Amazon Echo etc. What’s the point?

[Geezertronic]

Alexa is great if you have Amazon Prime as you can get "her" to play music that is part of Amazon Prime. I've got one and it was a bit of a novelty at the beginning with friends adding rude items to my to do lists, and kids enjoying asking "her" questions etc... My only issue is that every time the advert comes on TV and they say "Alexa", mine responded as well (although not so much now so I don't know if they have done something about that).

Plus you can change the activation word to be "Computer" if you are sad enough to pretend you are Scotty

 

[NSEFAN]

I could send you links all day but let's just leave it that I think you're being extremely naive if you think that a company that stores all sorts of valuable and saleable data about you can be trusted not to do anything with it. Just because something's illegal doesn't mean that it's not happening.....

Some of the worst I've heard of is the use of smart devices such as home assistants to profile people not just on their commands but also on other sounds, such as children, pets etc. Going further, determining the size of the room and estimating what furniture present, such as TVs, computers, etc. All this in the name of better targeting of adverts. It certainly ticks the boxes of both corporate and technological dystopia.

 

[E_Reeves]

I find it useful if I want to listen to music quickly or if I want to know a quick fact and I'm currently occupied doing something else. I guess it just allows you to do more things at once with ease and I find mine very useful.

 

[Dent]

I assume the future will be ordering your shopping list automatically for you from Amazons food shop, possibly with the ability for your Amazon fridge to automatically be able to tell when you've finished the last of your butter and reordering it for you.

Two major issues with such automatic ordering:

1. It takes away users' control over their own spending. Signing up for such a service would be like signing a blank cheque to Amazon.
2. Automatically ordering from one supplier denies the user any ability to shop around for the best deal. This would break the competitive market forces which normally push suppliers to offer prospective customers a good deal.

 

[Lucan]

Equally, just because something could be happening doesn't mean that it is.

But it is happening, big time, illegally and/or unethically. For anyone not seeing the news lately here are some examples :-
https://www.zdnet.com/article/data-...les-it-scraped-from-facebook-linkedin-others/
https://www.cnet.com/news/yahoo-aol-oath-privacy-policy-verizon-emails-messages/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/18/us/cambridge-analytica-facebook-privacy-data.html
https://www.theguardian.com/technol...-admits-tracking-users-and-non-users-off-site
http://kfgo.com/news/articles/2018/...lass-action-over-facial-recognition-us-judge/
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/9/1...r-user-data-mining-privacy-policy-advertising
https://gizmodo.com/advocacy-groups-say-youtube-is-illegally-collecting-dat-1825109066

Some of these malpractices may not currently be illegal only because the law makers have lagged behind developments in IT, but there will undoubtedly be some changes in the law in the wake of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica inquiries.

But even if illegal, such practices will continue to an extent thanks to insiders leaking data in exchange for big money, particularly from within companies fond of outsourcing and employing contractors.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

But it is happening, big time, illegally and/or unethically. For anyone not seeing the news lately here are some examples :-
https://www.zdnet.com/article/data-...les-it-scraped-from-facebook-linkedin-others/
https://www.cnet.com/news/yahoo-aol-oath-privacy-policy-verizon-emails-messages/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/18/us/cambridge-analytica-facebook-privacy-data.html
https://www.theguardian.com/technol...-admits-tracking-users-and-non-users-off-site
http://kfgo.com/news/articles/2018/...lass-action-over-facial-recognition-us-judge/
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/9/1...r-user-data-mining-privacy-policy-advertising
https://gizmodo.com/advocacy-groups-say-youtube-is-illegally-collecting-dat-1825109066

Some of these malpractices may not currently be illegal only because the law makers have lagged behind developments in IT, but there will undoubtedly be some changes in the law in the wake of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica inquiries.

But even if illegal, such practices will continue to an extent thanks to insiders leaking data in exchange for big money, particularly from within companies fond of outsourcing and employing contractors.

Well yes, thank you for comfirming my suspicions were correct!

As an example, a friend of mine told me she was chatting with a friend in her lounge about how her slippers were wearing out and she was thinking of buying a new pair. There were no online devices on the room apart from an Amazon Echo device, which was supposedly not active. A few days later when she went online she was deluged with ads for slippers!

 

[WelshBluebird]

But it is happening, big time, illegally and/or unethically. For anyone not seeing the news lately here are some examples :-
https://www.zdnet.com/article/data-...les-it-scraped-from-facebook-linkedin-others/
https://www.cnet.com/news/yahoo-aol-oath-privacy-policy-verizon-emails-messages/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/18/us/cambridge-analytica-facebook-privacy-data.html
https://www.theguardian.com/technol...-admits-tracking-users-and-non-users-off-site
http://kfgo.com/news/articles/2018/...lass-action-over-facial-recognition-us-judge/
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/9/1...r-user-data-mining-privacy-policy-advertising
https://gizmodo.com/advocacy-groups-say-youtube-is-illegally-collecting-dat-1825109066

Some of these malpractices may not currently be illegal only because the law makers have lagged behind developments in IT, but there will undoubtedly be some changes in the law in the wake of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica inquiries.

But even if illegal, such practices will continue to an extent thanks to insiders leaking data in exchange for big money, particularly from within companies fond of outsourcing and employing contractors.

Ahhh so nothing about Amazon selling data gathered by the Echo without users consent then. Thought so. Infact nothing at all about any of those companies selling your data without your consent.

Certainly some morally questionable practices. But most of those links are either things you agree to by signing up for the service, or third parties misusing your data (either scraping publicly available data or by breaking the T&C's of the social network site).

Well yes, thank you for comfirming my suspicions were correct!

As an example, a friend of mine told me she was chatting with a friend in her lounge about how her slippers were wearing out and she was thinking of buying a new pair. There were no online devices on the room apart from an Amazon Echo device, which was supposedly not active. A few days later when she went online she was deluged with ads for slippers!

Which is more than likely explained by the probability of searching google or whatever for slippers, or even someone who just happened to be connected to her WiFi network doing the same (or previously having done the same). Also providing ads is very different to Amazon selling your data (which is what you claimed).

Again, if the Echo is not actively listening to you after you say the hotword, it does not send recordings back to Amazon. You can literally check that yourself if you can be bothered, rather than believing bs conspiracy theories.

Again - none of the links provided in this thread even hint at the suggestion that amazon is selling your data.