Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Am I completely crazy or AIBU getting rid of Alexa?

317 replies

Konicek007 · 26/01/2020 09:45

Hello, call me paranoid but..would like some opinions.
We have Alexa Echo dot in the living room, purely because of the music, we not use it for anything else. We love it playing music through it. Hi
Yesterday me and my daughter ( 8 yrs) were having a conversation , her telling me about her horse toy she not longer wants, saying something in lines she doesn’t want to play with it anymore as she is too big now, to get rid of it etc..
Suddenly Alexa buttered in saying something like You are being warn and reported etc. We haven’t heard the message clear as we also had a music playing from radio.
None of us used the woke up word Alexa for her to respond, plus the music was playing in background but we did heard her saying about warning us..
Now I heard stories about these speakers are actually spying on your home but I never believed it.
My friend husband works for well know computer company as IT developer and he always kept saying to avoid these things in our home.
Now I’m actually paranoid and thinking to get rid of Alexa.
Your opinions please. ( don’t laugh)

OP posts:
Rezie · 26/01/2020 09:48

I've assumed that they are on and listening all the time.

basicbitch16 · 26/01/2020 09:49

Well she is obviously always listening as she needs to hear when you say the wake word, but I fully expect they use recordings to target us for relevant advertising etc

Lsquiggles · 26/01/2020 09:49

I won't have one in my house because they must always be listening to hear you say the wake up word surely? I'd get rid personally

AriadnesFilament · 26/01/2020 09:50

If you only use it for music switch it off at the wall when not in use. They do listen to everything.

Lockheart · 26/01/2020 09:51

If you want to get rid of it then do, it's your house.

MmeBufo · 26/01/2020 09:51

YANBU. Get rid. I’d not have one in the house.

MonkeyToesOfDoom · 26/01/2020 09:52

The only problem with these kinds of worries is you can see exactly what Alexa has recorded. In the app, go to settings and then history.

Rezie · 26/01/2020 09:52

Wasn't there a news story how the default settings let Amazon employees listen to you but you can turn it off or something? With the wake word it record but other time it listens or something similar?

Original poster
Konicek007 · 26/01/2020 09:52

She sounded very serious, like proper official tone.
It actually shocked me and my daughter.
Now I actually worry what she warn me about as we said nothing sinister or bad.. perhaps some glitch but still scary.

OP posts:
funnylittlefloozie · 26/01/2020 09:54

Obviously Alexa listens all the time, but what exactly were you being "warned and reported" about? Im now very tempted to go and say a load of inappropriate things to my daughter's Alexa and see what it does!

TheMobileSiteMadeMeSignup · 26/01/2020 09:55

Buy a Bluetooth speaker and play music through Spotify on your phone.

We don't have Alexa or Dot or whatever, wouldn't have one. Phone is bad enough. My in-laws bought a new lamp and showed me the link so I could get one when I got home. I was connected to their WiFi. I got home, googled amazon lamp and the first hit was their lamp...

Flimflamfloogety · 26/01/2020 09:55

For the life of me I can't understand why anyone would ever want one of these things in there house (Alexa or Google).

With everything we know about these companies harvesting our data, why would you want to give constant access to all your conversations? By their very design they need to be listening all the time so they can respond to the wake up word.

When I saw the advert for the Facebook portal I was shocked. I don't know anybody that has one yet but my first thought was 'why would anyone in their right mind allow Facebook to have constant audio and video access to their home'

YANBU either turn it off as a PP suggested or bin it.

TwoMuchTwoYoung · 26/01/2020 09:56

You do know Alexa isn't a real person don't you? So it's a robot listening to you.
Do you think they government employ people to listen to Mr and Mrs average of average street??

Enko · 26/01/2020 09:57

IF big companies wanted to spy on us all the time. They would go for something that we all have in our home like a tv radio or mobile phone. Not something that we are aware is listening.

What likely happened is you said something that sounded similar to one of the wake up words and she responded to that.

For a bit of fun ask her the different names for Pomello

Newmetoday · 26/01/2020 09:58

I have 5 of them. I couldn’t give a toss if they are listening. It’s not like they have an army of people listening in on each device. It’s simply the one word they are waiting to hear. People are so paranoid. I’d hate to live like that

zafferana · 26/01/2020 10:00

They are on and listening ALL THE TIME. There have been many reported incidences of them mishearing and waking up when they shouldn't. I wouldn't have one of those things in my house for anything, because you can call them what you like, but it's like having a spy in your home. Plus, if the video camera on your computer can be hacked, so can Alexa.

Frariedeamin · 26/01/2020 10:00

It’s all well and good saying get rid of Alexa and use you phone but I think people don’t realise their phones have a similar functionality and are also listening all the time unless you disable the virtual assistants such as Siri, Bixbi etc.
There was a story in the news not long ago about one of the tech companies listening to recordings and they were hearing domestic violence and did nothing about it.

MonkeyToesOfDoom · 26/01/2020 10:02

"They would go for something that we all have in our home like a tv radio or mobile phone"

A mobile phone is perfect for a listening device. Imagine how many people put them on tables in meetings? If any device is built for spying it's a phone. A camera to watch you, a microphone to hear you, internet access to stream a love copy.of your screen.. all powered by massive data mining corporation like Google or Apple..

Alexa is the least concerning, she'll just flog you shit roll when you're low.

AllHeart1 · 26/01/2020 10:02

I won’t have one in the house. The reality is that we are being conditioned to allow more and more intrusion into our homes through google, alexa, Siri etc and we think little of it because it’s just seen as a fun gadget. But actually it’s just a step away from anyone being able to access our data - even if not the government these systems are always hack-able by someone with nefarious intentions.

Add to that the numbers of people who are prepared to send their DNA to ancestry and the like with absolutely no knowledge of who gets to look at it and who it is passed to either now or in the future.

CaptainButtock · 26/01/2020 10:02

They are a listening device. They are always listening, and all accumulated data is fed back to google/Amazon whoever.
The fact that they got people to PAY for these things has to be the biggest marketing coup in history.

Not to the same extent, but you also couldn’t pay me to have a ‘ring’ doorbell.

Corrag · 26/01/2020 10:06

I know the device is listening all the time but it doesn't really bother me. They'll hear nothing interesting in our house. Mostly me reminding OH for the fourteenth time about something or other he was supposed to do.

The stuff it hears is definitely used to target ads. Last month we were taking about going up into the loft to get Xmas stuff down. I was grumbling about the loft ladder. Next time I went online... adverts for loft ladders.

AllHeart1 · 26/01/2020 10:06

IF big companies wanted to spy on us all the time. They would go for something that we all have in our home like a tv radio or mobile phone. Not something that we are aware is listening. I watched a video recently where someone managed to hack a robotic vacuum cleaner which uses a camera to find its dock after use and photograph the inside of someone’s house.

People have CCTV in their homes for “security” ring doorbell systems outside. Go pro with WiFi capabilities the possibilities are endless.

PS: no I don’t have my camera or Siri or the like enabled on my phone - the bloody thing does my head in anyway and it baffles me that anyone would want to talk to an inanemate object anyway.

Original poster
Konicek007 · 26/01/2020 10:07

To be absolutely honest I don’t want to get rid of as I really love playing music with it, got the subscription too.
I got no Spotify, before I was buying songs through iTunes and play through iPod., making CDs to play around house...Now I don’t have to any of it, just say the name of the song and it plays.
We got another Alexa upstairs we hardly use it as never being upstairs..

OP posts:
TwoMuchTwoYoung · 26/01/2020 10:08

My 'ring' doorbell has saved me having to go and collect my parcel many many times by asking the postman to leave it.
It's also saved me £50 from a plumber who tried to say he'd been there longer.
It reassures me that my children are home or have left in a morning.
Like a previous poster thank god I'm not living in nervous paranoia! How boring.

AllHeart1 · 26/01/2020 10:08

I know the device is listening all the time but it doesn't really bother me. They'll hear nothing interesting in our house. Mostly me reminding OH for the fourteenth time about something or other he was supposed to do. do you ever order anything over the phone where you have to read out your credit card number? Name/number/expiry/security digits? In which case having a device such as alexa makes you a potentially fair target for credit card fraud.