Discord has become the place for gaming communities on the internet. The company just celebrated its 10th anniversary, and its impact is now big enough that it’s available directly on PlayStation and Xbox and was ripped off by Nintendo for the Switch 2’s GameChat.
Technology
Are your smart home cameras spying on you? Study reveals shocking data grabs
Smart home cameras have become a necessity. You already know they help keep an eye on what’s happening indoors and outdoors, even when you’re not home.
But while these cameras are undeniably useful, they also pose a privacy risk. A new study highlights outdoor security camera apps as some of the biggest collectors of user data.
This includes sensitive personal information like email addresses, phone numbers, payment details, precise location and more.
GET SECURITY ALERTS, EXPERT TIPS – SIGN UP FOR KURT’S NEWSLETTER – THE CYBERGUY REPORT HERE
Smart outdoor camera (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
How smart home cameras can be spying on you
According to a study conducted by Surfshark, outdoor security camera apps are some of the top offenders when it comes to collecting user data. These apps gather 12 data points on average, including sensitive details like email addresses, phone numbers, payment information and precise location. That’s 50% more than what other smart home devices typically collect. What’s even worse is that these apps often connect up to seven of these data points directly to your identity.
Indoor security camera apps are slightly less data-hungry but still raise privacy concerns. They collect an average of nine data points, with six typically tied to users’ identities. Commonly collected data includes email addresses, phone numbers, user IDs, device IDs, purchase histories and audio data. While this information can help improve the user experience, it also increases the risk of privacy violations.
One of the biggest concerns with both outdoor and indoor security camera apps is the kind of data they collect. Many of these apps gather personal info like your name, email, phone number and physical address. Some apps, such as Arlo, Deep Sentinel, and D-Link, even grab data about your contacts, which can be accessed outside of the app. This data isn’t actually necessary for the apps to do their job.
Smart camera (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
MASSIVE SECURITY FLAW PUTS MOST POPULAR BROWSERS AT RISK ON MAC
Which apps collect the most data?
Among the apps that collect the most data, Deep Sentinel and Lorex stand out for outdoor security cameras, each collecting 18 out of a possible 32 data points. Nest Labs, which leads the pack for indoor cameras, collects 17 data points, with Ring and Arlo each gathering 15.
The absence of regulations and standards for smart home devices creates significant privacy risks. Without clear guidelines, users are vulnerable to data breaches, cyberattacks and even physical harm. Some apps track users for targeted ads or share data with third parties and data brokers. While outdoor security cameras typically avoid tracking, indoor cameras like Nooie and Canary Connect engage in user tracking, further complicating privacy concerns.
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?
Smart indoor camera (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
4.3 MILLION AMERICANS EXPOSED IN MASSIVE HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNT DATA BREACH
9 ways to stay safe from the risks associated with smart home cameras
1. Limit data sharing: Look for smart home camera apps that allow you to control what data is shared. Many apps offer settings that let you disable certain data collection features, like location tracking or audio recording. Customizing these settings can significantly reduce your risk of exposing personal information.
2. Regularly review and update privacy settings: Smart home cameras often receive software updates that may change privacy settings. It’s important to regularly review the app’s privacy settings to make sure they align with your preferences. Disable features that aren’t essential, such as sharing data with third-party apps or advertisers.
3. Use strong passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA): Make sure your camera’s app and associated accounts are protected by strong, unique passwords. Consider using a password manager to generate and store complex passwords.
4. Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) wherever possible: This adds an extra layer of security in case your account information is compromised.
5. Be mindful of camera placement: If your camera is collecting sensitive data like audio or images of people in your home, be mindful of where you place it. Avoid positioning cameras in private areas like bedrooms or bathrooms. This reduces the amount of potentially sensitive data the camera can capture.
6. Consider using local storage instead of cloud services: Some cameras offer local storage options, where footage is stored directly on a device like a hard drive or SD card, rather than in the cloud. This keeps your data more secure since it’s not accessible via the internet and is less likely to be exposed during a data breach.
7. Use a VPN: Encrypt your internet connection with a VPN to safeguard data transmitted from your smart home devices. This is an easy yet powerful way to add an extra layer of protection to your network. Using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service can enhance your privacy by encrypting your internet traffic, making it harder for hackers and third parties to intercept your data, especially on public Wi-Fi. A VPN masks your IP address, helping to obscure your location and online activity. While VPNs don’t directly prevent phishing emails, they reduce the exposure of your browsing habits to trackers that may use this data maliciously. With a VPN, you can securely access your email accounts from anywhere, even in areas with restrictive internet policies. For best VPN software, see my expert review of the best VPNs for browsing the web privately on your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices
8. Regularly review privacy policies: Stay informed about how your devices and apps collect, store and share your data. Ensure that you are aware of any changes to privacy terms that may affect your information.
9. Consider home security systems with enhanced physical security features, but be aware that, like all smart devices, they collect a variety of user data, including personal information, device data and location tracking. To minimize privacy risks, here are some tips for adjusting the settings within most security system apps:
- Disable location tracking: The security company may use location data for features like geofencing, which triggers actions based on your proximity to your home. If you’re concerned about privacy, you can disable location tracking in the app to prevent the system from collecting this data.
- Limit video storage: Many security company’s cameras can store video footage in the cloud, but you can adjust the app settings to limit how long footage is stored or to delete it automatically after a certain period.
- Adjust device permissions: Review and adjust permissions for devices like cameras and smart locks to limit data collection. For example, disable audio recording if it’s not necessary for your security needs.
- Control third-party data sharing: Your security company may share data with third parties, so it’s essential to check and disable any settings that allow your data to be shared beyond your security system’s ecosystem.
By actively managing these settings and using a VPN, you can significantly reduce your exposure to potential privacy risks associated with your smart home system. Check out my picks for best security systems.
HOW TO REMOVE YOUR PRIVATE DATA FROM THE INTERNET
Kurt’s key takeaway
The rapid rise of IoT tech has changed the way we live and interact. But without proper rules in place, companies might put profits over user safety. This can lead to devices with security holes and weaknesses. A lot of smart home cameras are collecting more data than they really need and aren’t clear about what they’re doing with it. It could be sold to third-party companies or used to target you with ads.
Do you feel comfortable with the amount of data your smart home devices collect? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact
For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter
Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you’d like us to cover
Follow Kurt on his social channels
Answers to the most asked CyberGuy questions:
New from Kurt:
Copyright 2024 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.
But as it tries to grow, one of the big challenges Discord faces is that, for big or longer-running communities, it can be hard to know where to start, hard to catch up to the speed of real-time conversations, and hard to sift through the potentially huge amounts of conversations and channels. A lot of communities used to form around forums, but Discord just isn’t a good replacement for that kind of structured messaging, as covered by Aftermath’s Luke Plunkett.
“This is something we want to solve,” Peter Sellis, Discord’s SVP of product, tells The Verge. “It is not our intention to lock a bunch of this knowledge into Discord.”
One way Discord wants to tackle the problem is add features that are “more amicable to structured knowledge sharing, like forums, that we could probably do a better job of investing in and is something we want to do for game developers,” Sellis says.
Another involves LLMs. “There’s an incredible opportunity now with large language models and their ability to summarize conversations,” he says. That could help Discord take a long conversation between multiple people — “what is essentially a really poorly structured shareable object,” he says — and boil it down to “something that could be more shareable and then potentially syndicated to the web.”
Sellis couldn’t share many other details, and couldn’t give a timeline for when any of this might be ready: “I haven’t seen a solution that we feel great about yet.”
Discord wants to do it right, he says — especially because a solution that makes information more easily accessible outside of Discord could involve a lot of work for server moderators and admins. “We have a very sensitive radar for stuff that causes them a bunch of work that doesn’t give them the return they need,” he says. (It’s wise not to piss off your moderators.)
None of this was imminent, if it even happens at all. That said, “I assure you that this is something that people within Discord feel the pain of themselves,” Sellis says. “And when our engineers and product designers and product managers feel it personally, they generally want to solve it.”
Another big challenge Discord faces is how to build the product to serve both the needs of giant community servers and the tiny servers where groups hang out — especially when, according to Discord, 90 percent of “all activity on Discord” happens in “small, intimate servers.”
Sellis calls it “one of the biggest challenges for the team” — but also says that it’s “honestly the biggest opportunity.” He says that Discord thinks about how it can make people “feel comfortable in both these spaces, understand that there are different types of spaces, and the technology is familiar, but still different in both of these places.”
Sellis says that the biggest Discord server is Midjourney, a key company in text-to-AI image generation that lets you generate visuals right inside Discord. Midjourney became popular because it turned the “single-player game” of generating AI images into a multiplayer community. “You can just watch people try things, experiment, fail, succeed, embarrass themselves, etc. And that made it kind of like a collective action.”
He says Discord is seeing something similar with the recently launched Wordle app on the platform, too, which lets you compete with your friends.
That all speaks to some of Discord’s larger vision. Sellis is seeing a trend that “everything is starting to kind of look like a game” and “Discord can be used as a social layer on any game to essentially improve its engagement, its socialness, and its multiplayer capacity. That’s something we like and are going to lean into.”
And as for Nintendo’s GameChat? “I would say imitation is a very sincere form of flattery,” Sellis says. “Hard to imagine being more flattered than being copied by Nintendo.”
NASA revived roll thrusters on the 47-year-old Voyager 1 that were thought to be dead for two decades.
According to the space agency, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA, located in Southern California, have reactivated a set of thrusters on the spacecraft.
The roll thrusters have not worked since 2004 and are long believed to have been out of commission.
These thrusters are important because Voyager’s main thrusters appear to have some residue forming that could cause them to clog. Scientists estimate those thrusters could fail as early as Fall 2025.
NASA ASTRONAUT REVEALS THEY NEARLY FAILED TO DOCK BOEING STARLINER TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Voyager 1 had its thrusters revived after nearly two decades of being thought dead and out of commission. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The antenna on Earth responsible for sending commands to both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 will be offline for several months.
Deep Space Station 43, a 230-foot-wide antenna in Australia, will be offline until February 2026 due to needed upgrades.
While that antenna is being upgraded, the team at NASA will not be able to communicate with the twin space probes.
NASA FINALIZES STRATEGY FOR HUMAN PRESENCE IN SPACE
The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The JPL has been working on restoring the thrusters on the Voyager 1. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager and director of the Interplanetary Network at JPL, said these upgrades are important for future Moon missions.
“These antenna upgrades are important for future crewed lunar landings, and they also increase communications capacity for our science missions in deep space, some of which are building on the discoveries Voyager made,” Dodd said in a press release.
Each Voyager has a set of primary thrusters that control movement in all directions as well as smaller thrusters for what is called roll control.
Using the smaller thrusters allows the Voyager’s antenna to stay aligned with Earth, so the scientists can communicate with it.
NASA’s deep space antenna in Australia is currently going through upgrades causing any communication with Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 to go dark until 2026, when the Antenna is reactivated. (STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
While there is a third set of thrusters, which were brought back online in 2018 and 2019, Voyager does not have the capability to perform the roll adjustments needed to keep a connection with Earth.
If Earth happened to lose connection with Voyager 1, it would be nearly impossible to restore communication.
Voyager 1 was launched in 1977 and has traveled nearly 15 billion miles away and is currently exploring interstellar space, which is beyond our Solar System.
Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have traveled farther than any other human-made objects. Voyager 1’s notable discoveries include finding a thin ring around Jupiter, along with 2 moons orbiting the Solar System’s largest planet that had not been seen before. It also discovered five moons orbiting Saturn, along with a previously unknown ring around the gas giant.
Nick Butler is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Do you have any tips? Reach out to Nick.Butler@Fox.com.
If you’ve ever wondered how the Internet Archive uploads all the physical documents on its site, now you can get a behind-the-scenes look at the process. The Internet Archive launched a new YouTube livestream that shows the digitization of microfiche in real time — complete with some relaxing, lo-fi beats.
Microfiche is a sheet of film that contains multiple images of miniaturized documents. It’s an old form of storing newspapers, court documents, government records, and other important documents. The Internet Archive uses these microfiche cards to digitize and upload documents to its online library.
“Operators feed microfiche cards beneath a high-resolution camera, which captures multiple detailed images of each sheet,” Chris Freeland, the Internet Archive’s director of library services, writes in a post on the site. “Software stitches these images together, after which other team members use automated tools to identify and crop up to 100 individual pages per card.”
From there, the Internet Archive processes the pages, makes them text-searchable, and then uploads them to its public collections.
The livestream runs from Monday through Friday from 10:30AM ET to 6:30PM ET. “During the day, you’ll see scanners working on custom machines to digitize all the microfiche in the world,” Tung says. “During the off hours, you can also see everything else that the Archive has to offer, like silent films in the public domain or historical pictures from NASA.”
Virginia2 minutes ago
1.2 million Virginians expected to travel for Memorial Day despite economic concerns and rising gas prices
Wisconsin18 minutes ago
Wisconsin OKs gas-fired power to offset coal closures, serve data centers
West Virginia27 minutes ago
West Virginia gets their mojo back in win over Cincinnati
Wyoming34 minutes ago
Memorial Day: Wild mustangs help veterans heal through Wyoming ranch program
Crypto41 minutes ago
Kazakhstan to Tighten Cryptocurrency Regulation Following $15 Billion Capital Outflow – The Astana Times
-
Culture1 week agoBook Review: ‘Original Sin,’ by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson
-
News1 week agoAs Harvard Battles Trump, Its President Will Take a 25% Pay Cut
-
Education1 week agoVideo: Opinion | We Study Fascism, and We’re Leaving the U.S.
-
News1 week agoMenendez Brothers Resentenced to Life With Parole, Paving Way for Freedom
-
Politics1 week agoRepublicans say they're 'out of the loop' on Trump's $400M Qatari plane deal
-
Technology1 week agoLove, Death, and Robots keeps a good thing going in volume 4
-
Technology1 week agoMeta’s beef with the press flares at its antitrust trial
-
Education1 week agoA $5 Billion Federal School Voucher Proposal Advances in Congress