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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

#621

Post by iugtmkbdfil834 »

balamatom wrote: post #576
iugtmkbdfil834 wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I have some level of appreciation of what you seem to be trying to do, I can't help but wonder as to what you believe you gain by this exchange. I don't automatically disagree with what you are saying, but you seem intent on riling people up. Is there a larger purpose behind it?

Yes, thanks for asking! You see, all this combining words in ways that people are taught to have a negative reaction to is actually part of my super secret plan to take over the world. (But don't worry, I promise to not be any better then the extant network of disavowed power relations maintained by recursive Pavlovian conditioning!) Less facetiously (though only a smidgen less so), bold of you to assume that I think…

Thank you. That was genuinely entertaining including, but not limited to the ethical considerations. It is sad to me it was not anything more grand, but I suppose it can be all be fun and games.

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

#622

Post by SahAssar »

munk-a wrote: post #615
SahAssar wrote: post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Considering the only apparent difference between the two is method of control and people love complaining about voice analysis miscomprehending I doubt there is much distance between those two terms in most consumers minds. I think in general marketing loves slapping "smart" in front of other nouns and it's usually received a lot worse than they expect to the point where most consumers ignore it as much as other fluf…

The difference for me is a lot broader. A wireless speaker to me mostly means a bluetooth speaker. A smart speaker means internet connected, firmware updates, feature-creep, TOS/EULA crap and a probably-sooner-than-I-expected end-of-life.

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

#623

Post by SequoiaHope »

hn_acc1 wrote: post #611
seltzered_ wrote: post #513

Related, here's a comment from 2019 from at the time of writing from someone claiming to be a principal engineer at Amazon, talking about how "I'm proud of the approach that Amazon takes to privacy. Privacy of customer data is considered the most important thing to Amazon, and this customer obsession (the #1 leadership principle) permeates the organization." The comment further talks about the mute button on the orig…

Yeah, companies are like that - they'll lie and pretend to be "the good guys" at the start, right up until they're not and change their motto to something besides "don't be evil". As far as I can tell, it's all part of the plan to attract idealists for cheaper and get better bang-for-buck from their "committed" workers until such time as they can no longer deny their shady practices. By the time the original engineer…

I feel you on prioritizing moral work! It took me a long time in my career to finally be able to make that choice (versus taking the first job I could find). I had an extremely moral open source robotics job for 5.5 years and then had to leave and take a less moral but still I think positively moral startup job. I think it’s okay to prioritize your personal financial needs sometimes. In the long term you won’t do the immoral stuff that long if this is how you think - so your own will provides a check to make sure you won’t do it too long.

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

#624

Post by emptyfile »

xandrius wrote: post #540
Semaphor wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at yes, convert, rarely. Partially because getting Alexa to do it is so convenient and quick. I really need to continue setting up voice for HA.

I just dump it into chatgpt and get it done in a sec

[dead]

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

#625

Post by DecentShoes »

bitmasher9 wrote: post #483
reverendsteveii wrote: post #481

"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.

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.

One week is longer than two days.

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

#626

Post by sitkack »

margalabargala wrote: post #571
sitkack wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every starlink station (and probably) tesla, scoop up every mac address they ever see. This is one is unique in that it puts all that data into a single actor's hands.

Of course starlink stations scoop mac addresses. They are in this way equivalent to and on par with every other wifi router. A Tesla vehicle could also scoop up visible mac addresses, and is equally as capable of doing so as every other wifi-enabled device with closed source firmware. Android phones have been scooping wifi mac addresses, pairing them with GPS data, and sending that to google for at least 7 years: htt…

Given who is in charge and how much power they have shown to wield over those systems, yes, definitely.

Nothing I have said makes light of those other systems and the grotesque data gathering that they do.

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

#627

Post by bsimpson »

reverendsteveii wrote: post #481

"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.

I honestly wonder how legal that is.

If you bought something under the pretense that you could disable cloud stuff and then it silently starts uploading to the cloud, that's a violation of your agreement.

If they start dropping all requests until you assent to their shrinkwrap agreement, that still feels like a violation of the promises they made when you bought it, but unfortunately has precedent. See also: all the video games that no longer work because the publishers stopped supporting the servers they relied on.

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

#628

Post by quitit »

bsimpson wrote: post #627
reverendsteveii wrote: post #481

"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.

I honestly wonder how legal that is. If you bought something under the pretense that you could disable cloud stuff and then it silently starts uploading to the cloud, that's a violation of your agreement. If they start dropping all requests until you assent to their shrinkwrap agreement, that still feels like a violation of the promises they made when you bought it, but unfortunately has precedent. See also: all the…

It's just "bait and switch" (which is illegal in most countries) with a few more steps.

They should be forced to offer a refund.

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

#629

Post by quitit »

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.

Also just a tip for an easy discount code or coupon:

1. Visit the manufacturer's social media account, if they are promoting an influencer, then visit the influencer's social media account.

2. That influencer usually has a discount code as part of a profit sharing deal with the brand. For many it's right in their bio.

3. Also searching youtube/instagram for "reviews" often finds advertorial style content that includes a discount code

This works particularly well if you're buying things like health supplements, but I've seen it for everything from tech to holidays.

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