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What did Alexa have to do with the Bezos blackmail controversy? I don't recall Bezos using anything gathered from Alexa to defend himself. He just published the

by imgabe 8y ago

What did Alexa have to do with the Bezos blackmail controversy? I don't recall Bezos using anything gathered from Alexa to defend himself. He just published the blackmail threat.

mcv 8y ago
No, but he could easily have access to tons of blackmail material about others. Everybody is blindly trusting Amazon's honestly that they won't use it. And I certainly don't expect them to abuse it, but it's still weird to give them a permanently listening microphone in your home.
- imgabe 8y ago
  I agree and I don't own one myself for that reason. But, if Bezos had done that, it would have completely overwhelmed the story about him being blackmailed and torpedoed any public sympathy for him. We wouldn't be talking about the Enquirer blackmailing him, we'd be proposing laws to ban Alexa. It would be totally counterproductive for him.
adventured 8y ago
What the parent is, I suppose, trying to refer to is the premise of Bezos as a hypocrite. They're sarcastially saying that Bezos has access to vast systems to snoop on and blackmail (or counter blackmail) other people using Amazon services. One of the sub stories occasionally being carried along with the larger selfie blackmail story (particularly among the privacy vanguard), is the notion that Bezos is a hypocrite. That's based on the premise that Alexa and other aspects of Amazon.com are abusers of privacy.
- imgabe 8y ago
  But there is zero evidence that he has blackmailed anyone. He would be a hypocrite if he did do it, but just because he has the ability to doesn't make him one. That's ridiculous. That's like saying "You advocate against drinking and driving, but you yourself have alcohol in your house and own a car so you could drink and drive and that makes you a hypocrite". That's dumb.
- radicalbyte 8y ago
  I'm not trying to all Bezos a hypocrite - I would be extremely surprised if he or Amazon made use of their data. They have too much to lose if caught. However there are other actors who are both unethical and have nothing to lose who most likely are taking advantage of these devices..

by imgabe 8y ago

What did Alexa have to do with the Bezos blackmail controversy? I don't recall Bezos using anything gathered from Alexa to defend himself. He just published the blackmail threat.

mcv 8y ago

No, but he could easily have access to tons of blackmail material about others. Everybody is blindly trusting Amazon's honestly that they won't use it. And I certainly don't expect them to abuse it, but it's still weird to give them a permanently listening microphone in your home.

imgabe 8y ago
I agree and I don't own one myself for that reason. But, if Bezos had done that, it would have completely overwhelmed the story about him being blackmailed and torpedoed any public sympathy for him. We wouldn't be talking about the Enquirer blackmailing him, we'd be proposing laws to ban Alexa. It would be totally counterproductive for him.

adventured 8y ago

What the parent is, I suppose, trying to refer to is the premise of Bezos as a hypocrite. They're sarcastially saying that Bezos has access to vast systems to snoop on and blackmail (or counter blackmail) other people using Amazon services. One of the sub stories occasionally being carried along with the larger selfie blackmail story (particularly among the privacy vanguard), is the notion that Bezos is a hypocrite. That's based on the premise that Alexa and other aspects of Amazon.com are abusers of privacy.

imgabe 8y ago
But there is zero evidence that he has blackmailed anyone. He would be a hypocrite if he did do it, but just because he has the ability to doesn't make him one. That's ridiculous. That's like saying "You advocate against drinking and driving, but you yourself have alcohol in your house and own a car so you could drink and drive and that makes you a hypocrite". That's dumb.
radicalbyte 8y ago
I'm not trying to all Bezos a hypocrite - I would be extremely surprised if he or Amazon made use of their data. They have too much to lose if caught. However there are other actors who are both unethical and have nothing to lose who most likely are taking advantage of these devices..