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Who would have thought getting in shape could be so risky.
Fitness apps help you track your runs, calories burned, and maybe even your heart rate. If you happen to be using a Polar device and its associated app, however, that information — in addition to small details like where you live — could end up in the wrong hands.
Approximately six months after researchers revealed that so-called Strava heatmaps allowed for the identification of secret overseas military bases, a joint effort from the Dutch De Correspondent and the open source investigative site Bellingcat discovered that another fitness app was making all kinds of user data public that, if it got into the wrong hands, could do serious harm.
Specifically, Bellingcat notes that Polar's Polar Flow app "is revealing the homes and lives of people exercising in secretive locations, such as intelligence agencies, military bases and airfields, nuclear weapons storage sites, and embassies around the world."
A big part of the problem appears to be that Polar allows users to view all the exercises of a particular individual if that person decided to share them publicly to Polar Flow's Explore map. So, for example, you can see the routes of a person jogging near an airport in Iraq that happens to be near a military base and also that the person in question likes to go for runs in the Netherlands. And you can see where those runs start and stop.
In a statement, the company stated it was suspending the Explore API but also denied there was any leak of information.
"We recently learned that public location data shared by customers via the Explore feature in Flow could provide insight into potentially sensitive locations," read the statement in part. "It is important to understand that Polar has not leaked any data, and there has been no breach of private data. Currently the vast majority of Polar customers maintain the default private profiles and private sessions data settings, and are not affected in any way by this case."
In other words, according to Polar, the "Airmen involved in the battle against the Islamic State" who Bellingcat researchers were able to identify and find their homes were the ones who messed up, not Polar.
Keep that in mind the next time you head out for a run. Oh, maybe also remember that you might not be the only one following along.
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I really don't think it will be long until you walk into a store and the sales assistant immediately knows everything you've bought there before, and probably a bunch of other details. all because a camera recognizes your face!
Two weeks ago, a Portland, Ore. couple’s Echo device mistakenly recorded their conversation and sent it to a Seattle resident who was on their contact list. Now, Amazon has offered clarification on the incident, citing an ‘unlikely string of events’ that prompted the device to record — and disseminate — the family’s private conversation.
The Seattle-based tech giant says Alexa, the virtual assistant that powers Amazon’s current suite of smart speakers, interpreted a recent background conversation regarding hardwood floors as confirmation to record and send the audio.
Amazon sent Digital Trends the following statement regarding the incident:
“Echo woke up due to a word in the background conversation sounding like ‘Alexa.’ Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a ‘send message’ request. At which point, Alexa said out loud, ‘To whom?’ At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customer’s contact list. Alexa then asked out loud, ‘[contact name], right?’ Alexa then interpreted background conversation as ‘right.’ As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely.”
The couple’s home was equipped with a string of smart home devices, which were set up to control heating, lighting, and their home security system. “My husband and I would joke and say, ‘I’d bet these devices are listening to what we’re saying,'” Danielle, who declined to give her last name, told KIRO-TV.
The Portland residents only learned of the error when the person who received the voice message, her husband’s employee, called to alert them. “The person on the other line said, ‘Unplug your Alexa devices right now. You’re being hacked,'” Danielle said.
If you in a public space in the USA your aloud to be photographed and recorded without consent. If the confines of your home they would need consent but with your smart devices and phones your basically allowing them to do all this.
I would say that this string of events is not so unlikely.
They say that the device "interpreted" this and "interpreted" that. I'm sure they are right, and I'm also sure that there was no ill intent by Amazon.
But it's close to certain that Echo is making these interpretations all the time, and I for one would not get one of these devices, which would make it certain that it was not interpreting anything in a way I didn't want it to. I suppose that the technology will eventually work OK, but I think this is another case of the problems with being an early adopter.
Also, the more we rely on voice-recognition devices, the more important it is that there are safeguards that are imposed on the providers of the services. There may ill intent someday, by someone. I like an open marketplace, but there also should be a cop somewhere, just in case.
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I watched it ( Anon) this weekend. Must admit to being a big Clive Owen fan ever since his staring role as Stephen Crane in Chancer back in the 1990's. I really enjoyed it, but I'm also a big cyberpunk fan in general. It was almost like a lower budget Matrix. I think there was a " Black Mirror" episode with a similair concept of the eye recordings that was decent as well. Thanks @xplorer
Getting back on subject - I worry that things like this (Anon) are when and not if. There's already a lot of people who think we're becoming a police state.