Privacy? What's that?

from here and here

Ring is in some serious trouble over it's abject failure to protect the privacy of it's customers from it's own employees and others, but the thing that stood out to me wasn't that there was an employee abusing his/her access to the video feeds, but rather the mere fact that there were video feeds coming from people's bedrooms and bathrooms. I don't know about you but I wouldn't want people peeping on me while I poop.

Anything for pancakes

found on eBaum's World

We give out our passwords for candy bars so why not give up our privacy for pancakes, right?

I don't know about you, but that doesn't really sound like a fair trade to me. Maybe it's just because I already know how to make my own pancakes.

Because the name "Big Brother" was already taken

from here and here

Candid Camera and all the hidden camera shoes that came after it were always a little creepy when you think about them secretly recording people without their prior consent. That's pretty much the same thing that the new surveillance comedy show from Amazon will be as well, except this time the cameras will be everywhere, and it will give people yet another reason to participate in a surveillance state that feeds data directly to police without permission.

Living In The United States Of Amazon

from here and here

Apparently Jeff Bezos makes the rules now, and he's decided to imbue his own employees with the powers normally held only by judges who grant search warrants. Something about private sector judges seems deeply unsettling.

Shhh... Be vewy, vewy quiet

from here and here

It's been a long time coming but Amazon Prime Air is finally coming to a backyard near some folks in Lockeford, California. Sure there are already other drone delivery pilot programs, but I'm not sure they'll be able to hold a candle to the amount of online retail business Amazon does. So I think we'll have to wait for Amazon's service to take off before we see a major shift in the modus operandi of porch pirates. Will we start calling them prime pirates? Who knows, but taking out a drone before it gets anywhere near someone's house seems like a win for thieves (especially when you see what they've done to shipping trains), so I have no doubt that it's going to become open season on delivery drones.

Can't get any privacy

found on Funny Junk

I can't get no-o

Private spaces

They've got cell phones in

All the places

Their willingness to pay should be your first clue

from here

Amazon is willing to pay for our palm prints? Yeah, that's a nope for me, dawg. I'm not interested in giving them a hand at building another biometric surveillance system. Biometrics are forever, you can't get new palm prints, and once you give that info out you can't put the genie back in the bottle.

In theory, Amazon won't track you for the rest of your life because they'll delete the data if you ask them to. And if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you. Internet giants don't get to be as big as they are by throwing away valuable data, and data they're actually willing to pay you for? You better believe it's valuable.

Automatically enabled for your convenience

from here and here

Y'know what? If I wanted to share my Internet with my neighbors, I'd give them the wifi password. Amazon seems to not understand property or consent here, and I'm not sure how this plan made it past their legal department. The amount of bad will this will create in their customers is going to be mind boggling.

So much for "private"

from here

Sometimes I wonder if big tech companies even know the meaning of the word "private". It certainly doesn't seem like Amazon does. With that number of people it's basically impossible to enforce limits on how the data is used (or misused) which in turn means there's no accountability.

Lock Picking Lawyer: SimpliSafe Alarm Bypassed With a $2 Device From Amazon

Watch on YouTube

Have you heard of SimpliSafe before? I know I have. Some of my favourite YouTubers seem to swear by it (or at least swear by the sponsorship they get from the company). I hadn't heard about this weakness before, though, and it seems like an important consideration when selecting a home alarm system. I wonder how many other systems have similar vulnerabilities.

Now Silicon Valley is disrupting palm readers

from here and here (image and article source)

I'm not sure we're ready for biometric payment systems yet. I hope the are appropriate protections for consumers, but I'm not sure what kind of protection would be possible against the obvious nightmare scenario.

This isn't even it's final form

from here

It's bad enough when individual neighbors have surveillance gear pointed every which way, it's so much worse when they're all linked together without anyone's consent.

Letting Amazon record your comings and goings

from here and here (image source one, two, and three)

Letting a Ring camera fly around inside your home is pretty invasive, much more so than just having a camera at your front door, and it makes one wonder what's next?

(I know the last image isn't actually of a butt plug with a camera in it, but it certainly looks like it could be that)

Scumbag spymaster has a particular set of skills

from here and here (image source)

It can't be a coincidence that a company with products like Alexa (that listens to your conversations), Ring (which watches everything and shares footage with police and possibly other agents of the state), and Rekognition (which can power all sorts of biometric surveillance applications) acquired the ex-director of the National Security Agency for it's board of directors. With a member of the Intelligence Community in a position of influence, Surveillance Capitalism has never looked more menacing.

Breaking Into a Smart Home With A Laser - Smarter Every Day

Watch on YouTube

This demonstration is great for a couple of reasons. It demonstrates a complex security vulnerability in a way that ordinary people can connect with, but it's also careful not to hype up the threat and gives some solid recommendations on countermeasures.

I spy with your Internet-connected eye

from here

Why has our culture become so enamored with surveillance that we not only accept it when others do it to us but we even do it to ourselves? That such surveillance devices then get taken over by attackers seems like an entirely predictable conclusion. Why do we do this to ourselves?

Guard that hen house well, Mr. Fox

from here and here (image source)

There couldn't possibly be a conflict of interest in Amazon writing the very rules governing the use (and therefore potential sales) of their products. Surely they would never behave so unethically.

Come and get it, porch pirates

found on I Can Has Cheezburger Animals

Anyone who's shitty enough to steal other people's packages deserves to get shit.

You might want to keep them out of your bedroom

from here

This is something that probably bears repeating A LOT. Those smart speakers and smart phones and smart watches and other devices that obey your commands aren't simply computers, there are also people listening in to help the computers improve. All the major brands (Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple's Siri) of digital assistants are made of people, at least in part.

And honestly "Digital assistants are made of people" seems like it could make a pretty good catch phrase.

You've just been Alexized

from here and here

Do you understand the (lack of) privacy rights as I have read them to you?

Alexa is always listening and Amazon keeps the recordings forever. How free do you feel now?

I figure if pervasive surveillance is like imprisonment then there should be an analog to the Miranda rights that get read to who are arrested and about to be imprisoned.