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Amazon Echo Look

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Re: Amazon Echo Look

#311

Post by pbhjpbhj »

lanna wrote: post #167
SippinLean wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caring that your clothes look good is narcissism (excessive interest in your appearance) now? Have you ever asked a friend if they like the suit you just bought? Do you go to work in a burlap sack? Knowingly and willingly sending people photos of yourself is an "invasion" of privacy?

relevant dilbert: http://dilbert.com/series/34 http://dilbert.com/series/59-Tube-Clothes

The following series, 60, is even more apposite - "emotionally manipulative robot", eg http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-02-09 .

Re: Amazon Echo Look

#312

Post by pbhjpbhj »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #231
uptown wrote: post #88

Amazon Says: "We're going to blur the backgrounds so your outfits pop" Amazon Does: "We're going to identify everything in our field of view, and filter this into the profile we've built about your possessions and interests to enhance our recommendations engine.

Why is it not a good thing?

I'd say because putting some of our brightest minds, and best technology, to work to even further push demand for things people don't need is doing the exact opposite to what humanity needs.

Marketing has long been about manipulating people to create a perceived need, but this is stepping it up to new levels.

If capitalism wants to survive it's going to need to find a way to monetise things that are good for humanity and Earth, that's not this.

Pushing people to depend on fashion for self-worth, then dictating rapidly changing fashions in order to sell more goods ... What's good about it?

Re: Amazon Echo Look

#313

Post by pbhjpbhj »

slackstation wrote: post #141
petra wrote: post #87

There's a lot of negativity here. And maybe all of you are right. But it would be interesting to think of the most positive , imaginary scenario: 1. Amazon builds the service such that brands loose their power. All the negative psych/social phenomena of brand culture are gone, and with it, btw , all the ads. 2. High security + physical on and off switch make for an improved privacy situation , especially if you consi…

The reason why Amazon and more people don't do these things is because they are hard and success breeds expectations that can only hurt you. It's much cheaper and safer to build a politically neutral brand without expectations of some kind feminist message / worldview. If you go that route, it isn't going to sell more clothes but, it will invite people's hyper-sensitivity about every aspect of the product. You can on…

>"just get some friends that like fashion and ask them to rate your style" //

Or just wear clothing that you like and ignore fashion?

Re: Amazon Echo Look

#314

Post by croon »

Eridrus wrote: post #289
philsnow wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's worse: that amazon thought that enough people wouldn't care about an always-on, always-connected camera watching them get dressed (and undressed) every day, to make it a viable product ? ... or that _they might be right_ ?

This is basically a Nest Dropcam, and people seem to like those.

But isn't that for home security/checking in when you're not home?

The always-connected part is the steep price for that functionality.

Here the entire thing is designed around constantly uploading incriminating photos of you, without the value of home security.

Re: Amazon Echo Look

#315

Post by lima »

Semaphor wrote: post #223
lima wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I think the lesson was pretty clear that people will trade privacy for convenience. Not everywhere. In Germany, Amazon Echo isn't nearly as popular.

Germany has an, sometimes irrational, phobia of new technology that doesn't always have something to do with privacy concerns.

In this case, the privacy concerns are obvious.

Re: Amazon Echo Look

#316

Post by thanatropism »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #142
SippinLean wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caring that your clothes look good is narcissism (excessive interest in your appearance) now? Have you ever asked a friend if they like the suit you just bought? Do you go to work in a burlap sack? Knowingly and willingly sending people photos of yourself is an "invasion" of privacy?

> Caring that your clothes look good is narcissism (excessive interest in your appearance) now? As if caring is a binary thing and not a matter of degree? When you pay $200 to have "fashion experts" (or AI) judge your outfits on a daily basis, have you not crossed a line? > Knowingly and willingly sending people photos of yourself is an "invasion" of privacy? Yes, I'm sure this won't be used to collect all kinds of p…

I might pay $200 if I was much, much wealthier.

I mean, for a human-powered service that just consulted me on good looks according to detailed specifications (I under-dress for work because it reads like an asshole power move, House MD style, that has served me well at least a couple times) and in accordance to my wife.

Re: Amazon Echo Look

#318

Post by deanCommie »

mdpopescu wrote: post #254
jerf wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"(Likely an overabundance of trust or a lack of understanding of all the real implications and potential for exploit.)" I think that's a lot of it. People aren't trading privacy for convenience... people are taking convenience. It makes a lot more sense when you think of it that way. You can do an experiment yourself to show this; take 5 non-techie/non-HN people and explain to them exactly what this thing does and ho…

> building up a GoodThink/BadThink database Yep. I'm going to London on Friday. The Mayor of London just decided that anybody who posts stuff against muslims on social networks is guilty of a hate crime. I am thinking I won't get arrested when I arrive... but it's a possibility, and I definitely won't access twitter while I'm there.

Or you could, you know...not be an asshole...

Re: Amazon Echo Look

#319

Post by x2f10 »

petra wrote: post #87

There's a lot of negativity here. And maybe all of you are right. But it would be interesting to think of the most positive , imaginary scenario: 1. Amazon builds the service such that brands loose their power. All the negative psych/social phenomena of brand culture are gone, and with it, btw , all the ads. 2. High security + physical on and off switch make for an improved privacy situation , especially if you consi…

Now that you've done the optimism, let me help with the pessimism.

>1. Amazon builds the service such that brands loose their power. All the negative psych/social phenomena of brand culture are gone, and with it, btw , all the ads.

Brand culture is alive due to marketing / advertising. $AMZN wants to be paid to market / advertise. It's more likely the case that brands will be able to pay to have their brand identified via the cam (giving additional points) or have their brand (in a similar style) recommended to the user via the app / website.

>2. High security + physical on and off switch make for an improved privacy situation , especially if you consider the current state of webcams.

Agree, but a physical on and off switch makes the biggest selling feature useless: speech. Alexa loses it's cool if I have to constantly turn it on and off. And, heck, at that point, why not use a normal camera?

>3. Amazon builds the style consulting service as a positive service, consulting with feminists and psychologists, not using dark patterns, but to the opposite, using empowerment regarding bodies, etc. This may also building a fashion social network focused on positive feeling, maybe by limiting to the close social circle, or something else, because the goal here isn't attention, like facebook.

You will not convince me that this point is not in jest. The product is not a "feel good at any size" product. If it were, it's have a small utility for an even smaller group - this product is to _increase_ the importance of "fashion".

>4. That service would be good, it would really help women look their best.

I don't see how this is the conclusion from #3.

>5. Clothes become more affordable.

It wouldn't do much. $AMZN doesn't have much power in the fashion market.

Re: Amazon Echo Look

#320

Post by Eridrus »

croon wrote: post #314
Eridrus wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is basically a Nest Dropcam, and people seem to like those.

But isn't that for home security/checking in when you're not home? The always-connected part is the steep price for that functionality. Here the entire thing is designed around constantly uploading incriminating photos of you, without the value of home security.

On one hand the Dropcam is constantly uploading video and audio of you and storing it in the cloud for extended periods of time, even when you're home.

On the other hand, the Echo Look only uploads photos when you ask it to, and AFAIK doesn't store them, but everyone is freaking out because it could upload photos whenever it wants.

Sure, HN doesn't see the value in a Look, but it is clearly less invasive than a Dropcam.

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