Hacker News Reader

Comment by bandrami | Hacker News Reader

I still don't understand how otherwise sensible people can have an Alexa or Google Home. Like what part of that seems like a good idea to them?

View on HN

The worst thing is that a lot of people who are very smart techies have them. I've noticed they tend to have a very cynical (IMO) outlook of "well the gate was left open a long time ago, might as well embrace it and give them everything."

Having an Alexa or Google Home doesn't seem any worse (or even less worse) than carrying a phone around everywhere I go. If you're worried that the device can be hacked to listen to you full-time (or that the provider is lying about it only listening to you after it hears the wake word), you should be worried about your phone for the same reason. Plus my Alexa isn't going to give google a map of everywhere I travel so they can see where I work, eat, shop, etc.

Yes. I catch myself all the time when I wonder how people are so willing to place these spy devices inside their home. But, "oh yeah, I have a phone on my nightstand every night :-/".

Ability to “Hey Google, play Spotify” in every room and shower is pretty great. That’s literally the only reason I’ve been using it for 5+ years. Oh, and it was practically free.

This is still unthinkable to me. Trading that much privacy for a little bit of convenience? How does it not make you uncomfortable to know that every conversation in your house is live streamed to someone else's computer?

Yeah I'm definitely in the "I keep my laptop powered down and in a Faraday cage" camp so I guess a lot of these products aren't really aimed at me.

I have a good Faraday bag. When I am chilling and talking with friends I have them power off their phones and put them in the bag. :)

Honestly? I don’t care enough about that. I’ve simplified my life to a degree where I’m not depended on anything, nor I get that much ads anywhere. So it’s just a life built around conveniences and focusing on things I care about.

> I’m not depended on anything

Yet you mention Google and Spotify in one command.

Independence seems to be something different for me. Even thinking about tools, maintenance and the repairs over the years... convenience and independence are closely related, and privacy is at least just a welcoming side effect.

Would it feel any different if your Google Home recordings were streamed to me, an individual, directly?

Not even just for my own sake, but for the sake of my guests as well. Unthinkable, because it's highly dystopic. If it wasn't for all that Science Fiction literature and philosophy that warns people about it, the Stasi wasn't too long ago either.

What privacy am I giving up? You start with all these judgement questions without explaning.

Your personal privacy.

How so?

An internet-connected device in your home which is always listening.

Like a phone?

I used mine for two things: setting a timer while cooking, and adding things to my shopping list, again, while cooking. I still miss that second feature a bit since I unplugged it, but it isn't too big of a deal

I liked using it like this but my problem is that it wouldn't reliably respond to commands while music was playing. There were times I had to unplug it to get music to stop. And other times I'd want a song with an explicit word in the name and it'd pretend it didn't exist.. like wtf I'm an adult in my own house I think you can manage to play the song I asked for whether or not it has a big mean curse word in it.

Convenience.

Same with AI, the same people who fought against Google and Microsoft‘s data collecting now throw everything on data but the kitchen sink at their AI services.

This is such a weird thing to wrap my head around. I don't even use Bluetooth.

Lesser technical people that don't know that you're the product with these items. They offer a lot of convenience if you want voice control and home automation and they're fairly affordable

Reply on news.ycombinator.com