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What I discovered when I asked Amazon to tell me everything Alexa had heard

(www.theguardian.com)
69 points robaato | 3 comments | 24 May 25 19:02 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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threeducks ◴[24 May 25 19:53 UTC] No.44083409[source]▶
> But we have two Echo devices in our household and the data shows whether a request came from the Echo Plus in the kitchen or the original Echo on our daughter Coco’s bedside table, where it has sat since around her ninth birthday. [...] So I now know that it was Coco who wanted to know what it is to be omnisexual and what omniscient means.

Doesn't it feel wrong to the author to snoop through that private information? And publishing it in a news article definitely crosses a line.

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thrance ◴[24 May 25 20:16 UTC] No.44083537[source]▶
I mean, so is committing every sound ever heard through that microphone to a database used to train a voodoo doll of their daughter to better guess what she might be able to buy next.
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jxjnskkzxxhx ◴[24 May 25 21:11 UTC] No.44083825[source]▶
Oh shit.... I never realized until now that's exactly what the point of Alexa is. I thought the point was like a different UI to Amazon. As in "being able to buy by clicking OR sounding must lead to a strictly larger number of sales than being able to buy by clicking only". So you can imagine my confusion on people telling me that Alexa isn't a good UI.

Of course. The point is to snoop on people to make better "recommendations". Dystopian.

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1. Flemlo ◴[24 May 25 21:20 UTC] No.44083870[source]▶
That's not necessarily true.

Amazon is also a ecosystem. Alexa shows you notifications from Amazon like the status of a delivery. It's able to call others (great for family).

Amazon has also the fire kid tablet, fire TV etc.

And if I already use Amazon anyway I'm quite happy if Amazon would recommend me good products I like.

For plenty of things, Alexa is a very good UI.

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2. wormius ◴[24 May 25 22:52 UTC] No.44084248[source]▶
"But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."
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3. Flemlo ◴[25 May 25 16:52 UTC] No.44089053[source]▶
It's easier to do things/ manipulate big brother when you are part of it.

No one needs to know what else you do.

It's a lot more suspicious to not tell big brother what he wants to hear.

And besides that strategy, dystopian stories sell better. No one would read good feel descriptions.