While there is no system for monitoring the companies, experts can reverse engineer the apps and debug the devices. Thusfar, experts who have done this have found no evidence of these types of activities. All the evidence is anecdotal. I believe if this was a widespread practice, evidence would have been uncovered by now and we would have been reported on widely.

The implication here is really scarier than if they were listening to our conversations. It means they do not need to listen to our conversations. The telemetry they already have is so good that in many cases they know what you will say with such high degrees of accuracy that people assumed that they had to be spying on their conversations.

Either way, we need to demand an end to this unprecedented mass surveillance.

From the “Financial Advice Index Card”:

1. Max your 401(k) or equivalent employee contribution.

2. Buy inexpensive, well-diversified mutual funds such as Vanguard Target 20xx funds.

3. Never buy or sell an individual security. The person on the other side of the table knows more than you do about this stuff.

4. Save 20% of your money.

5. Pay your credit card balance in full every month.

6. Maximize tax-advantaged savings vehicles like Roth, SEP and 529 accounts.

7. Pay attention to fees. Avoid actively managed funds.

8. Make Financial Advisors commit to the fiduciary standard.

9. Promote social insurance programs to help people when things go wrong.

Saw this post right below:

“# Steam On Linux Ends 2024 With A Nice Boost To Its Marketshare, AMD Linux CPU Use At 74%”

By just being a kind and decent person. I mostly get by on the kindness of strangers. I make a point of paying it forward.