Best – 13 August 2019

best for STRAIGHT TALK

‘I

’ve been saying it for years, but

now a newspaper has found out

for sure that “smart” home devices

are listening and recording everything

you say and do. Don’t believe me? When

confronted, the organisations responsible

• Amazon, Google and Apple – certainly
  didn’t deny it, but they all shamelessly
  tried to justify what they were doing.
  A few examples, “We only annotate
  an extremely small sample” and “Staff
  listen to a proportion of the recordings
  in order to monitor and improve the
  system”. Of course, they all said they
  “take the security and privacy of our
  customers personal information
  seriously” and were only doing it to
  “improve the customer experience”.
  Amazon added that staff listening
  in cannot identify customers and
  are bound by confidentiality rules.
  So that’s all right then. Yet we
  know they can, and have, recorded

conversations, people having sex and

anything else that goes on in our homes.

They even tried to claim that words that

aren’t key words “can accidentally turn

it on”, which is rubbish, because it has to

listen to all words to hear the key words.

And the reasons they do it is simple.

They are paving the way for the ultimate

Big Brother scenario, but also because

your data – information about your

movements and your shopping,

listening and viewing habits – is an

extremely valuable commodity.

The biggest problem though, is that

people don’t seem to care. They

don’t read the terms and conditions.

But trust me, if we don’t start

caring or trying to protect our

privacy now, the slippery slope

to that totalitarian state

will just get slippier.’

Not smart to

invite Alexa in

CARNAGE AT

THE STATIONS

... YOU DON’T

KNOW WHO’S

LISTENING IN!

MOVING^ O

N^

FROM^ LO

VE^

ISLAND^

At^ last,^ the^ TV^ s

how^

‘starring’^ a^ few

amateur^

actors^ pretend

ing^ to^

fall^ for^ each^ oth

er^ while^

holed^ up^ in^ a^ vi

lla^ in^

Majorca^ is^ over

. Which^

also^ means,^ th

e never-ending^

babble^ from^ pe

ople^ who^ are^ old

enough^ and^ clev

er^ enough^

to^ know^ better^

will^ stop,^

and^ I^ won’t^ be^ a

sked,^

‘Did^ you^ see^ Lov

e

Island^ last^ nigh

t?’^

No.^ Not^ any^ nigh

t

• not^ ever!

TRAVEL

CHAOS

The shame (^) and
embarrassment
brought on this country by
the total inability to run public
transport in (^) any weather that is
n’t
considered (^) ‘normal for the time
of year’ continues apace. (^) I bet
the world is looking on in shee
r
disbelief every (^) time we are all
forced to travel at nought mil
es
an hour, or are told (^) to ‘stay at
home’. Sometimes, I really
do think we’re living in a
third-world country.
CAROL
McGIFFIN
I’m loving...
THE WAY
I SEE IT...
Wise words
from our feisty,
fearless
and funny
columnist
I’m loathing...
BON VOYAGE
AMBER AND GREG
PI
TC
U
ER
:S
G
TE
YT
,^ I
TV
N,
IC
KY
J
O
HN
TS
O
N,
P
A
FACEBOOK.COM/BESTMAGAZINE 33
BEWARE
ALEXA...