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6 votes
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'Siri, I'm getting pulled over': A new shortcut for iPhones can automatically record the police
17 votes -
Disinformation, ‘fake news’ and influence campaigns on Twitter
13 votes -
The Army may have found its next rifle in a Colorado garage
18 votes -
Why I’m Worried About Google - I used to trust some of its products, like Chrome. I increasingly don’t.
28 votes -
Raised by YouTube - The platform’s entertainment for children is weirder—and more globalized—than adults could have expected
11 votes -
How game design transformed Hillary for America's supporter engagement
2 votes -
Amazon eliminates monthly bonuses and stock grants after minimum wage increase
25 votes -
A directory of direct links to delete your account from web services
14 votes -
What does big data look like when cross-referenced?
Google knows a lot about its users. Facebook knows a lot about its users. FitBit knows a lot about its users. And so on. But what happens when these companies all sell their data sets to one...
Google knows a lot about its users. Facebook knows a lot about its users. FitBit knows a lot about its users. And so on.
But what happens when these companies all sell their data sets to one another? It'd be pretty trivial to link even anonymized users from set to set by looking for specific features. If I went for a run, Google tracked my location, FitBit tracked my heart rate, and Facebook tracked my status about my new best mile time, for example. Thus, Google can narrow down who I am in the other sets using pre-existing information that coincides with theirs. With enough overlap they can figure out exactly who I am fairly easily. Furthermore, each additional layer of data makes this discovery process from new data sets even easier, as it gives more opportunities to confirm or rule out concurrent info. So then when, say, Credit Karma, Comcast, and Amazon's data enter the fray, my online identity stops looking like an individual egg in each different basket but a whole lot of eggs in all in one. And they can do this across millions/billions of users--not just me!
I don't know for certain that this is a thing that happens, but... I have to assume it definitely is happening, right? How could it not? With how valuable data is and how loose protections are, this seems like a logical and potentially very lucrative step.
Right now, is there an aggregate version of "me" that exists in a data store somewhere that is a more comprehensive and accurate picture than my own self-image? After all, my memory and perception are imperfect and biased, but data stores aren't.
6 votes -
The Internet Archive fixes nine million broken links on Wikipedia
16 votes -
How the humble pocket calculator morphed into the smartphone
10 votes -
Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian has $225 million in fresh funding to back health and elder tech startups
9 votes -
Firefox Color V2 released
17 votes -
This blog has moved
25 votes -
OPPO Find X review: Are phones only about Style now? - LinusTechTips
9 votes -
A Critical Look at Sovereign Identity Startups
4 votes -
Data Factories
6 votes -
Concerning the iPhone XS' camera—from the makers of the Halide iPhone photography app
12 votes -
Voice phishing scams are getting more clever
19 votes -
Russian Wikipedia reaches 1,500,000 articles
15 votes -
Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla rebuffed as US Supreme Court rejects beach-access appeal
8 votes -
Reddit Experimenting with Community Points & Polls
17 votes -
Google announces "Project Stream", a test of streaming Assassin's Creed Odyssey through Chrome (signup available)
10 votes -
DuckDuckGo usage is growing fast
63 votes -
Trustworthy Chrome Extensions, by default
6 votes -
The history of shareware, as told by the people who were there
9 votes -
No cash needed at this cafe. Students pay the tab with their personal data.
31 votes -
How companies can use fake websites and backdated news articles to censor Google’s search results
7 votes -
Siri, Alexa, Google - Who's using and having good experiences with voice commands?
Hi there, Big companies are spending big money on allowing consumers to control everything from their TV, smart speakers, lights, microwaves, etc with voice commands. But do people really want...
Hi there,
Big companies are spending big money on allowing consumers to control everything from their TV, smart speakers, lights, microwaves, etc with voice commands. But do people really want that?
I'm curious because I very much do NOT want to interact with computers vocally. I find it's slow and prone to error, not unlike writing out long passages on a smartphone. It functions, but it's not a great experience and remains a novelty for me.
Bought both kids Echo Dots which is a smart speaker with Amazon's Alexa assistant. It's cool, really innovative. But after a couple weeks both remain unplugged in my kids' rooms - totally lost interest. The only person who I've seen really use a voice speaker is an elderly gentlemen for whom it was the easiest way to interact with a computer (using it specifically to play music and get news).
My friend swears that teens commonly use Siri on their phones to look up information. I can only think of one person I've seen actively use the voice controls and that was an older woman who wanted show her friends how Siri could "rap."
So I was curious how many of you find yourself frequently interacting with computers via voice commands. I personally feel very awkward and self-aware and get easily frustrated because it reminds me so much of the terrible automated attendants on 800 numbers.
Edit: You all are confirming my suspicions. Anyone under age 25 use the voice commands often? I feel like this is all just the first step in designing AI interfacing
28 votes -
Best free VPN provider for Android?
I was looking for a good, secure, free VPN provider app for Android. Are there any apps that fit this bill?
10 votes -
Justice Department sues to stop California net neutrality law
17 votes -
In test case, US fails to force Facebook to wiretap Messenger (voice) calls
9 votes -
Does a trustworthy VPN provide privacy? If so, how do you know if a VPN is trustworthy?
It's hard to get a straight answer on this because there are allegations of shilling everywhere when it comes to VPNs (particularly when you discuss specific providers). There's also this post...
It's hard to get a straight answer on this because there are allegations of shilling everywhere when it comes to VPNs (particularly when you discuss specific providers). There's also this post which gets linked pretty frequently and which seems to throw a wrench in the whole idea.
For context, I ask because I have two main concerns:
- I have been the subject of a mild internet stalking/doxing, and I have no wish to relive that experience.
- I live in the United States and, if I am understanding things correctly, my ISP now has the right to sell my browsing data without my consent.
I have no love for my ISP and am all about the idea of blocking them from gathering data about me, but it seems the only other option is to hand all of my data over to another company who simply promises not to do anything with it. While I'm sure some of them are legitimate, how can you tell the difference between a genuine privacy tool and a honeypot?
23 votes -
How do you store your bookmarks?
I'm curious what Tildes uses to organize and store their web bookmarks. Do you rely on your browser, or do you trust some proprietary service like Pocket? Maybe you have a self-hosted solution?
13 votes -
The government wants airlines to delay your flight so they can scan your face
15 votes -
iPhone iOS passcode bypass hack exposes contacts, photos
8 votes -
Facebook "View As" security issue affecting 50 million accounts: "attackers exploited" it to "steal Facebook access tokens" and "take over people’s accounts"
21 votes -
Love in the time of AI: meet the people falling for scripted robots
5 votes -
Reddit announces a "revamp" of quarantined subreddits, then quarantines multiple major subreddits
31 votes -
The real reason Google made Android
13 votes -
'Rank socialism': Facebook removes senator's official page over hate speech
8 votes -
China's Social Credit system: The first modern digital dictatorship
8 votes -
Google’s Eric Schmidt accidentally discovers labor unions
27 votes -
iPhone Xs max durability test
3 votes -
Shapix
2 votes -
Sorry Apple, but the sweet smell of 6S is enough for me
17 votes -
WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton gives the inside story on #DeleteFacebook and why he left $850 million behind
20 votes -
An interview with Eiiti Wada, inventor of the Happy Hacking keyboard
5 votes -
Chrome's new forced login policy is a violation of user privacy and trust
50 votes