The Internet of Things

[RonBoyd]

For the paranoid amongst us... and if you are not maybe you should be.

I’m Terrified of My New TV: Why I’m Scared to Turn This Thing On — And You’d Be, Too

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The amount of data this thing collects is staggering. It logs where, when, how, and for how long you use the TV. It sets tracking cookies and beacons designed to detect “when you have viewed particular content or a particular email message.” It records “the apps you use, the websites you visit, and how you interact with content.” It ignores “do-not-track” requests as a considered matter of policy.

It also has a built-in camera — with facial recognition. The purpose is to provide “gesture control” for the TV and enable you to log in to a personalized account using your face. On the upside, the images are saved on the TV instead of uploaded to a corporate server. On the downside, the Internet connection makes the whole TV vulnerable to hackers who have demonstrated the ability to take complete control of the machine.

More troubling is the microphone. The TV boasts a “voice recognition” feature that allows viewers to control the screen with voice commands. But the service comes with a rather ominous warning: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.” Got that? Don’t say personal or sensitive stuff in front of the TV.

 

[ls99]

A shotgun should take care of that nosy beast. Followed by a trip to the recycling center.

Or take a 1/4" drill and enlarge the microphone hole a bit in diameter and depth, then apply some putty. That will take care of the conversation privacy: )) Ditto for the camera.

Then go ut and buy plain old used tv, if you must have one.

 

[donheff]

Go for the cheaper TV without all of these features.

 

[RonBoyd]

Go for the cheaper TV without all of these features.

From One lawyer may have just killed part of the Internet of Things:

He did not name the brand, but both LG and Samsung are known for this kind of intrusiveness. In both cases, you have the option of disabling all this data collection, but you lose all the Smart TV features, some of which are pretty nice. (my emphasis)

Price comes to a devastating conclusion, which I agree with.

"Indeed, as the 'Internet of Things' matures, household appliances and physical objects will become more networked. Your ceiling lights, thermostat, and washing machine — even your socks — may be wired to interact online. The FBI will not have to bug your living room; you will do it yourself."​

 

[prototype]

No TV's/cable boxes, cell phones, computers (or any other "smart" devices) are allowed in our bedroom.

 

[calmloki]

No TV's/cable boxes, cell phones, computers (or any other "smart" devices) are allowed in our bedroom.

Just mirrors and a super eight camera, like god intended.

 

[bld999]

I do wifi sweeps with my phone to find a free data connection occaisionally and see both household thermostats and copy machines proudly broadcasting
with no password needed. They are likely unconnected dead ends now, but maybe not in the near future.

 

[calmloki]

Aaaand just ran across this review on a smart thermostat. Advantages and disadvantages to internet enabled things...

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3IMEY...e=UTF8&ASIN=B00FLZEQH2&nodeID=228013&store=hi

 

[bld999]

Next might be 500 copies of the electric bill that was left in the copier.

 

[marko]

Raise your hand if you think you have any privacy AT ALL with or without this TV.

Everyone here is a regular poster on the internet!

 

[sengsational]

Raise your hand if you think you have any privacy AT ALL with or without this TV.

Everyone here is a regular poster on the internet!

Yeah, but the words I write here can be part of my intentional crafting of my public persona (I'm really a 16 year old girl, but everyone here thinks I'm a 55 year old man). I don't think you'd be able to make that substitution with a TV that's doing audio and video recordings of you.

 

[marko]

Yeah, but the words I write here can be part of my intentional crafting of my public persona (I'm really a 16 year old girl, but everyone here thinks I'm a 55 year old man). I don't think you'd be able to make that substitution with a TV that's doing audio and video recordings of you.

Good point, but many here on this forum can be quite detailed on their lives and over time one can infer a lot about them.

After a few years here, I bet I "know" a lot about the regulars (and they about me) perhaps more than their own neighbors.

 

[W2R]

Oh Brave New World!

Times are changing, that's for sure. It seems like everything I own is connected to the internet through my wireless network. As a mental exercise, I tried to imagine what my life would be like with no internet and it is pretty sobering. Soon almost all of my devices will be internet connected, at the rate things are going. My video game console is. Even the washer I was salivating over online, is internet connected.

I wonder if younger folks, like Millenials for example, even understand privacy and why we value it so. They have grown up in a different world.

 

[M Paquette]

Security on the internal camera and microphone is pretty weak on these devices. There are some neat hacks available to take over the camera. This was demonstrated at the 2013 Black Hat conference using a Samsung set. Samsung patched one exploit in their 2012 sets, but the Java code in the set that controls these features is, well, Java.

A Samsung spokeman suggests that you can "unplug the TV from the home network when the Smart TV features are not in use." Samsung also recommends that customers use encrypted wireless access points. Durp durp.

 

[JoeWras]

Yeah, but the words I write here can be part of my intentional crafting of my public persona (I'm really a 16 year old girl, but everyone here thinks I'm a 55 year old man). I don't think you'd be able to make that substitution with a TV that's doing audio and video recordings of you.

I thought you were Jerry Garcia.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Yeah, but the words I write here can be part of my intentional crafting of my public persona (I'm really a 16 year old girl, but everyone here thinks I'm a 55 year old man). I don't think you'd be able to make that substitution with a TV that's doing audio and video recordings of you.

You've got it backwards. I think on the internet its more typical for the 55 YO man to impersonate being the 16 YO girl.

 

[braumeister]

Woof!

 

[MRG]

Orwell would be proud.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[marko]

Orwell would be proud.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

Certain countries used to pay good money to know who you hung out with, what you believed, what church you went to, your associations, your political leanings and so on.

Now people give that away for free.

 

[Car-Guy]

Security on the internal camera and microphone is pretty weak on these devices. There are some neat hacks available to take over the camera. This was demonstrated at the 2013 Black Hat conference using a Samsung set. Samsung patched one exploit in their 2012 sets, but the Java code in the set that controls these features is, well, Java.

A Samsung spokeman suggests that you can "unplug the TV from the home network when the Smart TV features are not in use." Samsung also recommends that customers use encrypted wireless access points. Durp durp.

I've been to BlackHat and Defcon several times and seen things done with Information Technology that I would not have believed to be "reasonably possible" if I hadn't seen it demonstrated.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Yeah, but the words I write here can be part of my intentional crafting of my public persona (I'm really a 16 year old girl, but everyone here thinks I'm a 55 year old man). I don't think you'd be able to make that substitution with a TV that's doing audio and video recordings of you.

Perhaps, but I can promise that data is being collected from this site, other sites you're on, emails, searches, they are all going to be connected. It won't be too long that the public (you know google can do it now) will be able to search your username and it will just connect all the dots. It's going to happen...no doubt about it. The ONLY way to stay 100% anonymous on the internet is to stay off of it 100% of the time.

Sent from my mobile device so please excuse grammatical errors.

 

[Totoro]

I wonder if younger folks, like Millenials for example, even understand privacy and why we value it so. They have grown up in a different world.

Mostly those born after 2000 seem to have a very different experience. I'm a borderline 'millenial', highly value my privacy. Others not so much. It doesn't seem to differ much from my parents. E.g. Mom doesn't care about privacy ("I have nothing to hide"), Dad is paranoia (removed the house from google street view for example).

It is harder for young ones to escape parental and government supervision though, but many (most?) actually welcome that: help is just a click away. Sacrificing liberty for safety (sound familiar ).

My grandfather apparently redid his first year at university without his parents knowing. The current kids can't jaywalk without a text message arriving at their parents.

What I think will happen is that the rebels and privacy-lovers of previous generations will still be there in new generations, they'll just navigate the waters differently and there will be fewer of them. Hopefully those few are enough to protect us all.

Alternatively that group might go increasingly to the outer fringes of society. Out of the cities, out of internet sight, away from the banking system etc ..

Or they will self-organize and establish new rules in their own community, or move to other communities. The EU for example (certainly Germany) is much more aware of what privacy is worth then the US it seems (on a macro-level). Much of that has to do with the secret police experiences of the 1980s in eastern Europe (Stasi for example).

 

[RonBoyd]

A somewhat more positive article:

'Smart' living gets real as connectivity rates rise | AFP.com

Developers at the Dublin Web Summit, one of Europe's biggest technology conferences, said interlinkage between people, their homes and their devices were opening up new frontiers.

One of the focus areas at the Web Summit was on how people, objects and devices can become connected in what the tech industry is calling the "Internet of Things".

"We're trying to connect 99 percent of things, not only physical things such as street lights but people and even animals to transform lives and improve businesses," Wei Zou, technical marketing engineer with Cisco, told AFP.

On a larger scale, Cisco hopes the growth in connectivity will improve medical care by developing systems for hospitals, such as allowing paramedics to feed patient information back automatically while an ambulance is in transit, so hospitals can be prepared.

It also hopes to reduce the demand for resources by allowing patients to connect with doctors remotely. "Some people with medical conditions do not need to go to the hospital, they can use digital media to provide the doctors with diagnostics remotely and automatically," Zou said.

 

[calmloki]

So here's a website with streaming video from people who just leave default passwords in place on their cameras.

A creepy website is streaming from 73,000 cameras; some in the bedroom - Neowin
Creepy website referenced:
Watch surveillance online IP cameras in Linksys

 

[Chuckanut]

I've heard that some of these fancy new light bulbs that change color using a wifi connection to an app or computer have very poor security protocols and are a potential way into a system.