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Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

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Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#391

Post by drnick1 »

Quothling wrote: post #178
devsda wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know it is probably not the American way but the only way to address this problem is to make laws that prevent a duopoly, penalize anti-competitive behavior and push open-source standards for software/hardware. Unfortunately, the status quo also means the US (and its tech giants) has real power and control over other countries' technology sector. So, no party in America will make or enforce laws that will change th…

Even in the EU we can't use a lot of "society important" smartphone apps without Google Play or the Apple Store. I can get a physical key thing for my national digital ID, but I can't get anything for my bank, my healthcare (which is a public service in Denmark) or any of our national digital post services. You can apply to get exempt from the digital post services, and they do have a website sollution, but still. Do…

> Even in the EU we can't use a lot of "society important" smartphone apps without Google Play or the Apple Store.

Install GrapheneOS on a Pixel. Most Android apps just work, and unlike the stock OS, it does not spy on you.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#392

Post by shakna »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #146
shakna wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cambridge Analytica was an experiment run by a marketing team. I wouldn't say marketing will always side on ethics. Propaganda is, and always has been, a subset of marketing aimed at shifting public perception. It would be wild to assume it never happens.

> Cambridge Analytica was an experiment run by a marketing team. I wouldn't say marketing will always side on ethics The argument isn't against ethics. It's about self interest. Amazon bought the Super Bowl ad to sell Nest units. "Unwitting" is correct. There are no lizard people coordinating our march towards dystopia. Just individual people who will–like me–read this article, think we should do more, and then proba…

I do not see the difference, between influencing policy by targetting "one or two", or a greater mass of people.

Both serve the same goals, in a different manner. Both require the same choices by marketing - active and with conscience aforethought.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#393

Post by otterley »

wredcoll wrote: post #390
otterley wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when someone on a forum says "this is wrong and something should be done about it" If that had been what was said, we wouldn’t even be here.

Perhaps we can work on what is called "media literacy" where we understand text based on its context and authorship and other such clues.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47025768

You have the roles and responsibilities exactly backwards.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#394

Post by nine_k »

MrDrMcCoy wrote: post #367
pear01 wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get money out of politics (reverse citizens united) and enact term/age limits for all public offices. These problems will be solved. Most Americans agree on most things. Don't let the politicians who benefit off of dividing us fool you. An agenda that focuses on reform outside of the usual finger pointing game of partisan politics and promises to enact these reforms without fear or favor will win. Any such agenda mus…

And we can get there with ranked-choice voting. We really need to press hard until we get it.

Yes. Without it, we'll keep getting dysfunctional ultra-partisan elected bodies.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#395

Post by drnick1 »

WarmWash wrote: post #58
wordsunite wrote: post #32

I know it seems hard, but just stop using Google, Amazon, Meta products. Tell everyone you know to stop using their products. They have all been acquiring and amassing surveillance for years through their products and now they're just double dipping with AI training to sell you more of it. The more you can get people to realize and disconnect the better. I wish more people would use AI to build alternatives with a cl…

Its an intractable problem because people now have a general expectation that everything is "free". Look at Kagi's success and compare it to Google. It doesn't even register. People need to start paying for things, because if you're not paying for it, you're not in control of it.

DuckDuckGo is free to use, and is proof that you can have privacy respecting search. They make their money like Google used to by selling rankings, not by having users log in so that they can be followed across all their devices.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#396

Post by drnick1 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #182
prmoustache wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

E-mail used to be provided by your isp and there were enough different ISPs ( at least in my country ) to not have a duopoly.

Yes, but they didn't develop it. ISP email required you to configure IMAP or more likely POP in an email application and did nothing to combat spam. Google came along and offered gmail, easy sign up, no configuration, used your web browser so no other applications to install, spam largely filtered out, just worked.

> used your web browser so no other applications to install

I see this as a downside. Native email clients are much faster and a far better UX than a Web inbox. It's also pretty much required if you juggle multiple accounts.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#397

Post by iugtmkbdfil834 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #343
mmooss wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These comments appear everywhere, as if people never made changes. Look at the enormous changes prior generations have made. Look at the changes from the conservative/MAGA movement, #metoo, and the George Floyd protests. The claim doesn't stand up to any examination. Comments like these are a distraction. All we need to do is get to work. If people took action every time they felt like posting these comments, we'd ge…

> Look at the changes from the conservative/MAGA movement, #metoo, and the George Floyd protests. Which changes? metoo certainly didn't change much, the George Floyd protests also led to nothing, just look at how ICE has been executing US citizens in the last months. In 2025 alone, before Renee Good and Alex Pretti, ICE murdered 32 people with zero accountability [1]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-intera…

Shot. Killed. Executing is a ridiculously inaccurate framing bordering on rage baiting. And that is before we get to whether Pretti or Good were committing felonies, when they were willfully obstructing federal agents from doing the job they were assigned.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#398

Post by drnick1 »

torben-friis wrote: post #347
BoneShard wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook (if you don't use newsfeed) is a very useful product. Local events - check Local groups - check Small time music bands/artist/performances/etc - check Buy nothing groups where I can get rid of something I don't use - check Groups for mom with kids to get organized for some kids event - check A library having a read together event for a kids book author - check I'm happy I don't have to use FB, but my wife us…

Is that in the US? I’m genuinely asking, it wasn’t rethorical - none of that exists in my corner of Europe anymore. Businesses, indie stuff and local stores use instagram, groups are WhatsApp, second hand stuff has its own app.. facebook seems to be just the >60 year old crowd.

Guess what, Instagram and Whatsapp belong to Facebook (Meta).

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#399

Post by iugtmkbdfil834 »

oceansky wrote: post #67
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I know it seems hard, but just stop using Google, Amazon, Meta products. I noticed your own app's website [0] hosts videos on YouTube [1] and uses Stripe as a payment processor [2], which is hosted on AWS. You also mentioned that your app is vibe coded [3]; the AI labs that facilitated your vibecoding likely built and run their models using Meta's PyTorch or Google's TensorFlow. "Just stop using" makes for a catchy…

Someone commented on a HN threads on just de-googling and he couldn't even pick up his kids without a gmail or apple account. Just not using it is really unrealistic for the average person at this moment

Oh well, I guess there is nothing to be done. Pack it up everyone. It is over. You can't do anything. No one can learn anything. No. You heard the guy above. It is over. Go home. Do nothing.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#400

Post by wredcoll »

StopDisinfo910 wrote: post #383
wredcoll wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would probably help if you made a more specific point rather than just ranting in very vague terms. Grouping terms like "the west" can be broad enough to include over half of all living humans or so narrow that it applies to a small village. It is, admittedly, not a particularly useful term, but it's not like americans are reaponsible for it.

Where have you seen it used outside of Americans pretending their culture is somehow a standard and NATO apologists? The world doesn't even exist as such in my own language. It's a staple on Hacker News and nearly always for the bad reasons. I'm supposed to politely nod and shut up when people are casually erasing my culture?

What even is a "nato apologist"???

> Where have you seen it used outside of Americans

Well, there was this minor thing called "the western roman empire" for a few years, so that might be a starting point.

I am fascinated to learn how a claim that westerners "prefer liberty over security" is somehow erasing your culture though.

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