It baffles me that anyone would allow such a device in their home, let alone pay for the privilege.
1998:
- Don't get in strangers' cars
- Don't meet ppl from internet
2016:
- Literally summon strangers from internet to get in their car
Anyway, pretty soon we'll have open source speech recognition, so I guess then you'll really have no excuses left.
If I were planning to use these devices for surveillance, I'd of course provide only the utility first while privacy-minded people are still skeptical and then turn on the surveillance gradually after these devices are deployed nearly everywhere, integrated into every-day life, and can't be (easily) removed anymore. [0]
The current version might have a hardware kill switch for the microphone. Will the next batch too? The batch after that? How many people will actually go out of their way to toggle that switch to be certain it isn't listening instead of believing it isn't in good faith, or worse, not even thinking about whether it might?
Perhaps these devices won't ever be used for mass surveillance, or perhaps this is the beginning of Telescreens as they're described in George Orwell's 1984. Both Amazon and Google make vast quantities of their income by excessively undermining privacy in favor of targeted advertising. I'd call it fairly naive to expect them to now build privacy-minded devices that have as much spying potential as the Echo and Dot have.
[0]: https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2017...
I have seen more than one comment suggesting that Amazon currently stores everything it hears in passing on their servers. I have seen no evidence to suggest that is the case. Informing people on the potential risks is fine, but spreading FUD is not.
Wouldn't that apply to (mics in) smartphones as well?
Keeping the recent and current state of technology and where it is heading in mind, I think it's fair to say that consumers care a lot more about being able to use their phone than they care about that phone or the apps on the phone to collect data about them.
What changes with an open source implementation? Your home-build device can be compromised as well, it needs mics as well. So, you'll gain nothing.
Are you questioning that Alexa/Echo works as advertised (waiting for a wake word) or are you not informed about how Alexa is supposed to work (out of the box, not compromised)?
I physically remove the microphones and webcams in my laptops and use a USB microphone with a physical power switch. This is probably unnecessary as, by the same logic as my phone, nobody should have access to these peripherals unless I grant it. But it helps with paranoia. I don't like a camera and microphone pointed at my face constantly.
No way in hell would I buy a device where "always listening" is listed as a feature.
In both cases, you have to trust the manufacturer that the device behaves the way they say they do.
I say this not to belittle you or to minimize your feelings or experience, but you have to understand that, among the general population, your needs/wants here are in a very tiny minority. The number of people who do what you do is vanishingly small. The vast majority of people do not care, and those who do will often make a conscious decision that the trade-off is worth it. And that's ok! As long as you can continue to take care of your needs, and other people can take care of theirs, then all is well.
I find it laughable that folks may try to steal things from you with software once they have physically breached your house. At that point, they could just steal your wallet, your car, your Echo etc.
I was even more confused when people actually started buying them. It's always startling when I go to a friend's house and Alexa gets triggered accidentally.
People in general are easily impressed by shiny new baubles.