https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/02/my-...B9cBD0SUykFhrpI

Seriously, someone on the design team thought, 'heyyyy.... let's make a wireless only shoe, with no manual options like even a button or two on the side in case you lose app access, because what can go wrong there?'

It's the same with most design teams. They make their products nice looking, but forget you also have to use and/or maintain them. Ever try to hand-wash a modern car? There are Always some spots you just can't reach.

The same with architects. The house looks very nice, but they forget that it needs to be cleaned once in a while. They might have someone do it for them, but not everyone can.

It's almost like we DESERVE to be taken out by Skynet!

If you can turn it off, they get less information about you to sell. Why would they sell you a better product when it's more profitable to sell you AS a product?

https://youtu.be/qdPcLM6B8aA

Especially the last 5 words (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I love technology, I really do. That said you will NEVER see me with a Alexa, Cortana, Google, or Siri enabled device, and before anyone asks, I run a custom ROM on my phone, with as little Google apps as needed.

Seriously, why do people need to have a spy in their house?

They don't.

The companies who traffic in marketing data need them to have a spy in their house.

This is Google and Facebook's actual business. They make their money on selling marketing and demographic data.

You know, I did tech support for Apple a few years back, and that line of thought was precisely where we were taught to take the conversation when people asked why Apple charged for software products that so many other companies provided for free... "Well, that's because we SELL YOU A PRODUCT, and other companies sell YOU AS A PRODUCT!"

Joke's on them, Apple's one of the most guilty of designing a walled garden and selling their brand as a lifestyle. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Trust me, chummer, I do NOT condone their practices either. But from the tiny peek behind the curtain that my low-level role allowed me, I believe they're serious about costumer privacy.

I've got an Amazon Fire TV, but it's not one of always-listening ones. I have to press and hold the top button on the remote and speak into it to activate Alexa (which is handier than manually typing in a search for a movie name). They keep trying to sell me one of the always-listening models, and I keep not buying them.

Well, it's probably not always listening. Then again, some people were surprised to find out they record and save everything you say near them, then listening to and selling the information.

Yes, and they sell you that product the same way those companies who buy data from Facebook or Google do it. Apple has simply cut out the middleman. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I've tried tricking it, by speaking into it when I'm not holding the button down - no response. Also, with the dinky AAA batteries in the thing, if it was always on, they'd run down fairly quickly, but they last for months. I've concluded this model is safe.

Just like the camera and mic on your laptop, what you describe is merely how YOU have to do something to make the device do its thing, not what the mic or camera is actually doing or whether others can tap into the device and turn it on or off without you knowing. So I'm honestly not sure your method has any significant impact on how susceptible you are to eavesdropping, sad to say. We have actively chosen to mold our world after East Germany ca. 1980, weirdly enough.

The camera and microphone on my laptops are physically blocked, and I also chose a firewall program (BitDefender) that includes camera/microphone blocking components. On my cell phone, I purchased some highly-rated mobile apps that block my camera and microphone unless I turn them off; they're so good they get in the way sometimes, but I can live with that as it proves they're working.

Unless of course 'getting in the way sometimes' is all they do, and it does that to lure you into a false sense of security.

Any app or function that use either the camera or microphone won't run, and error out, unless I disengage the blockers first. There's paranoia, and then there's disregarding the plainly-visible results of every test on the item in question.

But I live in Europe!

Life's great!

The problem with software solutions is they are useful if someone, say the manufacturer, had physical access at one point. I remember (possibly correctly) stories of those software defenses being disabled or having backdoors, allowing people to listen in on phones, laptops, etc. Are you more competent at security than the FBI (possibly)? Just because you can't easily change something directly doesn't mean someone else can't easily do it remotely, once the device is hacked/has a backdoor.

More importantly, this is mostly academic, as we're probably not interesting enough to be worth listening to most of the time.

Yeah, so serious that my Itunes account is completely unrecoverable because the asshole who compromised it (and spent the $10 I had left in there from an old gift card on a Chinese MMO) managed to change the reset questions and contact info, and without being able to verify the -new- contact info they won't give me control back.

Luckily I didn't have anything of value on it.

Reading this triggered my PTSD from the Apple days! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dead.gif)

Seriously though, it's disgraceful how easily people get "locked out" of their Apple assets with exactly ZERO chance of recovery because they system is setup in a way that allows recovery loops, if you weren't extra careful setting it up. "You need X to prove ownership and gain access, yet you need access to retrieve X to prove ownership".

And it's not only itunes content either. I've had to tell mothers that their kids' childhood pictures were lost forever because their icloud accounts were irretrievable. I've had to tell little old ladies that their £500 iPhone was now a brick because it was set up two years ago by their granddaughter's ex-boyfriend who is now out of the picture, so the account is in his name. Etc...

It was a tough gig precisely because of Apple's unflinching strictness when protecting account privacy.