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The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

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Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#361

Post by natnatenathan »

bentt wrote: post #351

I know this single bit of news isn't the biggest deal. However we were talking at the dinner table, my wife and two kids and I. We just decided we're done with Amazon and Alexa. My wife has always been skeeved out by the devices, and I've reassured her that the wake word is the only time it's recording. Whether this is true or not, it's obvious that the company can no longer be trusted. So yeah we're just going to ge…

We did this, we realized we never really used them. It has made our home feels a bit more peaceful. Our inflection point was the upsells we would get every time we talked to it. “Would you also like to shop for Prime Day?”

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#362

Post by jabroni_salad »

victor9000 wrote: post #100
ricardobeat wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What hassle?

Having to weigh the pros and cons of eroding privacy protections, where the service is placing its own needs ahead of those already specified by the user. For me the answer is no, but I'm wondering what people get from these devices that make this a worthwhile trade off. I feel like a mobile phone gives me most of the utility, just through a different UX

> Having to weigh the pros and cons of eroding privacy protections

The typical consumer doesn't do that, at all. It's a nearly universal blindspot.

Here's a fun Q. Do you know how many apps on your phone have business relationships with Gravy Analytics? Why not? The personal detriment is much worse than Amazon.

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#363

Post by diggan »

tiahura wrote: post #358
bentt wrote: post #351

I know this single bit of news isn't the biggest deal. However we were talking at the dinner table, my wife and two kids and I. We just decided we're done with Amazon and Alexa. My wife has always been skeeved out by the devices, and I've reassured her that the wake word is the only time it's recording. Whether this is true or not, it's obvious that the company can no longer be trusted. So yeah we're just going to ge…

Seems kinda paranoid. I've yet to meet anyone, who's met anyone, who's been harmed by not turning that setting off, or been harmed by any assistant listening.

You're never met anyone who been able to prove harm.

If your insurance payments increases 5% because Amazon sold the data to some broker, who then sold it to your insurance company, who figures you're living a slightly more risky life because you go outside 7% more than the average person, how would you even begin to prove this?

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#364

Post by fwip »

_heimdall wrote: post #342
pessimizer wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blaming consumers for climate change is a con. Giving regular people a bunch of useless busywork when they are already busy instead of regulating at the manufacturer where the effort would be minimal is a choice. It will always work. The opportunity to blame your neighbor for climate change for not being as conscientious as you is the archetype of a liberal wedge issue. You can yell at them on social media. But regul…

I'm not blaming anyone. People make their choices, every choice has a consequence. Its as simple as that. It sounds like you may take more issue with the busy work we're all given. Is the problem really that the government isn't regulating problems away, or that people are kept so busy and distracted that they can't make their own decisions?

Asking everybody nicely to stop contributing to climate change does not work to stop climate change. It is an individualized solution to a societal problem.

We didn't clean up our water by asking people to stop buying lightbulbs from the factory that dumped mercury directly into the river - we made it illegal for the company to do so, and we were successful.

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#365

Post by natnatenathan »

everdrive wrote: post #186

People don't really care about privacy, it's as simple as that. Yes, they worry about privacy, and complain about violations of privacy. But if they cared, they never would have purchased this product in the first place. There are bits of technology which violate privacy, but are extremely difficult to fully avoid: Social Media, (I know a lot of HN isn't on it, but how about most of your family and friends?) smart ph…

I care a lot about privacy, I think others do as well. We don’t actually have that many choices as much of the privacy issues are difficult to avoid.

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#366

Post by HideousKojima »

letier wrote: post #344
bko wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take pretty much any quality of life thing. Just as one example Mississippi: The average home size 2,065 square feet United Kingdom: The average home size is 818 square feet No, you cannot "eat GDP", but its a useful proxy as it correlates very highly to a lot of things we do care about

I wonder how it interacts with life expectancy. There is a huge difference between Mississippi and the UK: 78.6 years for males and 82.6 years for females in the UK in 2020 to 2022. 68.6 years for males and 75.2 years for females in Mississippi in 2020 and 67.7 years for makes and 74.3 years for females in Mississippi in 2021. Might go up a bit if you have 2022 numbers, but the difference is huge.

Life expectancy differences in Mississippi vs. the UK is largely due to race. Mississippi is about 36% black, and blacks in the US have a 5+ year shorter life expectancy than whites.

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#367

Post by jpalawaga »

bko wrote: post #347
ropejumper wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This requires a justification for why home size is a good indicator of quality of life, or for why it's more important than other indicators.

I don't know anyone who doesn't want more space. And I couldn't imagine raising a family in 800 square feet. Do we really need a "source" for everything? Would it be meaningful if you saw some survey asking: Would you prefer your primary residence to be smaller, larger or the same size? I guess you can say all things being equal larger homes are more expensive so there must be some kind of preference for larger homes…

Do those same people also care about quality of education, availability and utility of public transit, etc? Or is the size of your home the only factor in what makes somewhere livable?

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#368

Post by pc86 »

latexr wrote: post #332
pc86 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Abortion has nothing to do with it. Abortion laws vary state to state from very restrictive to very permissive, and even states with much more permissive abortion laws than the majority of Europe, maternal mortality remains higher. Wisconsin's abortion law is from before the Civil War and its maternal mortality is lower than Massachusetts. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/maternal-mortality/mmr-2018-2022-st... Personally I t…

A miscarriage is not a voluntary abortion. The point is not to criticise these cases specifically, but to point out there is a cultural underpinning to the problem. To treat someone appropriately, you have to respect them and not be constantly afraid that what you’re doing will get you in trouble.

If a doctor is afraid to treat a miscarriage it's because they're worried about abortion laws in their jurisdiction. You can't pretend they're not linked; we should talk about both when we talk about either one.

My point about Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and US maternal mortality vs. Europe stands.

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#369

Post by Aurornis »

venusenvy47 wrote: post #359
bentt wrote: post #351

I know this single bit of news isn't the biggest deal. However we were talking at the dinner table, my wife and two kids and I. We just decided we're done with Amazon and Alexa. My wife has always been skeeved out by the devices, and I've reassured her that the wake word is the only time it's recording. Whether this is true or not, it's obvious that the company can no longer be trusted. So yeah we're just going to ge…

I personally assume that they wouldn't be processing all sound at all time from a device because it would be massively expensive for them. Obviously, it's technically possible that they could be, but I don't see how it would be financially possible. If we talk about targeted surveillance, then that is certainly financially possible. But I find it unlikely I would be targeting among the millions of people using these.

I don’t know why anyone in tech believes the myth that their devices are streaming everything.

It’s trivial to inspect traffic from a device. You can see that your devices aren’t constantly streaming data somewhere. You can see a burst of activity after a command.

Beyond that, it would require a massive conspiracy for everyone who ever worked on these programs to never leak details about always-on surveillance recording. It would be a bombshell revelation and you’d see it everywhere.

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#370

Post by bruce511 »

Hikikomori wrote: post #333
bruce511 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trust me, if you own your own company anywhere, 50 days paid vacation is unlikely. Owners tend to work more, not less. Or let me be more flippant- sure I get 50 paid days off a year. I call it Sunday.

If we use Elon as an example regular CEOs probably have 300+ days off.

I'm not sure Elon is a "regular CEO". He's more like an active investor where the companies are mostly run by other people without him there at all.

So yeah, not a typical "business owner" :)

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