Can you say that louder and over this way more?
"Samsung: Our televisions aren’t secretly eavesdropping on you" by Hayley Tsukayama, Washington Post February 12, 2015
WASHINGTON — Samsung Electronics clarified its privacy policy for its smart televisions after a panicked flurry of headlines proclaiming that those who bought the sets were essentially bugging their own homes.
The furor started after a Daily Beast article last week hit the Internet with the headline ‘‘Your Samsung SmarTV is Spying on You, Basically.’’ Writer Shane Harris had pulled out a line from Samsung’s privacy policy that sent chills down people’s spines:
‘‘Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.’’
The article prompted a lot of chatter over the weekend that prompted Samsung to weigh in on Tuesday. In a blog post, Samsung laid out exactly how its voice-recognition features work and said that it would modify its policy language.
‘‘Samsung takes consumer privacy very seriously and our products are designed with privacy in mind. We employ industry-standard security safeguards and practices, including data encryption, to secure consumers’ personal information and prevent unauthorized collection or use,’’ the company said in its post.
Samsung explained that voice recognition works in two ways on its televisions. The first is through a microphone built into the set that listens for commands such as ‘‘change the volume’’ or ‘‘change the channel.’’ In this case, the television doesn’t store or transmit anything you say.
Yeah, right. I just saw Citizenfour, and that is a lie I'm reading in the Globe.
When users ask the television to search for something, their words are stored and transmitted to a server for processing. That’s where the ‘‘third party’’ comes in.
That third party, Samsung said, is Nuance Communications, a prominent voice-recognition software company in Burlington, Mass., that’s behind such products as Dragon Naturally Speaking. Nuance is providing the service that Samsung uses to recognize what you’re saying so your television can ultimately provide you with the answer you want.
But, Samsung said, users won’t ever be recorded unexpectedly.
So we are told, and no one is believing it anymore.
In the new policy, Samsung makes clear that it ‘‘will collect your interactive voice commands only when you make a specific search request . . . by clicking the activation button’’ on the remote control or on the TV screen.
In truth, a lot of voice-control technology is listening all the time, though more in a sleep state than anything else.
As if truth were to be found in the propaganda pre$$, and it's probably akin to a passed-out drunken state where you still hear everything around you but can't move. Been there, done that, never again.
Any service you activate with a certain phrase — ‘‘Hey Siri,’’ ‘‘OK Google,’’ or ‘‘Alexa’’ — has to always be listening for its prompting words so it can wake up. That’s not new, though that latent listening — even if the information isn’t being transmitted — can turn some people off from the whole idea of voice control.
I was wondering what human beings would ever do without remotes or even better technology like in the sci-fi sh**. God forbid they would ever have to leave the GMO snack chips and sugar water sodas to get out of the chair and go flip a dial. Now they won't even have to move an arm or hand muscle, so when is the day a mere grunt will work?
Samsung’s system doesn’t seem to be much different, although it was unclear whether Nuance’s privacy policy applies to data collected by the smart TVs. Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nuance declined to comment.
Haven't seen a word since, either.
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Now if you would just look this way, please?
"‘Fresh Off the Boat’ continues ABC’s ‘we’re just like you’ mission" by Meta Wagner February 03, 2015
While Netflix, HBO, and FX are transforming television, one network is trying to transform society. That network is ABC.
That’s right, ABC. The network that has been such a disappointment in primetime programming that it does not have a single show in the top half of TV Guide’s 60 Best Series of All Time. It’s never dominated television like CBS did in the 1970s with shows like “All in the Family,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and “M*A*S*H.” Or like NBC did in the 1980s and 1990s with “The Cosby Show,” “Seinfeld,” and “Friends.”
But, ABC has finally found its footing with shows that convey a vision of a society where differences in race or religion or sexual orientation are simply amusing rather than “threatening.”
They’re doing so with programming that could be called “We’re-Just-Like-You Wednesday.”
The lineup includes “Modern Family,” “Black-ish,” “The Goldbergs,” and now “Fresh Off the Boat,” which has a double premiere tomorrow night. These shows make gay and black and Jewish people and immigrants “safe” for the general public by presenting characters who feel familiar and comfortable. They’ve got mainstream American hopes and dreams, get themselves into and out of wacky, heartwarming sitcom-ready situations, and, most importantly, place family above all else.
Isn't ABC part of Disney, and the endless agenda-pushing through ma$$ media is so blatantly obvious now it is what has most people turning off to it.
Studies show familiarity doesn’t breed contempt, it breeds acceptance. And acceptance can lead to important changes in social policy.
Such a strange sentiment coming from a medium that fails to see Palestinians in such ways.
Did you get that (I know you did; got everything I've ever done)
*************
“Knowing” television characters is admittedly not the same as knowing real people, but if you watch “Modern Family,” you feel like you know Mitchell and Cam.
But nothing!
These are men who love each other, love their parents and siblings and extended families, and love their daughter, Lily, whom they lovingly adopted from Vietnam. Who doesn’t love love?
Well, there really is not enough time to start listing the elite looters and war criminals, but....
And now ABC is bringing us “Fresh Off the Boat,” a show based on a memoir by chef Eddie Huang about a Chinese-American family in the 1990s who moved from Washington, D.C.’s Chinatown to suburban Orlando, Fla. In a bid to assimilate and pursue the American dream, hip-hop-loving Eddie’s father opens a Western-themed restaurant named Cattleman’s Ranch Steakhouse. Culture shock, family drama, and hijinks ensue.
Can “Fresh Off the Boat” do for immigrants what “Modern Family” has done for the LGBT community?
Let’s hope so.
Of course, there is a cost to the “we’re just like you” message.
The backlash against having it shoved down our throats?
The Disneyfied world (and let’s not forget that ABC is owned by Disney) where these shows take place is mostly upper-middle class — or aspiring to be — and relentlessly suburban, and so fictionalized life is as messy as real life.
Really? If they are arguing over current events, suffering losses, and discussing the wars maybe I should start tuning in.
ABC nonetheless deserves credit for learning the ABCs of producing television that makes a difference....
Click.
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This blog has really been transformed into a pos, huh?
And the winner is....
