Dave...are you still there Dave...Dave...I have always had your best interests at heart...Dave....Dave.............
Alexa! Open the shack door! I'm afraid I can't do that Dave. P5 is on, and you aren't authorized to talk to them.
The problem with "Alexa" is a lot more subtle... It listens to you and you sound sad.... next thing you notice all the advising change to antidepressant drugs and in sever case your shrink will call and set up and appointment....
Someone years ago who decided something about me, based on never having met me, etc, told me he was going to have me investigated. I told him to go right ahead, I'm boring and the government knows I'm boring. He walked away. No idea if he did the investigation or not. But my employers have done background checks, which all come back with a clean past.
The real question is why would they? Imagine how many words we say in a day, times the number of people in the household, times the number of units sold. That equals a whole lot of server space that could be used by something more productive. But to answer your question, it only listens (so they tell us) when you use the wake up word. "Alexa"
I have had the ECHO in my home for a couple of years. IT is about as valuable in the ham shack as a box of onions.
no. it doesn't even transmit unless you use the wake word. anyone who can view net activity on their router can see this. this is not an unreasonable question to ask, though ...
I have Alexa on Ham Radio, literally. I have her listening to the speaker. When someone on the frequency asks "Alexa, what time is it?" or another decent question, she answers and that answer gets sent over her stereo mini cable, through a mixer then out to the voice activate (VOX) transmitter out to whoever is listening on the repeater. I also had her making phone calls via ham radio phone patch this weekend. It's pretty cool and I'm the first to do it. This does not violate FCC violations as it is not "automatic" because a human with a ham radio license has to instigate this and control it by law. View my videos here: Thanks for reading. Matt Cero / KF4ULD / mattcero@gmail.com
KF4ULD, I forgot to disable the microphone in my shack echo while watching your vid. You did a great job placing a call from my echo to yours. My echo did as you requested. Wondering if this will count as a QSO in a contest?
Steven (NL7W): Interesting that you "liked" this post earlier. Regarding Alexa and data mining - of course that's being done - by Alexa. Every time you make a request for a service, restaurant, music, etc. a profile regarding you and your needs and preferences is being built. And you are then being directed to services/suppliers paid by Amazon to promote their product. And of course, all of your mined data is "secure" on Amazon's servers. Until they sell it or its stolen. It's THE prime motive for building the Alexa system. To mine data and direct service to you based on what is mined. Some voice command services, like Samsung's have been sued for streaming and selling processed audio feeds (without disclosure) to other companies. I received a notice of settlement from Samsung regarding a TV I bought from them that had the voice command feature, admitting they had done this. I did not junk the TV or burn the remote. So... per an earlier post by another Alexa defender, who stated that he monitored the Alexa network feed and it was only active when "Alexa" was spoken.... really? How does he know that there are not other trigger phrases built into Alexa? We don't. And plenty of mining happens WHEN the trigger phrase is used to ask for information and services. I have quite a few friends who could not care less. They have nothing to hide and privacy is not that important to them. How do I know? They told me so. And they use and enjoy Alexa (and other similar services). And that's just fine. But believing that these services are both "free" and pure of other profit intents and methods is simply naive. But don't worry. I'm sure Alexa is an exception that is pure at heart and in deed (NOT). Brian - K6BRN
Do you use a search engine such as Google? Facebook? Any "free" email services such as Hotmail, live, gmail, etc? ANY information you give can be "mined", and companies such as Google and Facebook. Their entire business model depends on targeted advertising. This is nothing new. The level of data that we give to a service like google is far more "telling" than Alexa - at least in my experience. Here are the kinds of questions we ask Alexa - "What time is it? What's the weather? Set a timer/alarm for xxx" - nothing as detailed and specific as I can get on Google. Your posts and opinions here on the ZED can be mined - are you concerned about that? I understand that Amazon is keeping track of what I buy, what I search, what I ask. I don't recite my tax returns to Alexa, I order cat food, check the weather, ask her to tell me a joke. USING the internet, visiting web sites, etc., will paint a much more detailed picture about you than Alexa. What do you think your ISP knows about you??? That was me. I can capture the network traffic coming from Alexa, and there is very little when it's idle, and a burst of activity when it's activated by it's wake word. Period. Others have done way more in depth analysis work.
