Comment by LeftHandPath | Hacker News Reader

Comment by LeftHandPath | Hacker News Reader

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My dad has his whole house wired up with echo dots in every room, voice-activated lights, voice-control TV, and those shitty $100 security cameras in every room.

I've tried to explain why he doesn't need them. His response (about the security cameras) is always, "If there's ever a break in, I'll be glad I have them." The fact that actually using a light switch sets in motion a 20-minute repair via iPad doesn't seem to bother him. He doesn't view the wiretaps as a problem. He (with my mother's help) recently bought a wifi-enabled fridge and kitchen sink.

I love my parents to death, but it's ridiculous. I'm to the point where I usually leave my phone in the next room over when I'm not using it (and please check me in at a psych ward if I ever buy a smart-watch with a cellular connection and an omni-directional microphone). Its beneficial for clarity of thought / lack of distraction as well as for privacy.

Connectivity for connectivity's sake will be the death of freedom.

It's funny...we've had this conversation with my mother repeatedly but she doesn't see a way technology companies could 'do anything bad with her asking for directions'

My siblings and I have drawn a line at DNA testing. She keeps talking about submitting her DNA to some mail order testing company and it has been made clear that would be the end of our relationship. We will try and help her protect her own privacy but have zero tolerance for her disrespecting ours.

> My siblings and I have drawn a line at DNA testing. She keeps talking about submitting her DNA to some mail order testing company and it has been made clear that would be the end of our relationship. We will try and help her protect her own privacy but have zero tolerance for her disrespecting ours.

It's sad that people don't recognize how DNA collected like that (whether by 23AndMe, Ancestry.com/Quest Diagnostics, or anyone else) is used. Almost 100% of the time, it goes into a database that's readily available for searches by law enforcement, without warrant. They can use the DNA of a close relative to figure out what they want to find in a suspect. It WILL be misused, and it is not in our best interest.

Nor is the surveillance net made by Blink and Ring cameras, and the pervasive network of microphones made by phones, smart-watches, smart TV's, smart faucets and fridges, smart ovens (seriously?), et cetera, ad nauseaum.

It's not only blind trust in the manufacturers of these devices to not misuse the data they collect, but it's blind trust that all of these devices will be properly secured and prevent would-be attackers from listening in to you no matter where you are. People cover up their webcams because they're afraid of hackers, but they put security cameras in their bedrooms, "to catch a thief", without a second thought.

You committing a lot of crimes these days, killer? I could care less about "misuse" for criminal reasons. The US military already has my prints and blood as part of MEPS intake and Tricare.

I'm more worried that DNA companies are going to use my DNA to raise my insurance rates, raise them for all of my family, or use them to predict models that fuck over other people.

I also expect them to NOT release any useful data and to hoard that as long as possible.

How is uncovering serial killers not in your interest>

My dad didn't even talk about doing it before hand. You're lucky to have got the warning.

Feels gross knowing that my DNA is largely known by so many organisations.

Your DNA is 99.9% known anyway, because you’re a human. Only the remaining 0.1% varies between individuals.

Yeah and its that 0.1% that can be used to identify me, so that's what I care about being in a database.

I don't care if they run a DNA search on a database that has such broad results that it includes bananas...

Under what circumstances, apart from where you or a close relative has committed a crime, are you concerned that someone might identify you from your DNA?

Or would be physically present sometime around the time of a crime... or if the FBI wanted to frame someone they thought of as a subversive....

"Why would you want that? Apart from the very clear and obvious reasons that is."

Why do I always see this sort of question phrasing on this site in particular?

The very clear and obvious reason being to protect yourself from criminal punishment? Yikes.

Do you derive your sense of morality from what's legal/illegal or something? Of course one should want to protect themselves from criminal punishment.

I can easily imagine health insurance companies refusing coverage or charging exorbitant rates to people because they know about your DNA and what diseases you might be susceptible to...

That's illegal...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_Information_Nondiscrim...

And if it wasn't illegal then insurance companies would simply just demand DNA before underwriting your policy.

If you are a millenial you've probably been genotyped at birth already. This data has some pretty good legal protections around it, there's really no reason to worry.

One wonders how hard it would be to create a plausible but fake sample for them to run.

Easy (but very unethical).

Just send them a sample from someone else.

My sister in law recently told me that she wanted to submit the DNA of her very young baby for logging in someway.

She went further, that everybody should be under observation via CCTV and other methods 24/7 “as I have nothing to hide”. It was a bit of a spit the tea out moment.

All I could do was weakly say something about “in a police state everyone is guilty of something”.

I think this is related to her near total devotion to reality TV. She almost only watch reality TV and seems to be primarily concerned with judging the behaviour of those involved.

I think, sadly, she’s far closer to the mainstream than I’ll ever be. She regards my demands of privacy from tech companies as “weird” :(

And at this point I think my long departed grandmother who would read to me in bed whatever she was reading. she liked to read about history. Which left me at a tender age with the reflexive understanding that those in power are usually utter bastards.

You sister in law doesn't realize the the people who would watch over her and her family's every move aren't considered ruthless criminals only by simple convention.

Yeah scary how naive some people are. Sadly I'm not a good enough communicator to convincer her of this.

I've been rolling this around for a long time. We tend to think of leaders as being good (ours of course) or bad (theirs of course). But I think mostly our leaders are as good or bad as we let them get away with.

What's the fear? You leave DNA everywhere as it is. These companies just genotype you for a variety of variants. Chances are you were genotyped at birth if you aren't so old. This data is legally protected.

What does a WiFi kitchen sink do?

It's as useless as it sounds.

This isn't the one they have, but it's similar:

https://www.amazon.com/Trinsic-Pull-Down-Activated-Technolog...

Does it still work as a tap if the WiFi is down? :D

You won't know because you'll be locked a room somewhere it pitch dark.

$530 to turn on a faucet with your voice? What?

I know a number of germophobes who would want something like this to avoid touching the knob/lever while preparing meals etc.

An infra-red sensor, as implemented in many public toilets, seems like a less error-prone solution to that problem.

Or a pedal.

Leak.

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