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  • Posted by $ DriveTrain 8 years, 9 months ago
    Samsung in particular has a bad reputation for allowing their "smart" TVs to be turned into de facto Telescreens by random hackers, NSA voyeur-pervs, etc. They've patched the infamous security hole that showed up on their sets a couple of years ago, but the potential is there with any device that has a camera - and cameras can be pinhole-tiny and undetectable these days.

    http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/08/06/i...

    Dismissing this concern as "technophobia" is a dodge and a bit of a straw man. Certainly, technology itself is morally neutral and the user - or hacker - confers evil on the way in which technology is used. But that does not dismiss the need to raise awareness of the growing danger of a complete obliteration of privacy. With a veritable avalanche of micro-technology, cameras, microphones and network connectivity being built into everything from televisions and computers down to light bulbs, electrical outlets and refrigerators, the task of closing one's windows, so to speak, is fast becoming a gargantuan one.

    Perhaps it's a visceral reaction, but I would really like to see a dramatic increase in the severity of legal punishment for all forms of electronic voyeurism, Identity theft, breach of privacy, hacking, the works.

    As for the NSA and other government security agencies, it's clear that some new, meticulous regulation of all activity by such agencies is needed. I'm talking about a complete overhaul of the legal framework for spying, with a heavy emphasis on both demonstration of probable cause and a streamlining of the approval/denial process - so as to protect the rights of the innocent without hamstringing national security. I'm not an expert in laws surrounding the intelligence community's activities, but what I've been seeing in the news over the last six-plus years is a virtual free-for-all, in which any government agency can do whatever the hell it pleases with regard to violating the privacy of American individuals, probable cause or not, depending mostly on the level of scumbaggery present in the Administration in charge of it.

    So what those of use out here in ProleVille are left with is the comfy fallback of "Well, just by sheer odds, it's highly unlikely that I would ever be targeted for monitoring by President O'Brien."
    Given the O'Bama government's track record of persecuting political dissent, that doesn't even manage "comfy."

    Technology holds the potential to be a vast, benevolent advance of the human condition, or to be a nightmarish tool for totalitarian subjugation. The deciding factor is the ethical foundation of the society in which that technology arises. And currently, American society's ethical foundation is disintegrating into an abyss. Hence the avalanche of threats to basic human rights, dramatically enhanced by whizbang technology.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 9 months ago
      Thanks for the well written, rational post, Drivetrain.
      That's a habit of yours, I see, having just read some of your past posts that I missed earlier. Don't be such a stranger around here (if you can spare the time from your productive efforts, that is.)
      The Gulch would benefit from your frequent participation ;^)
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  • Posted by SaltyDog 8 years, 9 months ago
    OK...I don't have television because I hate commercials. Well, among other reasons. Anyway, why would I have something in the bathroom, where I'd be exposed to commercials literally moments after waking? What are these people thinking?
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    • Posted by $ Susanne 8 years, 9 months ago
      That's when they want to get you - before your conscious mind kicks in, so you can be further "programmed" to buy or subscribe to whatever the "magic mirror" is telling you to.

      I'll give you the insidious one - remember the "subliminal ads" in movies (Very starving - you love popcorn) when we were growing up? (Dry - Thirsty - Giant Pepsi - refreshment)... the broadcaster to your magic mirror could do a very faint shadow broadcast flashed onto your magic mirror...
      (Submit=obedience=patriotic=happiness)
      ... and you will have your very own Telescreen a'la Winston Smith

      (independence = thoughtcrime = Big Brother is watching you = contentment)

      And todays well-indoctrinated sheeple will feel right at home being subliminally told how to think, behave, submit, and acquiesce in their subconscious mind, well before their mind wakes up at 5 AM.
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      • Posted by 8 years, 9 months ago
        No magic mirror, but I do want coffee when I wake up ;^)
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        • Posted by $ Susanne 8 years, 9 months ago
          What's wrong with a little propaganda with your coffee? Sweet lies with your sweet rolls? I hear it's the rage in certain circles within the beltway (at the highest levels, of course), to make sure that the progressive, anti-counterrevolutionary correct-thinking ultra-proletariat comrades of theirs have their daily dose of morning Juche, er, juice... abbreviated as "O.J."...
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  • Posted by $ sjatkins 8 years, 9 months ago
    The article say not one thing about a camera in your bathroom by the NSA or anyone else. Don't be a technophobe. Yes the government is totally out of control but this is no reason to expect some government machination every time a new bit of tech comes out.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 9 months ago
      It would be naiive to ignore the corruption of the US government, how they are proven to use technology to suppress liberty, and it's effects on people and culture, sja.
      One reason to be here in the Gulch is that people here think about the content of articles and consider the ramifications beyond what the authors of the articles have written.
      Technophobe? Check your premises. I think you'll find I have posted more posts faviring new technology than anyone else in the Gulch.
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  • Posted by smichael9 8 years, 9 months ago
    I would normally agree that commercials would be a reason to give up TV altogether. But the thought of facing even more of them when I'm sitting on my throne, reading the latest edition of Fishing Digest is more than I can bare. I admit that even my trusty edition of Fishing Digest contains commercials, albeit written ones, but at least most of them are directly related to fishing. OK, there may be an add or two for Viagra or Cialis, a product that has little use while fishing, unless of course your fishing rod is too limber. In any case, I think I'll opt for my trusty old TV in the corner of the front room with a remote that still has a Mute button on it. Until my thumb no longer works, I"ll be alright.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 9 months ago
    I would not put one in the bathroom, but the idea of putting a display film on a big mirror in the living room is something that I would do. As much as I work with computers, I do not find them aesthetic. (TV's are terrible looking.)

    I would like to live in a house that looks more like an 18th or 19th C country estate, but which has all of the modern conveniences, and the display films are a step in that direction.

    Jan
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  • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 9 months ago
    the mirrors in our bathroom are 2004 vintage
    and are likely to stay that way 'til we die. . may
    they sell these new things well to others. -- j
    .
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