I was round my mates a few months back and he gave me an Appletiser and I said to him I hadn't had one in years. I checked my phone no more than 5 minutes later on Instagram and the first thing I saw was an advert for Appletiser! A few friends have also experienced this. Absolute bunch of fleecing ****s. Has gotten well out of control.
No it's meant for saving electricity and also does things like turns lights on while you're away on holiday to avoid getting robbed. The Hue system does a shed load more, people assume its purely to change colours and to make lazy people happy. Totally wrong.
Honestly, I find it highly amusing and really useful like I said for things you need to know when you can't be bothered getting a calculator out for instance. If its listening to everything I'm saying, I couldn't care less. If it's recording everything I'm saying, I care even less. Where is it storing all this stuff and how does it differentiate between recordings I can go and find and delete and recording it wants to keep? Where and who is it going to send them and what will they do with the knowledge it picks up of my riveting daily life?
I've got **** to hide but I'm hardly on the MI5 hitlist If they want to bust me then more fool them tbh! Recording from a Google Home wouldn't get anywhere near a court room ffs!
I think some of you are accrediting it with more 'intelligence' than it actually has. I don't have it linked to order stuff on my Amazon account. If it can't do that without the right protocol set up, how is it going to send information somewhere else without my knowledge or involvement.
I'm with you mate. I don't want people knowing my every day business. Regardless of whether it will actually affect me or not - its snooping and its dodgy. Passing on your details to corporations to gear the correct adverts to you. Its bent.
If you use a computer it does the same thing plus it knows where you live. Requests made via Google and windows will bring up location specific adverts. Alexa doesn't do that. Which is why I'm asking if the device is listening to you how is it using the information it gathers? It's a genuine question.
These lot are paranoid as **** I love pissing about on it, for music, phone calls, heating, lighting and general questions etc. is great.
It could use the information anyway it wanted to. Just because they say it won't be shared with 3rd parties does not mean it won't be. Take ya pick. Targeted ads is just a minor thing, **** you could look at animal porn and if someone had that info and decided to use it against you ie blackmail or it could affect your job or family. there's **** all you can do. It's out there. I'd rather not have it out there in the 1st place if I can help it.
I use a VPN mate. Encrypted internet connection. My IP address currently has me based in New York (I'm not). Also use VPN on my phone but its more difficult because blocking your location makes apps like google maps useless! Big companies harvest your data to create a profile on who you are, what you like, where you live, your age, what your politics are, what your religion is and tailor that to make as much out of you as they can by trying to convince you to buy things via advertisements. The government is also allowed to collect that data off of companies too. Its big business. Alexa is just an extension of the invasion of your privacy. If you're happy with that then fine but I'm not.
Privacy died many years ago, unfortunately. I agree with what you're saying btw but the reality is all technology is the same. Its naive to think Alexa or Google are the pioneers of saving data. PC's are 20 times worse.
Nah of course theyre not, but they are just like Facebook a corporate tool designed for the purpose of gathering information, and I'd rather not sign up willingly.
I don't really need a device to turn my lights on and off. I usually just turn them on when it gets dark and turn them off again when I go to bed. If I go into a room I turn them on, on my way in. And turn them off on my way out. It's magical.
The only information it has is linked to the commands and questions you ask it. 'What's the temperature?' 'What's the capital of San Marino?' 'Play the theme from Goldfinger'. How does that translate into getting adverts? Where will those adverts be displayed because you're not using a phone or computer to talk to Alexa. You can't look at porn or anything else on it,, it's just a voice controlled device that plays music or supplies you the answer to a question. You've got more chance being targeted or blackmailed by logging on to this website than you have with an Alexa device. Yet, bearing in mind the personal details you give out on here,, including posting pictures of your dinner and tea which carries meta data, you're quite happy to do that