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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

#591

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…

>People don't really care about privacy People don't care about anything by default. They have to learn about threat-models and how to mitigate those threats. Usually this only happens after getting burned personally. (To learn from others is still learning, which people also don't care about.) This topic comes up in politics all the time. There is this hurt and offended reaction to people embracing authoritarianism,…

> Human society's default is authoritarianism.

This is a very interesting question -- Thomas Hobbes would disagree with you here.

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

#592
post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is rarely the cheapest way to have a package delivered to your home in less than two days. You can often find people much cheaper if you don’t mind waiting a week or two. I reduced Amazon by 90% when I realized how much money I was wasting over 70-120 packages a year.

> Amazon is rarely the cheapest way to have a package delivered to your home in less than two days. You can often find people much cheaper if you don’t mind waiting a week or two. But "waiting a week or two" seems directly at odds with delivered in less than 2 days. End users don't really care about shipping speed per service (unless it's a perishable or temperature-sensitive item). They care about how long it will t…

Sorry if my message was confusing.

There are options that offer fast shipping at slightly reduced prices, and options that offer slow shipping at significantly reduced prices.

Walmart.com, eBay, temu, and aliexpress are the most common sources I use, but I also do a lot of business with smaller retailers and brand websites.

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

#593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We should have a framework that prohibits companies from selling a product with a certain agreement, then changing the agreement unilaterally" That isn't trying to make a difference? Excuse me? Read that back.

The framework already exists, it says to return the product and ask for a refund. You can claim detrimental reliance though, but it's a stretch and bad faith imo. Try your luck with a judge and attorney fees

The framework that exists is crap and should be replaced with something where you as a consumer should not have to watch the eula changes like a hawk, and then the onus should not be on you as a consumer to do extra work to get refunded for a bait and switch.

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

#594

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…

>People don't really care about privacy People don't care about anything by default. They have to learn about threat-models and how to mitigate those threats. Usually this only happens after getting burned personally. (To learn from others is still learning, which people also don't care about.) This topic comes up in politics all the time. There is this hurt and offended reaction to people embracing authoritarianism,…

> Human society's default is authoritarianism.

I'd say it's quite the opposite. It takes a lot of force and coercion to maintain authoritarian institutions precisely because it's not natural. Most of us have had a lifetime of schools, churches, and jobs drilling conformity and blind obedience into us.

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

#595

Are these devices really worth the hassle?

My echo is decent spotify streaming device, and because amazon has regular sales, I got it for $50. Comparable devices were $200.

Now trying to figure out if I can physically disable the mics or if I have to buy something else.

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

#596

"You know that boundary that we agreed upon a while back? We're gonna violate that boundary now. This is not an opportunity to negotiate a new agreement, we're gonna do whatever we want to you because we're big and you're little." Stuff like this is why I've cut amazon out of my life entirely. No more new devices, no more new purchases, cancelled prime, all of it gone.

We've stopped buying everything from Amazon as well. It's been a huge switch, but feels entirely justified watching current events.

What alternatives have you found? Do you mostly go to smaller vendors?

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

#597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is interesting because I remember interviewing a UX manager candidate at Google around 2019 who was coming from the Alexa team at Amazon, and his feedback even then was that Alexa was never going to be profitable and that he -- and many others -- were trying to get out while the getting was good. It, just like Google Assistant, is just suffering a very slow death.

2019 was before ChatGPT. Generative AI could change the game for digital voice assistants.

The last thing I need is another bullshit generator.

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

#598

"You know that boundary that we agreed upon a while back? We're gonna violate that boundary now. This is not an opportunity to negotiate a new agreement, we're gonna do whatever we want to you because we're big and you're little." Stuff like this is why I've cut amazon out of my life entirely. No more new devices, no more new purchases, cancelled prime, all of it gone.

No, it's just disablement of a hardware-based feature that won't be able to run the new software.

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

#599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also have to ask yourself why so many europeans try to move to the US for a better life (especially talented ones) and why almost no american does it the other way around. (The number is ridiculously low in comparison) People move east to west across the pond, because they want the life offered by the US economy.

>The number is ridiculously low in comparison Where are you getting your confidence that that is so?

Numbers of H1B applicants per country are available. The equivalent for the UK and France is also available.

If you believe there's nearly as many people trying to get out than there is trying to get in, you will be surprised.

The difference (per capita) is a factor of at least 10x

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

#600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only in circles that don’t understand technology and frankly logic. To prove that it’s happening _one_ hacker needs to show that there’s constant flash drive / network traffic while the mic is enabled that also correlates with the entropy in the audio.

I have personally verified that my device most certainly does not send constant internet traffic... however I think we can't rule out the possibility that it might buffer the data and send it later.

We can, in fact, rule it out by dissecting the device and monitoring chip traffic. That’s my whole point - people who understand technology know that it’s nearly impossible for Amazon devices to routinely spy on conversations in people’s homes without detection.
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