Big Brother Listening In

Have you ever had a discussion with your spouse or friend about some new idea, and then sat down at your computer and seen an ad for that very product?
You may have seen the news articles showing rooms full of computers that are listening to everything? They say this is to prevent insurgents from planning destructive actions in US (and other places), but did you know they also use it for marketing and tracking?
If you have a cell phone, it has a mic. If you have a device like Alexa, it also has a mic, or Ring doorbell, maybe indoor cameras, or mics on your laptops etc.
Big Brother is listening.
Now with the Virus Trump in charge... well, not sure what to expect. Somehow I doubt he will turn all that off, too much money to be made there, but it wouldn't surprise me if he did. He is pretty stupid.

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ArishMell · 70-79, M

It's never happened to me because I do not own any eavesdropping devices, but one or two of my friends and relatives have recounted similar experiences.

That only happens if you have a device like an 'Alexa' in the room and switched on. It is not the Government who is spying on you - unless you have been doing something to attract attention.

The Government could not care less about your discussions on what colour to paint the bathroom. Also, logically, anyone plotting any crime would make very sure no-one is listening to them in such a crude, simple way as 'Alexa'.

Rather, it is companies like Google who harvest, collate and analyse the information to send to the advertising-agencies and major retailers, so they can try to persuade you which vinyl emulsion to buy.

The existence of a microphone is a given on a telephone! It could not work otherwise, but a microphone merely converts sound to electrical signals. It is the telephone itself that radiates the signal, if a portable rather than land-line (wire or fibre-optical) instrument, as a portable 'phone is a two-way radio. Even then it only transmits a conversation when in use! It does not do so otherwise.

Yes, an intercom on the front door has a microphone and loudspeaker, one at each end, but it does not go anywhere else. Even if its link is wireless the signal strength is so low that it won't be detectable beyond a very short range. All it would show is that someone called at your home, not why nor your conversations. You could use a wired intercomm instead - completely secure.

A microphone on your computer? Perhaps it could be read by the data-harvesters, if you leave it switched on. Switch it off (even unplug it if external). I don't know about other operating-systems but MS Windows 11 gives you quite a lot of control over auxiliaries like cameras and microphones. I use no "Bluetooth" gadgets, and have turned off or "uninstalled" a lot of surplus guff Microsoft foisted on my PC!

.....

Really you are worrying needlessly, but you are helping commercial entities to exploit you.

The biggest threat to your privacy is a combination of "social-media", on-line shopping from major retailers, bait like loyalty-cards and bank-card payments in supermarkets, commercial "cookies", and "smart"-'speakers operated by Google et. al.

The biggest threat to yoursecurity and safety is from criminals, state-subversive or not, so if the authorities foil them by surveillance over those suspected of potentially being that, better that than you being burgled, defrauded or murdered.

Discuss the emulsion with "Alexa" switched off, and don't hold a loyalty-card for the builder's merchant from whom you buy it in person!