you are not alone.

Big brother is listening to you!

i hope they enjoy the midgets and oldies

/r/gilf

ITS A CONSPIRACY!!!!!

Removed. Rule 6.

No nobody else ever thought of that before. I mean, it's not as if that's the primary reason they were long time Cold War surveillance devices made available to the public or anything like that.

The Xbox kinect is more than a listening device. It can 3D model and entire room and an entire person. If you make a 3D model of a person and add the texture from the regular camera, and have their speech patters from recording them speech..... They can make a virtual you that can be added into any picture or video and animated to do and say anything they want. Basically CGI. Here is a simple example from a hobbyist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fcaf1aeSGY

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Kinect also has an IR camera, so it watches even when the lights are out.

No thanks.

point it down.

Yeah right and have my feet 3D mapped and superimposed into crime scenes.

Or into some questionable erotica.

You say that as if it's a bad thing.

The Kinect mark 2 is amazingly scary. I could careless if anyone watches me but it scares me knowing they have that access to people that need anonymity.

I saw the real technological breakdown of the kinect device and it is really shocking the capabilities with the acoustic mapping and visual sensing abilities. This is a terrifying device but I imagine our cell phones do the same.

I bought one just to use it for 3D mapping objects. The available consumer software for doing so kinda sucks though.

Not all phones can 3d map an environment, only the ones with dual cameras can.

They had ads saying it was goodcenough for remote surgery and other advanced uses wheb it came out.

Precisely the reason I'll never buy one.

You are mixing different technologies that you don't seem to understand. Taking the data off a kinect is clearly not detailed enough to make a cgi you.

Its enough for a start. Details and such could be altered with actual user input.

At least so I imagine would it work

No doubt advanced scanners can do this in the future. But that future is not now and the kinect is not that scanner. You should still disable it though, in the interest of personal data security.

Of course Kinect works for spying on citizens but doesnt work on games /s

You are paying them for spying on you. Don't buy that garbage.

Why else did Don Mattrick present the X1 on E3 als "always online" for a reason, until it was changed because of severe dislike by the community.

Sony is suspicious too: A microphone integrated to the controller that cant be turned off.

Also in the past the first models of the Playstation 3 had an hardware power I/O switch.

This feature was omnitted on later models, which means they are in permanent standby/listening mode when plugged in, unless you have a Power strip with its own I/O switch

Most wifi routers can 3D model the room they are in and maybe the whole house.

Really?? How do they do it?

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/04/stray-wi-fi-signals-could-let-spies-see-inside-closed-rooms

http://newatlas.com/wifi-router-holography-microwave-radiation/49396/

Devil's advocate here. If a few hundred dollar XboX can do all that, why does Hollywood spend millions of dollars, and make people wear spandex with ping pong balls all over it for the same thing.

I mean its not making a realistic CGI model, but if you were attempting to spy on somebody or maybe blackmail/frame them, and you had a rough layout of the entire house, a specific 3-d model of the room they are in, and hours of video and audio footage, what else do you need?

I can confirm this. My room mate in the barracks borrowed my kinect one day and I saw him frigging around with it for a bit. A couple hours later he was 3D printing me and showed me his 3D scan of me and all my surroundings.

I remember someone saying that the Kinect is so sensitive, it can read your pulse. I think it was being used by doctors for something more complex.

I have an Alexa and Google. Always weirded me out. If Apple has true point to point encryption with anonymous Siri token, I'm in. Just don't know what to believe 🤓🤓🤓

It's not anonymous if a three letter agency's got a backdoor in it..

Hey hit me with your best conspiracy. Ex employee have friends on site still and can verify anything you say with them or myself AMA

Don't worry at ALL! They literally said: "It only starts recording you when you say "Hey, Siri!"
Amazon Echo is the same thing. All NSA spy tools.

It can easily be tested with the right diagnostics tools and I'm sure someone will, as soon as it's released. A company like Apple cannot gamble lying about something this important to end users.

iPhone eliminated the 1/8" audio port and got away with it

What does that have to do with anything?

it debunks the premise that apple is overly concerned about doing something that might upset their customers.

No. Removing the headphone jack is a step towards future wireless devices (headphones in this case) and others are following suit. Similar to how they removed the CD reader in Macbooks ages ago. Noone considers that a bad decision now. Removing it may make a few people angry, but will not have impact on the company. There seems to have been near zero impact on sales.

Security is a different ball park and Apple releases an annual 70 page white paper solely about security. If they deliberately lied about anything in that white paper or other security related claims, it would have damaging consequences to their shareholders and their reputation. Apple has tons of business customers who rely on their industry leading security measures.

i bought an apple because i thought they were more secure, but that was an ill-informed decision. turns out apple has backdoors jus like all the rest. so, as a customer, you have a choice between apple backdoors or pc backdoors.

There will always be backdoors, usually it takes user action to allow it though. And Apple is fast to respond to any backdoor with updates. If tou know how, you can test/fix the backdoors yourself.

Linux is maybe even more secure, but you have to know what you're doing and it's not user-friendly (althoigh things are getting better).

Overall, nothing is 100% secure unless you design it youself and noone can penetration test it. But Apple's OSs are as close as you can get.

Most smartphones have had this ability for a few years. Not that it makes anyone feel better.

Yup. They've been able to turn on your mic at any time for a looooooooooong time now.

so I'm talking irl to someone.. ikr

and I'm talking about making an outline/ catalogue of concept bands

and the next time i go to FB, my timeline is flooded with sponsored links for concept bands

another time, irl my so says we need laundry soap, and the next youtube video that i load has an coupon for the brand of laundry soap we use

another time I'm talking irl about the JB Hunt trucking company, and how the founder was just a trucker who had the brilliant idea of hauling freight both ways, instead of returning home with an empty trailer.

within 24 hours, JB Hunt is following me on twitter. not a follow-back, i had never followed them or tweet about them

another time, there is the noise of cigarette lighter in the background, and twitter helpfully suggests that i follow Zippo lighters.

we need to create some sort of background noise generator that just spouts off random words and noises. probably wouldn't take long for them to find a work-around

we need to create some sort of background noise generator that just spouts off random words and noises. probably wouldn't take long for them to find a work-around

All you've got to do is spastically talk to yourself about completely random things on a consistent basis.

we could call our app tourette

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourette_syndrome

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And now all my ads are for interracial porno

Surely you could write an app that hijacks the "microphone" feed and inserts random audio prior to it being processed by the system? Might need a rooted phone, but it should be possible.

Or just not carry a cellphone? People accuse me of being a Luddite, I am not, been a programmer for nearly three decades. Just am not going to pay to be spied on. Also live a really nice full life without being connected all the time.

Or carry it in a Faraday Pouch and only let it out when needed.

How would you receive calls?

Get a pager

Everyone looks at me like I'm literally crazy when I tell them I don't have a mobile/cell. "But what happens if you need to make a call in an emergency?" they ask. Well, I've never needed to but if I did...everyone else has a mobile phone, so I'd just ask if I could use theirs. And if I can casually drop in words like "bomb", "gun" and "ISIS" into the following phone conversation, so much the better ;)

I'm trying to help move a generation of musicians over from proprietary hardware and software over to Free Software Foundation approved stuff

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation

Facebook is awful with that type of stuff, sketchy ass company, delete their app if you still have it

i've noticed that since i uninstalled the facebook app, i've received far fewer targeted ads, especially of the type you described.

Since the 90s at least, when the fbi busted a mafia guy by doing that

I doubt they would ever let us have mobile phones without being able to connect with them.

Do "dumb" cell phones (like flip phones) have the ability to do this?

Yes they do.

Worst part is people give it the permissions to do so. Thats Why the phones are so locked down with locked bootloaders. Rooted phone can spoof data. And flat out deny permissions

What was It? 4 years ago??? When the story of why the FBI director kept black tape on his laptops camera and Mic came around. Been happening for a while now folks

I used to work with one of those "well if you got nothing to hide" pompous asses. He was later fired for banging his secretary. ..I guess Mr. Nothing to hide was hiding something after all. :p

This seems like it has nothing to do with anything..

Secrets=leverage=power. privacy is a commodity...he didn't see that Until It Bit Him In The Arse.

Im talking about the post. Your response doesnt seem relevant

No - and in the interest of saving our country and our individual freedoms we need to STOP USING THIS STUFF. DON'T BUY IT! We can stop this, but not if we're unwilling to to give up the "comforts" leading us to our own slaughter.

there are several companies listed in this comments to this post. lets make a list of all the companies that use unwanted listening to try and sell us stuff, and organize a boycott of them all, and let everyone know why they are boycotting.

this could have a significant effect on the FB business model. i hope FB shareholders are listening

Wish I could give you unlimited up-votes on this. Could you start organizing? I'd love to see everyone get off FB in particular. And get rid of anything "smart" - it is making us "dumb."

Meanwhile you willing carry around a portable listening and tracking device

Is there a better option?

Don't use a mobile phone.

(Roll your own)[http://www.instructables.com/id/ArduinoPhone/]

Actually, no, I don't.

I don't. Haven't in a few years.

My mother got me the Amazon Alexa thing for Christmas. I had to really kindly decline because I didn't want it in my house. So now she uses it and I'm the running joke of the family. "Oh, don't talk around the Alexa, the government might get you." That's fine.

ugh same here. My SO's father got him the Google Home for Christmas. I didn't want it in our house, but there it is, listening. And you can't turn it off, you can just "mute" it. So I unplug it unless we need it for something, like we wanna put on music

You can't turn it off? shudders

no, you can't turn it off. I wanted to return it to Best Buy, but SO felt very guilty about it because his father was really excited about the gift and wanted him to have it. He's very into the IoT and "techy" gifts like that and SO didn't want to make it awkward if Dad came over and saw it not in use.

I know, it's a ridiculous story and we're putting SO's relationship with Dad over our security. I wish it wasn't like this. I think we're going to be seeing a lot more twisting of social expectations and issues of guilt and shame around not using certain technologies in the next decade. I've seen people get upset and feel personally offended when a loved one doesn't carry a cell phone, saying things like "how can I know you're okay?"

Yikes that's a good point. I never thought about that. I understand where your SO is coming from though. I've had family members say those kinds of things to me. I've actually used the cell phone line on my own mother. Wow, you've given me a lot to think about.

We need more people like you! I get a little of that too from family - but we have to keep pushing this.

Yeah, I've been "cautious" and asked a lot of questions for years now. Honestly though it's better than ever. I'm going back to school to finish a degree and in my network diagnostics class we had a rousing debate about how the government is spying through all of our devices. A man actually randomly brought up Seth Rich and said he was murdered, which shocked me about to death. I think society is beginning to be a lot more "woke" than people realize.

Don't forget your ADT (or whatever) home monitoring system. Eyes and ears everywhere.

Yeah. You're the only one. The only one in the world.

So is your smart phone.

I taped over my cameras after I noticed all semiconductor and software engineers do the same.

all semiconductor and software engineers

And Zuck.

Fix your mic as well by plugging in a microphone cord and severing the other end.

Doesn't have to be for the nsa. Can you imagine the insider trading/industrial espionage opportunities from all the cell phones recording in pockets now? Everything including windows 10 laptops has an always on voice assistant. Google and MS and Amazon are happily mining the shit out of all that data.

Get a Nintendo.

or just build a pc and not use windows 10

Can't say if they're listening devices for any specific reason, however, I don't believe they only record things when you speak to them. I have a friend who said they have Alexa (not sure which specific device) and she and her brother were in a room in their home talking, Alexa being in a completely different room. Supposedly, her brother was saying he had suicidal thoughts, and Alexa decided to speak up and say, "Don't do that! Here's a suicide hotline number and website for you." Neither of them adressed Alexa or were even in the same room speaking near her.

While suggesting suicide hotlines can be helpful, there has to be a reason why she is listening at all times, and I don't know how good those intentions are.

Well it has to be listening all the time right? Otherwise it wouldn't be able to hear when you wake it up. I think it's kind of neat that it tries to make you not kill yourself, but I still see no point in owning one.

Yes and no. It has to be listening all the time to here it's startup cue i.e "Hey Alexa!", but I don't thinking it should be recordings your conversations and responding to you at any given time especially when you're in a different room. I've never really wanted to own one, I wouldn't use it. Just seems a bit invasive to me. I agree that it was kind (?) of Alexa to try and prevent an attempted suicide. Still invasive though.

To add to this a little bit, the reason for this is that the onboard processor can handle the limited signal processing to recognize the startup cue, as it's not a very computationally complex problem, but it couldn't possibly run the content-aware processing needed to figure out what you're asking. So, at least how these devices are promoted, they only listen locally for the cue, and once the cue is given, send the following audio over the network to be processed by Amazon's server.

By many accounts though, including this one, it's sending much more audio data than that.

Yes, exactly! Not that I would ever want one, but knowing that they listen and record more than advertised, I'm not sure I would buy one. Would also have an irrational fear that I would be asleep in the middle of the night and it would start talking to something/someone lol.

Am I the only one

This conspiracy was beat to death when the echo was released.

Umbra

There was a news story about a court trying to subpoena one of those Amazon thingamajigs.

Not even Orwell would imagine proles gushing over the capabilities of the latest Telescreen^(C)1984 and an actual competition among manufacturers.

Huxley did though.

CIA

You're probably not the only concerned one. Are you concerned enough about government spying to :- A) Not own any of those devices or any other 'smart' device capable of recording you. B) Not own a smartphone, C) not have a facebook or other social media account containing any personal information/pictures/videos of yourself, D) not ever use your real name except in business transactions online and E) Never browse without a VPN+Noscript except when it's absolutely necessary. I do all of those things, but if the NSA really wanted to listen to every word I ever said or wrote, I have no doubt they probably could. Privacy is dead now, just be careful what you say and who you say it to.

aaaand all of your smart tv's

I'm I the only one who keeps hearing about this concern from even the most non conspiracy minded people? Am I the only one who doesn't see any value or usefulness​ any any of those products? Stop buying them if they creep you out.

so don't buy it

i didn't

So is the Notes app on your phone

You forgot about your smartphone

So, I'm standing there chopping veg for dinner, and the Echo turns itself on and starts playing music. Like Marvin Gaye or something - sexytime-mood music. Startled the living shit out of me. Annoyed, I say "Echo, stop." Back to chopping veg...

A couple of minutes later, same thing, only louder... This time Rihanna's got Love on the Brain, loudly and unexpectedly. I'm startled again, but I ship Ri, so I'm not turning it off. Let it play, sing along, ok it's over, "Echo, stop."

I gotta get dinner made. Focus. So this goes on for about 15 minutes until I unplug the fucking thing. Why is my Echo trying to put me in the mood while I'm chopping broccoli? Is someone at the CIA bored and fucking with a housewife? I wonder as I finish up dinner...

Turns out the Echo has an app that you can download to control the device remotely (you know, of course it does). Husband found said app and thought he'd commence wooing during his commute by jump-scaring me with Barry White. "Hey, Baby!"

That is hilarious!

Listening to pandora and I start reading your comment as the next song loads. Song comes on, boom. Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye. Like, what the fuck... Coincidence? I dunno what to believe anymore.

Man, that's weird. Pandora in particular creeps me out with its occasional synchronicities. Seems so...intentional sometimes.

Wife bought an echo. Thing turns on all the time trying to listen. Used to not go on as often now turns on at the oddest times.

Smart tv's as well

Then those guys got an earfull last night cause momma got loud.

They are. Don't forget xfinity voice remote

No you're not, which is why you won't find any of those in my proximity. People who buy these and bring them into their home are not thinking clearly.

Nope, your definitely not the only one. If I had to bet I'd say they are all connected directly to the NSA as well as your phone.

Inverted totalitarianism....we are paying for our own enslavement.

So are any televisions, microwaves or refrigerators purchased after 2015.

But remember that the average human's IQ is approximately 100. They really don't think about stuff like this and probably wouldn't know what to do if you told them.

This is why I don't have any of those in my house or those stupid smart thermostats. Fuck that stuff.

This is why my Xbox has no Kinect and I don't have a webcam. The shit they can do remotely with my cell phone is bad enough. And I work in the military intelligence community.

Dish is also going to be installing Alexa into their devices. Had a guy try to sell me the service, and the price wasn't bad, but as soon as he mentioned that, I was out.

https://www.dish.com/alexa-integration/

DISH Hopper receivers integrate with Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, or Amazon Tap.

I remember actually reading an xbox live update "agreement" back in 2011 and it stating the kinect can be on without the xbox actually being on and they can share whatever they want with law enforcement essentially.

Needless to say, I contemplated this for 2 whole hours before consenting and getting back to Halo Reach.

They are already listening through your phone and looking at you through the camera. Its 1984 man.

Time to break out the ZX Spectrum.

Worry no more, they are.

And every smart phone, lap top, computer, and smart TV

The only way out is open source hardware / software and abandoning our corporate overlords.

Why would anyone PAY for such a device?

I use a smartphone. They way I hold it in my hand places my pinky right over the speaker. I feel vibrations in my pinky all the time. I'm usually just reading on my phone and not really talking but my children play and make noise. I feel like the vibrations I feel are the speaker turning on. Could that be? Is there a way to stop this? I guess it could really be anything but it's coming directly from the speaker. I thought it was just my silly conspiracy mind at first. On another note, once I found my kids yelling at the Kinect to " stop listening" I immediately unplugged it. My SO will let the kids still play occasionally on the Kinect. But I am against it fully and just want that thing in the garbage.

Best are the people that buy those devices. I mean yeah sure i am going to pay for the bugs myself...

You are not the only one concerned. I refuse to have any intelligent device in my house. Although, we all have to remember cell phones do more than these devices.

Is this a real question?

Did the MSM do that good a job of burying the wikileaks vault 7 release?

Yes, these things do what you think they do.

My question is am I feeling it turn on and off??

You are not the only one who won't buy into this shit tech. It used to be that the NSA could go "open switchook" on a land line phone, basically listen undetected to anyone with a phone and extensions.

Eventually, as cell phones became prevalent, people started dropping their land lines. As long as they can listen on that cell, they don't need the landline because people are stupid enough to carry it everywhere. However, now there are "holes" in the system, TV's and other devices have been remotely activated, even reading vibrations off of glass, but alas, still "holes" in a seamless surveillance grid.

These handy microphones address that. Internet Protocol "IP" has been a godsend to spies and nosey functionaries and cops with low arrest numbers, or gung ho assholes looking for recognition and advancement, if only to be better at smashing your face with a size 12 Vibram sole. Go Team America!

So when you cut the jack off headphones and put it in your laptop to keep the mic muted, would it work the same to do this with your cell phone? Of course if it does you would just have a cut mic jack sticking out of your phone all the time

I also like the fact that most all cell phones no longer have a removable battery. I don't remember if iPhone's ever did but I know for sure Samsung phones did. What could be the purpose of this other than the fact that they don't want it to be easy for you to remove the battery. Because who knows if the device ever truly powers off when you turn it off.

just look at the decription on apples website. It maps the room with sonar and can hear your voice even when the music is loud...

Heck, wireless routers or access points are being used to monitor breathing for patients in hospitals, it's more accurate than the old monitors. They sell baby monitors that use it to monitor baby's breathing. So it's not just stuff listening, they can image the inside of your home if you have the right device or router firmware. A lot of people say they don't care. Coupled with the fact that the average American commits like three felonies a day due to our bloated legal system, imagine the possibilities. Anger the wrong person and those accidental felonies get noticed. Later your neighbors will tell the news reporters that they are shocked because you always seemed so nice. ;)

Hey hit me with your best conspiracy. Ex employee have friends on site still and can verify anything you say with them or myself AMA

Its enough for a start. Details and such could be altered with actual user input.

At least so I imagine would it work

or just build a pc and not use windows 10

Secrets=leverage=power. privacy is a commodity...he didn't see that Until It Bit Him In The Arse.