Honestly, the privacy issues from the, "we know about your ecosystem so we let our devices share information" stuff is basically the least of my concerns. It's pretty (technically) easy to securely share information between devices, and the devices have to know that information anyway - it's not like your Echo is going to forget your Wi-Fi password, and if you've already got this online ecosystem, it's not like you were very likely to, say, not join your tablet to your Wi-Fi. The always-listening stuff is horrible, and the tracking-you-across-the-web stuff is nearly as bad. I idly clicked over to the Facebook, "what we know about you" section the other day and - despite having several extensions which increase the privacy of my browsing - it's a list of like 200 sites that I've visited or shopped from. Fucking hell. There needs to be legislation around this, that allows users to use a service but without selling their soul to do so. Side note: a guy my in-laws live near is kind of a conspiracy theorist, the government is watching everything you do, someone is going to come take your guns, Big Pharma doesn't want you to know about the cure for cancer (he takes ~20+ supplements per day), etc. Paranoid guy. So paranoid that he carries a firearm almost everywhere. He has two Amazon Echos in his house.
How amazing is this that, however knowingly or knowingly, the dude is contributing to his own paranoia. I mean, he's technically right about all of this, but only because he's allowing Amazon to listen to every move he makes. This is some kind of Greek philosopher scenario where you generate your own destiny or something.
I've never asked him (because he's kind of a nutcase and sometimes I just don't want to encourage or listen to his craziness), but I have always wondered if his paranoia level increases when he logs onto Facebook and sees ads relating to his searches or conversations, or sees Amazon recommending products to him that he's been discussing with his wife.
How can it not? If a large part of your online activity is a feedback loop for your beliefs, how can it not be reinforcing? Never mind that a LOT of the shit that goes on with Facebook (and games, etc) are very psychologically targeted, like compulsion loops, etc, to continuously engage you with their platform. If that engagement is encouraged by more and more crazy shit, then you're going to fall down that digital rabbit hole.
My question is more whether or not it makes a blip in the constant background noise of paranoia that he feels every day (as opposed to glossing it over). I mean, you'd think the obvious answer is "yes," but on the other hand I'd also think it was obvious that, if you're paranoid about people watching you, you probably shouldn't install always-on microphones that connect to the internet, so... He's such a weird guy. Reasonably smart, was a history teacher for years so has a good context for a lot of world and political events. He's living off a state pension for his teaching years, and has medicare because he's old, but thinks social support programs should all be eliminated.. He never feels well, likely because he drinks 8-10 beers/day and doesn't exercise, so he has an entire box full of supplements that he's toxifying his liver with because he thinks his doctors are hiding a miracle cure when they say, "stop drinking and lose weight and you'll feel better" And of course, the aforementioned loading up his home with tracking devices like smartphones and listening devices like smart speakers, while at the same time being terrified that someone is listening to and/or tracking him. But he's always happy to see me (despite calling me a liberal hippie) when I visit my in-laws and brings me free beer and homemade pizza so... win, I guess?
I don’t own any Amazon smart devices but have warned others about the stealth feature allowing others to access your network/data capacity. I’m not sure if I heard it here or read it elsewhere. And my phone absolutely listens to my conversations. Even with no apps open I’ve opened Facebook and seen ads about uncommon things I recently talked about. It happened again about a week ago. I was drinking with a bunch of friends and made reference to a brand of booze I do not drink, and the next time I opened Facebook there was an ad. I get ads frequently from a game I play (Elder Scrolls). I don’t belong to any Elder scrolls Facebook pages, if such a thing exists, Reddit etc ES pages, don’t google it- but I always have my phone in the man cave when I’m playing it.
Both me and the wife use one amazon account. I have logged onto it on my work computer, and she used in on her tablet and what ever. It is funny, all the sudden all my add would change to something she was looking at on amazon. So i would text her and ask her if she was shopping for X. She would be like how the fuck do you know that.
You all have it wrong. These things aren’t listening to you. It’s creepier than that. You and your friends talk about things. Your phone knows who you hang out. One of your friends googles what you were talking about. Then it shows you an ad for it. I have an echo. I use it to turn on lights, turn on music and set kitchen timers/ reminders. That’s really all it’s good for. Man is it nice for timers.
As usual I'm probably late to the party, but this was shown as a suggestion to me today: Not bad, right? I did a little looking around and that video has been viewed over 100 million times across social media platforms and got her a recording deal. Damn. It kind of reminded me of an interview I saw years back of some 8 year old kid who got a recording contract and said "I've been working hard a long time for this." I had a few friends who'd been on the road for 20 years at that time, playing every shitty gig they could, hoping to get signed. They were not impressed by an 8 year old talking about how long and hard he'd been working on his (Or hers, I don't remember) career.
I balanced my checkbook today, and I noticed that I haven't used an ATM in the past 12 months. COVID has pretty much removed all of the things I normally spend cash on from my life (bars, restaurants, convenience stores, fast food, etc.).
Hey @Revengeofthenerds , Delta 8 products are now illegal in Texas. https://abc13.com/texas-politics-hemp-products-delta-8-classified-as-illegal-what-is/11141805/ Isn't this a great time to be a Texan? How the fuck do you tag someone on this site? I can't get it to work.
no it isn't. The DSHS doesn't write the laws. They already voted on making Delta 8 illegal back in I think it was may, or whenever the last legislative session was, and the bill didn't pass. The DSHS just came out with something saying basically that "it should be illegal" that's getting into some articles, which is getting on reddit and people are freaking out. You can still buy, sell, and possess as you wish.
Why does it feel like Texas suddenly realized they were about to become a modern state with an educated populace and a strong and diverse economy and their reaction was to freak the fuck out about it. State government acts like Jeff Goldblum in ID4 in that scene where he flails around hoping that if he trashes the place enough the aliens won't want it anymore.
I think it's comical actually. They're trying all this crazy shit grasping at straws, giving spoiled red meat to the diseased and dying remnants of their "base," and the courts are like "lol nope." None of this has me worried or even remotely concerned. If those in charge were actually smart, they'd do the exact opposite of whatever it is they're doing, because their current tactics are just riling up people to vote against them. In what world does this make any sense?
Just because I had to know, I did a bit more investigating....that video was done live, in one take, while she sat on her college dorm room bed. Absolutely amazing. She's got an incredible voice and took a song I've always really liked and completely made it her own. Impressive as hell. I'd love to hear something she's done standing up where she can really push her voice, because I'd bet it's probably got some real power behind it.
TFW the local 6pm news airs some pussy and butthole during the weather segment, lol https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/oct/18/police-investigate-pornographic-video-shown-on-kre/ In case you want to see what they showed: https://www.reddit.com/r/theyknew/c.../?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3