Smart TVs and Firesticks are listening to customers' every word.

[rebellatio 25]

http://theweek.com/speedreads/538379/samsung-warns-customers-not-discuss-personal-information-front-smart-tvs

 

 

[Kepler_452b 77]

WTF Samsung!  It's funny, Samsung doesn't listen to its customers when they say they want the Note fablets to have removable battery and expandable storage. Other than that they listen to every word lol.  Because of shit like this and exploding phones and their not giving a damn about what the customers want, I'm buying fewer and fewer Samsung products...I'm pretty fed up with them.

[Ricnvolved1956 51]

This eavesdropping is kinda old news, but no harm bringing this up as a reminder for the benefit of those who may not have heard about it earlier. I have 3 Samsung flat screen televisions but were purchased long before this eavesdropping became an issue. I love the quality of their products in the past but I'm also done with them. Samsung certainly isn't the only game in town for quality consumer electronics.

[Reso 19]

I've got a Samsung TV. It's an older model though, with no microphone. It will become more and more of a problem as time goes on. Eventually most household appliances will be connected to the net and listening for instructions. Most people already carry a bug/tracker around with them, in the form of a smartphone (me included).

 

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

[Kepler_452b 77]

Yup. The internet of things will become the internet of spys.

[serenacat 83]

This article has more from the security/legal/technical frontier of your life in the clouds.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/02/amazon-wont-disclose-if-alexa-witnessed-a-murder

Some of the commenters seem rather expert.

[serenacat 83]

"Burger King debuts Whopper ad that triggers Google Home devices"

"If a viewer has the Google Home assistant or an Android phone with voice search enabled within listening range of the TV, that last phrase - "Hello Google, what is the Whopper burger?" - is intended to trigger the device to search for Whopper on Google and read out the finding from Wikipedia."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-burgerking-advertisement-idUSKBN17E2UP?il=0

Are Americans allowed to shoot their digital devices in the privacy of their home, or do they get into trouble ?

[lostboy 0]

I have a Fire stick, got it for Xmas. It was used briefly but then I read up on it's privacy issues and concluded that I was placing a device inside my home network, (which is permanently AirVPN'd via the router) that has the potential to reveal everything about me and my location, negating the part of the purpose of a VPN. So it went back in the box.

 

I am considering getting it out this weekend to see if I can set up my router within a separate internal vpn that can't route to the internet, as I only want to use it via Kodi to access an internal network NAS share.

If I can't, it's going on ebay as it's three months old now.

[go558a83nk 362]

I have a Fire stick, got it for Xmas. It was used briefly but then I read up on it's privacy issues and concluded that I was placing a device inside my home network, (which is permanently AirVPN'd via the router) that has the potential to reveal everything about me and my location, negating the part of the purpose of a VPN. So it went back in the box.

 

I am considering getting it out this weekend to see if I can set up my router within a separate internal vpn that can't route to the internet, as I only want to use it via Kodi to access an internal network NAS share.

If I can't, it's going on ebay as it's three months old now.

 

policy routing should be easy, depending on the router.

[lostboy 0]

policy routing should be easy, depending on the router.

 

Thanks, but it was not necessary.

 

I spent an hour or so today reconfiguring the fire stick as it was reset to default after my initial play at Christmas. It failed the first test.

Once set up with Kodi, purely to access an internal network SMB share with my MP3's and tv shows on, I disconnected my DD-WRT router uplink from the ISP router and after a few minutes, the fire stick aborted with a warning to check my internet connection.

So it's useless without a "heartbeat" connection back to Amazon. There doesn't seem to be a way around this, unless someone can help me with this.

I am going to keep it connected but power it down when not needed. Not ideal for a privacy conscious individual but cheaper than replacing the motherboard in my now defunct 7 year old server.

[OmniNegro 155]

Sadly, the phrase "Hello Google, what is the Whopper burger?" does not seem to work on my elderly mothers phone. That is too bad. I have been telling her she cannot trust the damned thing for years now.

 

Anyone happen to know any other phrases that cause the Android devices to show they are listening?

[rebellatio 25]

Amazon has graduated to the elite set of major OEMs that have help intelligence organizations. Fire stick anyone......

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-details-about-the-cias-deal-with-amazon/374632/