3 ms·

What is it that you think that link is saying? I see no financial incentive for Amazon to not listen to their microphones for marketing purposes. From a certain

What is it that you think that link is saying? I see no financial incentive for Amazon to not listen to their microphones for marketing purposes. From a certain point of view, they could even honor their word and not activate Alexa, but some other program.

hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
> I see no financial incentive for Amazon to not listen to their microphones for marketing purposes. The financial incentive is that Amazon has detailed very clearly in that link how their listening works (or doesn't) from Alexa devices: > I’m not talking to Alexa and am having a conversation at home near my device. Is Alexa still listening and recording everything I say? > No. Alexa is a part of your life only when you ask Alexa to be. By default, Alexa begins listening after your Echo device detects the wake word, so Alexa does not listen to your personal conversations. If Amazon were lying here, it would be a multi-billion dollar class action suit, not to mention hauling all of their chief execs up before Congress, and another big push to restrict big tech. The overall point that I'm trying to make is that if your devices were listening to you without your consent (and, again, not a 0-day, etc), this would be a scandal of gargantuan proportions. Not something some shitty 3rd rate marketing company like CMG claims to be able to do with no evidence.
- flerchin 2y ago
  In what way would it even be actionable? This is ridiculous. People bought microphones and put them in their homes. The microphones recorded audio. This is known.
  - labcomputer 2y ago
    It's straight-up, black-and-white securities fraud. You defrauded the shareholders because you led them to believe that you were not doing a thing that most of your customers would find odious. So they bought stock in your company believing that you were not doing a thing that would obviously lead to backlash if anyone ever found out. And then the stock went down when someone found out, and they lost a lot of money, and now you're out of a job and maybe in jail.
    - flerchin 2y ago
      That's certainly a theory. In general, publicly traded companies are not held to account like this. Many examples to choose from, but listing any of them would derail the argument to the exact specifics. Also, if the stock does not take a hit, then there's no crime at all under this theory.

hn_throwaway_99 2y ago

> I see no financial incentive for Amazon to not listen to their microphones for marketing purposes. The financial incentive is that Amazon has detailed very clearly in that link how their listening works (or doesn't) from Alexa devices: > I’m not talking to Alexa and am having a conversation at home near my device. Is Alexa still listening and recording everything I say? > No. Alexa is a part of your life only when you ask Alexa to be. By default, Alexa begins listening after your Echo device detects the wake word, so Alexa does not listen to your personal conversations. If Amazon were lying here, it would be a multi-billion dollar class action suit, not to mention hauling all of their chief execs up before Congress, and another big push to restrict big tech. The overall point that I'm trying to make is that if your devices were listening to you without your consent (and, again, not a 0-day, etc), this would be a scandal of gargantuan proportions. Not something some shitty 3rd rate marketing company like CMG claims to be able to do with no evidence.

flerchin 2y ago
In what way would it even be actionable? This is ridiculous. People bought microphones and put them in their homes. The microphones recorded audio. This is known.
- labcomputer 2y ago
  It's straight-up, black-and-white securities fraud. You defrauded the shareholders because you led them to believe that you were not doing a thing that most of your customers would find odious. So they bought stock in your company believing that you were not doing a thing that would obviously lead to backlash if anyone ever found out. And then the stock went down when someone found out, and they lost a lot of money, and now you're out of a job and maybe in jail.
  - flerchin 2y ago
    That's certainly a theory. In general, publicly traded companies are not held to account like this. Many examples to choose from, but listing any of them would derail the argument to the exact specifics. Also, if the stock does not take a hit, then there's no crime at all under this theory.