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CES 2015: FTC Head Warns About Data Grabbed By Smart Gadgets
mpicpp sends this quote from the BBC: A "deeply personal" picture of every consumer could be grabbed by futuristic smart gadgets, the chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has warned. Speaking at CES, Edith Ramirez said a future full of smart gadgets that watch what we do posed a threat to privacy. The collated data could create a false impression if given to employers, universities or companies, she said. Ms Ramirez urged tech firms to make sure gadgets gathered the minimum data needed to fulfill their function (PDF). The internet of things (IoT), which will populate homes, cars and bodies with devices that use sophisticated sensors to monitor people, could easily build up a "deeply personal and startlingly complete picture" of a person's lifestyle, said Ms Ramirez."
Yet the people who share all their daily activities, without a care in the world for their privacy on Facebook, are safe.........
The "clueless" that use facebook like a diary will also be the "clueless" that use the hardware version. Always will be.
The collated data could create a false impression if given to employers, universities or companies
I used to work for a company that allowed their HR department to investigate candidates on Facebook. Nothing new.
These things always have had a privacy risk. The only way to win is to not even play.
I don't trust the companies who make these things ... neither to competently implement security, nor to adhere to any restrictions on what they collect.
Most apps already collect far more information than they fess up to.
So, I'm sorry, but me and my tinfoil hat will look at all of these devices (as well as the crap which is the 'smart' home) and just simply not buy them or use them.
As much as anything, they're about gathering analytics information for marketing ... everything else they do is of little value.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The collated data could create a false impression
could easily build up a "deeply personal and startlingly complete picture" of a person's lifestyle
Can both of those be true? I'd imagine corporations are going to work really hard to make sure they figure out the real you...
.
The tech firms will collect as much data as possible, and sell that data to their "partners".
I really don't understand why an ereader app needs to check phone call status, read text messages or activate the camera, but whatever, it's free!
In all seriousness before we worry about future smart gadgets, let's focus on the ones we already have. Android needs the functionality of "permissions denied" or similar apps built into the OS. Smart TVs should not be allowed to "anonymously" send information like the filenames of network files viewed on the tv...
Is there a way to disable these collections without disabling the car doing its basic function, driving? I saw something recently about the internet connected car. What if I don't WANT it connected to the internet, don't want it sending information off to God knows where?
Is it easy to disable? The other day I asked a dealer if you could get a Vette without OnStar as an option and he said no. That concerned me.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
The collated data could create a false impression if given to employers, universities or companies, she said.
What's far more worrying than that is giving people a true impression.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The only solution is to drive old cars that aren't infected with this shit.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
For a glimpse of where we're headed, I give you the Smart Pipe
I think it was on this very site the other day users were saying that the Nest devices were perfectly safe and to go put my tin foil hat back on.
Now the Chair of the USFTC comes out and says privacy is a concern with these devices, interesting.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
My watch is powered by a fucking SPRING.
It's simple: You hack the OnStar crap right out of the car. At the very least, you locate the antenna it's using for it's (presumably cellular network) wireless connection, and you cut or otherwise disconnect the cable, preferably grounding it as well, effectively disabling the entire system. If possible, the OnStar hardware itself will be a separate module; then even easier, you just disconnect the entire module. In fact if it were I, and I was spending that much money on a new car, I'd insist as part of the agreement to purchase the vehicle, that the dealer disconnect it, and prove to me that it's been done, or I don't buy the car. I'll bet you money that they'd do it with little or no argument, because they're more interested in making a sale. Just spent a few minutes with Google and apparently there are model-specific instructions for disabling/removing OnStar. Also, there's this: Don't buy a car if it has OnStar in the first place. Enough people do that, they'll stop offering it. Make it clear you're not buying a particular model because it's got OnStar installed by default.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
All this crap requiring a internet connection is crap. if it can not operate offline then it's junk and you need to avoid it. Net connection required for remote operation? fine, but to require it for any operation is a sign that it is designed by incompetent engineers.
Quirky and Wink for example are 100% junk as their stuff falls on it's face when your internet goes offline. If it can not operate on the local lan on it's own and requires remote processing then it is complete and utter garbage.
Do not buy garbage no matter how shiny it is.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Edith Ramirez said a future full of smart gadgets that watch what we do posed a threat to privacy
Edith im not sure if you've checked the news lately but we live in a country that routinely spies on every US and foreign citizen it can. Its a government that regularly hacks phones, spoofs carrier towers, and impersonates facebook users without their consent. We live in this land of, what some may call the free, where the very same companies that provide these nifty gizmos and gadgets are the ones complicit in taking these 'deeply personal' pictures and ferrying them away, sans warrant, to the government. its not like they can help it, because most are forbidden to tell us by the government. Its a government that insists hackers are people who use slashdot, root phones, and use encryption. theyre the ones who wrecklessly drove a mister Aaron Schwartz to suicide through relentless persecution. This country listens to all of our phonecalls, reads all of our email, and even copies all of our data at airports and over the wire. So for all your fearmongering I'll thank you to kindly step down from your high horse.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Allow it in your home, just be smart enough to thwart it. All my security cameras are the 1080p china units that send video back to china. It was trivial to eliminate that capability with a JTAG interface and then getting in to disable services. They just run an embedded linux.
The muggles that know nothing at all about tech, they are doomed.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Except now people actually go out and pay for the gear used to spy on them....
It's not connected to the internet, it makes a cellphone call to the manufacturer to send data.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The one that was banned for most of the world by the US government?
Don't tell your left hand what your right hand does.
Yeah. I'm less concerned (although still quite concerned) about them getting a "false impression". I'm much more concerned about them getting a true impression of things that are logically, ethically, or legally none of their business, and then taking actions based on those illogically, unethically or illegally-drawn conclusions.
Sounds like someone's been reading it: Industrial Society and Its Future (also called the "Unabomber Manifesto")
This is exactly why I dumped Quicken way back when they started requiring users to get online. Loved it as a stand alone app back in the day.
Just another day in Paradise
Gosh... if I didn't know that what the Government Wants To Do is Take Away My Freedoms, and that Capitalists Always Have My Best Interests At Heart, I might actually be tempted to see this as an example of governmental interest in my well-being in defiance of the profit motive. Good thing I know better, for of course this is nothing but the deepest duplicity, showing the extent to which Government will go to deceive the people about their real agenda. Also a good thing the federal government is now even more fully under the control of the anti-government party. True freedom is just around the corner!
Really people? Your lives are so fascinating that you need to keep the details away from the digital paparazzi? Mine sure isn't.
Here is my take on what is going on here. First, the government doesn't care. Have you heard about the huge number of people arrested for having pictures on Facebook showing drug use? No? Well that is because it's not a threat to the greater good and not worth the time and effort to prosecute. Not even a cursory email saying to clean up your act or we will send you a more strongly worded email. Many of us may have dissident thoughts but we don't do dissident acts and are mostly harmless. So that leaves the Big Business boogie man with a financial motive. In the beginning there was the trifecta of terror, the credit rating agencies. They, with their magical patented Fair Issac scoring formula, have claimed for years that those numbers offer a glimpse into a persons soul. And they basically market it as such even when the intended use is based more on correlation than causation. As evidence I present the recent use of credit scores by insurance companies. My credit score has never been affected by my driving history, so why should my car insurance rates be based on my credit score? In my case I was given the option of allowing it or not. Allowing it could have saved me as much as 3%!, or cost me more, in any case the amount did not benefit me enough to make it worth my while. Same with the followup offer to install their OBD digital spy.
There are a bunch of people who think they can make a fortune collecting other peoples data. Reality is that most of that data is mundane garbage that has very little value to it. Much like the millions and millions of credit card numbers that have been compromised. Collecting the information is easy, monetizing it is hard.
Average Intelligence is a Scary Thing
Allow it in your home, just be smart enough to thwart it.
The advice only works as long as it isn't taken.
As soon as enough people "got smart", they'd make it that much harder, and then it wouldn't be trivial to eliminate with a JTAG connector anymore it will as difficult as cracking a PS4... doable, eventually, maybe.
It starts small on people getting arrested :)
http://www.nbc-2.com/story/200...
It's easy to get people to adopt internet connected devices when for most people the internet is the only network they comprehend. People need education in the power capability and security of private networks. We are in an age where consumer devices don't respect security or privacy, the corporate interests pushing these devices are never going to be the ones to say that the user needs to have control over all incoming and outgoing information flows. We have accepted best practices for security in business environments, but I don't think we have any model for consumer devices and the IoT that regular people can look to for guidance on safe and sane deployment. Smart phones and wearables are a particular problem because while you can possibly put a firewall to filter outbound as well as inbound communications in your home we don't have a practical means for non-rooted devices to self impose any outbound security control. You can't even poison the hosts file on a non-rooted phone. Currently if you use their technology, you use it on their terms and users don't have the knowledge or control needed to provide for their own security.
It's fine if you can see customer reviews of the sales guy, but you have no need to know that he grunts on the can or that he attends a furry convention every June.
I'll bet you don't want the local 'creative entrepreneurs' to know exactly when you leave the house and when they can expect you home. I'm quite certain you don't want them to know your banking uid and pass.
First you say there's nothing that interesting about you, then you defeat your argument telling us about your insurance company wanting to snoop and how you prefer not.
TFA is talking about how too many devices don't give you that option. It's happening right now.
It doesn't matter that there's no correlation between sneezing while brushing and employability. If HR gets that kooky idea in their heads (kinda like thinking your fair issac score reflects your driving risk) and your iMirror reports that you have sneezed while brushing, stupid or not, you are screwed.