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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

#601

Post by torginus »

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…

People (including me) are simply ignorant of the privacy implications of their actions, even tech savvy people like me can't really understand who is watching and collecting their data and when, and won't go to extreme lengths in preventing others from listening in.

Regular folks are even less aware and are scared by technology - when a scary popup comes up, they will press anything and agree to anything just to make it go away.

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

#602

Post by reverendsteveii »

sapphicsnail wrote: post #596
smrtinsert wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

not the person you're replying to but one trick I've found to be very effective is to find a product on amazon and then look for the vendor to buy from directly.

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

#603

Post by bruce511 »

labster wrote: post #569
bruce511 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All democrats really need to say is "you voted for this". None of these actions are surprising so far, they were all well telegraphed before the election. In a year or so when there's truly new stuff to complain about the ln the message becomes "you voted for them".

Protip: voters don’t like to be blamed for their actions, it makes them defensive, this is a losing strategy. Voters like to blame politicians for letting them down.

Voters might not like being blamed. But that doesn't make it "not their fault".

If the get defensive I just shrug and repeat "you voted for this".

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

#604

Post by TZubiri »

63stack wrote: post #593
TZubiri wrote: post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The legal system is crap and should be replaced? I'm out of this discussion, go do a revolution or keep me out of it.

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

#605

Post by dangisautism »

whiplash451 wrote: post #189
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…

This kind of apathic statement is not very useful. By your logic, we should not care about climate change either. "People don't care about privacy" doesn't mean that regulators and the tech community should not lead a charge.

[dead]

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

#606

Post by dangisautism »

reverendsteveii wrote: post #602
sapphicsnail wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

not the person you're replying to but one trick I've found to be very effective is to find a product on amazon and then look for the vendor to buy from directly.

[dead]

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

#607

Post by munk-a »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #588
mintplant wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh. We have a Nest Mini at home that someone gave us, that we use as a smart speaker. Before setting it up, I popped it open and physically scraped out the MEMS microphones. Now that' s a hardware mute.

Is it really smart if you've removed the ability for it to respond to voice commands ?

Yea - I don't think voice commands are a feature particularly desired for speakers. There are only a few instances I can think of where I want my speaker to respond to voice commands - when I'm in the shower and when I want it to be silent so I can take a call being the primary ones. For the former I think just having a playlist on shuffle is good enough and the for the latter there are better solutions available by integrating my phone into the system.

Using voice commands to control music has always seemed like a sisyphean task to me. You're using a control method that directly conflicts with the state you'll generally use it in and song/artist names are so dense and confused that oftentimes you'll need multiple commands to hone in on what you actually want.

My "smart speaker" (aka desktop computer with massive speakers) is simply controlled by spotify sync which is absolutely not amazing but it's also not not terrible and far easier to control than times I've tried shouting at voice devices in the past.

The mic in these home devices is, imo, 90% for cooking and 7%[1] for other alarms and timers - they're relatively poor music platforms and only moved into the space because of how subsidized they were by Amazon and other companies.

1. (edit) bumped down from 9% to 7% because smart lights and thermostats are also quite prevalent.

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

#608

Post by SahAssar »

munk-a wrote: post #607
IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #588

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really smart if you've removed the ability for it to respond to voice commands ?

Yea - I don't think voice commands are a feature particularly desired for speakers. There are only a few instances I can think of where I want my speaker to respond to voice commands - when I'm in the shower and when I want it to be silent so I can take a call being the primary ones. For the former I think just having a playlist on shuffle is good enough and the for the latter there are better solutions available by…

So what you wanted was a wireless speaker? I think when most people say "smart speaker" they mean a speaker that they can control using the speaker itself, so not just a speaker tethered via bluetooth/wifi.

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

#609

Post by hn_acc1 »

reverendsteveii wrote: post #602
sapphicsnail wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

not the person you're replying to but one trick I've found to be very effective is to find a product on amazon and then look for the vendor to buy from directly.

I can often do that, but the biggest lament with the spouse is the easy returns on Amazon. You often have to pay for shipping to return an item and even then, only with an RMA and / or 15% restocking fee, while (if you have Prime), free on Amazon. I realize some of the "free shipping" is baked into the price at times - but I've yet to see it arriving faster or cheaper all costs considered from a 3rd party compared to that same item on Amazon. There's a lot less friction via Amazon.

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

#610

Post by hn_acc1 »

Got a free echo dot (not sure they're even supported anymore?) a long time ago through some promotion. Hooked it up with a separate account to let the kids play music that we uploaded on-demand. Then, they took away the "play user-uploaded music" part of it. Probably haven't plugged it in in 5+ years - definitely going to the landfill as soon as I remember..
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