I want an Alexa!

[behappy1736]

I want an Alexa and DH insists we aren't having one as they are 'Unsafe and a potential hacking heaven' 🤦🏻‍♀️
I've tried explaining that loads of people have them but he says that they are an invasion of privacy and vulnerable to hackers gaining info and access to many thing.
Thoughts?!

The devices have privacy settings that you personalise depending on your level of paranoia. He needs to get a grip.

They are great 👍
get one and ask it to do a wet fart (sorry for lowering the tone)

it’s great for setting timers
local news
weather
my kids love it to ask spellings or animal of the day
music
alarms

Honestly don't. Ours was ok (we have 2 dots, a proper echo and a show) when the music was useable but now it's awful, the tech seems to have got worse and now the echo show often refuses to be turned off or listen to any command. I've unplugged all but one and that's because it works reasonably ok with audible for my dd. I will perhaps look to switch to Google but the fun of voice commands has most definitely gone!

I have them in every room and do not understand they hysteria some folks display. If Alexa is listening into to me, fair play, I’m no James Bond .

I link my speakers and have musicmthroughout the house and also ask her random shit. Like date, weather, recipes etc . When I have friends over, they can tell her what music to play, for me it’s all good.

And yet People on MN name change "cos it's outing"...

And if you have a phone you can probably run the Alexa app and do all that anyway.

I'm with your DH (although maybe a bit less paranoid). I wouldn't have one.

We are asked to switch them off at the plug for certain training course we do online. For security reasons. I don’t care if it’s listening to anything I say, it’s really not that interesting!

If someone is listening to me through ours, they have the dullest job on the planet.

I've got loads of them and all this Daily Mail hysteria about security risks is nonsense. They listen for a wake word and then respond to a set number of commands. They're really useful and you don't need to worry about someone listening into you snoring at night or sitting with your family. It's against the law for Amazon to do that and it's not possible for hackers to do that ( or there would be loads of reports of that happening and there aren't).

I only have one in my bedroom to use as a radio alarm. It's handy having different wake ups and wind down stations depending what day it is.
It doesn't hear anything as I'm a lone parent, nothing to eavesdrop.

I'll send you mine, it's in its box. 😅
The novelty quickly wore off

They're pathetic. I laugh at the theory AI will take over the world if Alexa is anything to go by. Rarely understands first time, regularly loses connection to the wifi (phones and tablets don't have this problem), can't play a tune on Spotify without a 10 minute upsell to Amazon music. If it weren't for the fact we have hive sockets for basic lights off/on commands then I'd give your ours OP. Even the kids are bored of the wet farts.

I absolutely love ours! I have reminders for birthdays and anniversary's set up, as well
as reminding my kids to get coats on and go for a wee before we set off for school. We have it linked to Amazon music and enjoy listening to bands we used up like from the 90's whilst we are making tea. I also love the shopping list, whenever anyone has finished the cheese or tomato ketchup
they just ask Alexa to add to shopping list which i then open and get the data when I'm next in supermarket. It's my little a.I assistant. Oh and there is one in my daughters room and if she needs me to bring up her water bottle and I'm downstairs she can call the downstairs Alexa from her alexa so not shouting etc

Actually this just reminds me of the Santa stuff it had on at Christmas. Totally disrespected the big man, had him farting out jingle bells and all sorts.

Oh even if you ignored the illegality of it and the huge fingers Amazon would get, Amazon have sold countless numbers of these things. Have you any idea how much effort and cost it would be for them to listen in to them? They'd have to have hundreds of thousands of people (for each language) just to cover a fraction and huge amounts of storage and they'd very quickly go bust.

I bought an echo dot a few weeks ago, I wanted a Bluetooth speaker in my kitchen to run Spotify from my phone. I was worried about the privacy thing too, so I just switch it off when I work. I find it really handy for things like timers, shopping list etc as well as playing music.

I'd go for Google home instead of Alexa as Google allow you to see what it has recorded and delete it whereas Amazon don't.

Also, be prepared for it to misunderstand you every now and again, and to learn specific ways of asking for stuff.

I find most technology "almost" good enough to be useful. It's about 95% there, but the lest 5% that doesn't quite work drives me nuts.

We have a couple of Alexas and Dots, we've never had a problem, it understands us 99% of the time (DH and DS are both autistic and struggle to give the correct commands at times). Only problem is we have a dog called Dexter so Alexa gets extremely confused when we call the dogs name (which is a lot as he's a naughty teenager). You can change the command name but we've had Alexa years so we'd forget what to say I imagine!

I couldn't give a shit if anyone is listening to us. We have nothing of importance to say.

As for what they can do. They can act as alarm clocks, radios, music players, weather forecasters, read books, answer questions, compile shopping lists, control smart devices, play games, tell the time, link to your calendar to let you know about appointments, spell words, do maths questions, read Wikipedia entries and loads more. The Shows also allow you to watch Netflix, YouTube and Prime and recipes and your photos.

I ditched money too when it stopped connecting to radio 2.

I was given a Google and I use that now but it annoys me you can't change the voice command.

Alexa do allow you to listen to and see and delete everything they have recorded. You can access this information from the Alexa app. I did it a couple of weeks ago.

The one on my Firestick is crap, never does what I ask it to. However my NDN's Alexa works great - timed to go off loudly at 7.20am on schooldays to be heard throughout their house. Even through really thick stone walls.

I'm already up when it goes off and can't hear it in my upstairs rooms so my NDNs Alexa doesn't bother me much.....but Fucking Alexa does.

I agree with your DH OP, it's a potentially/or is a hacking invasion, that doesn't work as well as the average human brain and if anyone relies on it for anything other than an alarm clock or amusement at it's follies is very much lacking in many areas of general human existence.

Source: www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/amazons-alexa-never-stops-listening-to-you/
This is what worries me!

Lol