Pickles by Brian Crane for July 17, 2022

Opal is absolutely correct about the spying. Not so sure that it’s being used — yet — for marketing, but if not it’s only a matter of time.

er… case closed?

Talk about forklifts and see what happens.

In the last panel, Earl is checking overhead for cameras.

and now you know why I have no Amazon devices, and why Siri is turned off.

That certainly settles the question.

My neighbor says cell phone towers are reprogramming our minds.

We have an “Alexa” device but do not have it hooked up for that very reason!

That’s why this happened. https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/privacy/alexa-illegally-recording-storing-your-private-conversations-class-action-lawsuit/

As weird as it sounds, it’s not like an article on page 19 in some supermarket tabloid. Those things are really doing just that. Exactly that.

The creepy part (like an episode of Twilight Zone) is that the guy with the tinfoil hat wasn’t just right, he’s the one that’s doing it. And Amazon and other companies like it got folks to not only do it happily, they got them to pay good money to do it. Now that’s a salesman!

Ben Franklin said, “Those that trade security for freedom deserve neither” but this is trading security and freedom merely for convenience. Talk about a deal with the devil, and it’s a pretty darned lousy deal at that.

Check Today’s Non Sequitur: https://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2022/07/17?ct=v&cti=274986

I think google is a bit confused about my identity, it shows me ads for women’s swimming suits. A man has to be crazy to buy a woman a swimming suit!

Most of you have likely seen dire ads on TV about Senate Bill 2992 and how it would destroy small businesses and turn the world over to China. What the Bill does:“This bill prohibits certain large online platforms from engaging in specified acts, including giving preference to their own products on the platform, unfairly limiting the availability on the platform of competing products from another business, or discriminating in the application or enforcement of the platform’s terms of service among similarly situated users.

Wuz jest tinkin’ … Alexis, a device that sits and listens … the Gestapo would have loved that.

Well I fixed Alexa! She’s all cozy snuggled in the box she came in, in the closet!

When our Alexa starts freaking out I unplug it which irritates my wife. Sometimes there is nothing going on and it starts talking randomly out of the blue. Then one time it did it while my wife was in the room and it creeped my wife out. I exclaimed, “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!”

While driving in my car I asked my phone “hey, google. navigate to wyandanch”. Then I continued my conversation with my wife…

About six months later I checked my history on google.com and heard our entire conversation!

I just bought a speaker that came with Alexa, which I didn’t want, but the price was good, and the bass is fantastic. I chose not to activate Alexa because of privacy concerns.

And that’s exactly why I’ll NEVER get one…..THEY already know too much about me…..

remember it was the usa military that gave us the internet and my uncle worked for government most of life and told me all emails, texts, posts, etc. are government monitored…ALL……..this post will show up somewhere too

Uh oh……….. Time to unplug - Besides…… I don’t need ANOTHER woman telling me what to do (LOL)

Stuff I search for on Google shows up the next day in ads on MSN and YouTube. Big Brother is indeed watching.

QED

Exactly why I would not have one of those things.

I believe it. I watched a video of an animal in Australia. Up came the travel package for an in-person visit to the very animal’s wild home.

Alexa is actually Big Brother!

My brother was looking for auto insurance. He Googled for deals. Before he even finished filling out a contact form, his phone started ringing … and didn’t stop for two days!

Mention big box store three times in the car and see what pops up on the map.

In the last panel Earl looks like he got a whiff of something that smells bad.

With this current discussion going on I’m surprised that we are not seeing pop-up ads for Alexa, and similar devices.

Alexa, please connect me with my great-great-great grandmother. https://youtu.be/YvT_gqs5ETk

DuckDuckGo isn’t all that private … :

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/duckduckgo-in-hot-water-over-hidden-tracking-agreement-with-microsoft/ar-AAXILR1

What are your algorithms really saying, Alexa?

Several decades ago I worked for a company hat built supercomputers. We sold several to the CIA. The configuration was exactly what would be needed to analyze huge amounts of oncoming sound looking for specific words and phrases.

I see we are back from re-runs (no complaint, just noting it) to 2022.

Anybody remember that TV show from a few years ago, Person of Interest?

Of COURSE our devices are spying on us. Why wouldn’t they, after all, advertising is the name of the game. More than once my wife and I have talked about something and right away it is being offered through our devices.