Dh doesn't want an Amazon dot in our room

[cheesenpickles]

Lighthearted! I've just had a discussion (inverted commas type) about getting an Amazon echo for downstairs and a dot for our room. We have a Sonos in there that barely gets used because of the faff with using the app etc.

Suggested that I wanted to buy these with my Xmas money and he made a big thing about it listening in and how he doesn't want that intrusion, particular in the bedroom. He then got cross when I reminded him he sleeps with his iPad and iPhone next to him and then stormed off when I said "Hey Siri" and it chirped up.

Aibu?

I love ours, they've genuinely brightened up my life (though that's probably the magic bulbs )
I have little (if any) concerns about being listened to. My life is that dull that I pity the poor employee who theoretically has to sit there and trawl through the hours of banal twittering that goes on between DH and I

There's enough cameras videoing me daily, just going for a shop at Tesco's yes but that's out in public, when you've already altered your behaviour because you know you're being watched. In the privacy of your own home, when you don't expect anyone to wastch or listen to you, you behave differently.

Going slightly off track, but it may help others: I've just bought one for my mum who is in the early stages of dementia, for her to set reminders, make lists etc., and I think it will be really helpful. Instead of saying ten thousand times a day 'remind me to do xyx", she is beginning to use alexa for it (currently, if I remind her ;) )

I'll stop de-railing the thread now, but it may mange life easier for someone.

Domton that sounds great, but you don't need an internet connected device tformit to be able to do those things. I do see that Alexa is useful for less able bodied people.

Totally with your DH here

gizmodo.com/the-amazon-alexa-eavesdropping-nightmare-came-true-1831231490

This link that someone posted further up is legitimately worrying. They weren't even talking about this person - with the amount DH and I discuss slag off other people, we'd be in the shit for sure!

Afraid I’m also in the ‘beware’ camp. I think you should give some credence to your dh’s concerns.

No, but she can ask it what day of the week it is, etc., It's just having it all in one place I suppose, and am hoping that if she can use it now, she will have formed the habit as her dementia progresses. We've tried diaries, calendars, reminders on her phone etc., but she loses them, or can't remember how to use them (her phone) or forgets to use them, so I'm hoping just by speaking to one thing it may work. Could be back to the drawing board in a month, but worth a shot. It's nice for her not to have to ask us all the time, stops her feeling she is annoying us I think. So far it could be a positive.

I feel sorry if anyone is listening from my spot as it's in my bedroom and we have a lot of noisy sex
Seriously though who cares what you say in private or that you fart in bed!
I would also assume that certain people wouldn't be allowed these in their homes if there's a risk of privacy being compromised.

I completely agree with your DH.

If my DP installed one of those devices in our bedroom, it would soon be flying out of the window. Closely followed by him.

I'm with your husband too! Also freaked out by this stuff!

MIL mentioned wanting to get one for teen here for her Christmas present to him.
Teen thinks paranoid and it's all normal having a listening device.
Just no, not happening, and luckily DH thinks so too.

I love mine. I have a smart plug so I can switch my bedside lamp on and off by voice (due to slightly weird socket/lamp design I can't easily reach the switch once I'm in bed).

It's an absolute Godsend as I'm terrible in the morning and getting the light straight on when my alarm goes off ensures I wake up when I need to.

Great for time updates when I'm getting ready too.

I wouldn't go near it. If it wasn't for the now all-pervasive expectation that people in my line of work can access email and internet wherever they are, I would be replacing my smartphone with a Nokia 3210. It's not just the privacy issues although they're bad enough. It's never being able to put my bloody phone down.

I’m with your dh.

Ds2 (10) wanted an amazon echo for Christmas. Not a chance!

It’s bad enough that I clicked on a link on mumsnet about jumpers before Christmas and have been inundated with adverts for naff jumpers at extortionate prices ever since😄😄

Mind you, when I was a kid most people still had to go over to their TV set to choose one of the 3 available terrestrial channels, and everyone had to go over to the house phone and stand within 2 feet of it to use it. It was a primitive time requiring rugged survival skills.

It was a primitive time requiring rugged survival skills.

It was indeed. Rotary dial phones, paper maps, and groceries rung up at the till by the cashier looking for the price tag on the item. God help you if there was no price tag - then you had to pitch camp and wait for the dreaded "PRICE CHECK!". Only the fittest survived back then.

We did have a mobile phone though. The wall mounted phone in the kitchen had one of those absurdly long coiled cords so that you could take the handset into the pantry and close the door.

YABU

Google Home is far better IMO (I've used both), Alexa is rubbish in comparison

People who don’t care if the govt is listening to them should read this:
www.businessinsider.com/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4?r=UK&IR=T#1-banning-you-from-flying-or-getting-the-train-1

Obviously we’re not China but who knows what future govts will want to do.