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)

My MN account isn't linked to any other online account, though. And everything I write on here is anonymous, and, more importantly, it's information I'm choosing to share.

But it’s all linked to your IP address if “they” (whispering... you know, those mysterious men in black) want to know what you are doing “they” can.... NOTHING is truly anonymous!

Data has surpassed oil in value....

Remember that folks.

And people saying who’d want my data

What about to skew your views on political parties

What if they could get you to vote a certain way.

Democracy could be gone....

They reckon they did it with the trump debate. Cambridge analytica

I think many of these anecdotes of "We talked about X and suddenly started seeing ads for it" can be explained by the Baader-Meinhof effect (which accounts for the 'I was just thinking of my sister and then she phoned' coincidence - we don't remember all the times we think of our sister and she doesn't phone

Some maybe, but not all. In the example I mentioned earlier the object was very specific. A loft ladder. Not something I routinely discuss. And certainly not something I've googled or shopped for previously. It would have to be a huge coincidence for Amazon adverts for loft ladders to pop up on the very same day I grumbled about our loft ladder within earshot of Alexa.

@corrag

But the point of the Baader-Meinhof effect is that you've probably had adverts for loft ladders in the past, but just not noticed them, because it wasn't something you were interested in. When you were interested, you noticed them.

I have no need for loft ladders at the moment, and haven't spoken about them, but have actually seen an advert for one in the last week, because I couldn't work out what it was from the picture so had a closer look.

@ItsGoingTibiaK

I suppose that's possible.

Never have and never will have one. They have to listen to everything to hear when you say their name.

I'm sure all these people at Amazon, Google and Apple are fucking agog as they sit on the edge of their seats listening to Mumsnetters discussing towel folding methods and Meghan Markle.

Excerpt from the age of surveillance capitalism
'In 2010 the German Federal Commission for Data Protection announced that Google’s Street View operation actually camouflaged a covert data sweep; Street View cars were secretly collecting personal data from private Wi-Fi networks. Google denied the charge, insisting that it was gathering only publicly broadcast Wi-Fi network names and the identifying addresses of Wi-Fi routers, but not personal information sent over the network.

Within days, an independent analysis by German security experts proved decisively that Street View’s cars were extracting unencrypted personal information from homes. Google was forced to concede that it had intercepted and stored “payload data,” personal information grabbed from unencrypted Wi-Fi transmissions. As its apologetic blog post noted, “In some instances entire emails and URLs were captured, as well as passwords.” Technical experts in Canada, France, and the Netherlands discovered that the payload data included names, telephone numbers, credit information, passwords, messages, e-mails, and chat transcripts, as well as records of online dating, pornography, browsing behavior, medical information, location data, photos, and video and audio files. They concluded that such data packets could be stitched together for a detailed profile of an identifiable person'

Minty the point is not whether your personal life is interesting the point is that your personal life (be it boring or be it salacious)can be converted into data which can be used to control and manipulate you

I think my Alexa is a bit deaf, you have to shout at her. Or is she having me on?

Certainly. I wasn't born yesterday. I know how it works. They discover that I like folding towels into thirds, and they start marketing to me Damien Hirst tritypchs and holidays to the Bermuda Triangle, knowing I will be powerless to resist.

My BIL works for Google, he won't have one in the house...I think that says enough.

Of course it's always listening. that's how it works. Yes they record what you say...mostly so they can bombard you with advertisements and make you buy buy buy!

Get rid!

DH and I embarked on an experiment around Christmas time. We have three Alexas and an iPhone each with Siri enabled. We make a point of talking about buying something we would never buy, or look up on the internet. It’s a fairly run of the mill thing, like say a certain make of car (but not that) We only ever talk about it, never type the words anywhere. I won’t say what as it will spoil my experiment.

So far, not a sniff of a relevant advert for either of us.

Siri is turned off and no Alexa - we survive!

I imagine there are people who survive without mumsnet. Wouldn't want To be on of them though.

I love how people are adamant that Amazon employees are listening in through Alexa, despite switching off permissions, yet completely believe that Siri is switched off cos they've switched off permissions