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Comment by mradek | Hacker News Reader

Still boggles my mind that people willingly put these kinds of devices in their homes.

I absolutely concur. I think these are the creepiest pieces of spying one can have. I've never seen one do anything useful. I don't mind walking to my radio to play music and I like using my computer with keyboard and mouse to buy amazon stuff.

Plus everyone's mobile device is already this anyhow.

People in the sixties: I better not say that or the government will wiretap my house

People today: Hey wiretap, do you have a recipe for pancakes?[0]

[0] https://imgur.com/a/27WcRjR

Every click online is recorded and especially every search, which might be carrying more information than an Alexa command and a few random false positives for the trigger word.

You could say that about any piece of technology, including the Internet. I mean fuck, the internet is in your home! It's like letting every basement dwelling pervert peek into a keyhole in your basement!

You can control your computer's software but not Alexa's. The internet doesn't record your home via microphones and submit to FBI:

https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/14/amazon-echo-recordings-jud...

From the article: "Police and prosecutors generally don’t expect much evidence from Echo recordings — if any — because Echo speakers are activated with a wake word — usually “Alexa,” the name of the voice assistant."

They complied with a legal order - they didn't submit it to the FBI.

Do you need some more tinfoil for your hat?

I have enough aluminum wrap at home to enforce my hat. If you read it carefully once again, you will see that they are RECORDING YOU AT ALL TIMES and there only a piece of paper from the government is stopping then from sharing it with others.

> If you read it carefully once again

Frankly I'm baffled at how you could be as confused as you claim to be.

I didn't have a chance to meet wise gurus like the ones on HN.

Then your mind is incredibly easily boggled and your threat model is broken.

Device/appliance requires WiFi? Strike 1.

I bought an Echo dot, opened it up, physically removed all microphones after initial set up and slapped a good loudspeaker on it that I already had. Now it's a wifi enabled spotify connect device with bluetooth capabilities. At the time, there weren't that many cheap options for my use case.

Ahem, your phone?

I can turn it off or stow it away somewhere, and it’s fine. Not the most convenient to do that with Alexa

I like being able to control my lights with my voice and the DIY LED panel I made doesn't have a switch on it.

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