
Reporting on tech companies means finding people who don’t want to be found - molecule
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/personaltech/the-essentials-for-covering-silicon-valley-burner-phones-and-doorbells.html
======
throwaway080383
I'm surprised that despite being able to concisely explain why Apple is
preferable to Google due to the privacy implications of their respective
business models, they're perfectly content with a Google Home in their
kitchen!

Maybe I'm paranoid, but isn't it obvious how the whole Home Speaker story
ends? "We're not spying on you, we're learning your behaviors to offer a
better experience!"

~~~
vokep
Something like...

>We're not spying on you, we're learning your behaviors to offer a better
experience!

Okay I guess that makes sense, I like when stuff is designed well around what
I actually want from it, this will help in that, cool!

>We're not spying on you, we're just going to report you to the police if our
ML algorithm detects a child screaming for their life

Wow okay, that kinda seems like crossing a line, but I guess it makes sense
and is going to be good to protect kids

>We're not spying on you, we're just going to lower your reputation on x/y/z
service if we hear racial slurs

Uh, I get where that's coming from, but this is clearly spying. Well, a
private company can do what they like I guess, and its understandable, who
other than racists wouldn't want less racists online.

>We're not spying on you, we're just going to let your insurance company know
if we hear you coughing

Woah okay what the fuck

>We're not spying on you, we're just going to block you from x/y/z service if
your political views differ from our CEO and put out a warning to services
provided by other companies.

Hey what the - I mean, wow what a great update. _goes in seperate private
room_ WHAT THE FUCK I NEED TO GET RID OF THIS

>We're spying on you, we're just going to arrest you if you will not comply.
Don't worry about what law you're charged under, we just blackmailed the
police and those who tried to protest got arrested, our company policy is your
local law now.

What a great update, thanks awesome [super evil company name here] developers
and all employees, what great work they do! _internally_ oh god oh god oh god
oh god oh god

Of course this goes way to the extreme, but that's my point, this is the kind
of seed that makes that stuff possible. Doesn't mean its absolutely evil, but
the potential is there.

~~~
hi5eyes
@Amazon will soon give Alexa a 'rudimentary form of emotional awareness,'
making her able to hear your whispers & frustrations. She will also be capable
of listening for trouble such as breaking glass or a smoke alarm when you’re
not home: “We’re going beyond recognizing words."
[https://twitter.com/PopCrave/status/1042885315575332870](https://twitter.com/PopCrave/status/1042885315575332870)

also reminds me of a parent tweeting about how her child thinks of Alexa as
another person in the house, kids are growing up with every aspect of their
life fully integrated with spyware-as-a-service

"We have the brightest minds of today trying to figure out how to get people
to click ads on the Internet" [https://gizmodo.com/senators-urge-ftc-to-
investigate-manipul...](https://gizmodo.com/senators-urge-ftc-to-investigate-
manipulative-ads-in-ch-1830418451)

------
thirtyseven
> I’m also a prolific screenshotter. The internet is an ephemeral place, so
> when I see something online for a story, I make sure to capture it
> immediately.

Why are screenshots seen as the gold standard for documenting deleted content?
They are easily faked.

~~~
new299
I’ve searched for web archival services before, but never found anything
outside of some expensive legal services.

It would be great if there was a service like the waybackmachine but which
could be use to archive on demand, and make those archives publicly available.

The internet archive is great for this, but they also respect robots.txt and
don’t guarantee that they’ll archive pages you request.

~~~
pabs3
There are at least 3 locations for on-demand web archiving:

[https://web.archive.org/save/https://news.ycombinator.com/](https://web.archive.org/save/https://news.ycombinator.com/)
[https://archive.is/](https://archive.is/)
[https://webrecorder.io/](https://webrecorder.io/)

Probably some of the other sites supported by this extension have on-demand
archiving too:

[https://github.com/dessant/view-page-
archive](https://github.com/dessant/view-page-archive)

For archiving on your own computer, this LWN article is pretty interesting:

[https://lwn.net/Articles/766374/](https://lwn.net/Articles/766374/)

~~~
new299
Thanks, webrecorder.io looks particularly good. I’d also forgotten about
archive.is I should use that more.

------
sometimesage
Does anybody else think this article is at least 90% native advertising?

~~~
shaki-dora
Hey, a conspiracy theory. Great start for a new account!

What you are misunderstanding: Companies and products are part of what's often
called "the real world". As such, journalists are allowed to mention them in
articles, because nothing in the real world cannot be the subject of
journalism.

And in the same way that they sometimes offer positive opinions on
politicians, or 200 year old books, or tomorrow's weather, it can happen that
a story reflects positively on a product or company.

Accusing the NYT of corruption may seem like just a platitude to you, and
spreading it as nothing of consequence. Because you're one of the smart people
that see through all the propaganda that the mainstream media is brainwashing
us with.

To a journalist it's kinda like accusing a physician of murder. It also gnaws
at a rather important foundation of democracy. That's why you should come with
some sort of rational for your theory.

As a lesser point: it would be rather stupid if the NYT could be bought by a
bunch of startups. Because every single one of the people involved with these
transactions would have the power to ruin the Times. It's absurd to believe
that they would regularly engage in such practices and manage to keep it
secret in the current political climate. It's also absurd that they would risk
their existence for whatever meagre sums a few mentions in an article could be
worth.

~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
> What you are misunderstanding: Companies and products are part of what's
> often called "the real world".

What you are misunderstanding: being patronizing does not make you convincing.

~~~
matt4077
> What you are misunderstanding: being patronizing does not make you
> convincing.

At least they had arguments...

Being patronizing while making good arguments should be just as convincing as
good arguments alone. Unless you're letting emotions cloud your judgement.

------
isoskeles
I find it funny that the article opens with how pen and paper are some of his
most reliable tools.

Then it goes on to talk about several apps and taking screenshots on an
iPhone.

I want to know how the pen and paper were so notable. What is being done with
the trusty pen and paper?! Please! Tell me! I did ctrl-f and found no further
mention of pen and paper. I feel duped. I feel like the pen and paper were
only mentioned in an effort to define this journalist's personal brand as cool
and _analog_. Let's talk about that pen and paper. Why did you waste my time
by mentioning those words for me to read and then dropping the subject
entirely?

