Stephen: Yes. Privacy intrusion is becoming pervasive. How we control that, to the extent we can, is personal choice. For example, I do not place home security cameras in personal spaces within my house. Nor do I elect to have listening devices in personal spaces. It has been demonstrated to me just how easy it is for unknown users to pull data from these devices. The surveillance equipment company overrode my password and the tech commented "nice car... etc." during a trouble call. Samsung admitted selling mined audio feeds in a settlement document I received. I seriously doubt Alexa is any more secure in both corporate intent or physical/firmware execution. Is this "the end of the world?" Of course not. But the current loss of privacy and security is far more extensive than George Orwell foresaw in his classic novel "1984". A big difference is that we are asking for and putting in most of the personal surveillance devices ourselves. Glad you like Alexa. Hope she makes you happy and does not leak any personal info you care about. 73 DE Brian - K6BRN
Absolutely agreed. My point is that if you carry a cell phone, you already have a listening device with you. Many of which already respond to key words, like "OK Google", or "Hey Siri". Given we run all sorts of apps on our cell phones, that there are many, many times more of them, you have NO WAY of knowing the data being transmitted/received on the cell network (unlike Alexa), and we tend to keep them with us 7/24 - shouldn't that be the big worry? If you're concerned about Alexa, I hope you don't own a cellphone!
I'm not too worried about privacy when I'm in public - no controlling that. But at home I have a wired line and use that, the cellphones are put away in a nonsensitive space to charge and there are no camera/microphone enabled computers or pads in sensitive spaces. Also, the arguement that "because intrusion happens, more intrusion does not matter" is silly. It's a matter of opportunity and degree. The more opportunities to intrude, the more it will happen. Alexa is simply another opportunity. And a big one. Also - you are misunderstanding my post. I've never campaigned against Alexa, etc. Just observed that I grew up in a generation very concerned with privacy (as in Orwell's "1984") and that a scenario far beyond that has come to pass - and we invited in and are asking for more. Yet this situation is fairly new and we, as a society do not yet fully understand the cost/danger vs. benefits. But we will as time goes on. Are you SURE you know the answer, today, when Alexa and it's brethern are so new? I'm not. But I'm OK with you and others testing the concept and system for me. So please - carry on.
