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Comment by cs702 | Hacker News Reader

Amazon and Google -- and Facebook and a handful of others -- seem to be in a never-ending race to learn everything about everyone everywhere: who you are, where you are, what you do, when you do it, and why do do it.

Having cameras and microphones in your house and your neighborhood is a small part of that.

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Don't forget they're also monitoring people who interact with you (a.k.a. the user of services).

When I walk into a friends home who has an Alexa, or a Ring system, it is now tracking me too.

The purchaser consented, but I never consented to being monitored in a residence/dwelling where I would otherwise have the reasonable expectation of privacy!

There was a good Gizmodo article about this called The House That Spied on Me [1].

[1] https://gizmodo.com/the-house-that-spied-on-me-1822429852

Do you have expectations of privacy on someone else’s private property? Seems fair to assume surveillance in retail establishments or banks. The only exception I can think of is rented private property (hotel rooms, airbnb’s).

You do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy when in someone else's private property. That's also why you can be videoed by security cameras in stores, hotels, casinos, etc.

And the panopticon grows... I'm not so concerned about Amazon or Google (though Facebook is creepy, even them).

I'm worried about the access that nation-states security teams have distributed across the entire set of poorly secured, 0-day infested monitoring devices everywhere.

20 years ago I laughed at how infeasible Enemy of the State was, but now it seems feasible (with added drones).

Even the "enhance/sharpen" part seems feasible if everything is packing HD/4k feeds.

Somewhere, someday, the 'mandatory' Alexa like device will bring us the "1984" era.

Under the guise of some new sort of 911. After they confiscate the guns.

Is Apple the only big company in the “we respect your privacy” game? I honestly would love to know another.

might be...for now. And possibly (gasp) Microsoft!?

Any hope had of Microsoft being a serious option for people who care about privacy went away when Windows 10 turned itself into glorified spyware.

very true

Windows 10 is not exactly a paragon of virtue when it comes to privacy concerns - https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/22/12582622/eff-microsoft-wi...

It's too bad they didn't adequately consider the privacy backlash in the first place, but at least Microsoft is taking some steps in the right direction.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/5/15188636/microsoft-windows... https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/24/16927056/microsoft-window...

Also, how much they can buy your company for.

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