either all in or not in at all. You can give up rights to your information to live in a high tech world. Or you give up no information and stay put while the rest of the world moves forward. Perhaps we’re building a new kind of social class. One where people freely share personal information without worry. They don’t care if the TV records them. If it helps have a better, more care free life, then so be it.

This new social class embraces technology and the liberties they have to forego to use and access it. This social class will connect and advance on the same path as modern technology. As for everyone else, they live in a low-tech world. They will exist in a safe, secure world but life will be low tech — like the ‘good old days’.

Might sound a little crazy, but it’s a theory I’ve been working on. The technology haves and have-nots. It might be a defining idea of the 21st century.
Recording conversations isn’t the only problem with Samsung TVs.

Another issue with Samsung — be careful when you buy one of their LED TVs over 50 inches. There’s a known design flaw called ‘Vertical Banding’. It’s actually a problem with most big screen LED TVs. The big TV makers know about it. But they don’t care.

Dark banks show up on the TV, ruining your viewing experience. It’s one of the poorest quality controls I’ve ever come across in my life. More on this later in the week. But it’s just another reason why you should think twice before laying down your hard earned cash on a Samsung TV.
Regards,

Sam Volkering +
Editor, Tech Insider

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Port Phillip Publishing, Melbourne, Australia
Tech Insider - Sam Volkering

Hermit
10th February 2015, 20:09
Y'know Sooz?

I'm more and more inclined to reverting to things like coal oil lamps and...yeah homesteading has it's perks too. :)