Do you or would you have and Amazon Echo? I need advice please.

[letsjog]

We have been ever so kindly gifted one recently. It's the tall Echo one so a lovely speaker.

I have and I'm a frequent user of Amazon prime and the Fire TV stick. I saw one working at said friends house and they use it mainly to ask it to play music as the speaker is really nice and she mentioned she will probably use it for phone calls whilst she's cooking/busy with other things and they will set it up so it works with the tv too.

DP told me I'm more than welcome to but he won't use it. He's very wary of things like that and using his card for online purchases and so on in general.

I'm in two minds as I probably don't know enough about it.
I can see there's a button so you can choose to switch the voice activation/speaker off when you don't want to use it. I also saw that once you have the app on your phone you can opt out of Amazon using the voice recordings for research and in order to improve the devices understanding.

I don't know if I'm being paranoid about it for a good reason or due to DP. My FIL also saw it and went "oh oh oh! You don't want one of these in your home!"
But AIBU that a part of me thinks it's not that terrible? Everything runs on Google/Windows/Amazon in general. Phones/iPads etc often pop up with adverts for things you haven't even googled yet but barely mentioned out loud in passing to someone.

Would having an Alexa/Amazon Echo be such a terrible thing?

Does anyone have it or anyone against it?

Any insight or views would be very much appreciated.

I have a house full of them. Alexa runs my life.

The only thing dodgy that happened with mine was that I accidentally signed up for Amazon's paid music subscription, and had been paying for 4 months. But once I realised this, I contacted them and was given a full refund.

We have 3 . I’m often told that they’re spying on us by family but all of these people also use smart phones etc.

It’s a great speaker and has some fun apps that the kids enjoy, I also use it for audible at night and in the bath, we’re not talking about anything that interesting to others most of the time, so I think that it’s not really worth worrying about that much.

I don’t think I have my card linked to it though, I don’t use it to make purchases.

Love my Alexa(s) I just have the little dot ones - 3 in the house and mostly just use them to play radio or podcasts whilst I do housework. The kids enjoy playing with it too - it makes good fart noises!

Another one with a houseful of them here - I use them to turn the lights and heating off and on (especially when in bed), cooking timings and conversions, music, reminders, Audible at night, Prime videos etc. on the Show, some spellchecks, adding things to my shopping list, definitions if I come across a word I'm not familiar with, news updates, calling home from abroad via Skype, updates on Amazon deliveries - all sorts. I've never made a purchase through a device though, always do that on the laptop. If Amazon are spying on me, they must be getting bored by now.

Another massive fan. Love mine. Not sure we're interesting enough to spy on

I love it. I like all the little Easter eggs. Try saying "my name is Inigo Montoya" or ask Alexa how many Oscars Alec Baldwin has.
There are loads of funny things like that which Alexa gives fun responses too.

No fucking way. My DH and kids want one, but the thing creeps me out.

I love ours.

We also have a house full.

Daughter listens to stories on it and plays
Beach sounds to fall asleep to. You can link them all up to play the same
Music in every room.

We use ours as a walkie talkie too between my mum and dads and ours.

Turns our kettle and lights on and off also.

Terrible idea

I have one. I sometimes use it to turn the TV on and off. I have no other use for it.

It's a computer that has voice as the input/output medium instead of keyboard/mouse/screen/touchscreen. If you already have a mobile phone, tablet or computer, they can all do everything it can do, with more reliable human-machine interfaces.

There are times when voice control is the best way of interacting with a computer. I use voice to set destination in Google navigation while driving. So I suppose the use you get out of it will depend on what other devices you have and why their human-machine interfaces are less suitable for some particular uses of yours.

@Waffleswaffles

But Why? The OP is asking why.

I have one and love it for music and the kids are always asking for info on things that atomise their curiosity. She gives some fab info. (As well as meowing like a cat for some godforsaken reason or farting lots. Thanks kids.)
I don’t have it connected to my phone or have purchasing activated.
I do think about the spying aspect but, like your phones and loyalty cards, at the moment data is used to advertise and make you spend money.
I’m ok with that. I’ll worry about spying when the totalitarian state comes in to power.

House full of them. I particularly dropping into my child's bedroom downstairs and telling him to wake up and make me a cuppa LOL

Music subscription is good, it'll read to you. Love doing my shopping list on it. Play games on it.

She's my friend.
She does what I ask, when I ask it! The novelty is still there.

Smart phones are constantly listening so I don't worry about that.

Lulualla because it's listening to you,. It seems innocent now and lots of people think it doesn't matter as they" have boring lives", but who knows what the information it collects will be used for in the future. Because it's the starting point for government/ big companies' surveillance and control of the population.

we have quite an old one in the kitchen, and it's great for timers for cooking (or the DSs on the Xbox), radio, music, checking weather etc

kids connect their phones to it in the morning when they're having their breakfast, to pick songs to listen to.

it's great!

as for spying on us - i doubt there's anything more sinister it's learning from us that google/amazon/facebook etc haven't already learnt from our mobiles...

We just have the one little dot, and it's mainly used for Audible so DS can listed to Harry Potter when he goes to sleep each night. We did used to have it in the communal areas but we rarely used it in all the ways you're supposed to , and the speaker on the dot isn't nearly as good.

PILs have a tall one like yours which they put in their conservatory and the spend all day out there drinking tea and listening to music, which is nice. SIL loves their music quizzes which you play with people around the world.

No chance here either. My parents have one and aren't bothered by any security implications, or the fact that Amazon staff are employed to listen to recordings that the Echo sends off to Amazon (I think irrespective of whether your have 'woken' Alexa by using her name). I am though :)

However my parents love it. They don't have amazon prime, nothing in the house is connected to it. They just ask it for facts/info to save them the bother of googling.

Considering the recent revelations of staff listening to all sorts of personal conversations through siri recently.
The whistle blower said they listened to couples having sex, doctors, solicitors conversations all through their mike.

www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/apple-contractors-listened-to-1000-siri-recordings-per-shift-says-former-employee-945575.html

Because it's the starting point for government/ big companies' surveillance and control of the population.

If Brexit should have taught you anything, it's that the government doesn't know its arse from its elbow. I've worked with government departments, and they are exactly as stupid as they look from the outside. No way is there any imminent capacity to survey and control the population based on random snippets of information.

@Waffleswaffles

Take it you don’t have a smartphone then? Or a tablet?
Or a smart TV?
Or a computer?

@Waffleswaffles

Oh and that you don’t post on a public forum linked to your up address

Oh......

Smart phones cant listen if the mic is off. I hope