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Comment by ryandvm | Hacker News Reader

Do you really not understand or are you just not accepting the same answers everyone gives every time this question comes up?

They're terribly useful for listening to music, setting timers, alarms, reminders, checking weather, traffic, unit conversions, and just general web lookups.

I suspect what you meant was, "why do people trade their privacy for convenience?" Which of course is ALWAYS the trade-off one makes when it comes to security.

I personally have decided (for now) that the convenience of the devices outweighs the likely harm they will have on me. Would I have one if I were running for political office? Absolutely not.

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I use mine to check the weather every morning and frequently listen to the news feature. As well as music during the day sometimes. I love them :) I think other people are just obtuse or paranoid about surveillance.

Most of the security and privacy concerns come from not bothering to press few buttons on a smartphone.

A smartphone that would be in your hands or pockets anyways.

Yeah, this explains why they've been integrated into every high end headset. ;-)

It's weird that I manage to do that entire list of things without saying a word aloud.

It's luxury tech. That's where the market is.

If your phone has a mic, it's most likely also listening. Most new phones have the same technology as the smart speakers. And even if it doesn't have the feature, it's can still be compromised to be listening.

By that logic, a TV remote control is "luxury tech".

VUI is just another new interface for devices that provides convenience.

Totally luxury tech. Just like nice phones, wide-screen TVs, and a million other things that people find useful, convenient, and fun.

> It's weird that I manage to do that entire list of things without saying a word aloud.

That's a incredibly broad statement... anything you do can be done in another way which someone could define as luxury. I can churn butter, but I like the luxury to buy it instead, I expect you are the same ;).

> They're terribly useful for listening to music, setting timers, alarms, reminders, checking weather, traffic, unit conversions, and just general web lookups.

In short: it enables people to get even more lazy. No wonder US has an obesity problem.

On the contrary, this is more useful for very active people, who use them for multitasking. People just sitting around browsing HN can already use the device they have at hand.

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