You could also keep using Alexa and add a do-it-yourself privacy enhancement called Alias: https://www.instructables.com/Project-Alias/
Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?
81–90 of 166 posts
Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?
#82Maybe this is an obvious answer, and therefore not one you're interested in, but there's Siri. Although audio is sent to the cloud, you can choose whether it is stored or not, and whatever you pick, Apple's privacy policy is very strict. HomePods are mostly advertised as music playback devices, but I mostly use mine as a HomeKit control device. Homebridge allows you to control non-HomeKit devices via Siri: https://ho…
Apple is storing recorded voice data and sharing with 3rd parties - https://thehackernews.com/2015/03/apple-siri-voice-data-shar...
For awhile, they did so without even allowing the users to opt-out. This is a terrible suggestion if privacy is what you seek.
Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?
#83It'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 !…
Software has been mostly solved for a while. My issue is hardware. The way I read, is that to get proper voice recognition in many circumstances, you need a microphone array (for every DIY Alexa and Dot). Now you have a PI, the array installed on it and… it just stands around looking ugly and accumulating dust? You want a case, but then from my research, cases can easily interfere with those arrays. So you need one t…
When I researched ReSpeaker was one of the better solutions, they provide various mic-array PiHats, as well as professionally looking cases for the device. They also sell pre-build devices I think, if you're not into DIY.
https://www.seeedstudio.com/category/Speech-Recognition-c-44...
(Just to male it clear, I'm not affiliated with them in any way)
Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?
#84I don't want to sound like a smart ass, but I feel like a good alternative to Alexa is just doing all that yourself. I have never had an Alexa but surely there isn't that much time saved by having it turn off lights. Siri on your iPhone can set alarms and shopping lists and presumably your phone it always around you.
> I have never had an Alexa but surely there isn't that much time saved by having it turn off lights You should try. It’s a trade off: You choose when to spend more time to set up the assistant, in order to save time setting an alarm while you have your hands in the dough.
But the point of the alarm is to be able to leave and do something else. If Alexa is in the kitchen and you're in the garden it doesn't work?
I use the timer on my watch; then I can go away and completely forget about it, and be reminded in time.
Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?
#85I’m also very interested in an answer. We use Alexa a lot, but this week I had to unplug every Alexa in the house because a distant family member had gained access to the family Amazon account and was trying to use the “drop in” feature to listen to our conversations. In the course of our investigation I found out that Alexa does not log privacy related events at all (there is no record of a drop in stored anywhere),…
Well you installed an always on microphone in your house, attached to a processing unit connected to internet all the time.
People said again and again it's going to be abused, and you had the technical knowledge to evaluate the risk.
Yet you went with it.
If it was not your scenario, it would have been another one. There will be other ones. Hell, with things like PRISM, that's inviting 3 letters agencies in your bedrooms.
Since the pandora box is opened and people are going to do it anyway, we should at least militate for having hardware switches on any sensors for any device.
Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Software has been mostly solved for a while. My issue is hardware. The way I read, is that to get proper voice recognition in many circumstances, you need a microphone array (for every DIY Alexa and Dot). Now you have a PI, the array installed on it and… it just stands around looking ugly and accumulating dust? You want a case, but then from my research, cases can easily interfere with those arrays. So you need one t…
When I researched ReSpeaker was one of the better solutions, they provide various mic-array PiHats, as well as professionally looking cases for the device. They also sell pre-build devices I think, if you're not into DIY. https://www.seeedstudio.com/category/Speech-Recognition-c-44... (Just to male it clear, I'm not affiliated with them in any way)
Yeah, ReSpeaker looks like they have the best hardware for this. But the issue was, that they only sell one case, for their old array, which is barely available any more (neither case, nor array.
But! Now they sell the new array as USB array in a proper case! That’s not perfect as I’ll have 2 devices instead of one to place/hide, but it’s still a lot better than last time I checked their site.
Thank you, now I have plans for 2022 :)
Hah, and of course there is only one left in stock :/
edit: And I found a company in Germany that not only resells them for almost the same price, they even have a lot of stock.
Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?
#87One of my back-burner projects is putting some esp32s or similar around the house with microphones, streaming whatever audio they hear to Dragon NaturallySpeaking like in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SkdfdXWYaI#t=9m5s , but hooked up to home assistant scenes / automations instead of emacs commands.
Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?
#88Earlier 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.
When I'm feeling spicy, my response to that line of thinking is to ask that person for their house keys so I can come by sometime and look around. Or I'll ask them to unlock their phone so I can rummage around in their messages and photos.
Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?
#89Do you really need a home assistant?
Re: Ask HN: Private Alternatives to Alexa?
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
"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.
How is running a detection algorithm on one’s photos not “scanning” them?