One of my favorite Rolling Stones songs is “Fingerprint File.” Mick needs to rewrite the lyrics to say “digital profile” when singing about the FBI profile that’s “6 feet high.”

A HYDRA is coming if we continue to embrace the ever-widening invasion of our lives by technology without insisting on safeguards and protecting ourselves.

The Skinny is giving serious consideration to becoming a Luddite. At least I’m cutting back on my own exposure. Can’t go off the grid. Need it for my job. But there will be other steps taken, believe me, and one of them is being more choosy about what tech toys I buy – and then fully enable.

What’s the fuss?

Samsung’s disclosure that its SmartTV will disclose voice commands and other information is an outrage, not a fuss.

Technology’s intervention into our private lives in search of ways to make even more money has finally gone too far. (“Watch what you say in your living room. Samsung’s smartTV could be listening. And sharing,” The Associated Press warns.)

How interesting that the Samsung story breaks on the day the head of the National Security Agency is in Raleigh to discuss hacking at the Emerging Issues Forum.

He’s certainly right. We ALL need to take hacking more seriously and make sure our personal data is secure – well, at least as secure as we can make it. Don;t think for a second governments, spies and hackers worldwide (think Anthem, Sony Pictures) can get whatever information they want whenever they want.

Check out these two stories as well from Monday: Our  and those supercookies on your smartphone are subject of a possible investigation. 

Egad!

There  is NO privacy anywhere today – unless you are really off the grid.)

What’s a Luddite?

First, to be clear about what I mean, here is a definition of Luddite:

“A member of any of the bands of English workers who destroyed machinery, especially in cotton and woolen mills, that they believed was threatening their jobs (1811–16).

“A person opposed to increased industrialization or new technology.

Example: “A small-minded Luddite resisting progress”

I’ve never considered myself “small-minded” on any issue, especially when it comes to technology.

Maybe I am now.

Up until the first time I heard about the Samsung disclosure – in its privacy notice, of all things – I wasn’t surprised. After all, “big brother” from hackers to governments to advertisers and websites have been gathering enough information on ALL of us to write personal life histories. Some people have said “no” to all the intrusion, spying and threats and gone Luddite.

Off the grid, in other words.

If you have seen “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” you know where all this total information awareness is going.

HYDRA.

Maybe not neo-Nazi, but sinister nonetheless.

This is scary sfutt, and we MUST  demand better protection and INSIST on tighter security protocols.

Our lives CAN’T BE open books. The risks of manipulation, of threat, of theft, of ruin, are too great.

Don’t be naive, stupid and lazy; Disable voice commands – and update all your own digital security.

Samsung’s Disclosue

Right from Samsung’s website is the disclosure about SmartTVs listening in:

“Voice Recognition

“You can control your SmartTV, and use many of its features, with voice commands.

“If you enable Voice Recognition, you can interact with your Smart TV using your voice. To provide you the Voice Recognition feature, some voice commands may be transmitted (along with information about your device, including device identifiers) to a third-party service that converts speech to text or to the extent necessary to provide the Voice Recognition features to you. In addition, Samsung may collect and your device may capture voice commands and associated texts so that we can provide you with Voice Recognition features and evaluate and improve the features. 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 through your use of Voice Recognition.

“If you do not enable Voice Recognition, you will not be able to use interactive voice recognition features, although you may be able to control your TV using certain predefined voice commands. While Samsung will not collect your spoken word, Samsung may still collect associated texts and other usage data so that we can evaluate the performance of the feature and improve it.

“You may disable Voice Recognition data collection at any time by visiting the ‘settings’ menu. However, this may prevent you from using all of the Voice Recognition features.”

Samsung’s Concern

In a statement, Samsung said it is looking out for us:

“We employ industry-standard security safeguards and practices, including data encryption, to secure consumers’ personal information and prevent unauthorized collection or use.”

But as The AP notes, smart TV snooping isn’t new.

‘It is not the first time that smart TVs sparked privacy concerns. In 2013, the owner of a LG Electronics smart TV revealed it was sending information about his viewing habits back to the company without consent and without encrypting data.

“LG has also experimented with displaying targeted ads on its smart TVs, which requires collecting and utilizing user data, such as their location, age and gender.”

Thinking about buying a smart TV?

If you buy one, be careful.

Remember “Fingerprint File.”