A disturbing trend

With the Smart Samsung TV news lately, I see a trend that is worthy of note.  This TV listens to you, and when you say "Channel 205" it changes the channel to 205.  And, it converts the speech to text and sends it to Samsung for them to improve speech recognition on future TVs.  This TV also listens to what is said in the room and texts THAT as well to Samsung!  LINK

Samsung says the transmission over the 'net is encrypted and the text isn't shared with any other entities.  Yeah, right.  Just the FBI, the NSA, the DEA, and any spook agency that wants that data... probably without a warrant.

Amazon's new FireTV uses a microphone on a remote that sends search requests to the "cloud" for TV listings... another potential spook gadget.  LINK

Amazon's new speaker called "Echo" sits and listens for you to give it your next music command.  LINK

Quote :

On one hand, the tech giant has brought us one step closer to all-knowing, ever-helpful home assistant that we've hoped for since we first saw Captain Kirk talk to the Enterprise's computer. On the other, it's a product that records snippets of what you say in the privacy of your home and stores it on Amazon's servers.

Of course, you can turn all that crap off, if you are so inclined. I wonder how many people will not, though, thinking these gadgets are the "cat's meow", all the while being logged on some computer server farm for posterity.

The amount of information gathered by hidden tech is very disturbing. All in the interests of product improvement. Sure!

We have a smart TV.....but we are not smart enough to use the features. That's fine with me....the remote works well.

Since I don't have a television the only thing I can relate this to is my phone, which is a fancy Samsung... it has many features that I am not smart enough to use. Here's a listing of some of the features that sound too mysterious and complicated for me to even bother wanting to research:

Blocking mode
Multi window
Screen mirroring
S Beam
NFC
Air view
Air gesture (I'll give you a gesture!!)
Hands free mode (I tried this and it is not what you think it is)
Reading mode
Smart stay
Smart pause
Smart scroll

I don't know WTF any of that shit is. Basically I just read the news and rarely talk on the phone. Every now and then I might email someone. I paid an embarrassing amount of money to be able to do this stuff on this smartypants phone. :/

Huh. I've got a Samsung Smart TV.
I didn't know all that stuff.
I'd better figure how to turn it off fast.

I have a Samsung Smart TV, but it doesn't listen like the next generation of TVs from Samsung.

Last Saturday afternoon I experienced the damndest thing.  I opened the door and there was some guy on a bicycle leaning against the utility pole right beside my driveway.  I looked closer and he was typing on a laptop keyboard.
My first thought was he must be on my wifi so I immediately pulled the plug on the modem.  Then I took my smartphone and got the photo of him you see below.  That's when he saw me and took off fast.

No neighbors on either side of me have internet.  And neither do the two directly across the street.
So assuming he was on my wifi,  I'm at a loss to understand how he could get past my security password.  

Time to change that password, my man.

There are ways to monitor your traffic and hack into your wifi.  http://www.solvemyhow.com/2014/03/how-to-hack-wifi-password-in-2-minutes.html

Here are ten tips to improve your security http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelesssecurity/tp/wifisecurity.htm

Paranoid about people on your network? Check it out.

http://lifehacker.com/5738123/how-can-i-find-out-if-someones-using-my-wireless-network