My husband keeps turning off my Alexa

[HalleBre]

I have an Alexa in the bedroom. I use it for my alarm and to play music.

My husband keeps turning it off without telling me because he thinks it's "listening to us."

I've agreed to not having one in any other room. But, I enjoy having it in the bedroom and sometimes rely on it to wake me up in the morning.

Every time I speak to it, it's been turned off.

Aibu to be pissed off??

Not necessarily, it depends on how he manages his digital footprint.

I think the fact that he believes there will be a nuclear war and has bought long life food and gas masks tells you all you need to know about how well he has thought all of this through.

I think your husbands right to privacy in the bedroom trumps your right to alexa in the bedroom

This

Just use siri on your phone and a Bluetooth speaker. Same thing but he might not consider it the same thing.

I think your husbands right to privacy in the bedroom trumps your right to alexa in the bedroom

Yep

"He's a prepper and believes the government is corrupt that there will be a nuclear war."

The government is corrupt and nuclear war is possible. They want us moving over to cashless, yet Russians have been stranded because they can't access cash. That could have been us at the point of the illegal war in Iraq. It's something to think about. It isn't paranoia, Alexa is listening. When he's in the bedroom he should be able to turn it off. Unless you are disabled, it seems it is the straw that broke the camel's back. Try to find middle ground.

@HalleBre

We both agreed to having it on the house. We had two.

Then he suddenly decided he didn't like it and that was that.

If he no longer consents to it then it shouldn't be on in a room with him. If you paid out for it then he should compensate you for that.

How do you find the middle ground with someone who has bought gas masks to prepare for nuclear war, @Ponoka7?

If he no longer consents to it then it shouldn't be on in a room with him. If you paid out for it then he should compensate you for that.

Can she insist he gets rid of a car he bought in the last few years on the grounds that it is contributing to global warming, which really will get us all in the end?

Can she just do the equivalent of what he does, unilaterally, with the Alexa? She could throw away the keys or drain the petrol tank. Then stand there folding her arms..

I work for civil service in gov dept and we absolutely cannot have it switched on when we’re working because it is most definitely listening

@searchingforsomethiing

I work for civil service in gov dept and we absolutely cannot have it switched on when we’re working because it is most definitely listening

And with technology these days, it's a golden device for spooks, I presume. same with iPhones, etc.

@mathanxiety

If he no longer consents to it then it shouldn't be on in a room with him. If you paid out for it then he should compensate you for that.

Can she insist he gets rid of a car he bought in the last few years on the grounds that it is contributing to global warming, which really will get us all in the end?

Can she just do the equivalent of what he does, unilaterally, with the Alexa? She could throw away the keys or drain the petrol tank. Then stand there folding her arms..

That's false equivalence, It's not the ownership, it's the leaving it turned on in the shared bedroom. She could use it when he is not there. If it was a car he could choose not to be a passenger.

I’d never have an Alexa in the house. Don’t use Siri or similar either (never set up and all permissions refused). The “rewards” aren’t worth being constantly listened to imo.

I work in cyber security, but you don’t need to in order to be aware of the well documented lack of privacy these devices bring into your environment.

I can’t bear the thought of my interactions, noises and absent talking to myself being streamed live to a group of outsourced strangers who are paid to anonymously listen through Amazon devices whilst sitting in a boiler room in Kuala Lumpar.

Why are people so worried about Alexa listening...? What exactly can Amazon do with anything they might hear in your home?? Paranoid madness. If they want to listen in on me shouting at my kids they're more than welcome.

@MissStarry

I work in cyber security, but you don’t need to in order to be aware of the well documented lack of privacy these devices bring into your environment.

I can’t bear the thought of my interactions, noises and absent talking to myself being streamed live to a group of outsourced strangers who are paid to anonymously listen through Amazon devices whilst sitting in a boiler room in Kuala Lumpar.

You can turn off any possibility of that happening in the privacy settings.

www.today.com/money/how-change-your-alexa-privacy-settings-so-amazon-can-t-t152018

I switch my Google nest off if im not using it. Its in the kitchen as a radio only.

I had an English visitor and she said the word “bitch” and nest lit up and “its not very nice”.

But speaking in Welsh is ok as she doesn’t understand.

@SpunBodgeSquarepants

Why are people so worried about Alexa listening...? What exactly can Amazon do with anything they might hear in your home?? Paranoid madness. If they want to listen in on me shouting at my kids they're more than welcome.

Depends on your role, Alexa in the average persons house, most likely family charter or occasional affairs etc, Alexa, in e.g. Authorized persons only, ops room planning missions etc, golden information for the ones listening.

I value being able to have private conversations and feel like there’s no witnesses to anything I’m doing in the privacy of my own home.

It’s not paranoid nonsense 😂 what a ridiculous statement unless you also don’t bother with curtains?

If it’s voice activated it’s still listening. Quite frankly if one doesn’t want the content of your private conversations at home either being listened to live by a random, or during stored ad infinitum on an AWS data centre, then just don’t have one.

I don’t feel I’m missing out in any way?

Furthermore it’s not paranoid to be aware of the reality of what you have in your home; if you are so unbothered and unfiltered that you’re happy to opt out of not being monitored in your own home, that’s also your decision.

But it’s not paranoid to want a private home lol.

I turned mine off the day it laughed at a joke I told...

Cannot believe how many people think it's paranoid to not want a digital device always listening to you in your most private spaces. I don't care whether what it will pick up is boring - it's the principle. He's entitled to privacy in his own bloody bedroom fgs and we've already clarified multiple times that smartphones are different as the 'constant listening' can be switched off without the whole device being off...

Okay ... so our phones and Alex listen to us.. I literally know nothing 🙈