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Speaking personally, I've never managed to work out any real, practical concerns with devices, services, and situations like this. To start, I haven't seen any

by tene 9y ago

Speaking personally, I've never managed to work out any real, practical concerns with devices, services, and situations like this. To start, I haven't seen any reason to be more concerned about Google Home than I am about my Pixel phone, which is not only "constantly listening", but also accompanies me everywhere I go outside my home. I never leave my phone somewhere else when I'm at home, so... what's the difference if I add an extra microphone/speaker to the system already in-place? Even besides that, I've never managed to work out what people who cite privacy concerns are actually worried about; I've never managed to come up with any scenario that both seems worrying and seems to me like it has any plausible chance of actually happening. If we imagine a hypothetical counterfactual world where Google records everything ever spoken in my home or near my phone, retains these records forever, and analyzes them and uses the analysis to choose which ads to show me, and promptly responds to any requests by law enforcement for recordings with no hesitation or review process, and recordings are available for people at the company to listen to... what would happen that I would be upset about? Fewer poorly-targeted ads? Law enforcement having a slightly more-trivial time than usual locking me in a cage if I happen to offend a law-enforcement officer? Someone I'll never meet listens to me having sex? It might be the case that I just happen to have a life situation that's uniquely stable and not susceptible to being fired for political opinions or whatever the risk is... but I don't think my attitudes and risk evaluation here are really all that unusual. I speculate without evidence that most people just really don't care if they're being watched unless it's going to have practical consequences.

stevewillows 9y ago
I recognize that Google isn't recording everything said, etc. However, with video (tv, internet) ads prompting these devices to search [1], its not something I have an interest in participating in. Ultimately, for me, it boils down to a lack of benefit for me, and a lot of benefit (current and potential) for Google and these other ad-drivers to track my decisions more than I really want or need them to. As it stands, I live a fairly ad-free life, either through payment or blockers --- so the targeted ads are less of a concern. Law enforcement concerns are also extremely limited, as are political (null). I just don't see the benefits. If I need to know the current weather, I'll look outside. If I need to search something, it'll never be so important that it can't wait until I sit down at my computer. I guess, overall, I'm less concerned about the privacy aspect as I am the actual personal benefit of these devices. In my mind I relate it to the Dash buttons. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5lj63-nc5g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5lj63-nc5g
- raarts 9y ago
  Following house of cards? US elections? Remember WW II? Where they had just a tiny bit of info on a specific group of people (their faith, and registered address) and used that to the max to commit genocide on them? Think that'll never happen? Question to the Muslims on HN: how do you feel about having all your personal data stored by corporations and the government?

by tene 9y ago

stevewillows 9y ago

I recognize that Google isn't recording everything said, etc. However, with video (tv, internet) ads prompting these devices to search [1], its not something I have an interest in participating in. Ultimately, for me, it boils down to a lack of benefit for me, and a lot of benefit (current and potential) for Google and these other ad-drivers to track my decisions more than I really want or need them to. As it stands, I live a fairly ad-free life, either through payment or blockers --- so the targeted ads are less of a concern. Law enforcement concerns are also extremely limited, as are political (null). I just don't see the benefits. If I need to know the current weather, I'll look outside. If I need to search something, it'll never be so important that it can't wait until I sit down at my computer. I guess, overall, I'm less concerned about the privacy aspect as I am the actual personal benefit of these devices. In my mind I relate it to the Dash buttons. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5lj63-nc5g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5lj63-nc5g

raarts 9y ago
Following house of cards? US elections? Remember WW II? Where they had just a tiny bit of info on a specific group of people (their faith, and registered address) and used that to the max to commit genocide on them? Think that'll never happen? Question to the Muslims on HN: how do you feel about having all your personal data stored by corporations and the government?