That’s a good point. It depends a lot on how much you use other services from the platform. If you already put reminders and appointments on your google calendar, they already know so much about you that just about any limitation on the assistants is going to be a drop in the bucket. It just feels like it’s impossible for those assistants to be both super helpful and respect your privacy. They basically have to know about your life to be able to help you. I just wish there was a way for them to function only on a local basis but I don’t any that has that amount of control. If you block their access to the internet, most of their skills don’t work.
I admit we use a lot of google services including a google mini assistant. But it’s positioned in a place where we usually do not have more private or financial conversation on purpose. It’s easy to tell the detection range of those devices and place them in areas where you can control what they listen to. If they want to parse through my kids inane chatter, our cooking struggles, and homework fights, help yourself. But we’ll have financial discussions or business calls very far from it for privacy reasons. That’s not ideal but IMO a case of not being able to have your cake and eat it too.
We’re back to not being able to freely travel (without fear of being searched at the “border” without a reason or a warrant) with our phones or computers.
The problem is it’s not just you who needs to appreciate the privacy impacts - any idiot relative of yours who wants to “see their genetic history on a lark” will put enough close information to you in the public domain that it could potentially cause the same types of concerns for you as it does for them. Criminal case detectives have been trolling these databases for similar DNA to their case and investigating them.
I acknowledge you are right about that, xerty. No challenge.
Sadly for me personally, most if not all of those “idiot relatives” are already dead. Your post caused me to do a quick inventory and, yup, pretty much all of them are already in the ground.
I suspect this will be further appealed to the SCOTUS. But a good reminder to keep your phones and laptops locked with something else than biometrics, make sure you need PIN or password upon restart, and to keep them fully encrypted including the SD card if you have one. It does not protect you from contacts not having their phones secure but these will have considerably less personal information than your own phone and over time, it may eventually sink in with them too.
The fact that CPB can detain you more or less for no reason for extended time (up to a week IRC) until you give your credentials is also messed up. You can keep your privacy or a week of your life, pick one.
I was pulled out once for having a jar of guacamole (unopened) in my hand luggage. They gave me a choice to throw it away or eat it right there. They tossed it…
I’m not sure this was a customs issue. Could well be due to the post-9/11 creams/fluid rules where it was a cream over the allowed amount.
In fact, many ports of entries customs would not know that you have a sealed jar of guac because many won’t scan your hand luggage as you walk through.
Though they could have also given you a hefty fine IF you didn’t declare those avocados on the customs form.
It was sometime in the last couple of years that a lady got a $500 fine for failing to declare an apple that was given to her on the plane as part of an onboard snack when she put in her bag rather than eating it in-flight.
The passengers were all warned NOT to do that, though. (and I know we get that warning every time I have an international flight that serves bananas with breakfast, for instance)
Back on the topic, the overreach of CPB to search US citizen digital data (phones/laptops) is absolutely ridiculous. I haven’t been pressed at the US border on that front, yet, so I’m not sure what I would do in the moment. And at European borders I’ve only ever been asked to turn a device on to prove that it was real – though that was quite awhile ago, and haven’t been asked anything similar in the last 10 years, or so.
Pattyb just never said whether it was upon passing customs or before boarding so I read it as being either considering guac is a cream and TSA has limits on those. The agents’ offer to throw thing away reminded me of the many times where I forgot a water or soda bottle and had to either finish it or toss it before boarding.
Exactly. This episode was before boarding at home airport. I’ve done a lot of flying & items can certainly be forgotten in your hand bag or purse. Sometimes the agents discover them but most times they do not. I believed the unopened jar of guac was ok, but they disagreed.
One time after a First Class seating, I stashed a tiny bottle of airline booze in my bag. I forgot about it for months, but several flights later a competent agent pulled the bottle out & said, “what is this”?
Which makes the quoted comment even less relevant, because it was TSA, not CBP, and I’m pretty sure TSA cannot detain you without a reason, only CBP can.
Does anyone notice an uptick in the frequency with which all kinds of providers are putting your full name in emails? I’m getting health providers addressing me by full name (first,middle,last) in messages that say my chart’s been updated. Banks are now addressing me by name and putting the exact amount of my transfers in emails. Some retailer just addressed me by full name in a request to take a survey.
I’ve already adjusted the financial institutions to not send any alerts. That’s sad, because it was a decent security feature when they didn’t include my name or the amount. I’ll be adjusting the healthcare providers’ droids next. I’ll also be adjusting the name on most of my accounts at retailers, but that may prove problematic for store pickups.
If anyone has suggestions, other than to stop being paranoid, I’m all ears.
I understand. I wish they were more flexible and offered options that could be finely tuned. There’s probably not enough demand, and if trends continue, everything will be “app only”.
Well… the base email protocol (SMTP) is inherently insecure. I don’t think the sender of the email can guarantee that it will travel encrypted from them to you without making you take additional steps (something like PGP may work). So if your unencrypted email travels through a compromised node, then someone else can see all its contents without your knowledge.
Ok, teach, how do I get it for $6? My phones are under fake names, as is facebook which I rarely use and don’t have any photos or tags. But I want to know where I shop with my credit cards, to figure out which credit cards are selling my info and how to make them stop. As far as I’m concerned, the only things you should be able to find about me is what’s in public (government) record, and, unlike an emailed bank statement, none of it should tell you how much money I have in my accounts.
My story, I fell for a scam that concerned my using PayPAL. Long story, but I caught up with the scam before my credit card was used more than 3 times. Finally I managed to contact (the real) PayPAL company. (that isn’t easy) They told me that never reply to PayPAL unless my full name is posted.
Patricia _ ________.
