Google Home - Loving it!

[PeterPolyol]

Originally Posted by CKN
Originally Posted by PeterPolyol
Originally Posted by CKN
My wife and I always talk about top secret things and shout out our credit card, bank account numbers, etc. while standing in our living room in front of our Amazon (Echo) listening device.

Need to put tin foil over it.......

How does it feel to confuse 'vapid' and 'basic' with funny?



Oh-you mean like other posts on this forum?

Yea for sure, including some of my own. It's just the tin foil bit doesn't help- it never does and it's so over-done. There has to be some concerns other people are allowed to have that don't elicit a stimulus-response derisive reply y'know?

 

[kc8adu]

Originally Posted by ndfergy
Be careful of Google Homes self destruct code, "What's the best motor oil"

posts clip of the scenarios playing out on the movie war games.
smoke rolls out of the device.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
There is a fine line between caution and paranoia.

There may be, but I'm not sure what the fascination is with having a microphone connected to the internet in one's house. We've already seen the vulnerabilities of internet linked baby monitors, much less IP cameras, not to mention web cams on laptops. Even if I could trust Google with this device, and I don't, to think that it isn't going to get hacked six ways from Sunday is a bit naive.

 

[alarmguy]

Originally Posted by Garak
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
There is a fine line between caution and paranoia.

There may be, but I'm not sure what the fascination is with having a microphone connected to the internet in one's house. We've already seen the vulnerabilities of internet linked baby monitors, much less IP cameras, not to mention web cams on laptops. Even if I could trust Google with this device, and I don't, to think that it isn't going to get hacked six ways from Sunday is a bit naive.


Agree = Lazy, fat and Dumb.

Not directed at anyone, Im just stating the facts. The more people let corporations, think, say and do for them, the more lazy, fat and dumb we as a people will become.
Both physically and mentally.

Its the "plan" - the more dependent you are on "them" the more money they make. Its really that simple.

and ...

back to my point ... nothing from google is free, they sell your private information to the highest bidder. Its ok if your ok with that in exchange for free but I am looking towards the future, dont think for a second their will be no further costs after the "free" part.
Much like cigarettes decades ago, the plan, get you hooked on their services, future generations will then be so dependent, they will no longer be able to think for themselves or more scary, will no longer be able to find out the answer or figure out a solution to a problem on their own, unless they ask "google".

The internet is great, I kind of think of myself as state of the art with my network but I think people have to draw a line and not let it corporations become part of their daily life right down to controlling your thermostat or your days of being an independent thinking person as well as future generations ... will, well, no longer have to think, just let google think for you. )

Remember, these free services, the more google learns about you, the more they can make you buy things for reasons that even you, have no reason why you are buying them, its because their profile of you knows how to get into your brain and make you want something, its up and coming. They even know the temperature of your house with that internet thermostat and will know if you need more blankets or sweaters and a million other things.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted by Garak
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
There is a fine line between caution and paranoia.

There may be, but I'm not sure what the fascination is with having a microphone connected to the internet in one's house. We've already seen the vulnerabilities of internet linked baby monitors, much less IP cameras, not to mention web cams on laptops. Even if I could trust Google with this device, and I don't, to think that it isn't going to get hacked six ways from Sunday is a bit naive.

No doubt. Everything can get hacked. I mentioned that myself. My point was that Home is not all that different from a laptop that also has a camera and a microphone, and is typically always connected to the internet. Current versions of Windows (yes, I know you're on Linux) have Cortana, which I think is enabled by default and also always listening, and my guess is an average user won't know how to disable it because Microsoft purposely makes it difficult. Similarly, Home's microphone can be switched off when not in use, but again, I doubt too many people do it.

The only good way to protect yourself is to start living off the grid.

 

[Garak]

I don't think we have to live off the grid to protect ourselves.

Most of society isn't equipped to live on the grid, much less off of it.

Yes, laptops have a lot of compromises, to say the least, and that's one reason I shy away from them. If I were to get a laptop, the first thing that would disappear would be Windows, no question. Now, when it comes to Google Home, is the mircrophone switch really a switch, in that it breaks an electrical contact, or is it a soft switch?

Now, looking at something like Google Home, which is supposedly a standalone product, it's just so proprietary - there's no other way to say it. I'd hate to look at its EULA, and I know it's got one. You can't even go to the bathroom at Google HQ without agreeing to one first.