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  • Hacker News
  • I watch "The First 48" religiously and its amazing how they go directly to Flock data in every new episode.
  • I've experimented with things like this, e.g., the Narrative Clip. I think the concept is quite novel and interesting, but the privacy implications are just far too gross for anything outside of an experiment. Of all companies, I find it appalling that it's Apple implementing this one.

    I don't even know how this is supposed to work e.g., in states with call recording legislation, let alone any new legislation. It feels utterly appalling that every Apple watch could theoretically be recording all surroundings now.

  • You can always assume permanent surveillance. Electromagnetic radiation can be read from a distance so any device is completely visible.
  • You’re obviously not a radio guy. Attenuation and interference are real. Many devices are adequately shielded from all but the most determined and skilled eavesdroppers. And not all equipment leaks useful information in its emissions.

    If you’re really paranoid, you can build yourself a small Faraday room. It’s not that difficult. It’s also sometimes possible to buy used telco equipment sheds that come pre-shielded, they are popular with radio nerds.

  • "Audio Intelligence features are private by design, combining hardware, software, and services to protect user privacy in a way that only Apple can. These features do not create or store audio recordings, and raw audio used for processing is completely inaccessible to the operating systems, apps, the user, or Apple. By design, Audio Intelligence features do not identify and attribute speakers, to protect the privacy of both the user and those around them. Siri Recap produces a brief, high-level summary of conversations — not a transcript — and is designed to exclude sensitive information like financial information or government-assigned identifiers. Live Rewind text snippets and Siri Recap summaries are end-to-end encrypted in the Siri app with iCloud syncing, and are not accessible even by Apple. Read more about how Audio Intelligence protects privacy:" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49632685
  • "We know our product is an unlawful violation of federal wiretap law since it will make zero-party-consent recordings, not that we care about violating the law at Apple because we know we can out spend anyone who would litigate against us, but we like to keep up appearances."
  • Notice how they focus on “audio recordings” specifically, meaning other types of recording (like transcripts used to generate summaries) are fair game.
  • The whole point of the debate is that "those around them" didn't agree to send their so-called "de-identified" data to Apple. In fact, "those around them" had no chance to agree/disagree at all.
  • Just like running your own mail server doesn't help when nearly everyone you talk to uses GMail, simply not using these devices yourself is likely not to make much difference.
  • We just have to make it the cool thing to run your own mail server. B-)
  • > I don’t like the idea that anything I say in a public setting or in a conversation with others could end up in a transcript summary on someone’s personal device.

    If it's only that though, how is it different from someone just writing down what you said?

  • At this point, and I assure you I am not being contrarian -- you can check my post history, I would say just enjoy the ride man.
  • Cell phones are so useful that I'm not surprised that people are willing to bug themselves and their homes with them, but wearables offer so much less while being just as invasive. I suspect that people will take the bait anyway. I don't see very many "glassholes" running around though, and there was a lot of pushback against "friend" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friend_(product)
  • The average person doesn't like being recorded without their consent. That is why they've come up with epithets like "glasshole" for people using wearables where it's very in-your-face and obvious that you're being recorded. It's also why we see as much widespread vandalization against Flock cameras.

    The problem is: it's not obvious to most people your cell phone (or TV, or car, etc.) would start recording you without your consent or knowledge. It's only just starting to become common knowledge that your phone's location data is being captured and shared with everyone.

  • The solution is legal and political, not technical.
  • As a Brit I hope Americans understand just how amazing the first amendment is. Here in the UK (and Europe) surveillance can be used to criminalise us for things we say in private. At least in the US this kind of thing is much harder for the government to do.
  • The solution is all of the above and more.

    Every big problem needs to be addressed from multiple angles, whatever you can do, you can contribute to the solution.

  • We need all of the above, because it's too easy for the political winds to change and modify the laws to enable mass surveillance with a flip of a switch. It needs to be both illegal and technically hard to surveil people without their knowledge.
  • The legal implications of these devices are just baffling. I see Meta glasses being sold where I live. The law states that you cannot photograph of film people without their consent, even in the street where there are other people around ...

    Now it will also be voice recording one has to be aware off ?

    Is that the AI future we want or need?

  • > The law states that you cannot photograph of film people without their consent, even in the street

    What country do you live in? This is almost certainty not true in the US

  • > I don’t like the idea that anything I say in a public setting or in a conversation with others could end up in a transcript summary on someone’s personal device.

    Pretty minor if it's just that individual. But for certain this means there is a transcript on Apple's servers that can be subpoenaed by law enforcement, or sooner or later, searchable without a warrant.

  • We really need to figure out how to encrypt everything on device with keys controlled by the owner of the device.
  • They would have to encrypt it in such a way where even if Law Enforcement went to apple with a subpoena, they would not be able to hand over that data at a technical level.

    The better way IMHO is use local models so data never actually leaves the device.

  • Yeah, even with Meta glasses like those things record everything that the user sees, but the flock camera situation is really concerning their cameras are everywhere and I think they can also hear what people are saying
  • No it’s bad even for an individual why does someone I speak to need to ever have a transcript of our chat? I understand in a professional setting but if we’re just having a drink its weird
  • It certainly will _not_ be just for that individual.

    Believing in that would be like believing web tracking is only ever used to "enhance your browsing experience".

  • Many geeks are the embodiment of the "don't trust the government" / "don't trust corporations" counterculture, but when equity grants entered the equation, we architected much of the modern techno-surveillance state. Flock is an YC company. Probably a quarter of the people who frequent this site work at Meta or Google.

    We're always eager to say how much we dislike it, but there's so little self-reflection in our community.

  • i mean do you want the honest answer? i’m not a white american guy so i can say it.

    importing hordes of foreign tech workers or hiring asians broadly whose culture is very much the opposite of “don’t tread on me” led to much of this.

    might not be comfortable to say but most of our tech companies are led by people who aren’t “Americana” (cultural)

    and broadly speaking, there are very few people like me (i’m asian) that value the American way of independence at all cost and most are just strivers and consumerist

    so the goal for most of them is to make 300k base and 300k stock per year. fuck the consequences.

    the days of making tech for the love of the game are long gone.

  • > Probably a quarter of the people who frequent this site work at Meta or Google.

    No, lol

    That would make up between 0.3% and 0.5% of the global tech workforce, if you added all of their employees together.

  • This accelerated with the crypto gold rush attracting all the brogrammers.