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Amazon demands we correct an article refering to an Echo as a “microphone”
- drtillberg 6y agoWhat's funny is the original Vice article was very condemnatory of Amazon and AWS data and business practices. And then Amazon in response metaphorically requested ... wait for it ... that the author move a comma. So, the rest of the article is good and on target!? Was the Amazon correction request from an AI bot?
- murgindrag 6y agoMy guess is that Amazon reviews for trademarks, proper use of brand names, and similar, not for content. This correction came from the same department that would ask you to replace "Amazon Kindley book readery thingy" with "Amazon Kindle® Paperwhite® eReader." I doubt the reviewer even realized how 1984 the proposed correction was.
- altitudinous 6y agoIt seems a reasonable request to me. How else were they going to suggest that you do it? There is a cut and paste here, but it isn't a demand, it is a "request". Of course this is about to get downvoted because evil microphones.
- penandpaper00 6y agoThis is the comment. This tech writer is fueling rage culture to get attention. Its a request, PR doing their job -- please call it by what we brand it... "DAMANDING." What a joke. I hope the writer is also chucking his smartphone out the window and stops acting like a child on hipster Twitter because he can't get a job at a tech company.
- TheRealSteel 6y agoHow is is reasonable that people who don't work for Amazon be expected to speak like Amazon's marketing department?
- willis936 6y agoOr else. It’s bully behavior and should be setting off alarms at the FTC. Stunts like this should scare Amazon middle managers.
- altitudinous 6y agoThey didn't demand it, they requested it. The recipient can say No, and they probably have.
- Joe8Bit 6y agoReasonable or not, it's a super widespread practice for marketing and PR departments to 'insist' on certain language when their products are referred to. A super notorious example of this is Apple insisting/asking that their devices are referred to without any determiner like 'the' or 'an' e.g. 'We think THE iPhone is really important' to 'We think iPhone is really important'
- etripe 6y agoRegardless of how one feels about microphones being installed in one's apartment, what makes this a reasonable request in your book? Because a business entity is just requesting a narrative that is more profitable to it?
- Angostura 6y agoPR people are going to be PR people. Any sensible journalist or editor would say 'No, it's staying like it is'.
- yoz-y 6y agoMore precisely any journalist or editor knows that such a demand might make a better story than the original article.
- draugadrotten 6y agoand somewhat less precisely any PR person knows that getting your product mentioned in a controversial article will be more viral than anything else compare Ryanair PR pieces on "paying for pee"
- rob74 6y agoYeah, the old adage that "any PR is good PR"... however Ryanair are already well-known enough, so they don't need that aspect, and at least for me personally, any article like the one you mentioned only solidifies my decision to avoid them if at all possible...
- yoz-y 6y agoSo it’s a win-win. We’ll give you a pretext to write crap about us and in turn you write it.
- altitudinous 6y agoIt is just a request. You can say No. That is the definition of request. They used the word request. Asking is fine. They could stay silent, or they could request. They chose to request. It is taken out of context, but as this is the only context supplied then it seems quite reasonable.
- onion2k 6y agoThe first time someone asks it's always a request. It's much cheaper for a marketing drone to send an email than it is for a lawyer to write an official demand. It's the second time they ask that you need to worry about.
- ceilingcorner 6y agoSure, refuse that request. But don’t be surprised when your Amazon affiliate account suddenly has issues, or your books strangely don’t come up in searches. The practice of corporations using carrots and sticks to manipulate media sources has a long history.
- bagacrap 6y agoI think the author simply wanted to call attention to his clever shade. But calling it a microphone doesn't even make sense and shouldn't be scary (a normal "dumb" microphone can't snoop on you). Plus, my car includes a microphone and I've never heard the car called a microphone.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 6y agoHere's the article: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj45kx/amazon-wants-alexa-to-move-into-your-apartment-before-you-do https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj45kx/amazon-wants-alexa... https://web.archive.org/web/20200905234440/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj45kx/amazon-wants-alexa-to-move-into-your-apartment-before-you-do https://web.archive.org/web/20200905234440/https://www.vice....
- dredmorbius 6y agoAnd HN submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24418856 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24418856
- paweladamczuk 6y agoI think I will start calling all such devices microphones.
- coronadisaster 6y agoI think they should be called "active audio monitoring devices" because microphone is somewhat missing something... or maybe "smart microphone".
- eranation 6y agoShould we include our phones, tables and laptops and call them "mobile active audio monitoring devices" too? They all have microphones and cameras (not just one, but many have two) and we all carry them around in our pockets or on our wrists or even in our ears without much issue. They don't even hide the fact they have a microphone, the name of the device is literally a mobile micro-phone ("mobile phone", "smart phone"). Many phones also have a wake word (try yelling "hey siri" in a crowded place). So I really don't get the backlash around smart speakers. The main use of a smart speaker is to play music, not to record notes or make calls. And speaker-phone is already taken. I wouldn't put any evil marketing scheme to calling them smart speakers and not smart (micro) phones.
- coronadisaster 6y agophone in smart-phone stands for telephone, not microphone
- donor20 6y agoThis article is pretty interesting. - Supposedly Amazon has operated things like AWS at a loss for long periods of time (I highly doubt this - AWS has never been cheap). "And it's through this mass adoption of Alexa devices that consumers (and the army of human beings Amazon hires to listen to consumers) can collectively train Amazon’s voice recognition system, which is then monetized through Amazon’s primary source of profits: Amazon Web Services." There is no way Amazon has echo / alexa out there just so it can develop a language recognition model. They could just record their customer service reps talking to customers, train it on the millions of movies and shows with subtitles on amazon prime or train using audio book narrations. And the profits from their transcription service are not likely very high relative to other services they offer. Whoever becomes the device that people want in their home, the one they turn to to coordinate their heating and cooling, arming their security system, getting the weather and traffic is going to be in an incredible position. Google is also chasing this market, and apple to a degree. Google has an incredible voice recognition model already. They are chasing this market because it is THE most powerful and personal way to have a connection to the consumer. If you don't understand WHY these companies want apple siri, google assistant or amazon alexa everywhere you don't see the future. These companies will OWN consumer loyalty. A child growing up in a amazon echo / alexa integrated house may become a lifelong brand consumer including when they buy their house and setup their home automation etc. The other thing, despite all the claims about "amazon microphones" - people will PAY for these - by the truckload. If I could get a space already pre-integrated with home automation etc? Very appealing. And normal people do call these things echo devices or alexa. These companies are trying to deliver things to consumers that generate high brand loyalty. It seems to be working. I noticed this when browsing for cars - EVERY salesperson emphasizes that their cars supports "apple" carplay etc. My guess - 50%+ of even CAR buyers want to have a connection to their brand loyal assistant.
- donmcronald 6y agoTLDR; Alexa buy batteries.
- PopeDotNinja 6y agoI’m never going tie my money to a voice activated anything. The last thing I need is to have a prankster on YouTube say “Alexa buy 1000 rolls of toilet paper” at March 2020 prices.
- jerome-jh 6y agoThey should do the change and add in the introduction what Amazon requested. I can see they actually did the change with no mention of the edit, and they still dare to conclude "Amazon did not respond to Motherboard’s request for comment." It can by no way be called a "request", that was definitely an "order".
- ceilingcorner 6y agoReminds me of 1984’s telescreens; the word seemingly selected to hide the fact that they are also recording devices.
- eranation 6y agoJust reading it, I’m halfway through. I doubt anyone didn’t know they had microphones or cameras. Contrasting it with the word phone, it implies it has a microphone... but we still all carry around in our pocket without hesitation. Yelling “hey Siri” or “ok google” in a crowded place will probably yield as many or more beeps and blips as yelling “Alexa”.
- darkmoney007 6y agoIt's common knowledge of the lack of security in IoT devices. I suspect a hacker will hack alexa and start trolling your family. Great idea....
- margo209320 6y agoThis reminds me of Cory Doctorow's Unauthorized Bread (https://craphound.com/category/unauthorizedbread/ https://craphound.com/category/unauthorizedbread/), where poor people have to rent "subsidized" apartments and in turn are forced to use the pre-installed household appliances, which only work with "official", overpriced supplies from the manufacturer.
- dathinab 6y agoChange it to: Often uniformed user chosen microphone based survivance device which could also spy on your network, where you live and other meta information ;-)
- harry8 6y ago"The Amazon Microphone" Let's all call it such from now.
- harry8 6y ago/me waves to Amazon marketing. Glad you hate it! Amazon Microphone it is!
- mikece 6y agoPrivate investigator Steve Rambam was offering $1000 to anyone who could hack/modify an Echo device to answer to "Hey Wiretap" -- as far as I know that reward hasn't been claimed and is still valid: https://twitter.com/supernerdmedia/status/996778740851007488?lang=en https://twitter.com/supernerdmedia/status/996778740851007488...
- jedimastert 6y agoAFAIK it isn't actually possible. This is from memory, but there's technical limitations to trying to listen for and process everything all the time, so there's a secondary processing unit whose only job is to listen for the activation phrase and activate the main unit when it hears it. I believe this was hardwired to only listen for the phrase itself and doesn't use the same speech recognition model
- GekkePrutser 6y agoDevices like this aren't hardwired into anything. Echo is sold in many markets with different pronounciation. Amazon isn't going to scrap thousands of units when the Spanish market doesn't want them but the US does :) Or when they introduce a new market. Indeed the hotword is listened for by a local CPU, not the remote cloud which interprets the rest of the sentence received. But you can bet this is not hardwired in any way. These devices are field programmable in full. Just nobody bothered to hack them for a measly 1000 bucks :P
- natcombs 6y agoThe screenshot shows a request, not a demand. The tweet’s headline is clearly clickbait
- dade_ 6y agoIt’s also confusing to refer to an Amazon microphone because I am not sure what product are writing about. I think most people know that an echo has microphones and doesn’t read brainwaves.
- mc32 6y agoI think it’s fair to characterize the device as a (smart) microphone. Without that ability it wouldn’t be able to process people’s queries. Obviously AMZ wants to minimize the association with “mics” because it atunes people to that aspect of the device (ie in listening mode).
- fastball 6y agoThere is even someone in the twitter thread pointing out that Amazon uses the word "microphone" in their copy, as if that is some sort of "gotcha". No, Amazon isn't trying to pretend the Echo doesn't have a microphone – they just think it's misleading to refer to a smart speaker as an "Amazon microphone", and I happen to agree.
- protomyth 6y agoIf you're going to go for the controversy, I would have gone with "Amazon's microphone". The 's will break the idea its a new device and emphasizes who truly owns it.
- reegnz 6y ago“...for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” - Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
- mariuolo 6y agoOr else?
- totetsu 6y agoThey call them smart speakers. Why not name it after any of the other components..
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- nmeofthestate 6y ago"slapping a “smart home” premium onto the monthly rent may let your landlord reverse plunging rents [...] everyone (but you) wins." This seems clueless - if renters don't want Alexa then they will just rent the cheaper places without it. And if renters want it then they also won, by buying something they wanted. And, to head off objections, if renters "are forced to rent" the places with Alexa anyway when they don't want it, then the 'premium' isn't for Alexa and landlords wasted their money.
- suprfsat 6y agoAh yes, renters, that class of people notorious for having the power to influence markets.
- prvc 6y agoA bit off topic: what is this site? An unofficial Twitter mirror?
- noja 6y agoIs everyone here missing the point? Amazon aren't going to "request" just any old correction, the news is that they don't want an internet connected microphone and speaker to have any mental connection to the "m" word. Because it would have negative connotations for most people.
- RandoHolmes 6y agoI'm pretty sure everyone is aware of the motivation for the correction...
- karmakaze 6y agoI'm not. Is it because Amazon is using it as a privacy-invading microphone and doesn't want that to be well known, or is it that it just doesn't want to reduce usage due to unfounded privacy concerns?
- francisofascii 6y agoAlso related, most people have a negative emotional association with microphones. Marketers don't want people having mental associations to public speaking.
- chrismeller 6y agoIt’s a waves hand these are not the droids you’re looking for kind of thing. Whether or not there is anything for you to worry about privacy wise, just don’t you worry your little head about it! Have we mentioned all the cool things Alexa can help you do lately?
- RandoHolmes 6y agoDo you also believe that Disney doesn't love money, or that the Car Insurance ad claiming they love the environment wants you to prefer public transportation rather than owning a car that you then pay them for insurance? At some point critical thinking needs to become a regular part of your life.
- 6y ago
- mindfulhack 6y agoThey're microphones who can think.
- FpUser 6y agoI had given up on not having a smartphone (still do not have data plan) but I am not putting any other of those spy gizmos in my house/car.
- mensetmanusman 6y agoI wonder if Apple would demand that you not refer to an iPhone as a microphone. Ha
- pwinnski 6y agoRead the sentence in context: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj45kx/amazon-wants-alexa-to-move-into-your-apartment-before-you-do https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj45kx/amazon-wants-alexa... The sentence in question comes eight (8) paragraphs in, and reads: "While it’s natural to be chiefly concerned about privacy when your apartment comes with an Amazon microphone pre-installed, we should also be critical about where the data extracted from us ends up." In context, no other word makes as much sense, and the request would make the article worse.
- glxxyz 6y ago"Amazon microphone" sounds like the name of an Amazon product. "Amazon Echo and its built-in microphone" would be more accurate.
- kbd 6y ago“an Amazon microphone” is perfectly accurate and doesn’t sound like a product. Your suggestion is more explicit but no more accurate.
- stingrae 6y agoI think people assume that the (amazon/google/apple) microphones are continuously uploading audio to the cloud. Wake word detection on these devices would be terrible/expensive if it ran in the cloud.
- agentdrtran 6y agoThis is correct, and yet it's still a microphone. My Google Homes and my iPad with Siri listening will trigger accidentally pretty frequently.
- stingrae 6y agook, but it's not even close to continuous capture. Also Google/Apple/Amazon are trying to cut it to 0 accidental triggers because it is a pretty poor UX. edit for clarification: continuous capture to the cloud
- whoknew1122 6y agoAmazon: "Calling an Echo a 'microphone' is derivative and ignores the other functionality. It's more accurate to call an Echo... an Echo..." Journalist: "Within the context of the sentence, the microphone is the only thing that matters." Both are right, and both are doing their job. Amazon PR wants present their products in a positive light, which includes using the brand name and considering all of the Echo's functionality -- not just the microphone. The journalist is pointing out privacy concerns, so the microphone is all that matters. --- I'm a bit curious as to how 'Corrections requested' equates to a 'demand', though.
- justaguy88 6y agoHow is this not called 'spying'
- rcakebread 6y agoIt's not a microphone. It's four microphones!