Charlie Kindel announced that he’s leaving the Alexa project, and Amazon.

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Many of you will remember Kindel as the driving intelligence behind Windows Home Server — a product I loved and used constantly for many years. Even
[See the full post at: Charlie Kindel announced that he’s leaving the Alexa project, and Amazon.]

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columbia2011

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A quasi-AI, such as Charlie Kindel’s Alexa, would bother me if I had its interfacing gadget somewhere around the house: it would not only take information from me as I spoke to it, but it would sit there, listening for my commands and queries, which means listening to everything going on in my place all the time. And all that information, out of necessity, would have to be sent to a super-computer or server farm out there, “in the Cloud”, of enough power to deal with mine and everyone else’s interactions with the AI software through the Alexa hardware. Which would mean that, whether I liked it or not, my private information would be completely available to data miners with access, legal or surreptitious, to said super computer or server farm.

And I wouldn’t like that.

 

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Bill C., Cybertooth

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I’m an Alexa user.  The unit “wakes” up with the Alexa wording.  You can see what it listened to.  It really makes adding things to grocery lists easy to do… “Hey Alexa, put bananas on my shopping list” which then goes to an app on my phone.  Items are only stored after the trigger word, so one can’t datamine every thing you ever said in your house.  Bottom line it doesn’t work like you think it does and they do take privacy to heart.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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AlexEiffel

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“… and they do take privacy to heart.”
According to whom?

I make my grocery’s lists on slips of paper, and my pantry is always well stocked.

 

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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And you can dispose of the paper and be sure it’s gone….

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And nobody is checking what I use regularly and suggesting what needs to be purchased based on what advertisers’ product comes close to my preferences.

I just love the local farmer’s market. All cash. No all seeing cam and data tracking or club card needed… and I get high quality, locally grown produce.

Love going to the major supermarket… they stopped making their card a prerequisite for sale prices. Whole communities are refusing to get tracked… marketing and Amazon aside…

Alexa is subject to Amazon’s privacy policy. Say you log in and change your info, “When you update information, we usually keep a copy of the prior version for our records.” And, if they sell the company, your info is considered an assest and will go to who-ever buys it… and, of course, you have no control over that.

And just in case they ever get hacked, be assured:

You provide most such information when you search, buy, post, participate in a contest or questionnaire, or communicate with customer service. For example, you provide information when you search for a product; place an order through Amazon.com or one of our third-party sellers; provide information in Your Account (and you might have more than one if you have used more than one e-mail address when shopping with us) or Your Profile ; communicate with us by phone, e-mail, or otherwise; complete a questionnaire or a contest entry form; use our services such as Amazon Instant Video; compile Wish Lists or other gift registries; participate in Discussion Boards or other community features; provide and rate Reviews; and employ Product Availability Alerts, such as Available to Order Notifications. As a result of those actions, you might supply us with such information as your name, address, and phone numbers; credit card information; people to whom purchases have been shipped, including addresses and phone number; people (with addresses and phone numbers) listed in 1-Click settings; e-mail addresses of your friends and other people; content of reviews and e-mails to us; personal description and photograph in Your Profile ; and financial information, including Social Security and driver’s license numbers.

I will never invite a data vacumming service into my home. Until you’ve been hit by identity theft and major fraud, you have no idea that it can put your very home at risk, let alone your ability to get a loan, or a job, or access to your own money. Yes… everyone is doing it… and many hit by the Experian data breach will never be certain that was the thing that made them victims… BUT… There are developers for local, voice controlled personal assistants… on Linux. Will get ported to Windows eventually, though. The need is certainly greater on Windows.

Alexa will search and give you references for businesses that will help you with identity theft issues, in the event that your data is compromised.

“They” think they own you, anyways. (Added for conspiracy theorist humor)…

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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Bill C.

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Unfortunately the way it is designed to respond to keywords is not the real issue that causes some to question its intrusiveness. Just as baby monitors (and cell phones, car key fobs, bluetooth accessories, smart TVs, etc.) have been hacked, and accessed via open vulnerabilities, these personal assistants are also vulnerable to some degree. However, there are other entities, that through legal or even extralegal means could gain access to your device to conduct real-time monitoring. To this some say, I have nothing to hide.

That “may” be true, but with data aggregation, the designation of unique identifiers, and anomalous data analytics and link analyses, it is possible to build very detailed profiles from very disparate sources. These profiles, while seemingly innocuous, such as shopping habits, and internet histories and searches, could provide information about health, which if released or sold, could affect whether a person could purchase health coverage or other insurance, affect their employment, or their ability to operate machinery or hold certain jobs. There may be valid reasons for such actions, but when such decisions are made without the persons knowledge and/or without having any way to dispute, challenge, or correct discrepencies, omissions or lies, it is a very slippery slope. In fact even when such issues are litigated, it is why records are requested to be sealed, and the issue is settled quietly. However even that result is able to be researched and put to use.

If it is hard to unsee what has been seen, it is harder to unknow what is known, even when it is wrong. Privacy is like dental floss, easy to pull out of the can, very, very hard to put back in. Is privacy what a person is willng to pay for convenience. I find generally not if the issue is explained in plain language and example and not with tons of legal jargon. And as said by others, what happens to the data when the original collector loses control via sale, theft, or even being absorbed like a corporate takeover.

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