DOUBLE PLUS UNGOOD! Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to #Amazon starting on March 28

By Scharon Harding, March 14, 2025

"Since Amazon announced plans for a generative #AI version of #Alexa, we were concerned about user privacy. With Alexa+ rolling out to #AmazonEcho devices in the coming weeks, we’re getting a clearer view at the privacy concessions people will have to make to maximize usage of the AI voice assistant and avoid bricking functionality of already-purchased devices.

"In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said that Echo users will no longer be able to set their devices to process Alexa requests locally and, therefore, avoid sending voice recordings to Amazon’s cloud. Amazon apparently sent the email to users with 'Do Not Send Voice Recordings' enabled on their Echo. Starting on March 28, recordings of everything spoken to the Alexa living in Echo speakers and smart displays will automatically be sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud."

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/everything-you-say-to-your-echo-will-be-sent-to-amazon-starting-on-march-28/
#BigBrother #Orwell #BigTechBrosAreWatchingYou #BigBrotherIsListeningToYou #NineteenEightyFour

‘We are the dead,’ he says. ‘We are the dead,’ repeats Julia behind him. Suddenly an iron voice declares behind them, ‘You are the dead.’
-- George Orwell, 1984
#1984isnow #Orwell #Orwellian

If you don't see the #Orwell reference with #forbiddenwords by #Trump you gotta read #1984 again.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/07/us/trump-federal-agencies-websites-words-dei.html

Sometimes, I'm surprised what is "hidden" on government servers in France MGM owns the rights of this important film, so watch it in the USA, before your president bans it. The English original with French subtitles: https://podeduc.apps.education.fr/video/60057-1984-film-de-michael-radford/

If there's a geoblocking, look anywhere for the film "1984" by Michael Radford, released in GB, in 1984: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four_(1984_film)

+ + + #Buchempfehlung + + +

George Orwell - 1984. Bertelsmann 1960

Die #Dystopie von #Orwell (1903-1950) ist ein Meilenstein der #Literatur und aktueller denn je. Als ethisches Manifest sollte #1984 Pflichtlektüre für Politiker sein.

In einem totalitären Staat herrschen die Einheitspartei und der #BigBrother, die die Menschen mittels Propaganda lenken und durch eine Gedankenpolizei überwachen.

Lässt einen an #China, #Russland und die "neue" #USA denken ...

Periodic reminder that #Orwell and #Huxley were naively optimistic. The world the global #overwealthy have planned for us is much worse.

Their dystopia had housing, food, clothes, medical care, and so forth. No the #liberarian utopia is from the movie #SoylentGreen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_jGOKYHxaQ

#Boycottwealthy
#boycottamerica
#boycottusa
#boycottnazi
#boycotttexas
#boycottflorida
#boycottdeepsouth
#boycottisrael

A quotation from Orwell

All through the Christian ages, and especially since the French Revolution, the Western world has been haunted by the idea of freedom and equality; it is only an idea, but it has penetrated to all ranks of society. The most atrocious injustices, cruelties, lies, snobberies exist everywhere, but there are not many people left who can regard these things with the same indifference as, say, a Roman slave-owner. Even the millionaire suffers from a vague sense of guilt, like a dog eating a stolen leg of mutton. Nearly everyone, whatever his actual conduct may be, responds emotionally to the idea of human brotherhood.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/orwell-george/75463/

1980? What year was that again?

#AbsentMindABookOrPlay
#HashTagGames
#Orwell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TawsjQ1X6k

#Mediacratie #Blast #Travail #Chiens2Garde #Orwell #1984 #Capitalisme #Dividende #35h #Salamé #Propagande #Autoritarisme #Réactionnaires #Assistanat #Figaro #Cnews #LePoint #CDansLAir #Figaro #TF1 #M6 #FranceIntox #FranceTélé #Liberation #Pinault #Joffrin #Barbier #Drahi #Boloré #Threard #MediaCratie

“The attack on the news agency brings into focus the administration’s refusal to respect the First Amendment, with presidential aides and the president himself trying to dictate the very language news reporters may use — just as George Orwell’s fictional dictators did. It is emblematic of the broader assault by the White House on the public’s right to know.”
#media #Orwell #RESIST https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/opinion/donald-trump-press-ap.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Isaac Asimov critiques Orwell's 1984.

It's an interesting read because it's a critique of a writer by a writer, so there's a lot of picking apart how the 1984 world would (or wouldn't) work.

And he needs a hero. Asimov hates the lack of heroes in 1984, which I kinda liked.

He also rightly points out that the state surveillance wouldn't work without robots or computers. And there are some interesting points made of Orwell's colonial leanings.

I think Asimov is a touch too hard on the book, yet his criticisms seem quite valid. It goes to show that a writer can sort of get it wrong, yet end up creating something that kinda gets it right, and inspires people for generations in a slightly different way.

Another thing I think Asimov misses is the culture of propaganda, an area Orwell worked in. I think the book is good at propaganda techniques.

What's also interesting is that some of the things Asimov is dismissing in 1980, when he wrote the critique, seem very accurate descriptions of the present. So maybe Orwell did get it right?

But I agree that I don't think Orwell was a prescient genius. I think he just happened to write something engaging and meaningful whilst bitching about the Soviet Union.

https://redsails.org/asimov-on-1984/

#Orwell #Asimov #1984 #Writing #Writers

#ThreeGoodThings

I bought 2 #books, actual , honest-to-god, hardback, paper page, physical books.

I bought them from an actual book shop.

The smell of books.

George #Orwell:
Animal Farm, and 1984, in case you were wondering.

I bought them because
A . They are damn fine books &
B. I want to have them in case government decides they should be removed from sight.

More will follow, when I locate a nice edition the next one will be Aldus #Huxley's Brave New World

On Trump’s Orwellian attack on words & history, with Jason Stanley on how erasing history is a hallmark of fascism/authoritarianism. #podcast #Orwell #dissent #politics #media https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?i=1000692391687