3 ms·
But even if they say that they're not storing or sending it, how feasible is it to verify that fact?
by bostonvaulter2 10y ago
But even if they say that they're not storing or sending it, how feasible is it to verify that fact?
- nitrogen 10y agoVery feasible -- don't plug it into the Internet.
- M_Grey 10y agoAt which point you have a brick with a microphone, and a pretty blue light, right?
- amiller2571 10y agoI think the blue lights only show when its connected. You would get pretty red lights
- mulmen 10y agoNot if it is configured to connect to a server in your home with all the data it needs to function.
- M_Grey 10y agoOh of course, but I wonder if by the time you'd created that system, you'd feel the result was worth it? Is what Echo offers really so valuable you'd go through the trouble? I wouldn't.
- mulmen 10y agoI don't own an Echo because I don't feel the convenience of such a device is outweighed by the obvious privacy implications. I would be more likely to use it if it was located within my home but at that point the limiting factor would probably be cost. This is why such a device would have to provide additional functionality. In a world where it is just expected that you have a personal cloud server in your home Alexa becomes an "app" on that server and the Echo continues life as a very nice speaker/microphone device you can place in a visible area in order to interact with that server.
- nitrogen 10y agoI have some ideas for a more strict but more user friendly household firewall device and corresponding UI, if something really really needs the Internet. But your lights, TV, etc. don't live in an Amazon datacenter.
- M_Grey 10y agoYou're right of course, but interesting sidenote: in the murder case I mentioned the police ended up looking at the suspect's smart water meter logs... which showed the use of about 140 gallons of water in the middle of the night. So... no, it doesn't all live in an Amazon datacenter, but it these days it might live somewhere.
- ukyrgf 10y ago"I'm having trouble understanding you right now."
- mulmen 10y agoI don't mean to suggest this is something Amazon would bring to market using an Echo. I mean do you really need Amazon/Apple/Microsoft/Google levels of hardware to run a voice interface for an individual's digital assistant? Is it feasible to install hardware with the capability of Alexa in the standard user's home? I think the answer to that is probably "yes", more or less. Some things may be a bit harder to do but I don't see why I need a huge black box in the sky to parse my voice or do some geolocation.