Looking for some perspective on this, interested how y’all think about it and if I’m isolated in my concerns.
I’ve grown to be a bit anxious when I’m out and about in any neighborhood. The wide use of doorbell cameras that connect to the internet and save data on company servers, listen in to your conversations, and could be used for spying on you as an individual gives me a sinking feeling.
I like walking around, I walk my dogs around the neighborhood and I know my neighbors. I’ve started being so aware that it’s changing my habits. I don’t turn my face towards houses while I’m walking if I notice a doorbell camera, and I’ve put my shirt over my face when dropping off something to a neighbor who has one. I probably gave them a fright but I don’t feel like I should’ve expected to be OK with you surviving me in a way that compromises my privacy that expansively. I’m considering keeping a bandana with me to cover my face if I need to go up to a door, but of course that would make people think I’m a bad actor and just a paranoid privacy nut.
I feel a bit like Winston in the 1984 novel, always feeling watched and trying to find an isolated corner where I can’t be seen. How have y’all been feeling on this? Would love to get perspective, thanks
I’m not sure what you think your threat model is here. I’m not happy about it either, but my place of residence isn’t entirely private information already. I’m pretty certain it’s available through multiple public information sources. Cameras being able to see me in that vicinity might help someone determine my daily habits and schedule, but there are many other ways of that as well.
Again, I’m not happy about it, but I feel like you need to ask yourself what risk you’re trying to protect yourself against here.
As another commenter pointed out, any of the amazon based ones are part of amazon sidewalk and record nearby bluetooth and wifi devices. Sidewalk is also partnering with flock, so that data is available to law enforcement and possibly corporations that use flock for security to be able to use for advertisement.
But so is your phone’s location data.
So if you’re trying to protect against this sort of thing, you’d need to be taking much more extreme steps. Different dogs at different times with entirely different outfits and rocks in shoes to make different gaits. Face coverings. Multiple burner phones not tied to your identity, and only taken out of farady bags to use in association with different identities.
And then it still would all tie back to the same house/general vicinity.
There’s no perfect privacy options, so you need to identify your threat model. What are you trying to protect against, how important is it, what are the quantifiable risks of failure, and how inconvenienced are you willing to be to achieve this.
It sucks. I’m not happy about it. But you can’t stop your neighbors from using them. So you’ll need to accept it, or come up with alternatives. Feel like moving to someplace more rural?
It’s always going to be a balance.
Instead of multiple burner phones, carry multiple phones all tied directly to you. Use software to simulate activity on each phone constantly.
Occasionaly leave 1-2 phones on public transit, or in friends’ vehicles, or attach a few to local wildlife like cats or birds.
Tape dog microchips to the phones and do not use a Faraday cage.
Put a few of those microchips on each phone, wear a pair like earrings and attach some to the charging cords.
Make a t-shirt that has the top 500 most used SEO keywords and/or Fortune 500 corporation names printed on it. Make 7 of these shirts total, one for each day.
Also make a few shirts with the same list as above but with vowels shifted two letter places to the left or right and wear that shirt underneath, switching it at random to be external or internal. Alternately, use another language for each shirt.
Humans might not be able to hide anymore, so I say give that data to them hard. Harder than they ever expected. Flood them with data that is nearly exact, but not quite, so they have copies of yourself that all contain minor differences existing simultaneously.
The data is rarely scrutinized by humans. The metrics will soon become poisoned. Tilted towards your activities and demographic. Your numbers grow exponentially. Soon, the algorithm will only know you.
Don’t actually do any of these things. This was meant to be funny. I give it a 2/10.
That gives me vague ideas for a fun short story: The AI “revolution” has occurred, but due to training data issues it’s all optimizing for some random specific boring schlub. Harold from Oklahoma or something.
Had to argue my case to the transit overseer AI about how me getting to work is vital for Harold’s quality of life again. So fucking demeaning.
Harold posted something to social media 15 years ago about having a bad experience at the restaurant chain I worked at. Overseer shut the while chain down and now we’re all on the run from enforcers that want to kidnap and make us personally apologize to him. I worked on the other side of the country.
Trying to get a new car but all that’s on the market are ridiculous scaled up hotwheels the guy liked as a kid, a shitbox he made teenage memories in, or some generic suburbanite thing that lasted him the longest.
New fashion trend: White t-shirt and green plaid boxers are out, jeans and a grey t-shirt are in!
For sure, always about balance, but I’ll take away any extra data points about me that I can even if I’m not able to eliminate all of them. I do a lot of things to limit my private data exposure, but no matter who you are there’s always a line for what you’re willing to do.
Thanks for the detailed reply. I’m just curious about the perspective of others.