My brother, a 25 year Google employee, was the first person to warn me never to use Google Home or any of their other hardware unless I want the entire internet to have easy access to my life. They're fucking sieves.
I gave up on getting an Alexa around the time I gave up on ever having privacy. Not that this okay. Just that outside of living off the grid which is near impossible, I can’t control the reality of how dystopian we’ve become.
It's like bailing out a boat. Will it stop the boat from sinking? Probably not. Will it buy you more time? Absolutely.
Your information has probably already been stolen, but you can reduce how much and how often it's stolen to bump up the chances it'll just be buried under everyone else's data.
I think to some extent I gave up in that I’ve never been quiet about my political beliefs. In one future, I & those I care for are safe. In the other, I might ping higher for using my voice but we’re all in danger so may as well use my voice in trying to circumvent this outcome if that makes sense?
Yeah, I don't try that hard. But, I haven't used Facebook's app in many years and only access it through DuckDuckGo. I also refuse to use anything "smart" outside of my phone.
I also never answer unknown numbers, and after years of that, spammers no longer bother calling me.
Also, Google keeps killing its products, especially smart home systems. And they prefer to effectively brick them rather than ever allow customers to do anything with it.
Feeling pretty smug as a "Luddite" elder millennial that refuses to allow any smart tech in my home (aside from the obvious, a cell phone, because, yeah, it should be smart).
google: "you sure you don't want to give google access to your nest?"
me: "yes"
repeat ongoing for past decade or so — we bought it before google acquired it
I use Apple's software and hardware because I give them money and they give me a device or software. The further shit is from this foundational relationship, the crappier the incentives structure get.
Exactly. If Apple is going to incorporate AI as an example, it might be useless, but it will have a "shut this stupid thing off" button somewhere in a relatively obvious single location.
The poison of their services arm is very bad, and it's imposing strategy taxes all over their otherwise excellent hardware and sometimes good software. But I am in a very precisely defined transactional relationship with them, and I feel that they are sensitive to competitive pressures.
Your phone is likely part of this surveillance network. I'd like $10 for every time my wife and I have been discussing a topic and an ad will pop up soon after that is contextual to the topic we were discussing. It's been going on at least 15 years.
Turn off your microphone. By default, most modern smart phones have Google / Siri's voice detection on (IE, "hey google").
It has to be on and listening ALL OF THE TIME for that to work.
Other than that, it's not the mic: they're just scraping data on your WiFi address and the traffic.
My sister got me one of those Amazon home pod deals about 5 years ago and I never bitched her out about it but I never even opened the shrink wrap on the box
You can tell DuckDuckGo works by accessing Facebook through it. Because they can't datamine your phone, and because they can really only snoop on your WiFi address activity, but not your DEVICE activity, the ads get WEIRD.
Not surprised at all. Companies like Google, Amazon, Meta, X, etc.. keep getting worse and worse. They're flailing to keep their perpetual growth model churning, to the detriment of everyday people.
😱Totally shocked by this news! I feel like there's a reason their motto isn't "Don't Be Evil" anymore.
Though, for me, the privacy rabbit hole is all or nothing. Thinking about it too much brings my depression back. Unless you live in a cave, not much you can do about them having your life.
Honestly, many years in, I'm still baffled anyone would allow Alexa in their home, use an Apple Watch or track their periods or heart rate on an app. Maybe now folks will...back away.
Just a heads up everyone. Your phone is also a gps tracking, microphone listening, camera that can most likely be accessed via back door entrances from Tech Companies and even 3 letter Government agencies. Anything that touches the internet is not reliably safe/private.
