It's massively insane that people put microphones into their house and willingly stream all conversations to a private 3rd party in exchange for minor convenience.
Now, of course, nothing will ever placate the conspiracy nitwits.
I don't see how there's a conspiracy here. Questioning the intentions and actions of an actor that could very likely be hostile to the user is reasonable and has precident.
I believe Alexa only streams what you say after the trigger word and not all conversations. Assuming you believe Amazon.
Microsoft believes in this too, but had to learn the hard way back around 2000 that customer trust matters a lot.
Facebook seems to have had a harder time learning this lesson. Perhaps they've learned it now, but it'll take a while before consumers really believe it.
If it only started recording when the wake word was processed as being heard there would be an added delay before you could start speaking a command. Might as well push a button and wait for a beep for that added delay.
The third party doctrine may be extended to guests visiting a home, but existing law should adapt to require the visitor’s consent. One party consent laws will no longer be feasible in this context without an exception, as they would completely eradicate any expectation of privacy when visiting another’s home.
A more pragmatic approach would be to extend the two party consent laws to owners of recording devices, whereby the duty to disclose that conversations are being recorded would most efficiently be placed on the owner of the recording device.
Consent laws must be modified in order to match the reasonable expectation of privacy of guests visiting another’s home. Owners of an Echo device, similar to banking institutions, should have a duty to disclose to their home guests that conversations may be recorded. The duty of disclosure would best be reflected by a uniform application of the two party consent laws.
"Please turn off your Alexa"
Of course not.
I have my hands full cooking. Is asking "Alexa, set a potato timer for 12 minutes" any lazier than stopping my stirring the sauce, wiping my hands, picking up the timer and punching buttons on it to set a timer? I can keep going about my tasks and have the Alexa device help. Likewise, "Alexa, turn on dinner table" or "Alexa, announce 'Everybody get down here, dinner is ready'" These are little conveniences that keep a busy process going smoothly.
Could I live without them, sure. But I could live without electric lights and plumbing too. But why would I when they exist and are available at a reasonable expense?
Luddites, the lot of you.