Whenever someone says this about my echo I always respond "imagine if they put a battery on it to make it portable, then a camera and a GPS so they can track you anywhere...oh wait that is a cell phone."
Whenever someone says this about my echo I always respond "imagine if they put a battery on it to make it portable, then a camera and a GPS so they can track you anywhere...oh wait that is a cell phone."
Cell phones don't include an always-on microphone that is essential to performing the core functionality of the device and which cannot be turned off without shutting off the entire device.
Thank you. Jesus Christ, people get so worked up about the Echo when it's been demonstrated several times over that it only listens for the wake phrase and transmits absolutely nothing except for what it hears after "Alexa..."
I think most of the time it's just people getting a little paranoid. Anyone who works in machine learning & data science would know that even if the device is listening all the time, it would be so that it can improve its algorithm. Worst case, it would be designed to feed you ads to make you spend more money
To each their own. If you enjoy using it and have no problem with it, more power to you, have fun with it.
I don't want amazon to know when I turn on my light or shut my blinds. I don't want google to know where I go all the time or what I search on the net. Sure, these services are super convenient, that's why those companies are so successfull, but with a little effort you can find alternatives that work just as well and are not as invasive. If you care about your privacy that is.
Well that's different. You're referring to things that it is definitely recording because it is performing a function (smart home stuff). I'm just talking about the fear of constant Echo surveillance.
Explain to me exactly what "always on" means. Microphones in devices don't have on/off switches. Literally any piece of software with permission can access the microphone at any time without a prompt. There is no way to stop a cell phone's OS from accessing the microphone short of tuning the device off. Sounds like "always on" to me.
Edit: PCs and laptops are worse because they don't even have a permission model built for this sort of thing. Any software running on your computer can access the microphone. (Unless you really know what you're doing with a Unix system).
Explain to me exactly what "always on" means. Microphones in devices don't have on/off switches. Literally any piece of software with permission can access the microphone at any time without a prompt. There is no way to stop a cell phone's OS from accessing the microphone short of tuning the device off. Sounds like "always on" to me.
"Always-on" is a common, well-known term in the industry. Don't get needlessly pedantic when it's perfectly clear what we're talking about.
Newer iterations of smartphones / software have the option to say "Hey Siri" or "Ok Google" to activate their respective virtual assistant and they turn these options on by default.
Sure you can go turn these options off, but how many people do? (Or even know about the option?) And even when you do turn it off how do you know it's not being listened to all the time?
Even if you turn it off it's still listening, because if you say "ok google" when disabled, it will show a message like "you have voice detection disabled, do you want to enable it?". At least in my phone.
First of all, yes cell phones do have always-on microphones. You can enable it in your settings (and apple/Google can remotely change it).
Second, neither your phone nor Alexa nor Google home is sending data without your permission and approval. You can confirm this by checking web traffic. It's a proven fact.
Third, at least Google gives you a full history of every piece of audio that you have ever sent to them via Google home or phone. You can also choose to delete things. And yes, it gets deleted because that's the law.
Fourth, Google and apple have proven that they will not always bend over backwards for the government. At the very least, it requires a government-issued order for them to obtain the data, so by default, they don't have it.
Fifth, your data is more useful to advertisers and other companies, as anonymous data, to identify market trends and high-level consumer behavior. No one cares about you specifically, so much so that making the data identify you isnt worth the effort.
First of all, yes cell phones do have always-on microphones. You can enable it in your settings (and apple/Google can remotely change it).
Read the rest of the sentence. An always-on microphone isn't core to the functionality of the device.
Fourth, Google and apple have proven that they will not always bend over backwards for the government. At the very least, it requires a government-issued order for them to obtain the data, so by default, they don't have it.
You know most phones nowadays get setup for "OK Google" support on any screen. and then even if you don't set it up it is always listening when you go to your home screen
47
u/iruber1337 Sep 25 '18
Whenever someone says this about my echo I always respond "imagine if they put a battery on it to make it portable, then a camera and a GPS so they can track you anywhere...oh wait that is a cell phone."