‘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

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Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨BrikoX@lemmy.zip⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.zip⁩

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/24/what-i-discovered-when-i-asked-amazon-to-tell-me-everything-alexa-had-heard

For years, Alexa has been our on-call vet, DJ, teacher, parent, therapist and whipping boy. What secrets would the data reveal?

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CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
I don’t really understand the authors point, if there even is one. They regale us with tales of how they wiretapped their family, but there is no lesson learned here. Don’t waste your time reading it like I did.

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- orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Came to say the same thing. It’s like a stream-of-consciousness advertisement. Feels pointless yet intentional all at once. Is it a paid author?
  
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  - BrikoX@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    
    Jeremy Ettinghausen has worked in publishing and advertising. He now writes about people and technologies
    
    Probably a bit of both based on the short bio.
    
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Cobrachicken@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Frightening. Would never strip myself or family this totally.

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- orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Phrasing.
  
  Are do you mean “expose” and not “strip”?
  
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  - Cobrachicken@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Well it feels like soul stripping, but one could also use “expose”. Why tf would anyone want to give a company, this company, all this private information?
    
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