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)

www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/17/china-is-harvesting-organs-from-detainees-uk-tribunal-concludes
An independent tribunal sitting in London has concluded that the killing of detainees in China for organ transplants is continuing, and victims include imprisoned followers of the Falun Gong movement.
The China Tribunal, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who was a prosecutor at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said in a unanimous determination at the end of its hearings it was “certain that Falun Gong as a source - probably the principal source - of organs for forced organ harvesting”.
“The conclusion shows that very many people have died indescribably hideous deaths for no reason, that more may suffer in similar ways and that all of us live on a planet where extreme wickedness may be found in the power of those, for the time being, running a country with one of the oldest civilisations known to modern man.”
......
Am I really a lazy scaremonger?

I clean in houses that have Alexa and Amazon speakers in every room.
Makes me uneasy because I can't even have a 'singing session' to myself.
So I got myself a cheap AM/FM radio to play music instead of using headphones.

I work in IT and I think many people really underestimate the abilities of "robots". apart from the fact that amazon, Google and hundreds of other companies actually employ people to listen and read your conversations, AI can analyse and connect data from many sources much better than any human. It is just question of costs how far they will go. now companies harvest data from your mobiles, alexas, social network, files in cloud. Once computing gets cheaper they will use this data to extract as much money from you as possible. e.g. There is a technology which analyzes phone background noise to identify your occupation, then online shops give you prices depending on the result. or imagine you tell your husband your mother is sick and you need to take a train tomorrow - and online tickets Website increasing your prices 10 times. so I try to share as little info as possible. You can't completely avoid this as the banks, shops, government, ibsurance companies all love to spy on you and push you to give them your data but my approach is to reveal as little as possible. e.g. use special email only for shopping , clear history regularly and disable all assistants unless needed like during driving.

Cambridge Analytica is the tip of the iceberg....... Quite

Subjecttoavailability

files in the cloud made me wonder - what do they do about data with files on my hard drive, do you know? Appreciate any answers, thanks.

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.

But it would be your data allowance that they're using! Alexa uses your Internet to connect to the amazon servers.

Everything else apart; data being sold, governments listening in etc. I'd feel incredibly uncomfortable having something in my house that was permanently listening to everything that's being said.

So I won't be having Alexa or a similar device in my home any time soon.

We have one at home and I'm paranoid too so I make sure it's switched off and unplugged unless it's being used

I don't get irony, it's a very English thing.
Please explain it to me in the context of my post.

Your comment welcoming Alexa and naïveté in “hoping she rules fairly and evenly” proves that you are the easily led sheep people so shouldn’t have any control.

Your comment welcoming Alexa and naïveté in “hoping she rules fairly and evenly” proves that you are the easily led sheep people so shouldn’t have any control.

I see.. so being a supporter of Alexa means I'm easily led. Those concerned about Alexa aren't easily led because they know the truth.

Hmm.

Isn't it funny that people that buy into the paranoia always put themselves forward as the ones that 'Know' the truth?
Flat earthers just know the earth is flat and globe earthers are those that don't understand, that are sheep.

Now that, to me, is irony.

Okay so, the device is listening all the time as mentioned, because it needs to hear the wakeword.

That does not mean that anyone else is listening all the time. Let's consider how many people.own an Alexa device (many households more than 1) and think about how much data there would be in 24/h audio recordings.

There would physically not be enough storage for Amazon to store all of this. They listen all the time, and then this data is gone so they can keep listening.

If this is a really big concern, due to data protection you are allowed to ask Amazon or Google for everything they have on record about you. They technically only have x amount of time to return all the information depending on how much there is. They can get fined if they don't comply.

You can also Google "what does Google know about me" and in advertising preferences you'll see exactly what Google has on you.

And FYI, most of us actively give consent to all this data harvesting when accepting various cookies, etc.

Isn't it funny that people that buy into the paranoia always put themselves forward as the ones that 'Know' the truth?

I'm really confused now. So believing that Amazon & the like want to collect data & sell that data on & to be wary of the associated data breach risks is paranoid?

If the big guns in charge of Amazon/Google decide that Trump (for instance - only using for instances - nothing legally liable!) should be voted in as president, then can you not see that they can influence people through targetted ads.

Ah, do people not know Facebook ALREADY did this?

Facebook embedded employees in the 2016 Trump campaign, actually sitting in the Trump campaign offices. They helped micro-target ads so that individual voters would see the stuff that appealed to them in particular, and not the stuff that would turn them off.

Interview with one of Trump's campaign staff:

The digital guru who helped Donald Trump to the presidency
www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-40852227/the-digital-guru-who-helped-donald-trump-to-the-presidency

(Clip is 4:41 mins; go to approx 1:45 min onwards if you're short of time.)

As far as I know, Facebook did it because they were paid lots of money for doing it. I don't know whether there was also any idealogical support – and if so, from whom within the company.

In a sense, it doesn't matter that it was the Trump campaign. This will now be used in the future for all politics.

There may be a difference between just how low and unscrupulous different campaigns will be prepared to go. The essence of micro-targeting is that a campaign can show, eg, a racist advert to people it thinks will respond well to racism, while keeping the same advert invisible to people who'll be repelled by the racism, and also keep that ad under the radar of the news media.

This is the sort of thing your boring, day-to-day data is being used for.

I ask again If data regarding people's preferences & access to that data & the ability to share that date isn't important or a waste of time why did Facebook pay $20 billion for Whatsapp?

Well Alexa would have heard me tell my OH off this morning for turning the air blue. He bought me the damn thing last xmas, I switched it back on the other day for grandson.

I just looked at what Google knows about me.

Apparently I am ten years younger, have no children, like American football, celebrities and entertainment news, dogs, am married and like skiing.

All I can say is good luck Google trying to sell me anything if that's what you've got on me

I LOVE mine, at the same time I know it is listening. She did once blurt out ''I wouldn't do that'' once. A little disconcerting as I was the only one in the house!

Lol I work in tech ( in hr) and would never have one in my home 😂 they are always listening I think no matter if they say they aren't 🤪

fjreflycaramel how do you check that, is it if you have a google listening thing?

yes, I know I could google it, but you may be a kind person who has time to explain it better

I have Alexa and if anyone listens in all they will hear is me telling my dog she's a good girl and we love her, and asking my OH if the dog has pood today!

You just have to Google it and it shows you everything Google know about you from your browsing history, connected devices, other signals etc :)

We had a heated family discussion about Minesweeper yesterday. The word "bomb" was used very loudly several times and DS's Google pinged into life. Either it misheard something as it as trigger word or we're well and truly on a watch list now.

I'm not keen on smart devices tbh but the dc's just use them for alarms, word definitions and radio. We don't have a music subscription and don't shop on them.

That was a reply to AutumnRose1

I don't think those of us that distrust Alexa, Siri, etc (and by extension Amazon, Apple, etc), are being paranoid or acting like we know best. We're being realistic and informed. If those of you that want big tech to know all about your lives don't care, fine, go ahead. Let them mine your data and store it and try to find ways to make money off you, but don't call those of us who recognise that that's what they're doing paranoid. I'm not in the least a flat earther or a conspiracy theorist, but I am utterly cynical about what Amazon, Facebook, Apple and the rest are up to. They are out to make as much money as they can from whatever source they can and the law is struggling to keep up with all the ways they are exploiting us and our data. So caveat emptor!

All those secretive listeners must be thrilled to know that while I was cooking last night I realised I was nearly out of olive oil... “Alexa ask Ocado to add olive oil to my trolley please” ... and she did and then “Alexa announce dinner is ready”.... which she did and DS emerged from his room. In the morning I say “Alexa good morning” and then while I make a cuppa and empty the dishwasher she tells me what the weather is, what I have in my diary and then turns on the radio .. my ACTUAL Bose system as it’s better sound quality, then an hour later she will turn it off in case I forget to do it as I head off to work. If I’m baking I can set various timers without having to put sticky fingers on any buttons. DD has one and I can chat with her, hundreds of miles away, whilst doing household chores. I love Alexa.