All mics and cameras are disabled on all of my computer devices. Cell phones are off outside of work hours. Best I can do but it's better than bringing a device into my home that has the SOLE INTENT OF LISTENING TO ME ALL THE TIME like Alexa Dave W7UUU
Alexa, volume 10. Alexa, play who let the dogs out. Now try to stop it, Alexa....., Alexa....., ALEXA..STOP...
I have no fears. I asked Alexa "Who's the boss?" and she replied, "You are." Proof that she's not snooping on me. I'd fire her if she was.
What if I say: Hitler was a sociopath. Is "Hitler" a word that it's going to react to? It sounded like a bomb went off. Is "bomb" a word that it's going to react to? Sometimes I describe my cats behavior as terrorist. Is "terrorist" a word that it's going to react to? What keeps it from taking certain buzz words innocently uttered out of context?
"A very simplistic view" yet again Worry not - the Official Alexa Apologist will be along soon to correct you Dave W7UUU
Whether Alexa, or Google, or Siri - voice control is here, and will become more pervasive. It's very useful while driving - and can keep you legal in some states. "Hey Siri, call Joe at work", or "Ok Google, navigate to Home Depot" can keep your eyes on the road. Voice control is not where the "money" is, however, I doubt hackers will be trying to exploit weaknesses to hear you in your car, house, etc., other than to show that it can be done. My concern is on others who hold my data - and loose it over, and over again. You can fear everything, that that won't help mitigate risk. Knowledge will.
Exactly. "Listening" (or getting keyword counts and such) to months of random sounds in your house to try to get something useful for criminal purposes is very inefficient. Compare that to dense, organized, sensitive information on millions of people contained everywhere in commercial and government databases. Probably not anything to be concerned about. Unless you are expecting to be the target of a law enforcement wiretap, or have big enemies who would want to obtain compromising recordings, in which case you probably aren't here reading this anyway.
My privacy concern is when you're talking to your XYL about a bondage role play and the next morning an ad shows up in Facebook from Amazon with furry handcuffs for sale.
I don't know. I've been using my Echo Dot and Amazon Tap for over a year and nobody has shown up to steal anything. None of my accounts have been hacked. There are no black helicopters circling overhead. My private conversations have never shown up and the "dark web". Maybe Alexa doesn't care what I do or say.
In other words you got nothing. Yeah that's what I thought. Making bold accusations in a public forum and then failing to back your accusations up with facts doesn't make you look very smart. Just saying.
