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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.
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...
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!
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.
Except now people actually go out and pay for the gear used to spy on them....