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Comment by orthecreedence | Hacker News Reader

I still cannot believe Amazon convinced people to install 1984 surveillance in their homes, much less pay for it, for whatever trivial conveniences the stupid thing offers. It's not Amazon's fault but it's just strange to me how sideways our culture is that it's considered normal to let a corporation have unfettered access to your private space and pay them for being there.

I get the tradeoff with smartphones...at least they have utility, and at least some weak guarantee of privacy (for whatever that's worth). What does Alexa really bring to the table? It can flip a light switch for me? I have a finger for that. It can tell me the weather? I can open the curtains and look outside. It can deliver counterfeit garbage to my house? No thanks.

Who is enticed by this thing, and why?

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I feel the same way. I reject all this kind of stuff, as in real life it doesn't work very well and doesn't solve any problems I have. My light switches have never failed. Neither are setting timers and playing music things that vex me. Computers fail all the time, either literally, or by popping up some irrelevancy that gets in the way of what I want to do.

I want dumb devices that I directly control and that do not try to second guess what I mean or suddenly behave differently or have to "restart" because an update got pushed out, or have to deliver an advertisement before they will do what I asked.

I'll never have an Alexa or anything like it. But, I get that some people like gizmos and their perception is different. They are welcome to do whatever they want.

It can tell me the time when I'm wondering if I should just get up or have two hours left without me having to open my eyes and look for my glasses.

It can set a timer when I have my hands full with veggies and cooking utensils.

It can tell me what the weather will be later that day while I get dressed without me having to navigate my phone to the weather app.

Could I do without all that? Sure. But its usefulness is undeniable to me.

And it was cheap. Also, I consider my phone way more 1984-esque, as it knows and probably tracks my location, half my thoughts, half my conversations, lots of other habits, and could eavesdrop on me all the same.

I'll explain in Steve Jobs language:

A voice assistant, a home automation controller, and an internet-connected speaker. Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device!

I don't have it. Last year I visited family in India and surprised to see so many of my tech illiterate family and relatives are all Alexa users. Mother used it to play devotional songs every morning. They don't have anything to order from Amazon , neither there is any notion or concern about privacy. Its pure convenience and work like magic.

As an aside they do seem to be heavily radicalized by social media and hilariously think they were always like this.

What a weird take.

What can a phone do for me, I can tap my finger a few times to send a message over telegram.

No you can't.

So according to you corporations are listening to you 24x7 through your phone and you are okay with that for whatever reason, and they also spy on your home 24x7 through Alexa and that is unacceptable?

one surprisingly useful thing it did for me involved my phone. I couldn't find my phone and i think i just blurted out "alexa, i can't find my phone" jokingly. it then responded if it should call it. I said yes, and then my phone started ringing and i was able to find it. That was pretty useful actually.

> I have a finger for that.

You have to get your finger to the switch.

> It can tell me the weather? I can open the curtains and look outside.

That doesn’t tell you the weather today, just the weather right now.

> It can deliver counterfeit garbage to my house? No thanks.

Garbage often is sufficient. I don’t need good quality goods in most cases.

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