By no means get one if you don't want one. You just rob Amazon of creating a perfect behavioral based profile of you to make sure the right ads are presented at the right time . 3rd party attacks are certainly one concern especially when looking at Echo connected to other services like Nest, IFTTT, you name it. Where and how are the respective credentials stored? How are they exchanged? Is data stored encrypted at rest? We can assume encryption in flight, at rest is something so many devs just don't wrap their head around. Which holes does the device pole into the network? The first gen devices have already been p0wned, I wouldn't be surprised if next year in August we will see at least one talk at DefCon showing some more shenanigans. How good is the network security of the device? What happens if Wifi access is breached (pretty simple in most households)? Does the NSA already have a remote exploit to control the device? I wouldn't be surprised if they managed to achieve that already, but I also may give their skills more credit than due. One thing many commenters here don't seem to take into account is not that somebody will listen purposefully immediately to their conversations but that agencies like the NSA will just gobble up whatever they can and then go fishing.
In other words you don't know, let alone where or what this dark web thing is you speak of or how to get to it .... LOL
Just ask: Alexa, would you ever betray me or listen to me? Would you ever sell me out to the feds? She'll tell you all she knows
Those are your words. Not mine. My words would be that I'm not a conspiracy theorist and therefore, don't care.
I don't believe in conspiracy theories either. But I also tend to not make good sounding statements based on something I don't understand to make me sound smart in a discussion and then can't back it up upon which I then try to divert the attention and of course not answering the question. I get it, you paid Experian or one of the other cos some money so that they protect your data from this nasty scary dark web and their notification didn't tell you anything nefarious has happened yet, thus all must be fine. Got it. Sleep well.
Again, your words not mine and not based on any "good sounding statement" by me. You seem to place a lot of your opinion on inferences and not actual statements or facts about me.
Interesting with all this bs. Now Facebook is using AI to read comments to identify suicidal thoughts. Yeah you keep putting that listening device in your shack and see how that goes for you. Hope ya'll don't talk in your sleep. http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-is-using-ai-to-spot-suicidal-tendencies-2017-11
I've developed a test Alexa skill so I know the specific Amazon tech somewhat, and I'm going to develop an Alexa skill to interface with my radios. I'd be interested in seeing your skill when it's released...
Google, Facebook and numerous others can and do use your cameras and microphones anytime they choose without your confirmation.