[–] Hand-Banana ago
If you use gmail and ever order from any site, google will scan your mails and put the info into "purchase history". Supposedly something "only" you can see. It has price, item and your address. There was little fanfare about this "feature" and its not talked about except on one reddit post.
When it first rolled out last year, the reddit fags said you could delete emails and have items go away. This year it is no longer the case. So its 100% probable that gmail mines your user accounts, connections and personal information if you use it. Now if you use search logged in all this personal information is tied to it. Even if you don't they tie things to your IP address.
Case in point, I've stopped using google for 99% of things and yet it keeps changing my language to chinese. No matter what browser I use, everything is in moonspeak. My VPN is based in the US, all settings are for english. I put fake x-forwarded headers in some of my browsers to make it seem like I'm coming from a different place. Google seems to have accepted it as truth.
This nest microphone was 110% spying on you. I believe them when they said it wasn't supposed to be secret. None of this other stuff is either. They just don't talk about it. If you put it together, good luck on posting anywhere as google controls your visibility all over the web.
[–] GimmeTheUsual ago
Anyone installing a device in their home that phones home somewhere to a server farm is a fucking idiot.
Everyone is being played. You can make an argument for phones and PCs as well, but at least you have some influence where you can lock down some aspects of what you own.
This home automation shit? Good luck. You're just wiring up your entire space for FuckYou, Inc to monetize and sell your data, and if the Feds want it -- bingo, they have access.
Fuck that bullshit.
[–] Secret555 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I mentioned this a couple of times before on Voat but I will repeat it again to prove how long their agenda of complete data collection has been going on for. About 7 years ago I was one of the leads in a startup who was developing a fitbit type of wearable specifically for dogs. Our startup was next to Google headquarters in Canada and it was quite often that Google would "assist" or sponsor startups they found in the incubator we were located in. They were very interested in our product and we had many meetings with their developers and even so far as their Canadian president. They wanted us to incorporate a microphone into our product without any use to our service. They kept insisting that although we wouldn't require it at the time that by implementing it into the finalised design we could maybe make use of it at a later time.
Also, it is important to note that they were really interested in our product not for the many reasins we were developing it but to get an accurate description of the floor plans of residential units. Since we would incorporate altimeters and several other sensors and the unit would be continuously streaming they could not only get the general floor plan but since animals have a tendency to jump on furniture or counters they could recognize furniture layouts and other diverse dimensional traits. The president stated quite clearly in a meeting "People are habitual and tend to follow similar patterns in a space but an animal has a tendency to cover more area and display a randomness that will lead us to have a more accurate representation of the space." Their push was to make Google Streetview more accurate by offering interior dimensions and design. This shit has been going on for a long time. As a team we had to seriously understand and discuss their partnership. We were generally creeped out and decided to not partake in their offers to help us develop the product. It probably cost us but we felt it was the ethical decision. Needless to say they dropped us like a sack of retarded kittens. I despise Google and try my hardest to limit their influence in my life since that time.
[–] A_M_Swallow ago
I suspect they were making a rival to the Alexa from Amazon and messed the design up. The Alexa has voice control and therefore needs a microphone. Putting microphones next to load speakers tends to produce a loud feedback noise. They may have solved this by disabling the microphone and voice control.
[–] BillMarshall ago
If AN ELECTRICIAN sold you a smoke detector with a built in camera that they could remotely access without telling you and never turned it on would they be arrested for a CRIME ? Of course.... (unless they were a black, gay, liberal, movie star.. than all bets are off)