501–510 of 573 posts
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That doesn't answer the question: why does that require internet access?
How else did you expect it to message him? Or let him turn it off remotely? Sure, could put a SIM in it and do an SMS that way, but then you have to pay for service for your thermostat, rather than just using the WIFI you already have.
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« I don't get this position: my (Android) phone can already record my voice, so how does having a Google Home materially increase the privacy risk? » Indeed. Maybe people don't realize that a smartphone is a much bigger privacy risk. A phone can literally record audio and video, track your position, monitor all your online activity, and upload all that without you even noticing it, even when the screen is off and loc…
The privacy risk is not the same and the convenience to mitigate is not there I can leave my phone at home when I go out. In another room. Shut it off. I do all of these things quite regularly. Do I go around and disable numerous smarthome gadgets for privacy or stick with my oh so terrible life without them? Bonus! I can avoid awkward conversations with my guests. People buy products because we feel they help us be…
I was a huge Google Fan but this is becoming lunacy. I understood trading some data and privacy for great search results, maps and free quality email. But people willingly bringing always on listening devices in to their homes (beyond what smartphones are already capable of) I just can't comprehend it. Why would people voluntarily do this in exchange for being able to ask for weather, play a playlist, add a todo and…
I couldn't agree more. Are there any good open-source projects for AI assistants? There certainly seems to be a need.
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« I don't get this position: my (Android) phone can already record my voice, so how does having a Google Home materially increase the privacy risk? » Indeed. Maybe people don't realize that a smartphone is a much bigger privacy risk. A phone can literally record audio and video, track your position, monitor all your online activity, and upload all that without you even noticing it, even when the screen is off and loc…
The privacy risk is not the same and the convenience to mitigate is not there I can leave my phone at home when I go out. In another room. Shut it off. I do all of these things quite regularly. Do I go around and disable numerous smarthome gadgets for privacy or stick with my oh so terrible life without them? Bonus! I can avoid awkward conversations with my guests. People buy products because we feel they help us be…
I don't understand how the risk is anything but greater with a phone.
I was a huge Google Fan but this is becoming lunacy. I understood trading some data and privacy for great search results, maps and free quality email. But people willingly bringing always on listening devices in to their homes (beyond what smartphones are already capable of) I just can't comprehend it. Why would people voluntarily do this in exchange for being able to ask for weather, play a playlist, add a todo and…
> beyond what smartphones are already capable of What do you mean by this? What exactly is it that you believe smart speakers capable of that smartphones are not? (Modern smartphones are just as capable of listening for and responding to hotwords as smart speakers are, fyi.)
I think the same thinking allows people to overlook their phones while focusing on their smart speakers.
I was a huge Google Fan but this is becoming lunacy. I understood trading some data and privacy for great search results, maps and free quality email. But people willingly bringing always on listening devices in to their homes (beyond what smartphones are already capable of) I just can't comprehend it. Why would people voluntarily do this in exchange for being able to ask for weather, play a playlist, add a todo and…
Because big tech/advertising companies don't sell your individual data. They sell to other entities the ability to show people like you specific content. I wouldn't use products monetized in the first way, but I'm happy with the latter approach.
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What does having a Nest thermostat get you? I'm a tech dude, I build modern software, but I live in a dumb, old fashioned house. My programmable Honeywell thermostat, which has no internet connection, does a perfectly fine job of keeping my home the right temperature. My door locks use a key, and keys have great battery life, and my smoke detectors beep instead of speaking to me. What am I missing by not having inter…
I loved my Nest thermostat when I first bought it. I could change the set point with my phone without getting out of bed, or set the house to the right temperature before I got home. It would automatically go into energy-saving mode if nobody was home. I could track my long-term energy usage with an app on my phone. That was all very nice, but then Nest blew it. They kept forcing firmware updates to the thermostat th…
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Is Apple the only big tech that’s using AI on device in a privacy protecting way? I appreciate their approach to user functionality that doesn’t dump all my data into a near infinite number of collectors. I also think it’s a neat way of distributed computing to use the cpus of all these phones sleeping at night to crunch stuff is actually cheaper than cloud. I think because the phones are sunk cost that is idle a few…
Believe it or not, Google is the leader in the space of privacy-centric AI - see Federated Learning.
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I loved my Nest thermostat when I first bought it. I could change the set point with my phone without getting out of bed, or set the house to the right temperature before I got home. It would automatically go into energy-saving mode if nobody was home. I could track my long-term energy usage with an app on my phone. That was all very nice, but then Nest blew it. They kept forcing firmware updates to the thermostat th…
I got a dumb but wifi Sensi thermostat, glad i did
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All "big tech" are at it, I tried to go to "My Pictures" the other day and microsoft asked me to run my pictures through facial recognition. They said that by consenting I was asserting I had the consent of anyone who appeared in any of my photos or might appear in future which is insane to ask of anyone, no-one can really give that third party consent. Then when I refused they showed me a nag screen which didn't hav…
Google has implemented this asshole design/nagware in many products to push unnecessary to me and invasive data collection or functionality I want won’t be available. For example, their maps app on iOS won’t save locations for me unless I sign in an enable web history tracking. I get prompted every time I try to save a pin as well as every once in a while I’m case I change my mind. It’s a free app and it’s Google’s p…