this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
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[–] Screen_Shatter@lemmy.world 63 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

This was so obviously a bad idea from day one, I was shocked at how widely adopted these were right away. In retrospect I shouldnt have been surprised but somehow I just always expect people to be smarter.

[–] NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net 6 points 3 weeks ago

All you have to do is not tell any of the customers that it continually listens, by the time the ones who didn't know find out, it's already in their homes, they've already got the app installed, and they've said "I dreamt about something and then saw an ad for it the next day" more than once.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 37 points 3 weeks ago
[–] peanuts4life@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 3 weeks ago (10 children)

Has there actually been evidence of Alexa or Google homes being used for government surveillance?

[–] modus@lemmy.world 51 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Ring doorbells now give their footage to Flock, which can give/sell it to anyone. No warrant necessary. Not exactly what you're asking about, but along the same lines.

[–] anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 weeks ago

And police departments have absolutely bought that information, especially given their notoriously inflated budgets (at least in many cities).

[–] bob_lemon@feddit.org 4 points 3 weeks ago

Tbf, it would be pretty strange if law enforcement needed a warrant for flock camera footage, considering they're just freely accessible on the fucking internet /s

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago

Ring, also owned by Amazon, shares their video surveillance with Flock, which contracts with local LE agencies who share it with the feds.

0 warrants required, and ICE is actively using the data against people.

[–] saimen@feddit.org 7 points 3 weeks ago (14 children)

If the data is there a fascist government will absolutely use it. Of course in a democracy that won't happen ... unless you vote for fascists, ooopsie.

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[–] lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

An autistic teenage hacker banned from having a computer used a fire stick in a hotel room to hack Rockstar games. I think any given 14 year old war driver can hack these devices and listen to your conversations. If the government will work their butts off to install a tap on a landline, how can they not use an Alexa.

At the very least, there's a teenager in your neighborhood listening to every damn thing you say. If you have cameras in your home, they're watching you.

[–] MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Pretty sure it's illegal for them to confirm that this has happened. Most of the spying is to manipulate your shopping patterns and learn how to make the most profit from you.

Think Las Vegas casino levels of manipulation and then some.

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[–] hector@lemmy.today 3 points 3 weeks ago

They got caught sending info to their data banks they said they would not, and listening all the time even when they said they would not.

All of these smart devices do. If it is connected to the internet, presume it is spying and will sneak the information back.

The feds in the us buy data broker info, all of it, the cia buys and steals foreigners' too, and distribute it to agencies all the way down to notes, not attributed to source, in the local police's lien, law enforcement information network. Their dossiers on everyone. No warrants or judges, blessed by the supreme court for some time this is not new.

An end run around privacy laws and the bill of rights. Just like 5 eyes end runs spy agencies not being allowed to spy on their countries. They let their ally do it, lead it on paper at least, then share it with them.

All a result of being ruled by lawyers working for plutocrats.

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[–] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 21 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The CIA openly admits to spying on people around the world and everyone's reaction is now 'Oh you'

Somehow (constant media propaganda most likely) they've convinced people that to do ANYTHING you have to get your hands dirty; that 'ANYTHING' however is rarely or only slightly in our benefit, it's of a bigger benefit to an elite few instead. Even if you ascribe to 'the ends justify the means', the ends aren't worth it and the means are just getting more and more horrific and we're assuming the imperial boomerang isn't on its way back.

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 weeks ago

The vast line of imperial boomerangs have been slamming against our jaws for years now

[–] FatVegan@leminal.space 5 points 3 weeks ago

From what i gather from talking to people is that

A: they don't care Or B: I'm paranoid and it doesn't matter.

I do not understand how people just give up their privacy for nothing

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)
[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 13 points 3 weeks ago

My hypothesis is that it's a frog in a pot of water scenario. Western Union started the first charge account in 1914, so we've had a long time to get used to the water heating up. It probably did start with honest intentions to make things work a little smoother, but I remember the early days of digitizing records, and there was a LOT of loose data just there for the taking.

I remember that I used to work at RadioShack in the late '00s, and I had to escalate up to district because we discovered a treasure trove of old paper store credit applications that had been cached somewhere in the backrooms, and my manager wanted to just throw them in the normal garbage and not risk the cost of the extra shredding coming out of her bonus.

These things had SO MUCH INFO, handwritten out onto a paper form; name, birthday, SSN, mailing address, street address, then all that info of the spouse/cosigner that wanted to be on the account too. I could have made so much money on the black market, looking back.

[–] NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Truly amazing how many breaches of privacy people are willing to put up with if the propaganda says that questioning the tracking means you're hiding something and deserve to be tracked.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Or to protect the children! Child abuse is the trojan horse, also age restrictions a trojan sheep they have several on offer, to surrender to Tech. Social scores by half baked ai deciding everything secretly, in a way no one can know and challenge. The entire west is trying to surrender their citizens to Tech giants last year for a cut of the info and personal exemptions for politicians and security services.

Past generations would tar and feather these assholes something is wrong.

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This is the dawn of technofeudalism. First our data is sold to the CorpoLords, then our lives, then our souls.

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[–] solrize@lemmy.ml 19 points 3 weeks ago

Alexa Home Microphone. They mis-named it as a "home speaker" but actual home speakers have been around for 100+ years. They originally looked like this:

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 weeks ago

When phones were still tied to a cable, people were freer.

[–] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

I actually use mine as a disability aid. My motor control isn’t the best so it’s good just to call out for light and heat adjustments.

But I’ve long since come to terms with the fact that if ICE or whoever wanted to come bust me down, there wasn’t anything stopping them before I got what is essentially a home aide, and there’s nothing stopping them now.

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 14 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I don’t take VACCINES because the GOVERNMENT puts TRACKING CHIPS in them! You can’t trust ANYTHING made by SCIENCE anymore!

- Sent from my iPhone

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[–] JackBinimbul@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's fucking wild to me how so many people willingly signed over their privacy so blatantly.

[–] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 weeks ago

They've been conditioned to not care or even desire it. Smartphones had Siri and Google Assistant as a selling point, which led to ever more intrusive tech that was marketed as a convenience. Facebook took it a step further and had you label people in pictures uploaded to them and you sign away your privacy in their terms and conditions. Advanced marketing techniques were irresistible to social media companies and so consumer profiles of everyone they could get became a thing.

Jokes about seeing ads that smartphones can overhear made the intrusive spying all the more accepted as just a part of life. Android marks your calendar and reminds you of appointments made using your Gmail account when you never asked it to. Ring doorbell cameras quietly sell their video feeds to the highest bidder, often to law enforcement as a convenient means to circumvent the 4th amendment. And now the latest trend is to have your car do everything your phone already does but take it a step further by monitoring your driving habits so insurance companies can justify raising your premiums.

The average person isn't tech savvy enough to understand they're being sold as a product even after paying for their own surveillance gear. They just want modern conveniences without thinking the price they pay beyond the original sale.

[–] Zoabrown@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The scariest part is when you just think about pancakes and then start seeing ads for flour and maple syrup 10 minutes later. They don't even need the wiretap anymore.

[–] AlfredoJohn@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Yeah because they know you like pancakes and can serve you ads to start that train of thought so when you are served the pancake ad you feel like it 'got you' instead of the real fact that you were manipulated into thinking about pancakes so the pancake ad has more possibility of getting engagement from you. This is why you should have ad block on everything you interact with.

[–] djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 3 weeks ago

yeah people don't realize just how insidious advertisement really is.

your phone isn't "reading your mind," advertisers have such a comprehensive model of you that they're able to predict your thoughts with an incredibly high degree of accuracy before you even have them. There's also obviously a bit of confirmation bias in play, you only remember the times they got it right as opposed to the times they guessed wrong.

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[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Your phone is probably worse. Yes, even with GrapheneOS.

[–] rook@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

Please explain?! Is GrapheneOS a honeypot in your opinion?

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[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

How many of you are responding to this post from your cell phone?

[–] idriss@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Hey wiretap, I was hitting on my wife's friend in the elevator, I have issues with my wife anyways about that 2k she spent from my account last week if you remember, am I the asshole?

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 23 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Hey validation machine, can you tell me I am right?

[–] copd@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

You're absolutely right!

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Authoritarians learned that 1984-style totalitarian control doesn't work anymore; so they tried Brave New World's control through psychological pleasure, and it is more successful than ever imagined.

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Really it’s a mixture of both. Brave New World to keep the masses sedated, 1984 for the people who start to question the system.

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[–] Tempus_Fugit@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Fuck. I just made apple butter pancakes last night. This is me, except way hotter.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

With so many methods for global communications in the average persons hands it not a wonder at all. People are not even one iota security conscious until they get tagged and by then its too late

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