Hacker News Reader

Comment by chki | Hacker News Reader

To be fair, everybody who has Alexa already has a phone constantly with them everywhere. So it's just one extra microphone, not something completely different.

View on HN

Two wrongs don't make a right, and I make sure to disable all voice commands from my smartphone (which is admittedly useless if my device is compromised because I'd need a hardware killswitch, but it's a start). On the other hand those assistants' whole purpose is to work with voice controls, they're useless without them.

It's not completely different but it's far from completely the same in my opinion.

However, a smartphone is more transparent, relatively, over what it does. Not so much with Alexa.

Not sure what specifically you mean. Most smartphones today come with one of the assistants (Google, Siri, Alexa, or Bixby) turned on by default.

Not sure if these are just uneducated posts or astro-turfing...

Astro-turfing for what? I guess this falls into the "uneducated" category. From my apparently uneducated perspective, phones need to be a concern if you're worried about your voice and activities being recorded. Most users have no idea that, for example, Google Assistant is always listening on Pixel.

Siri is not enabled by default, they use a different approach to get users to opt in. Step 8: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202033 has a much bigger button to enable Siri, but users are given a choice and skipping Siri takes less time so it’s easier if you’re not going to use it.

Completely deactivate it

If you choose to disable Google Assistant completely, follow these steps:

    Open the Google app and select Menu (the three bars)
    go to Settings
    Google Assistant section click Settings > Phone and disable the Assistant option

I have a custom domain and disabled it for my family:

Switch off Google Assistant (for entire custom domain) Click Search and Assistant. Tip: Scroll to see all services. ... Control who uses Search and Assistant in your organization

    At the left, select the organizational unit.
    Select On or Off.
    To keep the service turned on or off even when the service is turned on or off for the parent organizational unit, click Override.

..which you can turn off or disable..

What fraction of iPhone users do you think have turned off Siri? Based on my circle, it's zero. Android seems a bit more complicated because registration for Samsung or Amazon might be decoupled from device setup, but I'd imagine those are mostly turned on. So most people do have an always or nearly always on microphone in their pocket as the post higher up was trying to point out.

Anecdata, but most of my friends that have iPhones has Siri enabled indeed, but the minority that is aware of the "Hey Siri" feature (the only thing that needs an always-on mic) has not enabled it. Most of them find it creepy.

Almost none of my family members understand the implications of the voice assistant let alone know how to turn it off. You’re a techy type and are thinking my uncles or grandparents operate at your level.

Can you?

No matter how many damn Google Assistant settings I disable in how many fractal menus, it STILL "helpfully" pops up if I say out loud "ok google"!

Like, "heyy I noticed you're trying to talk to me though I'm disabled, would you like to enable me?"

Stop spying on me you piece of malware.

What kind of Android do you have? Are you sure you went through all the settings?

And, still, I can install LineageOS or other privacy-respecting systems on my phone. We don't have any custom firmware for an Echo or Alexa yet (to the best of my knowledge.)

The number of phones actually supported by lineageOS is a rounding error, unless you count unofficial incomplete builds by random untrusted people on some forum.

Disabling Google Assistant was trivial on my Android One/Google Fi phone. It was one of the first things I did.

A smartphone is more transparent than a device explicitly designed and advertised to record audio in entire rooms? Or did you mean the smartphones signal more system status?

In my experience a lot of people have privacy concerns over the speakers, and underestimate the smartphone.

I meant that security provisions for smartphones are way better than for Alexa type devices.

People do underestimate the smartphone, but I feel the problem with smart speakers is even more pronounced. I mean, voice is the primary interface for a smart speaker.

Phones can’t hear very well from your pocket. Try recording something with the phone in your pocket.

That's the thing - smartphones are surveillance devices as well, but their utility makes them a necessity. It's possible to argue that you'd submit to the surveillance if you're getting all that you get from a smartphone.

But a smart speaker just plays some music and tells you the weather. It's not nearly enough utility to be worth the privacy risks.

To you maybe, but not for everyone. I get lots of utility out of my Echo (alarms, music, checking the weather, controlling lights, etc.) that I'm fine with some random Amazon contractor listening to my commands to Alexa.

And if you are worried about the companies lying about not recording 24/7 why do you trust them to disable the recording done by assistants on your phone?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com