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)

Incidentally, if we accept that nothing is being recorded before you say "Alexa" (and I'm far from convinced myself), how long afterwards is it still listening? A cynic could say that it only listens for the one session after you've said its name, but how do we know that that session doesn't last until you say it again and a new session is begun?

But only if you've said "Alexa"! That's the point.

And when it thinks it heard you said Alexa but you didn't?

Incidentally, if we accept that nothing is being recorded before you say "Alexa" (and I'm far from convinced myself), how long afterwards is it still listening? A cynic could say that it only listens for the one session after you've said its name, but how do we know that that session doesn't last until you say it again and a new session is begun?

Because it would take an awful lot of data to upload hours long recordings to amazon's servers. You can check your router and verify that that isn't happening.

also don't get how it hears "Alexa" unless it's constantly listening for it.

Gosh surprised at the people who seem to think Alexa is human and she's "listening" all the time

The woke word is effectively an on off switch.

Also not sure what people are saying in their homes that they actually think someone wants to listen in. That amazon has employees, sitting there, with their head phones on listening to uou discussing what to have for dinner. 🤣

www.npr.org/2018/05/25/614315967/oregon-couple-unplugs-alexa-after-it-records-private-conversation?t=1580040791400

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/amazon-alexa-echo-listening-spy-security-a8865056.html

wasn't there a big Silicon Valley person who recently said even he thinks that you should tell visitors to your home if you have an Alexa or equivalent?

** https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/kevinmurnane/2018/12/20/amazon-does-the-unthinkable-and-sends-alexa-recordings-to-the-wrong-person/ampp**/*

I think the fact Amazon didn't notify their customer of the breach is outrageous.

Your phone listens to you all the time too. So get rid of it. my phone has been showing me tennis scores because my colleague was going on about tennis the other day lol
Anyway I choose to be laid back about it but if really worry then you'll have to make massive lifestyle adjustments.

And when it thinks it heard you said Alexa but you didn't?

If you Google, say, 'Ed Sweeran', it would almost certainly ask "Did you mean Ed Sheeran?" and probably just give you those 'corrected' results anyway.

Would it react if you were talking about Texas, a Lexus, being ambidextrous etc.?

Interaction with Alexa is very abrupt, for example please and thank you are discouraged/unnecessary. Users
are encouraged to demand. As tech like Alexa becomes more common I can see this having an impact on people. Certainly children raised from birth in an AI world will be in real danger of losing social skills and even empathy.

Alexa lives in teens room where he asked its endless inane questions.

Or asks her to fart.

dont have one, dont have one. Switched off on phone and tablet

see no use for us and i dont trust them

Gosh surprised at the people who seem to think Alexa is human and she's "listening" all the time

It's not Alexa but the 1000 employees that have this job.

The woke word is effectively an on off switch.

That's the point, the woke work is not effective.

But only if you've said "Alexa"! That's the point. It isn't recording 24/7. You can verify it by checking your router.

It has to be listening 24/7 though, or it won't know when you've said Alexa. It's also been known to "come to life" because it's heard a similar word, or because a TV programme has mentioned it.

Why are people so willing to trust companies like Google and Amazon to act in their best interests?

Alexa lives in teens room where he asked its endless inane questions

Or asks her to fart

or "she" listens to him masturbate

Because it would take an awful lot of data to upload hours long recordings to amazon's servers. You can check your router and verify that that isn't happening.

I don't frankly think that the big boys care about volume of data as they have such vast capacity, it means nothing to them. Is £1,000 a lot of money to you? It is to me, but it isn't to Larry Page.

Call me paranoid, but I think it's safer to assume that ALL online usage data are being captured somewhere, at least initially. There are gargantuan desert facilities set up precisely for this purpose. National legislation usually prevents governments from intercepting and storing data from their own citizens, so nations have bilateral agreements to capture each other's national data. I believe the USA and UK have something like this in place.

So if Amazon is listening, hears all about you and your issues and illnesses and the like, what is their end game?

What do they hope to gain by knowing Bill up the road has an ingrowing toenail? Or that Mary is shagging Tony behind Rupert's back? Or that Clive has found out he's got nut cancer and will be down to one bollock after Easter? What did Amazon hope to gain knowing my aunt had lung cancer and had only a few weeks to live?

Are they planning to take over the world with everyone's mundane and every day Bull shit? Are people so deluded and self important to believe Amazon to gives a shit shit about them or their issues? Out of millions of people do people believe their issues are unique?
Sure they might try to flog you something you might like, but they're not rubbing their hands waiting for you to drop a secret they can blackmail you over, you're simply not that important, you are 1 tiny and insignificant person in millions upon millions of others.

Anyhow, anyone who is tech savy would not have a mumsnet account, so we are all guilty of letting in "the tech"...

how many times have the account details been hacked? Mine was the last time.

@MonkeyToesOfDoom why do you think they bother to store the data?

Interaction with Alexa is very abrupt, for example please and thank you are discouraged/unnecessary. Users are encouraged to demand. As tech like Alexa becomes more common I can see this having an impact on people. Certainly children raised from birth in an AI world will be in real danger of losing social skills and even empathy.

I completely agree with you. We're already seeing the fruits of this where everybody just assumes that an app takes care of everything, so no human effort is ever required (and thus to be acknowledged).

We find it amusing when elderly folk make their first forays online and type into Google "Could you please help me to find the bus times for Swaffham, if you wouldn't mind" rather than just "Swaffham bus times", but it will all have its own logical conclusion.

“Alexa” it’s just programmed to only respond when that command is executed.

Or when a similar word is said. If I were to leave ours turned on then it springs into life when I say my son's name (which isn't Alex).

If personal data is meaningless someone needs to let Mark Zuckerberg know as why did he pay $20m for whatsapp?

"Google licensed Android to mobile handset makers for free because it was intended to draw users into Google Search and other Google services, establishing a ubiquitous mobile supply apparatus to sustain known terrains of behavioral surplus and open up new ones, including geolocation and mobile payment systems that are highly coveted by advertisers. As Google’s chief financial officer told financial analysts in 2009, “If we move forward the adoption of these mobile phones by lowering the cost because it is open source, think of how many searches [that will produce].”
A prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist described Android devices in 2011 as not “products” in the classic business sense . . . they are not trying to make a profit on Android. . . . They want to take any layer that lives between themselves and the consumer and make it free (or even less than free). . . . In essence, they are not just building a moat; Google is also scorching the earth for 250 miles around the outside of the castle to ensure no one can approach it."

Pretty much all of the people that my dh and i know that work in high up positions in the tech world do not have these devices in their homes, they also do all they can to stop the active listening of voice tech on their other smart devices.