Doubleplusungood

[Beguiling Orbit]

If you’re using an Android phone, Google may be tracking every move you make

As a liberty lover, I just HAD to click on this headline, which smacked of 1984's Big Brother. I shuddered while reading the article, thinking about the implications. Then I immediately went to the settings in my Android phone. Fortunately, I already had Location History disabled. Does anyone else think that while we're all paying attention to government overreach, companies like Google have already gone well beyond that and are a much greater threat?

 

[OkRad]

If you’re using an Android phone, Google may be tracking every move you make

As a liberty lover, I just HAD to click on this headline, which smacked of 1984's Big Brother. I shuddered while reading the article, thinking about the implications. Then I immediately went to the settings in my Android phone. Fortunately, I already had Location History disabled. Does anyone else think that while we're all paying attention to government overreach, companies like Google have already gone well beyond that and are a much greater threat?

I recently finished 1984. WOW, oh yes, a lot of it is like today.....scary. People don't care.

 

[Judge]

I recently finished 1984. WOW, oh yes, a lot of it is like today.....scary. People don't care.

I witnessed such apathy firsthand watching our local news a few weeks ago. They were discussing Google and Amazon products relative to the possibility they could be spying on their customers for marketing purposes. Ultimately instead of any serious concern, there was laughter about it.

Though I have to concur, virtually any device connected to the Internet with two-way communication can be hacked to serve such a purpose. In this instance there's nothing new about such possibilities.

Only yesterday I watched a news commentator where you could hear his "Alexa" in the background, and the person interviewing him asked him if "she" was spying on him. So the guy asked Alexa, and got no response back. Where he then smiled and said, "She must be spying on me. She won't answer". They thought it to be funny as well. I suppose it was a little funny.

However the issue at hand is a problem. And worse IMO is the apathy surrounding it. I guess people want technological convenience more than any consideration of their constitutional rights.

 

[Progster]

Yes, they are invading into more and more areas of our private life with their algorithms, and it's a bit creepy sometimes. Makes you wonder how far it will go and where the line, if any, will be drawn.

My phone isn't connected to the internet and stays at home most of the time. I don't care about products and advertising or commercials, and have done all I can to eliminate them from my life. If I want something, I will seek it out, I will go to them, I don't want them to come to be and be in my face all the time.

 

[Sid Delicious]

We now have a Ministry of Truth style unit being set up by the government in the UK. The BBC had the article on their front page for about ten minutes, before the comments section was swamped with people complaining (which gives me some hope) and they buried it. I generally avoid getting involved in politics, since no one appears to have noticed both parties are playing for the same team. But this was a fairly obvious move straight out of Orwell's novel.

Government announces anti-fake news unit

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

We now have a Ministry of Truth style unit being set up by the government in the UK. The BBC had the article on their front page for about ten minutes, before the comments section was swamped with people complaining (which gives me some hope) and they buried it. I generally avoid getting involved in politics, since no one appears to have noticed both parties are playing for the same team. But this was a fairly obvious move straight out of Orwell's novel.

Government announces anti-fake news unit

Theyve always had a propoganda unit, they change the name of it every few years.

 

[watersprite]

Yes, the settings on my phone have been set to not show my location. But "they" can find out where that phone is, if they want to, quite easily.

Also saw that one and saw the advertisement for the amazon camera that also unlocks your front door to allow packages to be delivered.

We buy products that help corporations and governments manage us so that we buy more products.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Yes, the settings on my phone have been set to not show my location. But "they" can find out where that phone is, if they want to, quite easily.

Also saw that one and saw the advertisement for the amazon camera that also unlocks your front door to allow packages to be delivered.

We buy products that help corporations and governments manage us so that we buy more products.

We're being 'farmed'

 

[watersprite]

 

[pjcnet]

No surprise there, Google who also own Youtube are very similar to Microsoft for having a total lack of respect for user privacy and even using the Google search engine tracks you across the Internet by default sending private information to Google for advertising reasons without your permission. If your privacy is important to you and you don't want to be tracked with ads as you surf the Internet use DuckDuckGo as your search engine instead, it also doesn't remove any search results.

If you're using Windows 10 it's most certainly a big brother operating system too, also don't think you own your PC any more because Microsoft seem to believe they have the right to install what they like without permission. Windows 10 spying and also mandatory automatic updates can only be turned off completely by using a 3rd party utility that isn't sanctioned by Microsoft, but even then people are finding things that have been missed that are built into Windows 10 for the purposes are sending private information to Microsoft without people's knowledge or consent.

It's odd that Microsoft promoted free upgrades to Windows 10 for so long. Then a lot of people who didn't like Windows 10 and it's built in spyware powered on their Windows 7 or 8 PC during the promotion to find out that Microsoft had automatically upgraded without their permission and some people's PCs were even screwed when the update failed, but don't expect to get any compensation from the likes of Microsoft as they seem to feel they have the right to do this. It happened if you simply left the default option of automatic updates on in Windows 7 or 8, but you'd surely expect at least a prompt before the entire operating system was changed.

 

[WereBear]

I guess people want technological convenience more than any consideration of their constitutional rights.

Yes.

 

[Chance]

We're being 'farmed'

And I am a part of the black sheeple who don't fit in with the human farming thing... (though I am not really black but that doesn't matter to me).

I truly want to go mountain man (off grid) and just live a very simple life somewhere that is peaceful. In some ways its a little tough, but in so many others I think it would just be a huge relief. : )

 

[Progster]

We're being 'farmed'

Precisely. Time they created a new TV series, "You've been farmed!"