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Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

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Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#181

Post by lostcolony »

thisacctforreal wrote: post #128
Spooky23 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a big difference between committing a crime and engaging in lawful commerce. By your standard, HN is on the same level as Amazon, as there have been many articles here over the years describing technical details on how to implement such a system available to anyone. A serial killer may be using a raspberry pi based facial recognition system that he learned about here, right now to stalk a victim. That’s an un…

Implementation requires specialized skills for the hardware, software, and logistics, as well as lots of time, money, and patience. A stalker isn't going to deploy many pi zeros with cameras in many places on his own, and I'm not concerned that they will be able to round up many assistants. Amazon's product takes care of all that nitty-gritty, thanks to the work of their many bright employees.

If a stalker isn't going to deploy many pi zeros with cameras, then Amazon isn't useful to him either. It's still up to the customer to actually take the images.

For implementing facial recognition, yeah, it takes a little bit of coding skill. Same as integrating with Rekognition.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#182

Post by andrepd »

wavefunction wrote: post #135
sedachv wrote: post #116

> When most people think of the tech giant Amazon, they think of an innovative, consumer-friendly company responsible for affordable deliveries. This is one of those instances where I say to myself, "I wish I had listened to Richard Stallman X years ago": https://stallman.org/amazon.html

I definitely don't think that silly simplistic take on Amazon. Jeff Bezos sounds like a psychopath from his public profiles. He has the right to run his firm as he sees fit of course but never have I considered Amazon to be 'benign.'

>Jeff Bezos sounds like a psychopath from his public profiles.

Then maybe he is.

>He has the right to run his firm as he sees fit of course

No. If he is harming society then we the people should stop him, fuck his "right" to do what he pleases.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#184

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #171
ams6110 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that I think Amazon et al are listening. It's that that could, or someone who seizes control in an "emergency" could, or someone with "legal authority" could order it.

How is that different from a smartphone or laptop or any other device with a microphone?

Laptops aren't completely controlled by a third party.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#186

Post by LargeWu »

ams6110 wrote: post #152
pasta wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it can easily be misused. For example: Trump is one of those people that can change the US into something you would not imagine a year ago. It's very easy to say that this wont happen but I also thought Trump would never become a president...

Your first sentence was a good observation. Dragging the specific example of Trump in polarizes the comment. Trump has already been President for over a year and the country has by no stretch seen changes that I could "not imagine." The biggest lasting impact a president can have is appointment of judges. Congress pretty much has to do the rest, and they even have to approve the judicial appointments.

> Trump has already been President for over a year and the country has by no stretch seen changes that I could "not imagine."

It typically doesn't happen overnight; rather, your rights erode over time, usually in the name of national security. That said, even in his short tenure, I believe Trump has done much to erode the norms of functioning democracy. Just a few examples: threatening political opponents with jail, threatening journalists, and at a very minimum having the appearance of basing foreign policy on how it affects his personal business empire.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#187

Post by krapp »

ams6110 wrote: post #152
pasta wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it can easily be misused. For example: Trump is one of those people that can change the US into something you would not imagine a year ago. It's very easy to say that this wont happen but I also thought Trump would never become a president...

Your first sentence was a good observation. Dragging the specific example of Trump in polarizes the comment. Trump has already been President for over a year and the country has by no stretch seen changes that I could "not imagine." The biggest lasting impact a president can have is appointment of judges. Congress pretty much has to do the rest, and they even have to approve the judicial appointments.

>Trump has already been President for over a year and the country has by no stretch seen changes that I could "not imagine."

Well... I for one couldn't imagine a primary channel for communicating American policy being a personal Twitter account.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#188

Post by throwawaymath »

ploxiln wrote: post #157
ma2rten wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why so many tech-literate people have an issue with that. As I am sure you know, those devices only record your voice and send it to the server when they hear their hotword. The hotword detection has to be done on the device itself for technical reasons (battery and data usage). Theoretically it's possible that the companies that build those devices lie and actually record you other times. But the…

Software engineers are right to be scared of these voice assistants. The problem is that typical sloppy, glitchy software (and hardware) is poised to record your voice and send it somewhere at any time, and that somewhere will play or record this, because that's what all this stuff more-or-less setup to do. It's already happened! Alexas have already "butt dialed" other people (not just amazon's servers)! Think a bit…

> Research has shown how it is possible to play voice assistant commands that humans can't hear.

Do you mind linking to the research you're thinking about?

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#189

Post by notyourwork »

andrepd wrote: post #180
ma2rten wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why so many tech-literate people have an issue with that. As I am sure you know, those devices only record your voice and send it to the server when they hear their hotword. The hotword detection has to be done on the device itself for technical reasons (battery and data usage). Theoretically it's possible that the companies that build those devices lie and actually record you other times. But the…

>As I am sure you know, those devices only record your voice and send it to the server when they hear their hotword. HAH. Says who?? Are you seriously going to trust companies with a terrible track record and every incentive to do this, are you going to trust them not to use their always on listening device to listen to you? I swear I don't say this to derail the conversation but I literally cannot fathom in my head…

Of those voice assistant companies, what poor track record are you referencing?

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#190

Post by Crontab »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #124
sedachv wrote: post #116

> When most people think of the tech giant Amazon, they think of an innovative, consumer-friendly company responsible for affordable deliveries. This is one of those instances where I say to myself, "I wish I had listened to Richard Stallman X years ago": https://stallman.org/amazon.html

> Emo Phillips once made this joke: The other day a woman came up to me and said, "Didn't I see you on television?" I said, "I don't know. You can't see out the other way." Evidently Amazon has made that joke obsolete. Like Stallman, I'm so uncomfortable installing a listening device in my home like OK Google, Alexa, Siri, etc. It creeps me out on a visceral level unlike any other kind of snooping.

I've actually told my partner that we will have no such devices in our home. Luckily we are in agreement because this is a hard line for me.
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