Alexa
 

Anyone have one? Any first-hand reviews? My friend has his hooked up to his lights, TV, and fan and can command them to turn on and off with his voice. The ultimate lazy guy device, I know.

It'd be nice to walk in with a handful of groceries and just say, "Alexa, lights."

As far as I know, she hasn't become self-aware... yet.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...AL9000.svg.png

Puts a live microphone in your house 24/7.

All the voice recognition is processed on remote servers owned by megacorp.
You give them permission to monitor everything you do.

And there's already cops asking for the recordings.

https://www.cnet.com/news/police-req...investigation/

Sounds fun but I'll pass.

Skynet

Ummm easy to avoid the cops asking. Don't murder anybody. Not like they have people sitting around listening to billions of hours of conversation in the off chance you may said you double parked that day.

Couldn't your phone be a listening device?! If you are paranoid about Alexa, probably shouldn't be leaving the house or taking off that foil hat.

Got my daughter one for Christmas. I've only played with it briefly, but it seems pretty cool. Its voice recognition is good and it responds very quickly. I asked it when Rogue One was showing, and it gave me all the showtimes at the nearest theater right away.

I don't know. Alexa? Sounds like a Russian spy to me. They may have me bugged to get all my secrets.






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My phone is not always listening. I have to be on the home screen for it to do that. Alexa is ALWAYS listening. It goes too far for me.

I thought this was pretty funny. It involves a small child asking Alexa for something and Alexa coming up with porn results.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55xcac7ifIQ"]AMAZON ALEXA GOES CRAZY- VOICE RECOGNITION GONE WRONG!- ALEXA DOESNT QUITE UNDERSTAND THIS KID! - YouTube[/ame]

You could only be so lucky

Listening to what? I have always been baffled by this paranoia that "the Government/Police/Unknown Somebody" is listening through one device or another. I can't speak for everybody of course but there are no conversations going on in my house that would do any agency any good. When I talk about my big shipment of ...ummmmm...sugar coming from Columbia or how I single handedly plan to overthrow the government of Lower Sobovia I would turn such devices off.

I have watched a documentary or two on Nixon and Hoover, the stupid shit they thought people were doing or monitoring a women's wednesday book club. It was hilarious yet also scary.

Some in bureau don't like you, tap into Alexa, and you talk about your big delivery coming tonight(IE: you and the misses)_ and they bust your door down cuz they "thought" you meant drugs. lol.

Could be fun though.

Government agencies are small beans.

Corporations (legally people ha) are not responsible to anyone or thing but profit.

alexa is a slut

You've never read your credit card number or any other private information to anyone in your home? Ever uttered you alarm code? It's not that it's a boogie man in the shadows, Amazon, a private company is keeping all of your recognized speech in it's databases for an unknown length of time. Do you trust Amazon to keep all of your private conversations private or protected? I don't.

This isn't just someone listening. It's indexable, searchable text that will most likely be sold as a service to other companies. I don't feel like paying for companies to data mine me for better ways to try and sell me stuff. My private home is my home, amazon doesn't need unfettered access to me and my family's private interactions and I don't have a problem typing my questions into google if I have them.

I have no issues with anyone else having one, it's just not my cup of tea.

Using Phones or computers to spy on people has happened many times. Miss teen USA was even a victim. The hacker said that he did it to 100-150 women. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassidy_Wolf This is only one of the well documented cases.

It is not the Government that I am worried about, (OK I am) it is the fact that others could potentially use this device for nefarious activities. Don't tell me that they can't be hacked. Read about stuxnet... Anything can be hacked.

Orwell got 3 things wrong:

1. Wrong decade: His book should have been called "2016" instead of 1984.
2. The ones invading privacy and controlling behavior: While the government does a fair share of spying the real invaders of privacy are corporations who track, monitor, record and monetize our speech, habits and behavior.
3. Resisting "Big Brother": The population didn't resist this invasion of privacy. They welcomed it with open arms, pay for it and even shun others who don't subscribe to this social surveillance. They willingly allow their most personal matters to be public and not just tracked by the corporation and government but by the rest of the population, "subscribers" and employers. And some will sell their privacy in its entirety for profit or a little bit of fame.

Future prediction: At some point our right to privacy will be officially revoked.



The irony of posting this on a public forum where the contents will be saved and monetized is not lost on me.

That is the other I referred too and of course anything can be hacked that was sort of my point. If somebody already wants to find something out about YOU they will find a way. What you cite were not just some guy finding out things at random they were targeted attacks. Do you think that secrets were safe before the electronic age? No ears were placed to key holes? Letters were not read? Phone lines were not taped? I am just surprised to see so many people think that companies, hackers, government, etc feel that they have something being said important enough for the info to be valuable. You guys must lead some interesting lives since you have so many things to keep hidden. If Amazon wants to wade through millions of conversations to listen to my wife and I discuss the holes in my underwear they are welcome to the info.
I know that this is a contentious subject and I will not change anybody's thoughts but my opposing point of view is just as valid as anybody that falls for these conspiracy theories.

I understand that this is for fun. And nothing more than a verbal joust. I am not offended, nor does this make me think any different. Thank you for posting Tcoat. Without you, the forum would be less, not everyone can say that. :w00t:

OK, on to the comments...

First of all. Yes, I do live a crazy life. And I don't want a listening device in my home. I live at the end of a road in the middle of Nowhere. Risk management is something that I think about all the time. You could call me "careful"

Second, It is the totality of the information being saved that is disturbing. Once it is saved. Who, when and where it gets used/brought up is the question. So many what ifs. Information is power.

Be careful with the convenience of technology being invasive on our Freedoms. It is a double edged sword.

Thanks!
It is that very same technology that gives you many of the freedoms so double edged sword is very appropriate. The totality of the information being saved presents no danger as 99.99999% of it is the meaningless drivel of daily life. That remaining very tiny bit probably is mostly used for valuable purposes (updating services, developing products, etc) leaving such a small chunk that could be harmful if anybody should even want to use it that there really is nothing to fear. The places collecting that data are not malicious nor out to get anybody. So what if they make money from it doesn't everybody work for a place that makes money somehow?

I think we may be pushing the boundaries of what could be considered "politics" here though so I am bowing out of the conversation now. Have it me conspiracy theorists.

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/01d1...-115425629.jpg

Oh don't get me wrong, I know that I am an insignificant speck in the great big world and I'm sure no one wants to read about what I say or do. That doesn't make my privacy any less important to me.

I hope everyone feels that their opinions are important, without them there wouldn't be anything worth talking about, to anyone, ever. If I ever come across (in my 200+ posts or in the future) any different somebody ban me. :paddle:

OH!...You better watch out, You better not cry
You better not pout, I'm Telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
He sees you when you're sleeping,
He knows when you're awake.
He knows when you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!

Ahhhh but does he know about the holes in my underwear?

Yes, thats why you get some under the tree. He knows about your socks too!

I think concerns over a fast-approaching Orwellian future are valid, but I think most of the fears about the Amazon Echo are unfounded. My understanding is that although the unit listens all the time, it records to a very small buffer that is recorded over endlessly without any retention on the device. I also understand that all initial processing is done on-device, which means nothing automatically gets to Google's servers. When an Alexa query is sent for further processing, only a recording of the few seconds it took you to ask the question gets sent - in other words, your personal privacy is only 'at risk' for a few seconds, and it's not like Google has a 'hot mic' recording everything that's going on at all times. Lastly, Google touts that there are myriad layers of encryption on the device to prevent hacking, and to my knowledge there are no public reports yet of the encryption being broken. Can it be broken? Sure - especially by a government, foreign or domesic - but my guess is that from a practical standpoint, your privacy is probably not really at risk.

Thanks to Edward Snowden we know that our government monitors virtually all of our 'private' communication in some way, much in a way that I regard as a violation of our Fourth Amendment. This, along with electronic banking and financial transactions and GPS capable cell phones that track our every move means we really don't have any true privacy anymore - which is something I personally loathe and would make our founders roll over in their graves. These are very serious and valid concerns, and I think the Amazon Echo probably represents a very small threat in comparison.

Maybe not, but .....

THE SHADOW KNOOOOOWS

I've always subscribed to the idea of if there is anything they want to know about me they will find out anyway with or without my help. So why inconvience myself in a fruitless attempt to "foil the man". I have on in my basement for when I'm watching tv. I have smart lights through most of the house as well as smoke alarms thermostats and a ring door bell.

There are many things you can enable and disable at your leisure.
For instance the wife on ours disabled being able to buy things via voice.
We have a renter/friend who has a kid renting the lower portion of our house last thing we wanted was to have the kid accidentally order us 4 life time supplies of toilet paper or in the case of another family have their daughter order a doll house and a months supply of sugar cookies lol(google it if you don't know what I'm talking about).

I read this wrong at first and thought "what a great feature I must get one of these"!

One could hope that this technology one day will exist.

"Alexa, put wife on standby."

I could win an argument!

It would indeed be a historic moment for married men everywhere.
I win arguments now, but every married guy knows even when you win you lost.

I thought I won one once. She told me I was wrong in thinking that though.

Did she tell you that you were wrong or that she was disappointed that you thought you won.

Disappointment is the worst.