Still want Alexa?

Fuss about nothing.

I remember there was concern raised about the voice control on Samsung TVs – one of mine has it and doesn’t seem like you can turn it off. I suspect the worst of it is no worse than the permissions we all accept each time we install an app, or use Google free services for example.

Its right to question things and not blindly accept, but in this day and age I think you just have to run with a certain amount of it or miss out all together.

blacklion1725 wrote:

I remember there was concern raised about the voice control on Samsung TVs – one of mine has it and doesn’t seem like you can turn it off. I suspect the worst of it is no worse than the permissions we all accept each time we install an app, or use Google free services for example. Its right to question things and not blindly accept, but in this day and age I think you just have to run with a certain amount of it or miss out all together.

You must be prescient, Wikileaks today revealed that GCHQ are using Samsung sets to spy on you! I just wish we had Judge-backed court orders to control all this Government intrusion. We otherwise have to rely on the fact that no Government has the bandwidth or computer petaflops to listen continuously to the domestic drone from every smart TV in the country.

The Samsung story broke yesterday, and it’s hardly surprising given 2 years ago we was discussing that many smart tvs was probing your network and reporting thier findings home.

I’d be amazed If there wasnt any intelligence branch that hasn’t used this to their advantage and compromised the in place system.

As Jason says its a game you can’t win. Even not playing doesn’t work as enough people that you know, or better still know you, do play. So you may of well take the advantages, as your already suffering the disadvantages, even if you don’t yet know it.

I don’t mine China, Russia etc having me, it’s the uk and its allies I fear more.

I don’t trust ours one bit. It’s not the illegal stuff you have to worry about, given your not doing anything illegal. It’s the data as a whole and what they (whomever) in the future could do with it that worries me.

I don’t care about any nations thst arnt allied with the uk, as they can’t use the data against me personally. But your own government can. And our is getting on of the worst at collecting and trying to sensor data behind N Korea and China. A nice group to be in. Not.

I have my worries about enemy states, mainly cos I think one day Nato will truly piss them off, and we will all (peronally) suffer their backlash.

But from the perspective of data collection, being a citizen on the uk, it’s the uk I fear. If I lived anywhere else, it would be that gov I fear.

Though I i said above, they have the data on all of us anyway, both gov and many many companies. Even if you haven’t have them it your friends already have.

The US gov has all your info, all of it. And any government that is feeding off the web ‘prism’ style also has it. Alot of today’s traffic is secure (https) bit it wasnt for the last ten years.

Richard wrote:

For me the answer is the rule of LAW, not the rule of gray individuals lacking any track record of challenging Government abuses. By ignoring the recommendations of the oversight committee (without a published reason), Theresa May took away yet another smidgen of trust.

You do realise that all of your financial data, trading data and a great deal else besides can already, what am I saying, it is already being accessed by a range of actors, some of which are government departments? Bothering about what you say to your TV, mobile or anything else will not make a halfpennyworth of difference to that. However move money, about buy stuff – is it in excess of that which your declared income(s) should allow and then expect a follow up.

There is one standout exception of course, if you  are a halfway ‘decent’ money launderer, then the world is your oyster. Still who cares about that?

I have lived in countries where the monitoring was far closer than anything this country can afford, yet I was not affected in any harmful ways.

Edited to include a cut out from your message.

I refer you my earlier comments about the problem of a range of misfits who have been inducted into the CIA and others and the ‘changing’ standards being applied by our own recruiters. Unless and until a bar is placed upon the malicious, the unhinged and those with an alignment with other locations then problems will arise. Have I suggested that every tin pot fool should have access to the keys of the Kingdom? – NO. However the evidence is that too many are granted access well above their capabilities and suitability and yes, dodgy councils I am aware of you.

Ed, I am in complete agreement with this:

” I would like protections in place for the possibility one day that the UK ‘goes bad’. in the same way as these Middle East states where their citizens fear a 2am knock on the door. If not for me then for my grand-children. This country has taken too many steps on the slippery path towards state control of the population for my liking. ”

That is exactly how I feel. UK citizens are the most closely supervised, watched and listened to, on the planet. When I say this to people, I get the same amused looks, sometimes a shake of the head and the facetious statement “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.” UK citizens are sleepwalking into a Police State and the majority are doing it to themselves without a murmur of protest. What really worries me about this, is the fact that there is no real, working political opposition to the government in power, and therefore no chance of a change in government in the foreseeable future. I recall a very true quote, attributable to several people, including Edmund Burke: –

” The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. ”

Ed I guess we must agree to differ on this one. Back in the day 100% of some traffic streams were monitored and known actors were monitored a considerable part of the time, i.e. 100% of the day. In fact if there were not enough monitors equipment would be shut to match the limited number of monitors.

As for the utter baloney about 100% monitoring, I guess no one carries a mobile at any time? So they can never be 100% back tracked after an event. And I guess we always buy tickets for public transport with cash, keeping our faces covered and never use a car with number plates, etc.

No one would ever think of allowing their mobile to send out details to beacons, etc.

I honestly think you missed or ignored the bit about full financial and trading details already being available to a range of actors, some of which are commercial but others are clearly not, or is HMRC a commercial entity?

I knew some of those involved in such work, many on secondment from ‘elsewhere’. Their attitude was with some many hay stacks containing needles we do not have time to look at the hay, we need better ways to pan for needles.

I am sorry but I do not care if someone knows what my grocery order contained, but I care a great deal about the risk of a family member being blow to bits or poisoned. Sadly such threat generators have been allowed in, that was the huge error. Now we are stuck with the effects and some foolish dolts want to admit more of such aliens. By the same token I am hugely in favour of intelligence and profiling. Long may they be used to good and full effect.

However, there are problems long predating the intensive gathering of more data, (which might in some cases have put a stop to past illegal actions). Some of the southern USA states have a long history of not needing little hang ups like evidence, – they hung them anyway. Such major atrocities may have been reduced, but the ugly side of totalitarianism still lingers on with false arrests and false evidence very much in evidence. I would also be careful in France, have worked in close contact with some of their often sloppy ‘services’ I would not trust them to buy a ripe cheese and get it right.

I accept graciously that we are clearly on different sides and that you will never persuade me, nor I you. Having seen real plots stopped before they happened, often because of stupid errors by the plotters, and the results of others that were not stopped in time I trust that successes will continue and increase while failures will reduce.

Oh, I still have little or no use for the likes of Alexa, simply because it cannot offer me anything to date that would be the slightest value.

Richard wrote:

Sadly such threat generators have been allowed in, that was the huge error. Now we are stuck with the effects and some foolish dolts want to admit more of such aliens.

What does that mean?