MJ's little flock

[MaryJanet]

It's a frosty morning! Brrr fingers like ice.

 

[BY Bob]

It varies by brand, but floor plan, placement of furnishings, which room is the kids room, whether the house is occupied. If it's voice activated, maybe conversations. Possibly cheaply made software with bugs, weaknesses or even deliberate data leaks. Collected and maybe sold to third parties who have no business knowing that stuff. I prefer the home is known by those invited through the door. But most folks are not as fussy about it as I am. And some are fussier than I. Privacy varies by person and by context.

So when I found a model that didn't need any telecomms to do its job, I snapped it up I'm surprised it was so cheap! You'd think the retail price would be higher for a model that's not building a data asset for its parent company. Shows how much all that software costs to implement, I guess.

My cousin is not as fussy as I am, bought an expensive model with lots of software andnow she can't use it because her network doesn't have the bandwidth. So it hasn't come out of the box yet. The vac won't even function without the internet connection.

That's crazy. I don't have one. My daughters each have one but they work without the internet,. I guess my kids are just cheap enough.

 

[BY Bob]

There's a very funny blog post by a chap whose robovac encountered a fresh dog poop in the night and how it turned his home into a nightmare. Poor man, he wrote such a hilarious blog about it

O man that's scary. And gross.

 

[MaryJanet]

That's crazy. I don't have one. My daughters each have one but they work without the internet,. I guess my kids are just cheap enough.

From what I've read and seen first hand, it's safe to assume any connected device is monitoring what its user does in great detail.

The trick is to work out how much you care about it.

If you don't care, great, there's no problem. If you care A LOT, then choose other devices, or none. Most of us are somewhere in the middle, we care about it in the home but not in the car, or whatever.

Just know what you can tolerate then exercise consumer discretion accordingly.

 

[MaryJanet]

O man that's scary. And gross.

A horrid thought. He had a baby too, so he was cleaning the floors in the middle of the night. If I recall correctly, he threw out the robovac and got a new one.

 

[LozzyR]

From what I've read and seen first hand, it's safe to assume any connected device is monitoring what its user does in great detail.

The trick is to work out how much you care about it.

If you don't care, great, there's no problem. If you care A LOT, then choose other devices, or none. Most of us are somewhere in the middle, we care about it in the home but not in the car, or whatever.

Just know what you can tolerate then exercise consumer discretion accordingly.

There’s a really good X-Files episode in Season 11 and it’s about tech that stalks Mulder and Scully all episode just for a tip. Scully bought a robovac and it started mapping her house. There was minimal dialogue and it was quite a thought-provoking episode.

 

[MaryJanet]

We're getting really good at dinner together but apart. Peggy gave me no complaints about going into the henhouse and only a little stress when she felt her friends were not close enough. She was excited to eat her own dinner and made yum yum yum noises.

 

[MaryJanet]

There’s a really good X-Files episode in Season 11 and it’s about tech that stalks Mulder and Scully all episode just for a tip. Scully bought a robovac and it started mapping her house. There was minimal dialogue and it was quite a thought-provoking episode.

I never saw that one but it's definitely not fictional any more.

 

[LozzyR]

I never saw that one but it's definitely not fictional any more.

All 11 seasons are on SBS On Demand at the moment.

 

[LozzyR]

We're getting really good at dinner together but apart. Peggy gave me no complaints about going into the henhouse and only a little stress when she felt her friends were not close enough. She was excited to eat her own dinner and made yum yum yum noises.

Is that a high-pitched ‘tuk tuk’ that sounds excited? My girls do that.