#22

@discobot quote me something that combines agreement and exasperation, thanks.

1 Like
#23

:left_speech_bubble: Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all. — Winston Churchill

#24

Reliable as ever, D-bo. FU, 'lexa.

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#25

At work, we have a computing system called iSeries. A collegue speaks with an accent pronouncing it as “hi siri” and activates his iPhone.

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#26

I’ve changed mine so it responds to “computer” instead.

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#27

that don’t impress me much

#28

You are clearly not a fan but I find it useful and maybe other people might do too. I think you are kidding yourself on if you think using not using one gives you massively more privacy, if you are using a smartphone, google etc then that horse has already bolted.

#29

Aye, I wouldn’t deny anyone the use of one. Just that the sales pitch and rationale seems a bit… thin?

Can imagine that they’re very very useful for people with accessibility requirements, though.

Agreed that ‘complete’ privacy pretty much a lost battle at this point (but at least there are a whole load of options and choices that you can take to limit, mitigate and muddle the data harvesting and scraping on a phone or PC).

#30

My daughter is ten and loves her echo dot. It’s connected to Spotify (she doesn’t have a smartphone yet) so she just says “play songs by wolf alice” and it does (it’s connected to a speaker set up in her room). Gives her access to music that she wants without having her own cd collection or anything. She also uses it for reminders and timings etc. Really useful for someone who wants a lot of Internet capabilities without having a phone.

3 Likes
#31

It’s funny that these speakers get singled out for being so invasive, when smartphones, laptops, tablets, set top boxes etc have had the ability to be voice activated whilst on standby (and therefore ‘listen’) for ages. I guess its the fact that they’re so cheap?

I have an Echo Dot that’s attached to my Sonos in the kitchen. It’s very handy for changing music/volume whilst cooking and you have stuff all over your hands, but that’s about it. It is also far quicker to start the radio via voice than using the godawful Sonos app.

But I see it being like 4K TVs - soon you won’t have a choice. Everything will have it.

1 Like
#32

not sure? i guess with my phone i know it’s whatever i type that ends up on some advertisers database, and i’m fine with that because i’m consciously inputting it. i’m just not keen on it being able to hear EVERYTHING that goes on in my house

dunno why really, i’m just funny about it

1 Like
#34

guess it *could* but the alexa thing explicitly tells you that they are doing it

#36
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#37

aye, exactly my point, every app, website you use is already tracking your every action (maybe not explicitly listening to you but still harversting a massive amount of personal information) so it’s a drop in the ocean getting one of these. My chat is shite anyway so they are welcome to it.

#38

I’m not sure those that are worried about having conversations recorded are aware that everything they type online (email, social media, messaging, browser history) can be just as easily interrogated by our secret service. This is common knowledge. They don’t look at it unless they need to but what do you think amazon are going to do with your convos? If you have a computer/smart phone you already have no real privacy

#39

To what degree depends on a whole load of variables, though. I’ve turned Platform off in the settings on Facebook (and barely even use it these days, haven’t installed Messenger). I avoid buying from Amazon wherever possible. I use Firefox mobile browser, with an ad-blocker, rather than Chrome. I’m not signed in to Google in my browser, and my Google settings have browsing history turned off even if I did. I tend towards not using Google for search or mapping wherever practicable. Private browsing and tracking protection There’s a bunch of other stuff I could do. And I’m under no illusions that a what I do do is probably largely ineffectual in the grand scheme of things and a bunch of my data is being harvested. But, as @japes said, there’s a level of control there as to what you’re inputting. These devices are stripping away those layers of control.

Very, very blasé. I’ve already admitted the fallibility of anything but the most crazydetermined privacy measures. But there’s degrees of privacy. Coming back to this rehash of “if you’ve nothing to hide you’ve nothing to fear” that you’re going for - it’s a nonsense line of thinking. I have blinds in my windows because I sometimes require privacy, not because I consider everything I do to be a secret.

I wonder if there’s something of the Uncanny Valley to these things, and when the AI is a bit more advanced, we/I’ll have less of a reaction to them.

#40

It is a little bit different with Amazon I admit. With our secret service I see it as a trade off. I lose some privacy but gain security, and I’m fine with that. I guess all we might get from Amazon is better targeted ads?

#41

I’m not gonna go into the secret service angle at this point. That’s kind of a separate discussion as opposed to the basic commercial ‘transaction’ we enter into by using certain devices and services.

Better targeted ads. In a market with a shrinking amount of options because Amazon owns ‘buying things’. And Amazon (or Google, or whoever) then becomes more powerful than countries they’re operating in. And then the shit really starts to hit the fan.

Better ads is, ironically, the worst advert for anything. And citing it as the worst outcome is a really weak angle that overlooks how the whole usage model works, and the wider effects that has.

Not saying I’m not a part of the problem with some stuff that I buy or use, or that I know how to subvert it entirely. But to ignore all these issues is kinda willfully oblivious.

Anyway, this has all drifted away from the main point - that they’re a million miles away from being as useful as some folk would have you believe.

#42

Feels like a solution looking for a problem, to me.

(except for accessibility purposes)

2 Likes
#43

Tech still in development imo. It’s not there yet and won’t be really good for another 10 years or so. And with the way things are going and the different environments and brands not really playing with each other it’ll be a bit shit really unless you go for one brand of everything