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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2021-05-30, 03:12

Please read this if you have an Amazon Alexa device in your home. At this point in time Amazon has decided to publicly share a slice of your WiFi without asking your permission in a bid to create a free public mesh network.

The new project is called Amazon Sidewalk (link leads to Ars Technica article).

By making this an opt-out program you must (a) be aware that it even exists and (b) manually change your settings to disallow it from happening from your own system. I did not see the option in my own Amazon Alexa app, so I checked to see if it needed updating, which it did. After updating the app the Amazon Sidewalk option was indeed there in my account settings, and it *was* automatically activated.


...

Steve Jobs ate my cat's watermelon.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-05-30, 08:30

I’m beginning to hate this stuff. And, no…not because I’m some tinfoil artisan or Privacy™ wingnut. I'm not doing anything weird or illegal, but I just think it’s weird - and shitheaded - for outfits to track and use you without making it clear and obvious, that’s all.

This sort of thing should be opt-in. Period. Not automatically a default “yes”, where the “no” is a buried hassle to find.

None of this was an issue until this century. And I realize you give up a little just being on the Internet. But you don't have to serve your life up on a silver platter with some of the things everyone is expected to do now (live your life on social media, do all your shopping online, all your banking and financial stuff online, asking all these "digital assistants" to run/organize your life and wipe your nose, etc.). Those are all choices, not requirements. Convenient? Sure. But when it seems a month doesn't go by that we don't hear some big handwringing story about a "data breach" (and if it's not that, then it's just stuff like this), those "choices" seem to come with a pretty steep price.

It's not some huge affront, it's just low-rent and twerpy that these outfits go about it the way they do, which tells me they themselves realize there's something low-rent and twerpy (and inconsiderate) about it. Otherwise they'd be a bit more upfront and open about it all, wouldn't they?

No wonder so many people are walking around all flaked out, on anxiety meds, feeling like they're being watched/their life isn't fully theirs, etc.

Yeah, no shit. And every weird-ass novel/eBook, "intimate" item, medication, etc. you buy online probably only adds to it. What do you expect at this point? Somebody (or several somebodies) somewhere already knows about that 14" strap-on you bought. And it probably doesn't take much for millions to know about it, should something go a little sideways on the data/security front.

I buy such things locally, with cash (and a hat, wig, sunglasses and fake name). Like a normal, respectable person.

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2021-05-30 at 09:04.
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