TECHNOLOGY NEWS -

TV COMPANIES WANT TO WATCH YOU - WHILE YOU WATCH THEM

 

We used to take the privacy of our own home for granted. No more.  Anyway, our gadgets are already spying on us. 

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Michael Capuano has introduced a bill, the We Are Watching You Act Bill, to prohibit the technology on boxes and collection of information absent consumer permission.

 

The bill would also require companies that do use the data to show “we are watching you” messages on the screen and to explain just what kinds of information is being captured and for what reasons.  (Well, that's great comfort to know.)

 

The technology includes cameras and microphones that are installed on DVRs or cable boxes and analyzes viewers’ responses, behaviors and statements to various ads — and then provides advertisements that are targeted to the particular household.

 

Specifically, the technology can monitor sleeping, eating, exercising, reading and more.

“This may sound preposterous, but it’s neither a joke nor an exaggeration,” said Mr. Capuano in a statement,  “These DVRs would essentially observe consumers as they watch television as a way to super-target ads. It is an incredible invasion of privacy.”

Read more:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/17/big-brother-alert-cameras-cable-box-monitor-tv-vie/

Source:  http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/cameras-your-cable-box-150374

~~~~~~~~~~

FORGET THE NSA - YOUR GADGETS ARE ALREADY SPYING ON YOU

A security firm has discovered a glitch in Samsung's Smart TV that "can give hackers access to the device's built-in camera and microphones, allowing them to watch everything you do," RT.com reported recently.

The Malta-based security company, ReVuln, posted a video demonstrating how a team of researchers were able to hack into the Smart TV and access its setting, widgets, channel lists, USB drives and configurations for its remote control. The flaw permits hackers to gain access to any and all personal data stored on the TV as well, said the firm.

Read more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038911_smart_TVs_television_surveillance.html 

~~~~~~~~~

 

Smartphones possess an arsenal of powerful features — including microphones, GPS receivers, accelerometers and Wi-Fi antennas — that are meant to help users communicate and access information, but those very same tools can also be used for spying.

 

An infected desktop computer might record all the conversations you have in your home office, but a smartphone can record all those top-secret meetings you attend at headquarters or next week's clandestine rendezvous.

Researchers with the U.S. military developed an Android app that creates a 3D map of a phone's surroundings by taking candid photos and collecting orientation data with the phone's accelerometer.

 

Last year, a group of German researchers demonstrated the inherent vulnerabilities in smart-meter systems by hacking into an electric company's wireless network and intercepting the supposedly private information of its users.

 

Equipped with a digital fingerprint of a home's power usage, the researchers could tell when residents were at home, away or asleep. They could even tell what movies people were watching in their living rooms.

Read more:  http://news.yahoo.com/forget-nsa-tech-gadgets-spying-170109659.html