The Alexa feature "Do Not Send Voice Recordings" you enabled no longer available. Now everything will be sent to Amazon cloud server and it may become part of LLM training. Only Amazon knows what they are going to do with all that data.
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Ok, I tell my Alexa in the kitchen to run timers, yell to turn off timers and to turn on my garbage disposal and other lights. Not what I would call "useful" data. I worked for VZ and AT&T, you should be paying more attention to that instead of a not smart "SMART" device. Amazon Sidewalk DISABLE.
So does your phone. But it goes places other than a Sales & Marketing Dept. :)
But remember you are one of hundreds of millions of people with millions of data points to just you. Now imagine the amount of time to specifically weed you out. Keywords, say them enough and things will get noticed.
Yep, I've stopped carrying mine everywhere and I turn it off often. Never had the alexa or echo interlopers and never wanted them. I can set my own timers, alarms, and turn on my own music. We've willingly given over so much of our info and habits and it's now being used against us.
I have all my stuff still there but understand the data and event triggers. I’m creating a “dictionary” for my home using Home Assistant on a NAS PVC 24TB For in/out DPI network monitoring, recording, MLTK to add redirects of data to a null route, etc. I like it, but I make the final decisions.
I used to use the speech search on my droid phone a lot but I turned it off now. I live rurally, have satellite internet (before that it was dial up) so don't have the best connections for that tech anyways. I also have 3 dogs and one who is Sir Barks a lot, not sure what kind of data they'd get. 😁
Rule of law. Nation of laws. Having any rights. Has any one these people actually researched any history of how America was built on epic proto fascist genocidal war crimes. Which never stopped. 600 years if you count columbus. Millions of people are dead, making America what we are today globally.
I worry far less about Amazon using my data for LLM training than I do about a dictatorial regime parsing that data to determine who next they'll throw in a camp. I'll be filling the landfill with my Echoes
Unfortunately, I live with family who are obsessed with the things. One in every room of the house, bedroom bathroom and basement included, and one outside for good measure.
Oh, and amazon can open and close the garage door, surely that's secure.
How I wish those little pucks were mine to destroy.
I'd love to, but then they'd complain about not being able to set the alarm for me (I'm a grown ass adult with my own alarm on my phone) and that I'm messing up their house -v-
Their way or no way, and I ain't in a spot to live by myself, so I've gotta put up with it.
The truth is that they're aware that with the variation in quality of WiFi and routers, moving forward, echo equipment will not be so robust without the cloud, and people will stop using it, because it will appear that the fault is in the echo, not the network. It's just a crappy sales gimmick.
So they can use your recordings against you, if that ain't Nazi like I don't know what is. Bezos is a lickspittle like Musk (African Immigrant) and Suckitberg.
Assuming they get VoiceID or whatever working so it knows who is speaking, maybe a concerted effort to stream non-stop random garbage using proper voices into those eavesdropping devices…
Pretty sure this product is no longer legal in the UK/EU if they've enacted this. its required by our laws that you can opt out of sending information/data to companies.
Our ex-Echo is in the way to Goodwill this morning. With Bezos firmly in the Orange Turd's pocket, the last thing we want to do is give them more personal data. Good grief - just dump 'em.
#AmazonEcho
They’ll probably fumble around with all the data for years while they try to figure out what they even have. They’ve fired so many engineers and developers that they’re struggling to keep up with normal business. I wonder what would happen if Amazon customers started using every service they pay for
And today, my android phone notified me that an app that I allowed to access my location, will now share that with 3rd parties. No way to allow access and not share it. App is totally dependent on location.
Let’s fight a fight we already lost and are unwilling to win anyway? Do you have a cell phone? Do you have a webcam on your pc? Do you have gps in your car? Do you belong to rewards programs where you shop? We lost this fight as soon as we gave in to these things. Your Alexa is not that bad.
We’ve got one Echo - it’s used for the radio and the odd play music task - at all times when we aren’t using it, the power is OFF! Yes we’ve played around with fancy active bulbs and power sockets but dumped them as I’m not having this thing enabled 24/7 listening to everything in our life .
We’ve unplugged our Alexa. I contacted Amazon 800-388-5512 and told them that under the same terms, we will turn Alexa back on as soon as I start to receive all of Jeff Bezos Alexa conversations. I suggest you do the same. I’m not sure but I think they were very happy to chat with me.
Please add alt-text when sharing images, so that blind and low-vision people aren't excluded from the conversation. Some context and copy/paste or a brief description are often enough. Checking the "reminder to add alt-text" box in your accessibility settings helps a lot.
They've always had at least transcripts of whatever you say after "Alexa" -- that's how the system worked. And I think older models always sent the records. The only change here is that now the new models will always send the recordings to their servers, not just transcripts.
Well yeah but a sent transcript is very different to a full on recording- I cant train an ai to replicate someone's voice off a transcript
Do i think thats what amazon is going to do with that? No, theyre probably going to use it for targetted advertising. Either way its icky.
Hab never done it - I'd just look into it at work (I'm an Electrical Engineer). I won't give any instructions as I don't want anyone to break their device without knowledge
I watched a tear down of an Echo speaker long time ago, the mute button seems to actually, electrically disable the mics, so probably muting it is enough. In any case, if you find it not being sufficient, please let me know 🪛
It might, yeah. I've seen different approaches to such stuff, not every device will let you get away with this that easily. Sometimes it'll be a whole module with it's own I2C memory and possibly some component code to make it harder to replace when repairing.
FTR, I pitched all my Google, Amazon devices when LLM sales caught fire. Esp after Trump & the Bros gained power. Privacy? That's going to be a slowly lost war, but one worth fighting.
Good thing I don't have any voice assistant thing of any kind and never will because I'm not too lazy to get up and turn lights on/off or adjust the volume of what I'm listening to or hit pause or look something up or whatever else those things do
Oh no where will lazy pretentious people go now to say 'Alexa recommend a white wine from the slopes of mount doom and play radiohead' knowing Amazon are going to shop them to ICE
Maybe it's because I have no faith in Amazon (or any big company) but their mentioning that they are going to use it for their AI means that if they get their wish, we could end up seeing a new "random Alexa" feature that gets rid of the iconic Alexa for AI replaced splices of people who's voices
they have sitting in their data banks (I.E everyone with an Alexa) so they can sell it as a "unique" feature without having to pay the people to do the voices and probably expand on it further for other shitty purposes because they are a business.
Jeez. It's more controlled and secure than it's ever been. Remember the days before antivirus software? Firewalls? Adaware?
Not everything is a conspiracy, you know!
I do remember. Endless adolecent hours with my Apple 2E at home, learning all the myriad command in DOS 5.2 and the first versions of windows. It used to take half an hour to download images from a webpage. Amazon has been fined and sued several times for how they handle data.
Alexa has turned out to be a major commercial flop for Amazon. They sold them at production value because they thought they could serve targeted ads e.g. when shopping via Alexa, but no one does that.
So instead they will likely use this to sell data and/or train AI.
Nabu casa is ha's cloud, just simple integration focused on privacy that's one click. Voice pe is good. Not the best, but continuing development and support
I had my echo for all of about 1 hr before I realized it's a piece of shit. Sounds like crap and I can control/do things 1000% easier by just picking up my phone. And if you need voice controls for disability reasons, there has to be a better way right?
I miss when technology was all "wow cool look at the fun things we can do now!" instead of "oh if i allow anything fun I'm selling my soul to the devil"
also saw this coming... same with starlink in your vehicle.... big brother is listening to everything you say, everywhere you go...cameras and microphones everywhere.. you can cancel starlink, but does that mean they stop listening? Obviously they are the group that ignores the rule of law
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I need loud as fuck alarms because I sleep so hard
But remember you are one of hundreds of millions of people with millions of data points to just you. Now imagine the amount of time to specifically weed you out. Keywords, say them enough and things will get noticed.
Oh, and amazon can open and close the garage door, surely that's secure.
How I wish those little pucks were mine to destroy.
I mean, I guess at least Amazon will have collective hours of audio of people shitting, I guess 🤷♀️
Their way or no way, and I ain't in a spot to live by myself, so I've gotta put up with it.
we want something that can respond to voice
#AmazonEcho
Alexa: *Gives three page explanation followed by ads*
Ok thanks…
From a legal standpoint, you seeing their disclaimer and continuing to use their products as viewed as opting in.
If not, it might be time to sell my echo dots.
Thank you.
you may want to disable your Echo....
Do i think thats what amazon is going to do with that? No, theyre probably going to use it for targetted advertising. Either way its icky.
Nah nah naaah….
As it is for many, Alexa is an accessibility device for me, this is a really tough call...do I sacrifice privacy or function?
Not everything is a conspiracy, you know!
Train off that, Amazon.
And they'd been marketing the fuck out of these as well
If you need an alternative, yknow. Can be slapped on a raspberry pi. 3D print a fancy case for it and bam, private, local-only voice assistant.
Alexa has turned out to be a major commercial flop for Amazon. They sold them at production value because they thought they could serve targeted ads e.g. when shopping via Alexa, but no one does that.
So instead they will likely use this to sell data and/or train AI.
https://www.home-assistant.io/voice-pe/