Am I completely crazy or AIBU getting rid of Alexa?

[Konicek007]

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)

just oh no!! I have been asked but refused to even allow them to take one. No fucking way.

I had a uni friend who got tracked down by her violent ex that way. I think companies who go heavy on this should be um....heavied. LOL.

I haven't had either of my Alexa's plugged in for about 1.5 years, I just can't be arsed with it, I'd rather just link my phone to my Bluetooth speaker or watch the telly.

it depends what you use them for though,your using it as a basic device we have 4 at home and its also on 4 phones

my autistic 9 y old uses it to cope outside via the music,it has a speech function so that he can search for as he cant read or write fully

we use it for
turnin on the heating
the lights(via hive)
educational quizes
questions
how do you spell what ever for the 9 y old
ring peoples mobiles when they are out without picking up a phone
rining other house without using a phone
it tells me when i have a delivery coming and how many stops away it is

and that just the top of my head,there must be loads more

they can do 1% for one household but 100% for another

Alexa data like all data will be sold to the highest bidder. They’ll find a way to monetise it and it won’t be for our benefit.

It seems innocuous. A bit like Facebook and it’s silly little surveys. Collect all that and next thing you know, political parties can use targeted propaganda to feed you nuanced lies and influence your votes.

We have Alexas. I usually put it on mute when we aren’t using it and delete my voice history regularly.

I sign out of my google account on my phone/devices as I don’t want them tracking my via google maps.

I don’t complete Facebook surveys and never “check in” to locations.

People didn’t invent the Alexa to make our lives easier. That’s how they sold it to us. They invented it to make money. End of story.

So YANBU OP. This isn’t about being paranoid, it’s a valid question to ask.

Yes but it's not sitting in my purse recording everything I say.

Your phone is, if it’s a smart phone. Turn that off every time you’re not using it too?

Your uni friend's ex tracked her down using alexa? Can you explain how? Did they share an Amazon account or something, as it would give a list of addresses

Tom no, I was replying to a poster who said her work put a photo of her online.

Your phone is, if it’s a smart phone. Turn that off every time you’re not using it too?

if you've got an iPhone you can set Hey Siri to off and then it doesn't auto listen but you do bring up a useful wider point that people don't realise how much they are spied on.

It simply isn’t possible to develop sufficiently sophisticated voice recognition technology without access to millions of voices. By using Alexa and other similar technologies we are providing masses of data that is used to improve the voice recognition capabilities. At a minimum, this is what our conversations are being used for.

It’s all well and good to believe that amazon and google mean no harm, but we have to consider what potential this data has in the hands of people who do. Imagine how much more effective and efficient the Stasi, the KGB or Hitler could have been. The reason we have laws, and checks and balances in democracy is to prevent Leaders, or at least slow them, from becoming despotic. Unfortunately those who should be tackling these issues and putting the safeguards in place are benefitting from looking the other way.

We can't expect these organisations to protect our interests. It's a sad fact that all of us (myself included) have been too slow to realise the implications of this technology and demand protections enshrined in law before we handed over all our data.
The genie is very much out of the bottle now and I'm not sure how these companies can be compelled to keep this data safe even if there was a political will to do so.

It’s all well and good to believe that amazon and google mean no harm
their mandate is to increase profits and grow the company, they lobby against any legislation which restricts their ability to do this.
These companies can potentially have more power than governments and yet are not democratically elected or accountable to those upon whom they feed, they have the power and money to make sure that they do not pay a fair share of tax.

2nd what another Op said about getting a Bluetooth speaker and connecting to your phone. A less 'big brother' solution for your music streaming....

too slow to realise the implications of this technology
I dont think we should berate ourselves, these things were unprecedented and the people who did realise the implications (for fat profits) kept that knowledge to themselves in order to monopolize the opportunity to make a killing.
We can never know the full implications of technological progress and those who have a vested interest in concealing whats going on will do so!
We have to pay as much attention as we can and demand accountability etc

There's me thinking I'm farting in private

Imagine, you’ve farted and Alexa’s official voice: You are warned and reported!

"Remember that antisocial behaviour laws will not permit you to continue playing your trombone after 9pm."

"Baked beans, sprouts and lentils have now been removed from your Ocado order."

It simply isn’t possible to develop sufficiently sophisticated voice recognition technology without access to millions of voices
our data, our voices, our postings, our content
these things have played a huge part in creating all the great new stuff that we can use, we should get a share of the profits, we built these things!
We should not allow these companies to own us and predate upon us

Yabu to have got one in the first place.

I can't understand what the whole Internet Of Things is for, unless it's for the benefit of governments or big companies to track us.

Comparing it to a TV remote makes no sense because not only might you want to surf channels or adjust the volume many times in an hour, in a way that you wouldn't have 20 snacks or cups of tea in an hour, it isn't connected to the internet (unless that's changed now with smart TVs, I don't know - don't have one).

I can see how the severely disabled could benefit from it (although I'd have thought that many of the people in those circumstances would need carers anyway), but what's the point for the vast majority of people? Tell it to put the kettle or the toaster on (presumably you'd have to think ahead and leave bread in there going stale in advance) but you still have to actually go and butter your toast, make your coffee and collect it from the kitchen.

I don't want something monitoring what's in my fridge and re-ordering what it thinks I'm low on. What if you bought something to try, weren't that keen on it and decided to just use it up now you'd paid for it, and then discovered that your fridge had gone and ordered another big packet of it?!

I'm also aware that information about what food is in my family's fridge and how much of what is consumed each week could be used against us when it comes to health check-ups and insurance. Imagine: your GP no longer has to ask how many units of alcohol you drink, whether you get your 5-a-day or how much butter or other fat you eat, as he already has it on his screen as reported by your smart fridge/cupboard/kitchen. Who knows where they could take it? Charge you more tax hypothecated for the NHS because your unhealthy diet directly increases your risk of needing it?

Not for me, thanks.

Amazon employees may be listening in to certain conversations for various reasons but unless they speak the language how will they know what is being said.

Eh? Most people on this thread will be communicating with it in English. It's hardly a little-known minority language throughout the world, is it?

I do think that many of us have become complacent about what AI, apps and technology in general can actually do. We just get so used to it that we never stop and think about just how much brilliance and research has gone into it.

The internet, computers, phones etc. have been developed by people with absolutely amazing skills and knowledge. I wonder how many users ever actually stop and think just how many things have to effortlessly knit together for even the simplest of tasks to work. I'm reasonably intelligent, but I'd struggle to make you a side table that didn't wobble

I'm Scottish so she won't be able to understand my idle chat anyway. I have to use my special Alexa voice to talk to her

This is clearly the way forward

Ours is in the hall, close enough for music to work, far enough away to have to yell to wake it. It has a man's voice not Alexa.

I'm slightly more concerned that my Waitrose, Tesco, Nectar etc cards give away most of my guilty secrets ginhabit

I don’t understand why people are excited about the Internet of Things either, but quite possibly I’m missing something great about it?

Theyre pretty open about the fact that they listen in to stuff on these thing (using the excuse its to improve the service)

www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2019/07/28/apple-siri-eavesdropping-puts-millions-of-users-at-risk/#10ab9564a530

id get rid of these for mental health reasons as well. The internet is already messing with our brains, we need to get back some real privacy

This thread is comical considering you are all posting on the internet on a public forum with all the added login via facebook links etc.

Apple, Amazon or google are not listening to you consistently, there isn;t the data storage or network infrastructure to cover you talking 10 hours a day to pick out the odd targetted add when they can profile you across the internet via messenger, shitty forums like this one etc etc.

The outcry from snowden was if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear so brushed under the carpet, those same people now stay signed in on their phones and search, whatsapp, insta, facebook message, maybe even 'check in' to destinations and pretend its some home based smart tech that is listening in.

The correlation isn't because you have some smart device at home, it's your online footprint.

There was plenty of times to stop this creep, but the majority posting on this thread are from a nothing to hide nothing to fear response, so here we are, that said they really are not listening to you, it's daily mail headlines to suggest they are listening to 10 hours of conversation to offer you the add that might make them 3p if you click on it, you are not that important.

“This thread is comical considering you are all posting on the internet on a public forum with all the added login via facebook links etc. “

But not posting anything important or personal. Also don’t use any other logins.