[NFB-Idaho] Be aware

Thu Oct 17 16:43:39 UTC 2024

For what it's worth, the taking and use of data that Kevin and TJ describe
is a defining feature of all of what we now call "AI." It simply would not
work if AI did not syphon in everything it can take. This is a concern for
some. I and others in research projects on AI and societal values at BSU
are very keenly aware of how we are being used, as we use these new tools.
I am not pollyanna about our prospects. It's kinda like plastics -- a
fabulous material but also one that we are only now realizing is polluting
us and changing us from the inside-out.

But no manner of academic work will change the fact that these corporate
practices are already well entrenched. There is no turning back and
the prospects of steering this corporate practice depend on the ethics of
each individual business. Good luck to us.

DON WINIECKI

Handid Braille Services

   - a 501(c)(3) non-profit producer of braille & accessible media
   - specializing in languages that don't use Latin symbols systems
   - winner of the 2024 Jacob Bolotin Award from the National Federation of
   the Blind, for work producing braille in languages other than English

Email: dwiniecki at handid.org

Web: https://www.handid.org

Tel: +1 208 571 8096

   - Your donations make braille free for others!
   - Donate tax-deductible funds to Handid by clicking here
   <https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LW9KZFRKQY67C>!

On Thu, Oct 17, 2024 at 10:32 AM tj via NFB-Idaho <nfb-idaho at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> There is also an email address (optout at bemyeyes.com) where you can opt
> out of all of the sharing of your data lined out in the privacy policy.
> That said, privacy policy or not, be careful of what you put out on the
> internet in general.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFB-Idaho <nfb-idaho-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Kevin Pirnie
> via NFB-Idaho
> Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2024 5:19 PM
> To: NFB of Idaho Discussion List <nfb-idaho at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Kevin Pirnie <kpirnie77 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [NFB-Idaho] Be aware
>
> Bose shared this post with me from a Facebook group. It is very alarming
> if you’ve ever used Be My Eyes or be my AI to scan personal documents
> information of a private or personal nature. It could be out there
> everywhere now and who knows who’s hands.
>
>
> Bose Pirnie , Can we talk about AI and our privacy? I was flabbergasted to
> learn Be My AI keeps all the videos, questions and photos you submit
> through the apps, indefinitely, and has free reign to use them almost any
> way they like. This isn't just my opinion: it's clearly spelt out in the
> privacy policy ( https://www.bemyeyes.com/privacy ) and terms of service
> ( https://www.bemyeyes.com/terms ). There is an informal process by which
> you can email legal at bemyeyes.com and request deletion of your data, but
> that's it. You can't access the chatlogs, you can't review what data is
> associated with your account. This is in contrast to e.g. ChatGPT, Gemini,
> etc. where while data is kept about you, at least a side benefit is that
> you can review it whenever you want. They also have more reasonable privacy
> policies where you can opt out of your data being used to train their
> models, or being retained/attached to your account for long periods of
> time. I got an Email about opting out from even more additional research
> from Be My AI, but that doesn't change the text of the terms of use and
> privacy policy. In an era when we're constantly hearing about data breaches
> or leaks, I'm just not okay with this. I'm not sure how many other blind
> people have really considered the implications of this. I know I didn't
> until I reviewed the policies. Combining metadata like location data in
> photos, personal data like Email and IP address, and your entire photo
> history, a data leak would provide a hugely detailed profile of you and
> your history combined with a small and niche community where identifying
> you would be trivial. For now, I've switched to using the OpenAI or Google
> Gemini APIs directly. The OpenAI API costs a fraction of a cent per image,
> while Gemini provides a generous amount of free tokens per day and then you
> can pay if you want more. I use this free app for iOS called Pal, I imagine
> there are other apps for iOS or other apps for other platforms, where I can
> use my own API account:
> https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/pal-chat-ai-chat-client/id6447545085
> Freedom Scientific's PictureSmart which uses similar AI partners as Be My
> AI says they don't retain your data, and ChatGPT, Google Gemini and their
> APIs have reasonable options for controlling data retention and opting out
> of data being used for training. Should we be calling on companies to
> improve their privacy practices? With this exciting new video model being
> worked on where we will be able to ask questions on live videos, I want to
> know that the privacy policies are reasonable, no indefinite data
> retention, when I start using it. I just don't see the need to keep all
> this data indefinitely.
> ETA: I know many don't care about their privacy. 🙂 This post isn't really
> for you, although of course you're welcome  to comment. , 4:40 PM
> _______________________________________________
> NFB-Idaho mailing list
> NFB-Idaho at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-idaho_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> NFB-Idaho:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-idaho_nfbnet.org/tj%40tjsquires.net
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> NFB-Idaho mailing list
> NFB-Idaho at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-idaho_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> NFB-Idaho:
>
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-idaho_nfbnet.org/dwiniecki%40handid.org
>