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Sure, some people are worried. But these devices only listen when they hear the wake word ("Ok Google" or "Alexa"), so there's no real concern about the compani
by berberous 10y ago
Sure, some people are worried. But these devices only listen when they hear the wake word ("Ok Google" or "Alexa"), so there's no real concern about the companies listening to anything other than your queries. And 99% of people are not interesting enough for a state actor to care about. If you are a spy, criminal, politician, etc., then I'd agree you should think twice about owning one.
- cwyers 10y ago> But these devices only listen when they hear the wake word ("Ok Google" or "Alexa") It's not like there's a law of physics requiring that always be true, you're trusting that to: A) Be true now, and B) Keep being true in the future. And it's the sort of claim that is very very easy to lie about.
- jon-wood 10y agoIt's not that easy to lie about - if it's sending everything you say then it'll be sending data over the network as well.
- drdoom 10y agoWhat? They can't wait to send it over later when you actually do use it?
- berberous 10y agoGoogle and Amazon are huge companies and would face serious liability for falsely advertising that their devices only listened upon hearing the wake word. Moreover, I'm sure someone out there would analyze the network traffic and figure out it did not work as claimed. They have nothing to gain by secretly transmitting data, and everything to lose. State adversaries are a different story. I don't doubt the NSA might somehow break into Snowden's Echo, but most people don't have such adversaries.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoI think it would be entirely possible within US legal framework for Echo/Home to be able to selectively switch from "wake word" to "always listening" mode, on the whim of Amazon/Google or a request of the government. Now, if the government isn't stupid about it and would use it selectively, then good luck tracking it down.
- espeed 10y agoYour phone could be turned to "always listening" for that matter, and it's typically with you 24/7.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoYou know what I would want my phone to be doing? To be actually always listening. So that I could just say "Ok Google" at random and interact with Google Now without having to unlock the phone or have it constantly hooked up to a charger. That very simple thing would probably quadruple the usefulness of the whole thing. But Google probably has some "smart" reason for never ever allowing that. sigh (I mean, what the hell - deep in the options of Google Now I can actually allow the phone to be unlocked by my voice - but if and only if it is plugged to a charger. They had to explicitly code in a special condition to make Google Now less useful.) (and yes, I know you meant other kind of "always listening")
- uptown 10y ago"State adversaries are a different story. I don't doubt the NSA might somehow break into Snowden's Echo, but most people don't have such adversaries." State adversaries have repeatedly demonstrated a desire to "collect it all" and sort it out later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A The entire emphasis of what Snowden revealed was precisely that the method employed by the NSA were not targeted.
- dingaling 10y ago> But these devices only listen when they hear the wake word They always listen but only execute when they hear the triggering phrase. Otherwise they'd never hear the trigger... Whether they locally store what they hear prior to the trigger is the concern. I doubt they do but technically it's not challenging.
- retox 10y ago>these devices only listen when they hear the wake word I can't tell if this is satire.
- coffeevradar 10y agoIt's like my nosy neighbor who only just started watching me when we made eye contact.