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Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?

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Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?

#61

Post by sneak »

raffraffraff wrote: post #58
lcvw wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was truly a bizarre experience. First we noticed a random intermittent ringing noise in the house and couldn’t figure out what it was. We tracked it down to the Alexa but since there are no logs or notifications we didn’t know what had just happened. It seems the person hung up when they heard us looking around so we never saw any visible indication that anything was happening. Once we figured it out, we then had…

Honestly, I find it amazing that so many people let these things into their homes. The price you pay for such little actual utility isn't worth it. I won't use voice recognition on a single device. Not only do I not trust Google/Amazon, I don't trust that I wouldn't accidentally say something that triggers it to phone a person I'm talking about, or order something expensive in the internet. Home Assistant on my phone…

Most people believe that they have nothing to hide. To them, there is no cost in lost privacy because they do not value privacy.

The sad part is, for most people who say this, it's true. Their lives indeed contain nothing interesting enough to be worth concealing.

Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?

#62

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

follower wrote: post #41

It's unfortunate that another comment that links to Rhasspy has been downvoted (I assume because it lacked any other context) so I wanted to mention the project with some additional context: https://rhasspy.readthedocs.io/ While I've not used the entire Rhasspy project myself (but trying it out is on the long list of things to do :) ) I have used the offline Text-To-Speech sub-project Larynx... ...and it is amazing !…

https://ai-service-demos.go-aws.com/polly

check the neural then british, Amy. the "smoothness" is uncanny. the samples are "almost" there with larynx you linked. good but take kathleen (glow_tts), there is "still" some robotic in there. is this something that can be improved by tweaking the training ? this sounds really cool to be used at home

Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?

#63

Post by dsomers »

kornhole wrote: post #25
LeoPanthera wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Taking Apple's word on it" is not a valid privacy strategy. I respectfully disagree. If Apple says "we don't do X", and then is shown to do X, that would be a massive PR disaster. Whereas Amazon makes no privacy promises at all. In fact, they promise the opposite.

Granted that Amazon doesn't pretend too much to not be spying on you. Carefully read Apple's policies and statements to see where they give themselves plenty of wiggle room. Unfortunately most consumers' knowledge is no match for their PR and legal team's. Apple markets their products on privacy, but countless studies and analysis finds this to be a lot of theater.

What’s the strongest evidence you have that proves this?

Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?

#64

Post by dsomers »

cglong wrote: post #53
LeoPanthera wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Taking Apple's word on it" is not a valid privacy strategy. I respectfully disagree. If Apple says "we don't do X", and then is shown to do X, that would be a massive PR disaster. Whereas Amazon makes no privacy promises at all. In fact, they promise the opposite.

You're right, it was: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/26/apple-con...

This was changed as far as I know. Do you have evidence otherwise?

Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?

#65

Post by Tempest1981 »

raffraffraff wrote: post #58
lcvw wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was truly a bizarre experience. First we noticed a random intermittent ringing noise in the house and couldn’t figure out what it was. We tracked it down to the Alexa but since there are no logs or notifications we didn’t know what had just happened. It seems the person hung up when they heard us looking around so we never saw any visible indication that anything was happening. Once we figured it out, we then had…

Honestly, I find it amazing that so many people let these things into their homes. The price you pay for such little actual utility isn't worth it. I won't use voice recognition on a single device. Not only do I not trust Google/Amazon, I don't trust that I wouldn't accidentally say something that triggers it to phone a person I'm talking about, or order something expensive in the internet. Home Assistant on my phone…

Does anyone's employer have rules about having company meetings (at home) with such devices nearby? Seems potentially risky.

Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?

#66

Post by mattowen_uk »

The harder problem isn't the software - that's solvable to a degree by most of us on this thread - it's the hardware. Alexa et al. are packed full of hardware tweaks such as array based far-field microphones which can determine where the voice commands are coming from, and isolate them from background noise and their own audio output. Then there's the built-in proprietary Alexa/Google-home support in a lot of consumer goods as well. There's hardware widgets that you can get to effectively rebuild Alexa type hardware with an off the shelf SBC, but I think I'm on the ball here when I say most people don't want to do that, and/or don't have the hardware skills either.

Personally, I live fine without a voice controlled home assistant. I am however able bodied, and I can press buttons and flick switches without much thought. If that were to change, then yeah, I can see a need for these things, but they really need to be able to work offline with no internet connection should you wish have them configured like that.

Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?

#67

Post by beardyw »

sneak wrote: post #61
raffraffraff wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I find it amazing that so many people let these things into their homes. The price you pay for such little actual utility isn't worth it. I won't use voice recognition on a single device. Not only do I not trust Google/Amazon, I don't trust that I wouldn't accidentally say something that triggers it to phone a person I'm talking about, or order something expensive in the internet. Home Assistant on my phone…

Most people believe that they have nothing to hide. To them, there is no cost in lost privacy because they do not value privacy. The sad part is, for most people who say this, it's true. Their lives indeed contain nothing interesting enough to be worth concealing.

Saddest thought of the day.

Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?

#68

Post by dsomers »

theshrike79 wrote: post #54
colordrops wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a terrible suggestion. "Taking Apple's word on it" is not a valid privacy strategy. Companies have shown time and again that they lie about what is happening behind the scenes, or even just change their policies for the worst. Then there are rogue employees, such as the Ubiquiti fiasco, and secret government data collection, such as PRISM, of which Apple was a participant. Apple has broken trust multiple time…

"The CSAM fiasco" was just geeks on the internet being geeks on the internet. And some really bad marketing on Apple's part. The feature itself was perfectly fine, very few people even bothered to read up on it and focused on "OMG APPLE IS SCANNING MY PHOTOS!" without any nuance.

Yeah, they absolutely were not scanning photos and anyone with basic knowledge of how hashing works should know that. I was really disappointed with some of the reactions a saw coming from this community, which totally lacked any nuance or acknowledgment of how serious the issue of child abuse is.

Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?

#70

Post by leftistsareevil »

I have a rule, if I want absolute privacy, nothing electronic. The Amish are on to something. They can still see you, record you and hear you with satelite or plane or drone, so silence is golden. Learn sign language. Technology has now evolved so far you will never escape or evade surveillance if they REALLY want to. But you CAN make it nearly impossible.
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