Comment on ‘Alexa, what do you know about us?’ What I discovered when I asked Amazon to tell me everything my family’s smart speaker had heard

• FourWaveforms@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Why would they do that

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  • indomara@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Because we are the product…

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    • AtariDump@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Image

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  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    remember when Texas power turned off peoples heaters when they were freezing to death as Rafael Edward Cruz went on a tropical vacation?

    yeah, they did that because those people registered their smart thermostats with the company and gave them control to set the temperatures in their own damn homes.

    “smart” means, “you don’t own it”.

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    • FrederikNJS@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That depends on the kind of “smart”.

      I have a bunch of IKEA “smart” light bulbs, but they are connected through a Sonoff USB Zigbee dongle. And all of it is controlled through the open-source zigbee2mqtt and home-assistant.

      No one, but myself and my family, have any control or ownership of any of those devices.

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      • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        • until the ZigBee alliance is purchased by a large corporation.

        wait that happened when it merged into the Connectivity Standards Alliance in 2011.

        my point is that merging home utilities with any technology is like drinking bleach. a small amount won’t kill you, but a large enough dose over time will.

        being in the tech sector myself along with watching what the tech oligarchs are doing should warrant at least some caution.

        IMO anything that is associated with corporate interests cannot be fully trusted. I understand that IOT cannot exist without corporate buy-in, but at the same time I think it should be acknowledged that anything that cannot exist without corporate interference is damaging to consumers.

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    • NotJohnSmith@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      In the UK, the take up of smart meters for electric and gas has been slow due go concerns that this would enable companies to do the same.

      It’s not a bad argument (haven’t paid, turn it off) but then if you’re struggling financially is it better not to be allowed to rack up further debt anyway?

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• Damage@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  My parents’ ISP router has Alexa integrated into it

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  • uberdroog@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Gross.

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  • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    whatthefuck

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