Community Chat

[Annabellethecat66]

OK, because I have a few minutes....I'll post some little tid bits from my Consumer Magazine I bought about 1 week ago.

The front cover (and reason I bought it says)..."Who Is Watching You"?  Apps.  Digital Photos, GPS, Smart Speakers, Easy & Effective ways to take more control of your digital privacy.

The magazine breaks down a lot of what we already know....ta ta ta da....Big brother is listening.....

OK, so when you get rid of or trade in your car, you need to "wipe it".  Yes, believe it or not cars have computers in them that record every place you've been and some of your personal information.

From Consumer's Magazine: These days vehicles collect and store all kinds of personal data--everything from the songs on your playlist to the locations you frequent to how firmly you apply the breakes.  And if you're not careful the data could travel on to your car's next owner.

Here's a few things you can do:  Unpair all bluetooth devices, reset the garage door opener, reset telemtics services, Blue tooth, On Star, FordPass, etc., Log out of Cloud Services Accounts, Remove all tracking devices.  They tell how to do these things but I'm too lazy to put it here.  

Mainly I just wanted you guys to be aware of how the information on your car is being stored.

In my case I give my cars to my daughters and grandchildren.  I don't trade them in.  I get a new one every few years and just pass the others on down in the family.  But many people trade them in.  Just some food for thought as they say.

Another article says:  Smart Speakers That Listen When the Shouldn't.  Hummm??? 

So, just this morning my friend was here cleaning my house and moving things.  We were sitting in the TV room, TV off, just talking and she suddenly stopped talking and said, "Your Alexa just came on".  I said, "What"?  She said while you were talking the Alexa blue light just came on, stayed on for a few minutes and went back off".

Now I never said anything remotely to say, "Hey Alexa" or anything that would remotely call her to light up.  We were talking in a regular voice.  

There have been several times it's just come on and I mentioned here recently that it just came on and said, "Tell me a little about yourself".  Swear to you!  I then unplugged it but I'm a stickler for correct grammar and spelling so I plugged it back in.  That's all I use it for.

That is weird.....isn't it? 

From the Consumer's Magazine regarding Alexa:  Here are bits of dialogue that appeared to trigger the speaers in their labs:

Mistaken for Alexa (I need medical assistance.  It's actually ...I like (plus any word that begins with "S.  A later (plus another word).

Mistaken for Amazon:  This is on.  It was.  There were none.  As soon as. Last night.  There was also, eyes were wide.

Mistaken for Computer:  Confident.  Kiro

Mistaken for Echo:  Marco.  Echoing.  That's also.

They did a survey:  Do you watch what you say around your smart speakers:

69% say no  Hummm???!!!  

There's more but I have to go for now.  My daughter needs me...

[Lilysmom]

@Annabellethecat66 , the one that caught my eye was de-programming your garage door opener.  Yikes, never even thought about that one!  LM

[phoenixbrd]

@Annabellethecat66   I was just having this discussion with my husband.  We are so wired up in this house and I mentioned if he knew Alexa has the capabilities of listening in on conversations. He thinks that bird has already flown.  If you own a computer, much of your life history is already known and advertisers are responding to your lifestyle.   I never would have thought about all the information being collected as a result of our cars.  Welcome to the techno world!

[Crazy for Kitties]

My touch tablet in the kitchen does that.  It 'hears' ordinary conversation and pops up research titles of what it thinks it heard without my asking. I've turned the feature off permanently.

[blackhole99]

If you wanna use the technology you take the good with the questionable. 

[Pamela330]

Seems everyone I talk to lately is discussing this exact conversation. I watched a video at Glenn Beck (YouTube) the other day and he had an expert that explained what's going on. The title of it is... "Google's Hidden Dictorship" Ep. 52.  Very interesting and thought provoking. I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices this too!  I quit using Google search and started using DuckDuckGo. It seems Google, Amazon, Apple, and many other corporations are all linked together in this, to share our personal information. They say it's just for marketing reasons? Hmm...time will tell. 

[jlkz]

@Annabellethecat66

@Lilysmom 

We just traded our van in....part of the prep includes their deprogramming garage door openers.

[software]

I don't need technology that badly

[Annabellethecat66]

I have Yahoo and I just saw where they were breached and you can submit bla bla and get probably 2 cents!  Ha!

[SandySparkles]

WOW! You shared information I was unfamiliar with. Although there is no such thing as true privacy anymore, like most of you, I try to be as vigilant as possible with use of my tech devices. Our use of them in today's society is a necessary evil, and I would much rather have the convenience and assistance of technology, than not. Thank you for posting this.

~~~All we need is LOVE💖