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Fair points, a counter: "okay but can't they get that from your address and correlating that with satellite images and/or zip code data?" - I've never found t

by j-bos 4y ago

Fair points, a counter: "okay but can't they get that from your address and correlating that with satellite images and/or zip code data?" - I've never found that ignoring one leak because there's another fixes the pipe. "You're not going to be able to detect much objects with a tiny camera situated on the ground. At best you can figure out what appliances each house has." - 20 years ago who would've thought that TV's would all be capturing your life on record. At best they can check what channel you're watching. The concerns seem quite plausible: means, motive, and opportunity.

dylan604 4y ago
The cable operators have been knowing exactly what channel you are watching for longer than 20 years ago. Think back to how long ago you switched your old analog cable box for a fancy digital one. That's how long. If you're not old enough to know about analog cable boxes, then it has always been true for you. TVs just introduced the potential for a camera/microphone and the manufacturer receiving that info directly instead of just the cable co.
atomicnumber3 4y ago
I think the metaphor here is that "sqft of house is visible" is less a pipe and more of a river? Random ways I can think of to harvest sqft of your house: 1. Satellite 2. MLS records and/or building plans 3. Don't amazon drivers drive past like every single house at least once a day at this point? could probably do something with that. Plus, I would be shocked if "amount you spend on amazon per month" doesn't nearly linearly correlate with your income, if that's what they want. Plus doesn't equifax et al literally sell these datasets for this explicit purpose? I agree in principle that in general I do not want amazon to have an internet-connected LIDAR thingy mucking about my house, but also I struggle to figure out what specific privacy delta is happening here that would be a watershed moment. TBH still kind of reeling that most TVs have microphones on them with no clearly policy that they're not always listening (vs phones get a lot more scrutiny) and things to that effect. If I were going to try to improve my privacy, moving to a dumb TV is probably something I'd do well before I got rid of my amazon-roomba.
- j-bos 4y ago
  Agreed regarding the fact that this is, at the moment, not the biggest privacy concern. Of course, I also believe it should be packaged along with the other concerns, because I would argue that each of these capabilities can be called in security terms: violations of the principle of least privilege

by j-bos 4y ago

dylan604 4y ago

The cable operators have been knowing exactly what channel you are watching for longer than 20 years ago. Think back to how long ago you switched your old analog cable box for a fancy digital one. That's how long. If you're not old enough to know about analog cable boxes, then it has always been true for you. TVs just introduced the potential for a camera/microphone and the manufacturer receiving that info directly instead of just the cable co.

atomicnumber3 4y ago

I think the metaphor here is that "sqft of house is visible" is less a pipe and more of a river? Random ways I can think of to harvest sqft of your house: 1. Satellite 2. MLS records and/or building plans 3. Don't amazon drivers drive past like every single house at least once a day at this point? could probably do something with that. Plus, I would be shocked if "amount you spend on amazon per month" doesn't nearly linearly correlate with your income, if that's what they want. Plus doesn't equifax et al literally sell these datasets for this explicit purpose? I agree in principle that in general I do not want amazon to have an internet-connected LIDAR thingy mucking about my house, but also I struggle to figure out what specific privacy delta is happening here that would be a watershed moment. TBH still kind of reeling that most TVs have microphones on them with no clearly policy that they're not always listening (vs phones get a lot more scrutiny) and things to that effect. If I were going to try to improve my privacy, moving to a dumb TV is probably something I'd do well before I got rid of my amazon-roomba.

j-bos 4y ago
Agreed regarding the fact that this is, at the moment, not the biggest privacy concern. Of course, I also believe it should be packaged along with the other concerns, because I would argue that each of these capabilities can be called in security terms: violations of the principle of least privilege