from the watch-out-for-who-is-watching-you dept.
Mozilla releases privacy report on which holiday gadgets are too creepy
Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Mozilla has released a privacy report on some popular gift options, which tells you if a gadget meets basic security standards like encrypting data and offering a clear privacy policy.
While the list isn't comprehensive, it looked at 70 popular items and found that a little over 25 of them meet Mozilla's minimum security standards. The most secure gadgets: the Nintendo Switch, a Harry Potter Kano Coding Kit that mixes wand magic and teaching kids how to code, and an open-source smart speaker called Mycroft Mark 1.
[...] According to Mozilla, the creepiest gadget out there is the FREDI Baby Monitor, which has a history of easily being hacked and a default password of "123" that you're not prompted to change. The FREDI Baby Monitor also lacks a privacy policy, and its company doesn't push out security updates to its devices.
Also at Engadget.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 16 2018, @08:19PM
If you think the baby monitor is creepy, you should see the baby! FREDI runs to hide from Freddie!
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday November 16 2018, @08:48PM (2 children)
This is why open source tech has to be political, because the political ramifications of some technology is profound. I can understand the view that there is some value to focusing on the most relevant politics where our knowledge and skills is most applicable. But the opinion(though informed by expertise) that a given technology is invasive, and publishing that(and say, designing a browser to minimize invasiveness where possible) is useful, appreciated, and a political view. And it's driven by wider social concerns about how our lives are being affected by forces beyond our control.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @08:54PM (1 child)
As much as well all hate politics it is the unfortunate reality of being human. Politics is simply the fancy word we use for figuring out how to live together. Everything human is/can be political.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday November 16 2018, @09:09PM
I agree. That is the point of view underlying my post, that politics follows everything. I just wanted to highlight that I view this as an example of how that can be good in open source.
I feel like there's a social expectation to hear the word "politics" and expectorate a disgusting black blob into a spittoon. And with governmental politics being what they are, who can blame anyone for that. But I do like to remember that taking a political position can be a nearly unambiguously good thing.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @09:21PM (2 children)
Something is seriously wrong at Mozilla if they are publicly endorsing proprietary, user-subjugating and DRM-encumbered products like the the Nintendo Switch.
The fact that one of their minimum "security" requirements is that the proprietary, user-subjugating and DRM-encumbered product must be, by default, configured to autonomously request new orders from its masters over the internet is even more absurd (such orders are euphemistically referred to as "automatic updates").
How anyone considers a system setup to automatically execute commands received by a third party over the internet "secure" is completely beyond my comprehensionn.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday November 16 2018, @10:34PM (1 child)
And more directly related to them, my gripe (besides their SJW bullshit) is that in their Firefox browser they are deliberately hiding menu items or using odd behavior to make it harder for you to configure it for "don't remember anything" mode. Just when you think you've disabled it all you open a new tab and get "top sites" of specific places you've visited and to disable that you have to do some weird shit like toggle the menu item twice to enable it to be disabled.
This is the typical hypocrite mentality of the liberal cocksucker. Mozilla caring about privacy is like Bay Area liberals caring about the poor, even though the U.N. has declared the most progressive city in the world one big human rights violation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @11:10PM
You still sound stupid.
(Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Friday November 16 2018, @09:48PM (2 children)
I only give hard alcohol and firearms
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @09:21AM (1 child)
What good does the firearm do? Oh, you can hold up a liquer store with it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @09:56AM
No no, the gun is used to shoot libtards after the Great Awakening. The liquor is necessary because that's the only way they will have a steady aim.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @11:23PM
You got to be kidding me. "FREDI"? What genius names a product designed to monitor babies in their sleep after a well known fictional serial killer, who famously killed kids in their sleep?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddy_Krueger [wikipedia.org]