and apparently they are using it

 

Facebook does it too, and spy on what people write in their messenger.

All this is repugnant.

I dont use mike, nor camera.

 

Although it shouldn't be surprising, this goes even further than the revelation, over a decade ago, in mainstream news that the FBI could listen-in over your cell phone (pre-smartphone), even when it was not in conversation, and even when turned-off; one had to remove its battery to prevent snooping on it. The U.S. Government's Total Information Awareness project was defunded in 2003 after vociferous objection by the public – so Google, and then Facebook, were set-up to replace it with friendlier faces, although Google dates back to the late '90s. (Google was patented as AI, not as a search engine.) Google and Facebook worm their ways into people's lives by becoming useful, and then necessary, which quells and pre-empts dissent over the invasive and authoritarian nature and tendencies of their services and practices. One hears the argument, "But it's too late – no turning-back now." As long as everyone goes along with that, it will remain the case. And if you believe that the software control for the microphone on your computer isn't remotely hijackable . . .

 

If people use SKYPE which is also owned my Microsoft now, it is good to see and speak with friends around the world. It's only a large issue with privacy if you are using Windows 10 because of the greater access and removal of some privacy in Windows 10.
People should disconnect microphones and webcams when they are not in use. It's not flawless doing that while in use, but it removes a lot of potential invasions of privacy by disconnecting them when they are not in use.

Even Universities using SKYPE for inter-departmental meetings do not leave them on perpetually and disconnect immediately after each meeting. It's a good and sound practice.

 

I found a similar behavior when I was over a friends house. He is an apple guy having his iphone always around and we were talking about how nice it would be to go hiking and camping with tents. When he opened safari on his mac the first ad that showed up was about tents. But: Both approaches aren't very scientific. The guy in the video posts one single video (out of how many tries?) that proofs his theory. And advertising tents in summer is is not such a bad idea. So I will try that myself and see what happens.

 

I put my smartphone in a safe with the sounds of cats mating on a loop.

 

Would be nice, if you keep us updated.

 

In Germany it was a big scandal when skype was quite new, more then a decade ago, when skype sold data to the german police on court order.

They even found out the price which was about 2500 per person for all they had on them.


Just tried googling it, it cant even be found anymore

With enough power, of course people can remove information from the internet



Nowadays in Bavaria, a kind of rich extremist christian region of Germany, they want a law which would give police the authority not only to read your conversations, but even to change its content!

Thats scary to me, police being able to change your conversations, crazy


i dont give a fuck about google milking my privacy for better ads, as long as they dont bring up my hourlong jerkoff sessions in those ads..

But at least they should admit it, yes we sell data, we sell it to advertisers, we sell it to powerful industry, we sell it to cia, nsa etc