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The problem isn't the lack of knowledge. The problem is lack of alternatives. Name a single privacy preserving smart home assistant that the average person can

The problem isn't the lack of knowledge. The problem is lack of alternatives. Name a single privacy preserving smart home assistant that the average person can buy, install, and use. Market theory says people will vote with their wallet, which is why I boycott all of them. But I'm under no delusion that my behavior will change anything. Voting with your wallet only works if someone is willing to offer what you want.

navanchauhan 5y ago
Mycroft? [0] https://mycroft.ai https://mycroft.ai
- maccard 5y ago
  That falls at the first hurdle - the page you link to says shipping September 2022.
  - robin_reala 5y ago
    Mycroft have been shipping assistants since 2016: https://mycroft.ai/blog/making-a-mycroft/ https://mycroft.ai/blog/making-a-mycroft/
greggsy 5y ago
"Siri Data is associated with a random, device-generated identifier. This random identifier is not linked to your Apple ID, email address, or other data Apple may have from your use of other Apple services. Siri Data and your requests are not used to build a marketing profile, and are never sold to anyone." https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/ask-siri-dictation/ https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/ask-siri-dictati...
- dandare 5y ago
  A single policy update can reverse all of this.
  - maccard 5y ago
    The same can be said for any commercial offering that you entrust data to. By that metric only fully self managed open source verified hardware is acceptable, right?
    - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
      To be fair, that is a coherent, defensible stance to take. There are multiple reasons to go self-hosted, and "I don't trust companies not to screw me over" is definitely one.
wildmanx 5y ago
> The problem is lack of alternatives. Name a single privacy preserving smart home assistant that the average person can buy, install, and use. You are implying that all alternatives have to be "buying a smart home assistant". There is another alternative: Don't buy one. If all existing alternatives are bad, then not buying any is also a way to "vote by wallet". Then there will be a big market segment of not-having-bought-yets that can get tapped into by just coming with a privacy-preserving offering.
- usrusr 5y ago
  Unless you happen to be a blind person or something like that. But I share your sentiment nonetheless, I have zero desire to become part of the group of persons that got used to voice control and would therefore miss it if it wasn't available (as long as I don't turn blind I guess) For the blind however, I guess it's a huge win that ad-driven voice control gadgets exist and are available to them. I'm sure their options would be basically nonexistent if they were the entire market.
pnt12 5y ago
The market cannot solve all problems magically, and that's where legislation comes in.

navanchauhan 5y ago

Mycroft? [0] https://mycroft.ai https://mycroft.ai

maccard 5y ago
That falls at the first hurdle - the page you link to says shipping September 2022.
- robin_reala 5y ago
  Mycroft have been shipping assistants since 2016: https://mycroft.ai/blog/making-a-mycroft/ https://mycroft.ai/blog/making-a-mycroft/

greggsy 5y ago

"Siri Data is associated with a random, device-generated identifier. This random identifier is not linked to your Apple ID, email address, or other data Apple may have from your use of other Apple services. Siri Data and your requests are not used to build a marketing profile, and are never sold to anyone." https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/ask-siri-dictation/ https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/ask-siri-dictati...

dandare 5y ago
A single policy update can reverse all of this.
- maccard 5y ago
  The same can be said for any commercial offering that you entrust data to. By that metric only fully self managed open source verified hardware is acceptable, right?
  - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
    To be fair, that is a coherent, defensible stance to take. There are multiple reasons to go self-hosted, and "I don't trust companies not to screw me over" is definitely one.

wildmanx 5y ago

> The problem is lack of alternatives. Name a single privacy preserving smart home assistant that the average person can buy, install, and use. You are implying that all alternatives have to be "buying a smart home assistant". There is another alternative: Don't buy one. If all existing alternatives are bad, then not buying any is also a way to "vote by wallet". Then there will be a big market segment of not-having-bought-yets that can get tapped into by just coming with a privacy-preserving offering.

usrusr 5y ago
Unless you happen to be a blind person or something like that. But I share your sentiment nonetheless, I have zero desire to become part of the group of persons that got used to voice control and would therefore miss it if it wasn't available (as long as I don't turn blind I guess) For the blind however, I guess it's a huge win that ad-driven voice control gadgets exist and are available to them. I'm sure their options would be basically nonexistent if they were the entire market.

pnt12 5y ago

The market cannot solve all problems magically, and that's where legislation comes in.