crp Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Might want to keep quiet around it. https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2015/06/google-chrome-listening-in-to-your-room-shows-the-importance-of-privacy-defense-in-depth/ http://www.inquisitr.com/2189902/google-chrome-may-have-stealthily-downloaded-an-audio-listener-to-your-computer-that-listens-to-your-room-report/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Like the comments say: "So many freedom fighters ready to jump on the oppressed bandwagon. Even the Xbox One faced this upon release. Get over yourselves and realize that most of these things are not intended to spy into your personal lives and even if they were, what's the D*** problem? "I don't want my private conversations recorded" BLAH BLAH BLAH your lives are not important in the grand scheme. Noone wants to listen to you." And "In your Chrome settings, disable the Ok Google functionality. It's an easy check box switch. IME, it defaults to disabled." I keep google voice turned off on my phone and browser. Also, I only plug in my webcam when I intend to use it. Let's see... Apple does this with Siri, Amazon does this with Echo, Microsoft does this with the XBox and Speech on window's phone, etc. etc. If you have a smart phone, your basically walking around with a complete spy device. Audio, Video, Browser History, GPS, Bluetooth, etc. That is the way of technology. Yes, you are being watched and recorded if you use the internet at all. Or even a landline..... Like my quote says: "Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crp Posted June 22, 2015 Author Share Posted June 22, 2015 For some reason, I thought when the voice control was added to Chrome it was on an opt-in basis. I run a portable version of Chrome for those rare instances it is helpful and i don't see a voice control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 For some reason, I thought when the voice control was added to Chrome it was on an opt-in basis. I run a portable version of Chrome for those rare instances it is helpful and i don't see a voice control. Yes, you cant turn it offf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crp Posted June 24, 2015 Author Share Posted June 24, 2015 ... and here come the Europeans , http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/23/google-eavesdropping-tool-installed-computers-without-permission Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 And now it has been removed from chromium http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-removes-always-listening-code-from-chromium/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 (edited) I just decided to never get in bed with Google in the first place. My judgement has been vindicated, totally- and far moreso than I might ever have imagined. I don't even use their search (directly). I use Start Page. I smelled a rat when google mail came out, never sought an invitation. I found this article, but I see you guys are already all over this. I think I'll stick with FF, warts and all... http://www.theguardi...=share_btn_link Edited June 25, 2015 by Cluttermagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 What all those articles fail to mention is that "Note that even with the extension installed and enabled, the "OK Google" hot word is actually processed locally; the same as it is for Google Android phones -- you can test that by disabling network access and see for yourself." This was all just simply FUD and scare tactics, plain and simple. Someone noticee that the browser downloads something for voice functionality to work and then everyone starts shouting "Google is recording us". It is so stupid as that is how voice control works. Of course it is listening, its waiting on a keyword to function. You simply opt out and its disabled, no biggie. If you do not want to disable it, simply run Chromium. Chromium is completely open source, just like Firefox BTW it doesn't matter if your "in bed" with Google or not. The government already records everything you say and do anyway. Google is the least of your worries...... From the above article: "A binary blob module like this can not be installed by a user via clicking on a link. Such a Native Client module can only be installed by the user deliberately from the Chrome Web Store. Chromium is open source and it's important to us, as is it is to you, that it doesn't ship with closed-source components, lazily or not." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crp Posted June 26, 2015 Author Share Posted June 26, 2015 a large part of the problem is that the voice module is hidden and closed source. for both of those reasons, it did not belong in Chromium to begin with, so regardless of FUD it needed to be out. As for Chrome and it is a FUD? Don't know enough to pass judgement. It would be good if Ggle would explain what internet activity is going on when the voice module is doing stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 As for Chrome and it is a FUD? I am sorry but what does that mean? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crp Posted June 26, 2015 Author Share Posted June 26, 2015 As for Chrome and it is a FUD? I am sorry but what does that mean? Were/are the concerns just a FUD tactic or was something going on to be concerned about.being that the voice recognition code was closed source i'd say there definitely was legit concerns. Now that it is not only turned off but out of Chromium it would seem the worry should be gone. But what happened during the time it was in and on? Something or nothing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted June 27, 2015 Share Posted June 27, 2015 As for Chrome and it is a FUD? I am sorry but what does that mean? Were/are the concerns just a FUD tactic or was something going on to be concerned about.being that the voice recognition code was closed source i'd say there definitely was legit concerns. Now that it is not only turned off but out of Chromium it would seem the worry should be gone. But what happened during the time it was in and on? Something or nothing? As pointed out above: "Note that even with the extension installed and enabled, the "OK Google" hot word is actually processed locally; the same as it is for Google Android phones -- you can test that by disabling network access and see for yourself." There was probably nothing at all nefarious about the action and you could always turn it off if you wanted. The problem was that they were using a proprietary binary on chromium which is open source. I guess they wanted the same 'ok google' functionality to chromium but should of been opt in, not opt out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I use Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera ... all for different things. I do use Google Chrome voice to speech ability. But I don't use OK Google to do so. I enabled it, then disabled it. Now I can do it without the OK Google part. I just click on the red circle with the microphone in it. On devices, I use the same method. BTW: StartPage.com is my home page as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt.Crow Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Chrome is the slowest browser I have ever come across. For the first hour or so I can go for coffee and doughnuts while it loads pages. But it at least streams movies without any fuss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Change the setting for Preload Pages to never. The other place where slowdown on any browser is the Extensions used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Chrome is the slowest browser I have ever come across. For the first hour or so I can go for coffee and doughnuts while it loads pages. But it at least streams movies without any fuss. I have never ran across that behavior and I have used chrome for many, many years. I usually browse with an average of 50 tabs. usually much more and I find it to be very fast. Do you have a very low amount of ram? The reason I ask is because on Chrome each tab runs as a separate process so maybe that is it. I have an old Atom netbook with just 2gb of ram and chrome is quite slow on that machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atiustira Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Thank you for posting this crp. It made me think of this article http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-09/nsa-has-inserted-its-code-android-os-bugging-three-quarters-all-smartphones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Thank you for posting this crp. It made me think of this article http://www.zerohedge...all-smartphones Of course, that only applies to users who run stock android or the overlay that other companies use. Like the first comment says, "Wipe the rom and roll your own." and that is exactly what I do on all my devices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 They mentioned Apple but how does anyone know what they include as it is proprietary. At least with AOSP (Android Open Source Project), I can view the sourcecode. By default Android is a mixed environment with closed and open source but AOSP based roms are pure open source. Hard to hide in plain site when tons of developers create their own roms from the source code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt.Crow Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 Securitybreach. Yes there is 1Gb ram installed. But I have had much better speeds with only 256Mb ram on Debian. This is a netbook on W7.. I am so depressed that I just cannot install the E3272 on my Debian box. I'm stuck with this ISP for a while yet until the contract runs out.What really sickens me is that Slackware on the HP really scoots along. But I am still learning that OS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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