It is so difficult to find modern electronics without telemetry and ads. Smartphones, laptops, TVs, home routers, security cameras, cars, game consoles, e-readers, projectors, 3D printers, fitness trackers, speakers, and even some printers. Why can’t customers be free from this data collection and advertising? It’s not that we don’t care about it. There simply aren’t many alternatives, and the few that do exist are either more expensive or offer fewer features. Seriously, we need a list of products we can buy without worrying about telemetry or advertising.
Good think framework doesn’t advertise Racist arch dotfiles. /s
It’s not that we don’t care about it
That’s not true. People who give the slightest shit about it are in the minority. My supposedly tech savvy relative told me I am “overthinking” smart TVs by never wanting one connected to the internet. The next day after that conversation, the most recent LG scandal came to light. I sent them a link to the video. I saw that they were supposedly typing for a few seconds and then they never responded. I suspect they considered arguing with me about it being a problem and then realized it was going to be a tough argument to have. I doubt that made them think twice about getting more Internet connected devices though. They’ve personally overseen installing Alexas in multiple homes and they think I’m absurd for seeing those as bad for privacy.
Once I get more politically active it will be an absolute nightmare to scrub my house.
Tasks to do.
-check my RCA tv, disable all RF connectivity.
-audit Nvidia Shield and decide if the frequency of telemetry is palatable, likely replace with a Pi5 streamer box. Not sure if that has eARC so maybe adjust my whole stereo setup.
-move Phillips hue bulbs off the first party hub to a ZigBee hub.
-remove Google home devices, set up echo dots or whatever they are named and finish setting up the home assistant stack for voice assistant, find cheap tablet for HA dashboard.
-audit Honeywell home, set temp via home assistant integration only.
-same with Emporia power devices, local integration only.
-degoogle phone.
-replace ubiquity WiFi AP with something else probably
-replace Synology NAS maybe.
-shut down Milestone VMS and windows server in favor of an open source VMS, audit POE CCTV cameras for telemetry.
-audit BAS-IP video doorbell. That should work SIP only, I could probably snag access to their internal code base through work connections, the founder is a really nice lady and the rest of her team is cool too.
-Remove Windows from gaming PC, Linux steam or wine compatible games only.I’m sure there’s more. I probably shouldn’t list all the stuff I use like this but whatever, if I’m tipped over right now there’s not going to be any compromat/ opsec implications.
This is why regulations exist. Expecting the average corpo to not do evil shit, or the average consumer to understand why this is important is never going to happen.
Just because your “tech savvy relativ” says you should not overthink does not mean the relativ does not care about it.
It just means your relativ does not assume that its privacy gets invaded by every device.
This are 2 different things.
With all due respect I know how they think and I’m not sure why you think you do? This is a “I’ve got nothing to hide” person
I am mostly referring to the first 2 sentences since the other text does not comment on anything that he actually said or did.
Just because someone is naive enough to think that a smart device does not spy on you or downplays what they know does not mean they do not care about privacy.
In order to say that the relative does not care about privacy, the relative would have to know the exact extent on what they collect and what they can do with it. You cannot assume that a normal person or even “tech savvy person” understands what is possible.
It is possible that what you said is applicable for your relative but in general this does not apply.
It’s interesting that instead of assuming I have any basis for saying what I did, you’re trying to educate me on how to interpret someone’s actions I have known my entire life. I can assure you I’ve tried to have this discussion with them several times. They dismiss every privacy concern brought up if it relates to tech companies. They care about privacy insofar as they think it’s wrong when the government violates it, but if they get a free service out of a deal, they dismiss the idea that the trade off could potentially not be worth it.
Tldr; your drive by guess at what may have been said does not override information you do not have.
I never said that you are wrong. You have misinterpreted that. I simply say that in general, that what you said about your relative is not enough to assume that the relative does not care about privacy.
I never have said anything else. More information was not given.
We are talking about a specific person that you quoted how I described them as if I might be making shit up. The fact that I said “my relative” is enough information for any reasonable person to know I probably have a long history with them. I never once said this applies to every person. I only mentioned they are tech saavy because they absolutely have the capability of understanding and being shocked by privacy invasions, they just decided long ago it wasn’t worth caring about. And I know this due to the dozens of interactions with them on the topic. Including essentially telling me I’m wasting my time caring of my TV spies on me. More history there is that I’ve told them about real cases of this happening years ago also and they dismissed that as not mattering then as well
Weird interaction.
We are talking about a specific person that you quoted how I described them as if I might be making shit up.
No, thats just you beeing offended. Never once did that.
I never once said this applies to every person.
But with the quote at the start you implied that there a lots of ppl. It should be common sense that there is almost never a 100% complete agreement within such a broad undefined group.
Sadly most chips contain backdoors especially Intel and AMD. Unless a performant open source RiscV chip comes along everything has spyware
Linux home computers are where this starts.
I don’t know a ton about it, but I’ve been looking at the Brax phone recently for this reason
How do we start a class action lawsuit for violations of the fourth ammendment?
What happened?
