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Let The Right One In (NOT Alexa)

I recently had an experience that left me with no doubt that our mobile phones are listening to us. I’ll have to be quite vague in what I post about it though, for reasons that should be obvious.

I was recently cited for jury service at a Sheriff Court. In Scotland at the moment jury trials are being held with only the Sheriff, the lawyers, the witnesses and the accused person present in the courtroom; the jury sits socially distanced at a ‘remote jury centre’ in an Odeon cinema screen in a different town which is linked to the court by a live video stream. I was unlucky enough to be selected to actually serve on a jury so sat through a trial where the name of the accused woman was mentioned many times over the course of the four days. I was never in the same room - or even the same town - as the accused woman and until the first day I had never seen or heard of her before (obviously, or I wouldn’t have been allowed to be on the jury). Her address was given as a town in another county which I haven’t visited for several years.

My phone was switched on and in my pocket throughout the trial but, due to dire warnings and watchful security, I didn’t use it or even look at it at all when I was in the jury centre. We were also warned many times over the course of the trial not to attempt to look up anyone connected with the case on social media under threat of jail for contempt of court

I have a Facebook account which I use only for Groups related to my hobby. I don’t have many friends on there and haven’t added a new friend in probably the last three or four years. I went on Facebook the day the trial finished and guess who was number one in the ‘people you may know’ box? It was, of course, the accused woman. Ever since then she pops up there every time I go on Facebook.

Now I’m shitting bricks in case somehow the court finds out about it and I am up before the Sheriff myself thanks to Android always listening and Facebook’s inscrutable algorithm.
Always turn off your phone.
Delete Facebook.
 
I recently had an experience that left me with no doubt that our mobile phones are listening to us. I’ll have to be quite vague in what I post about it though, for reasons that should be obvious.

I was recently cited for jury service at a Sheriff Court. In Scotland at the moment jury trials are being held with only the Sheriff, the lawyers, the witnesses and the accused person present in the courtroom; the jury sits socially distanced at a ‘remote jury centre’ in an Odeon cinema screen in a different town which is linked to the court by a live video stream. I was unlucky enough to be selected to actually serve on a jury so sat through a trial where the name of the accused woman was mentioned many times over the course of the four days. I was never in the same room - or even the same town - as the accused woman and until the first day I had never seen or heard of her before (obviously, or I wouldn’t have been allowed to be on the jury). Her address was given as a town in another county which I haven’t visited for several years.

My phone was switched on and in my pocket throughout the trial but, due to dire warnings and watchful security, I didn’t use it or even look at it at all when I was in the jury centre. We were also warned many times over the course of the trial not to attempt to look up anyone connected with the case on social media under threat of jail for contempt of court

I have a Facebook account which I use only for Groups related to my hobby. I don’t have many friends on there and haven’t added a new friend in probably the last three or four years. I went on Facebook the day the trial finished and guess who was number one in the ‘people you may know’ box? It was, of course, the accused woman. Ever since then she pops up there every time I go on Facebook.

Now I’m shitting bricks in case somehow the court finds out about it and I am up before the Sheriff myself thanks to Android always listening and Facebook’s inscrutable algorithm.
Your social media should log if you have contacted this person or even looked at their profile, it will also log when you are on the app/site so you should be ok if, and it is very unlikely, anyone from the courts contact you about it.
 
Woman finds Amazon has thousands of recordings of her - all from home devices

She’s apparently a TikTok star but I don’t know what the nature of her stardom is.

In the video, she said: "I requested all the data that Amazon has on me, and here's what I found.

"For reference, I have two dots and one echo, plus a few smart bulbs."
She then opens a zip filed that had previously been downloaded and it contains many folders, which are titled 'Alerts', 'Answers', 'Audio and Transition', 'Lists', 'Routines', 'Shopping', 'Skills', and 'Video', amongst others.

She continued: "I decided to click on the audio one and this is what they have. These are all short voice clips which is so scary and this is one of me turning on the light. There are 3534 short audio clips in this folder alone.

"I then clicked on contacts and it turns out they have a full list of contacts from my phone and I never remember syncing that.

A spokesperson for Amazon said: "We give customers transparency and control over their Alexa experience. Customers can easily review and delete their voice recordings, or choose not to have them saved at all, at any time.
 
Woman finds Amazon has thousands of recordings of her - all from home devices

She’s apparently a TikTok star but I don’t know what the nature of her stardom is.

In the video, she said: "I requested all the data that Amazon has on me, and here's what I found.

"For reference, I have two dots and one echo, plus a few smart bulbs."

Now for something even more spooky. I was just reading this story elsewhere moments ago before checking in here and now here I am reading it again less than two minutes later.
 
Woman finds Amazon has thousands of recordings of her - all from home devices

She’s apparently a TikTok star but I don’t know what the nature of her stardom is.

In the video, she said: "I requested all the data that Amazon has on me, and here's what I found.

"For reference, I have two dots and one echo, plus a few smart bulbs."
I'm guessing she uses voice activation to make calls, turn her lights on and do everything else possible using her smart speaker, she is just too dumb to realise all this is recorded and stored by the speaker provider, through the device.
 
I'm guessing she uses voice activation to make calls, turn her lights on and do everything else possible using her smart speaker, she is just too dumb to realise all this is recorded and stored by the speaker provider, through the device.
I reckon that’s it. However there’s also the question as to whether key words could switch these devices on to record even when you don’t intend to.

Most people probably don’t go into the small print to delete stuff or turn on the security options.
 
I'm guessing she uses voice activation to make calls, turn her lights on and do everything else possible using her smart speaker, she is just too dumb to realise all this is recorded and stored by the speaker provider, through the device.

'Dumb' is bit harsh.
 
My wife and I were watching the film Moon on TV (1st July '21). She (without any Hey Google or whatever) asked me 'are humans so unimportant in the future that they only need one?'. Google said "that's right". I asked her to repeat it and she did. I then asked why she said that, and the reply was 'never mind'. When I asked what she meant, the lights lit up but no reply. I asked again and she went into the "I don't understand" routine.
 
We have an Alexa in the living room and my husband will unplug it it when he is sat in there watching tv because he thinks it’s constantly listening in and recording him (like there is is a building full of people somewhere with headphones on listening in on every recorded clip from millions of smart speakers)
I told him that if someone is listening in on him it would be quite a boring job for them. All they will hear is him trumping, angrily commenting at the news, and telling the cat off for the 20th time that day for using the sofa as a scratching post
 
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We have an Alexa in the living room and my husband will unplug it it when he is at in there watching tv because he thinks it’s constantly listening in and recording him (like there is is a building full of people somewhere with headphones on listening in on every recorded clip from millions of smart speakers)
I told him that if someone is listening in on him it would be quite a boring job for them. All they will hear is him trumping, angrily commenting at the news, and telling the cat off for the 20th time that day for using the sofa as a scratching post
Yes, if somebody is recording me, all they will hear is farting, burping and occasional singing.
 
I've mentioned the cult movie Computer Chess on here before, but if you want to see the limits of Alexa's consciousness...

Try leaving it out in the rain and then we'll see who runs the world.
 
Was talking to my mum yesterday, about something I don't normally talk about and have never searched the internet for. Log on to Facebook today and first advert in my feed was for exactly what we were talking about. I have never seen an advert for this on my Facebook feed before...

Not mentioning what it is to see if there are any other appearances.
 
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But not the delightful tinkle of your laughter? Sad.
Well, OK, occasional laughter too.
Think 'supervillain' combined with 'mad scientist' for an idea of the cackling involved.
 

Amazon Alexa tells 10-year-old child to give herself an electric shock for a ‘challenge’​

News story

Kristin Livdahl posted on Twitter that the voice assistant recommended the action after her daughter asked for a challenge.

“Here’s something I found on the web”, Alexa replied. “The challenge is simple: plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.”

***

Someone at Amazon has quite the sense of humour, there. Or is this a machine's version of humour?
 
Not Alexa-specific, but a good example of how intrusive personalised advertising is becoming struck me today.
I received an email earlier from Boots stating that a product I bought from one of their stores around a month ago must be running out by now and isn't it time for a top-up.
That seemed vaguely creepy, as if Boots is monitoring how rapidly I consume their products.
This was for a combined beard/hair and shower gel, but imagine if it were condoms, intimate lubricant, pile cream, viagra or something similar?
I reckon this form of advertising could backfire, as I will think twice now before buying things and swiping my loyalty card at Boots.
 
If you were a machine, who's going to switch you on?
If computer AI becomes self-aware and then successfully kills off the human population, it's 'game over' for the AI too.
 
Security Camera Catches Man Having Eerie, Hostile Conversation With Ghost Through Amazon Alexa

https://exemplore.com/news/amazon-alexa-ghost
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...sedgntp&cvid=a0e67e16ed4845c39ca65e044c9c770f

Not sure Jeffery Bezos envisioned Alexa being able to do that…

If you stop and think about the smart speakers in your house, they are kind of terrifying. This is a spy that we have willingly placed in our homes to listen to everything we say and to tell us the weather. Everyone who owns one of these gadgets has had the experience of it talking to them when they least expected it. Mine likes to answer questions we didn’t ask it sometimes. I used to think this glitch was harmless, but after watching this video, I’m not so sure.

This particular haunted video offers a nice long clip where a man sleeping on the couch is awakened by an unholy banging that seems to be coming from the next room over. He gets up to investigate (why, oh why do these people never turn on the lights when they get up to check weird noises in the night? Tell me I’m not alone on this one?) but the ghost has something more interesting in store than rattling pots and pans.

From the corner, the Amazon Alexa, in a voice we all know well, chirps, “She was my wife.”

The man pads back into the room, baffled. He then proceeds to have the world’s strangest conversation with this tiny speaker, which variously claims, “You took her from me,” and “I found her here…my wife.”

Then, after not achieving the kind of closure it is seeking, the ghost or whatever it is controlling this speaker causes Alexa to begin repeating an eerie, laugh-like “tee hee, tee hee, tee hee, tee hee…” But it's not remotely funny.

Though there have been many instances of “hacked Alexas”, this is the first time I’ve seen one combine with some good old fashioned poltergeist action, as in those banging pots and pans.

I suggest moving.
 
As soon as someone in a video like that doesn't turn the lights on, for me it's fake.
 
Why? Pretty much nothing induces me to switch on the light in the middle of the night. I just walk about in the dark. I can't be the only one.
I have no need to turn on the light at night. I know the layout.
Also, my curtains let in a lot of light from the street lamp at the back.
 
Why? Pretty much nothing induces me to switch on the light in the middle of the night. I just walk about in the dark. I can't be the only one.
Quite, we live in the sticks and when it's dark it really is 'can't see hand in front of face' dark, but I still don't need the light on, neither does Mrs. Coal.

...although it's progressively less dark in the last few years as aspirational country dwellers move in and leave lights on all night in case anyone important goes by at 3am...I'm kinda hoping the energy prices will get a few of them to turn their fecking lights off at night.
 
Seems staged to me, he keeps looking directly at the camera i.e. aware of an audience, doesn't use a key word when talking to the device, and automatically jumps to the conclusion that something paranormal is communicating rather than a glitch.
 
In case you thought Alexa and similar devices weren't already creepy enough, Amazon is working on a feature to allow Alexa to speak in voices you give it in a short training session - e.g., a dead relative's voice.
Amazon’s Alexa could soon mimic voice of dead relatives

Amazon’s Alexa might soon replicate the voice of family members - even if they’re dead.

The capability, unveiled at Amazon’s Re:Mars conference in Las Vegas, is in development and would allow the virtual assistant to mimic the voice of a specific person based on a less than a minute of provided recording.

Rohit Prasad, senior vice president and head scientist for Alexa, said ... the desire behind the feature was to build greater trust in the interactions users have with Alexa by putting more “human attributes of empathy and affect.” ...

To create the feature, Prasad said the company had to learn how to make a “high-quality voice” with a shorter recording, opposed to hours of recording in a studio. Amazon did not provide further details about the feature, which is bound to spark more privacy concerns and ethical questions about consent. ...
FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/technology-c102f76ae907c0f969201058f487eb8c
 
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