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- A TikToker has gone viral with millions of views after exposing all of the personal data and recordings her Amazon devices have gathered and made in her home.
- After putting in a request for all of the information Amazon had gathered on her, she was shocked to discover her devices had made thousands of recordings of her voice.
- More technology news here.
Everyone knows that due to all of the smart devices in our homes there is literally no way companies aren’t gathering loads of information, often without our knowledge or consent.
We know this. And yet we still happily put all of these devices in our homes.
Between smart phones, smart vehicles, smart thermostats, smart doorbells, smart locks, smart refrigerators, smart watches, smart key chains, smart whatever, we are exposing more of ourselves to the companies that make them than ever before.
Knowing that, a woman on TikTok who goes by the handle @my.data.not.yours, recently put in a request to Amazon to find out exactly what information the massive company has been gathering on her over the years.
“I requested all the data that Amazon has on me, and here’s what I found,” she says in her TikTok video which has now been viewed almost three million times. “For reference, I have two Dots and one Echo… plus a few smart bulbs.”
She then reveals all of the files that were sent to her and clicks on one labeled “Audio and Transition.”
“I decided to click on the audio one and this is what they have,” she revealed. “These are all short voice clips, which is so scary, and this is one of me turning on the light.
“There are 3,534 short audio clips in this folder alone.
“I then clicked on Contacts and it turns out they have a full list of my contacts from my phone and I don’t remember syncing that.
“The very last thing that I didn’t know that they had, I could have assumed that they had, but I don’t love that they have, is my location,” she continued.
“If you open up this .csv (file) here it will show you where you are located, right down to the latitude and longitude.”
She concluded, “I am not totally comfortable with everything they have.”
@my.data.not.yours Reply to @ladyisabellemae ##privacy ##fyp ##foryoupage ##amazon ##alexa ##dataprivacy ##bigtech ##bigbrother ##trending ##bigdata ##privacyrevolution ##update
Related: Amazon Workers Are Listening To What You Say To Alexa, Share Amusing Recordings: Report
While a lot of people who commented on the video agreed with her, not everyone was concerned about the smart devices in their home.
“The fact that you didn’t know all this is more of reflection on you than Amazon,” one person wrote.
“So… what did you expect when having those devices? That they wouldn’t need your voice, location, etc? That’s literally how they work,” commented another.
Like I said previously, most of us do know all of this, and yet we still bring these devices into our homes. Why do you suppose that is?
Another TikTok video she made, which has been viewed even more times, 11.3 million to be exact, explains what Google Maps knows about her.
@my.data.not.yours ##google ##maps ##googlemaps ##fyp ##foryoupage ##privacy ##dataprivacy ##privacytiktok ##data ##tech ##trending ##tiktok ##policy
Related: Ex-Google, Facebook Employees Have Allied To Stop Technology From ‘Hijacking Our Minds And Society’
And, of course, no series of videos on smart devices and privacy such as this would be complete without finding out what information Facebook has been gathering on her.
@my.data.not.yours Reply to @thomgloams ##greenscreen ##facebook ##fb ##info ##fyp ##foryou ##foryoupage ##dataprivacy ##request ##data ##privacy ##privacytiktok ##tech ##datarevolution
Related: After 18 Month Investigation, British Parliament Issues Scorching Report Slamming Facebook
The best comment on all of her videos might have been this one: “What’s funny is this video is posted on TikTok which is among the most invasive when it comes to privacy, lol.”
[Mirror]