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?!

True, but as I said to my child who was worried about the said they'd heard about Alexa's, they would face potentially limitless fines and massive negative press (it's Amazon, the media would love a good scandal). As I also said to them, the infrastructure required to monitor people and do something with all those millions upon millions of hours of recordings would be cripplingly expensive and of negligible comparative value. There are things in the world to study about (like leaving IOT devices with their default password), but personally, from my knowledge of the devices and the realities of monitoring people, I'm not concerned.

It might not be a big issue at the moment. But in the future when technology develps far enough for Alexas and similar to actually be able to listen and understand everything that's going on in your house you might feel more concerned. There's a lot of potential to control the population using this kind of surveillance. But by then some people won't be able to organise their own lives without it.

They are a bit rubbish especially for listening to music, I had 2 upstairs and just changed them for Apple HomePods.

Don’t understand the people saying they are rubbish for playing music or connecting to Radio 2 etc. Have literally never had a problem (you need to connect Spotify to your account in the app).

Apart from that, I like Alexa and don’t really worry about her spying on me. I use it for:

Shopping list (very handy as I’m always forgetting to write lists or when I come to writing lists, I forget what I need - but you just tell Alexa to add an item there and then and when you get to shop, there it is on the list).

Turning heating on. Turning lights on. Timers. Recipes. Weather.

But by far the most useful thing for me is, when you’re watching a movie/TV show and someone famous comes on, “Alexa, how old is Kevin Costner?” And she instantly tells you.

(He’s 68 btw).

It's likely that Amazon will soon stop selling them as they're losing lots of money on them.

In some distant future things like this might be a threat, but personally I'd be more concerned with mobile phones and what governments can already do with them than with an Alexa, but that's another topic.

Don't get one if you subscribe to Apple Music, even though it's defaulted to Apple I get lots of spiel about Amazon music and it tries to shuffle my album, I actually have to say, play on Apple Music to it to stop it doing this. This has been happening more recently as it didn't used to be as bad. Not sure what happens with Spotify subscribers, if it's the same with that. They obviously want people to subscribe to Amazon music

I agree with your DH. Don’t get them at all - how can you feel comfortable when it’s always listening. We just stayed in a relatives house with Alexas all over the place and I hated it. So unnecessary

Alexa lets you do this too.

We have some at home.
Upstairs one is mainly used as an alarm clock and to control the bedroom lights.
Living room one mainly controls the ring doorbell and the living room lights.
Kitchen one is a big one with a large display screen. It is used for the kitchen lights, as a digital photo frame, a kitchen timer, to control the Sonos, to access recipes, etc.

Dd also has a couple of the Apple home pods which I actually prefer. Playing music and podcasts from your phone is so much easier with it and the searches seem more intuitive.

I have one (an old one of ours) in my computer classroom for when I teach about voice activated internet searching and voice activated controls. That's attached to a school safe account with all privacy settings and child friendly settings. It's only turned on for those lessons, rest of the time it's on it's not listening mode - mainly as the children get obsessed with talking to her and in one class we have a child with the same name!

The privacy stuff isn't so concerning to me. We all have linked apple devices here which can all do pretty much the same as these devices - and probably a whole lot more!

My partner is the same way of thinking as your husband

Of course she is always listening since ahe is voice activated. Your phone is also always listening unless you went through your settings properly... I love mime but they ruined that fucking music.
You can see what's recorded and delete it from your app. But it's a good speaker and works with skype so I can skype family hands free while I am cooking. Overal, if boight on sale, great value. Wouldn't pay full price though.

You know your phones listen to you too right? And "read" your whatsapp messages? Does your DH have a phone?

I don't trust them. A 10 year old girl asked for a challenge and it told her to touch a coin to the exposed prongs of a socket.

www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.com/news/technology-59810383.amp?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16749844355986&csi=1&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Ftechnology-59810383

Yeah because it basically google things and this was trending at that point. It's a technology like a phone or pc so children should still be supervised using it

I certainly won't be getting one. Don't trust them

We have one upstairs and one down and I love them. DP had similar paranoia issues with them at first, but honestly I think our phones listen to us more! The amount of times we've been talking about something and moments later I'll be scrolling through Facebook and a related ad pops up 🤷🏼‍♀️ honestly if someone wants to hack in to our Alexa and listen to our 2yo mid-tantrum then good luck to them.

They're great for shopping lists. With one on both floors, if we run out of something all I have to shout is "Alexa add (blank)" to my shopping list and there it is. If DP takes his last deodorant out of the draw and doesn't bother to add it on, it's his problem not mine 😂

We have several in the house and one connected to the car and run our lights, TV, vacuum and a host of other things off it. It's so handy, wouldn't be without it.

I can't understand the paranoia from people about these things when the majority of the time they're the same people carrying smartphones connected to social media and communication apps.

That's a bit different. I dont think you understand why people do that.

I've posted lots of information on here about my life and family, but none of it on it's own would identify me in the real world. And no one is going to go searching and reading every post I've ever written.

But, if I'm in a unique situation and need advice on it but it is really obvious to anyone involved that it's me then I will change name. If I dont, and one of the people involved reads my posts and realises that it's me then they can search my name and read everything I've written and get info about me I dont want them to have. Name changing means they can search the name but wont find anything else about me to read.

Their only saving grace is that they are very cheap to buy especially on Prime day and Black Friday so it doesn't matter too much that they will probably end up in a charity bag that takes small electricals

Woild you link he evidence that that actually happened?
Just good form to site your source.

Just seen your next post.

So it wasnt an actual alexa app or anything made by Amazon. The girl asked alexa for sometbing which required an internet search and Alexa read out what she found.
It probably started with "here is something I found on the internet."

If you've got younger kids, you need to teach them that alexa is just like the internet and not always safe. It is fine to play all the games. We love The Magic Door choose your own adventure story game. But the kids arent just allowed to ask anything until they're older.

I love mine. We have one in the kitchen and living room and two in bedroom. They are perfect for setting timers, listening to the radio,playing music from my phone.
Turns lights/TV on and off via smart plug, turns the landing light on and off on a timer through a smart bulb - great when you're not at home.
Turns on/off the heating.
Don't know whether it's been mentioned, but you can talk to anyone in your phone book who has one, just say "Call (whoever)". No charge.
So easy to use for me because I'm terrible with technology!

I did. Further up. Copy and paste the link and put it in to Google. Won't work by just clicking on it

Does he have a smart phone? Because that can also listen, track, etc. I don't really understand people who carry mobiles around 'watching' everything they do but draw the line at Alexa.

You can switch a phone down though and most people should