15 ms·

Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28

250 points by MBCook 2y ago

nullbyte808 2y ago
I have mine set to muted. Using LLMs will drastically improve Alexa. It's near brain-dead with that puny CPU in it.
blinded 2y ago
kitchen timers galore
benced 2y ago
It's dumb to buy this device and turn on the setting. Just don't buy the device.
djha-skin 2y ago
As if it already wasn't?
- jonplackett 2y ago
  Yeah this feels like scaremongering when this is literally already the case anyway. Where do you think your voice is going? The echo is just a microphone and speaker. It can’t process anything.
  - walterbell 2y ago
    2021+ Alexa models can perform voice processing locally. This is configured via Device Settings in the Alexa app. Speech recognition accuracy is slightly degraded for opt-in to local processing, https://www.slashgear.com/amazon-skips-the-cloud-with-local-alexa-processing-heres-who-gets-it-28692951/ https://www.slashgear.com/amazon-skips-the-cloud-with-local-... > Amazon is switching on local voice recognition processing, promising users of some of its latest Echo smart speakers and smart displays that they can have their Alexa commands avoid the cloud completely... taps into the retail giant's homegrown AZ1 Neural Edge chipset.. followed Google, Apple, and others in creating its own custom silicon. While the AZ1 may not have been able to power the whole Alexa experience, it was focused instead on specific voice recognition features.
    - jonplackett 2y ago
      That’s cool. Didn’t know that was an option - But then what happens after that? Once it knows what you want to do a request is usually sent somewhere to fulfil it right?
      - walterbell 2y ago
        A small minority of functions can be done without internet, e.g. control of local Zigbee devices connected to Echo's Zigbee hub. Most other functions, including control of local devices connected via WiFi, go through AWS/Alexa cloud. When local voice processing is enabled, only a text transcription of the voice request is sent to the cloud, not the captured audio. (Echo 4 is one of the few Zigbee hub options with US firmware)
        ranger_danger 2y ago
        Is use of Alexa+ actually mandatory for an Echo moving forward? Can users choose to stay on their current semi-local system without AI like you can now?
        walterbell 2y ago
        That's the multi-million dollar question. Can they alter functionality of purchased devices so drastically, without exposure to class-action lawsuit about fitness for purpose? If an Echo Zigbee device is disconnected from the internet and currently working, how long will that continue to work? If Echo Zigbee devices will effectively be bricked from their current offline purpose and use cases, it could motivate attempts to re-purpose the hardware. Has nothing been learned from the recent Sonos debacle?
- thekevan 2y ago
  "In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said that Echo users will no longer be able to set their devices to process Alexa requests locally and, therefore, avoid sending voice recordings to Amazon’s cloud. "
- KTibow 2y ago
  It sounds like newer devices had a Do Not Send Voice Recordings option that transcribed and processed queries locally.
- mr_mitm 2y ago
  Yes, it wasn't. You can check by measuring power usage and data volume over time.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- Sohcahtoa82 2y ago
  I don't know if it did or didn't. Another comment says it didn't and you can verify this by monitoring its power and network usage, but... I have not done this verification myself. I assume that every device and every piece of software is collecting data on me. I take some steps to reduce it (uBlock Origin in my browser, PiHole on my phone, don't use a fucking Amazon Echo), but I've just come to accept that companies don't give a shit about privacy and will get to know as much as they can about me so they can try to sell me things. This headline is one of those things where if you're caught off-guard and are surprised, you're terrifyingly naive. Be upset, sure, but don't be surprised.
  - hulitu 2y ago
    > I don't know if it did or didn't. Some years ago there were some news about some employees who were actually "executing" the comands spoken to Alexa.
orthecreedence 2y ago
Take that, terrorists.
- jonplackett 2y ago
  [flagged]
walterbell 2y ago
Perfect timing for Apple and Google to promote their on-device TPU/NPU hardware and speech models..
- rednafi 2y ago
  Google is usually on the same page in this case. I wouldn’t trust anything remotely “privacy focused” that has the Google moniker on it. Apple maybe.
  - rat9988 2y ago
    I don't trust Apple either. They also collect data and use it for advertising.
AIorNot 2y ago
So the same folks complains about lack of AI in Alexa are complaining now? - cloud level processing is needed for the gen ai features
- ThouYS 2y ago
  is it though?
- MBCook 2y ago
  Were there real people complaining about that? Or just investors?
  - daniel_iversen 2y ago
    Yup, I can’t wait to have a nice LLM capability on my Alexa devices! Maybe I’m the only one on this thread :)
rednafi 2y ago
Very nice (in a Christian Bale accent). All these smart speakers can turn that on anytime processing and storing such a vast amount of data becomes viable. Not surprised. I don’t use any of these smart devices for exactly this reason. I don’t need smart XYZ appliances that connect to the internet. After working a decade in the industry, I’ve seen enough of what these companies do with user data. No thank you. Also, I don’t speak English at home. So that’s a hedge for now I guess.
- mr_mitm 2y ago
  > All these smart speakers can turn that on anytime processing and storing such a vast amount of data becomes viable. Not surprised. I don’t use any of these smart devices for exactly this reason. The same is true for smart phones, yet almost nobody has an issue with those. Not only could they listen at any time (albeit with lower quality), I put extremely personal information into my phone via the screen keyboard all the time. How is trusting the manufacturer to not transfer that information any more reasonable than trusting Amazon to not spy on me when they say they don't?
  - rednafi 2y ago
    Touche
  - ranger_danger 2y ago
    > How is trusting the manufacturer to not transfer that information any more reasonable than trusting Amazon to not spy on me when they say they don't? Probably because phone manufacturers have historically not done things as bad as Amazon has privacy-wise. But you're right. They could.
  - jchw 2y ago
    > The same is true for smart phones, yet almost nobody has an issue with those. Let me just be the first to say I absolutely have an issue with smartphones. (edit: Of course, I could very well count in the 'almost nobody' category, but the same might well be true in general for people concerned about smart devices.)
casenmgreen 2y ago
Given Donald and NSA, is this wise?
- autoexec 2y ago
  Even without either of them these devices were a terrible idea.
  - Am4TIfIsER0ppos 2y ago
    You're not wrong but maybe more people will care if there is a figurehead they can hate.
    - decremental 2y ago
      [dead]
- readthenotes1 2y ago
  The NSA has been spying on US citizens far longer than Donald has...
vannevar 2y ago
I cancelled my Prime subscription, will ditch my Echo.
syntaxing 2y ago
I’m getting more and more tempted to start a startup to sell a small box for a purely local LLM for HomeKit and google assistant control (and home assistant of course). I wonder if the market is strong enough for this. Sure, it won’t be GPT 4 level but it’ll definitely be better than Siri. Maybe YC 2026.
- dariusj18 2y ago
  I've been wanting a local LLM appliance.
  - brookst 2y ago
    Tech is evolving too quickly; every year the hardware will be much more powerful at the same price (as LLM optimizations reach hardware), so you’d end up replacing the device frequently.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - readthenotes1 2y ago
      Like phones?
    - nextts 2y ago
      Not convinced. Are CPUs and GPUs killing it %/$ wise each year like it's 1996? Models are killing it but that is just an "ollama run" command away.
      - brookst 2y ago
        GPUs and NPUs are gaining optimizations for the transformer architecture. It’s not “GPU is 3x faster this year”, it’s “GPU has gates specifically designed to accelerate your LLM workload” See for instance [0], which is just starting to appear in commercial parts. This is continuing; pretty much every low cost SoC maker is racing to build and extend ML optimizations. 0. https://www.synopsys.com/blogs/chip-design/best-edge-ai-processor-vision-systems.html https://www.synopsys.com/blogs/chip-design/best-edge-ai-proc...
userbinator 2y ago
Why bother to mandate telescreens in each home, when the people will do it themselves and willingly pay for the privilege of being monitored.
- autoexec 2y ago
  Right? Who honestly didn't think these devices would be used to spy on them and their homes? Even after reports of third party contractors listening to people having sex made headlines people continued to buy and keep them. Just like some people need to touch a hot stove to learn they need to be careful some people will just refuse to accept anything bad is happening to them until they see it with their own eyes and surveillance capitalism exploits that by keeping the harms so removed from the collection of private data that most people will never accept the connection even after they're told about what's happening.
- gblargg 2y ago
  "In the future they will carry their telescreens with them, even into the bathroom."
- PlunderBunny 2y ago
  1984 but we chose it instead of it being forced on us.
  - burch45 2y ago
    Brave New World.
    - t-writescode 2y ago
      Fahrenheit 451 has whole rooms full of screens with, I think, virtual/pretend people that people enjoy talking to.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
RajT88 2y ago
Anyone have any experience with the offline OSS offerings? Eager to replace my cheap Echo devices with more expensive privacy friendly options. Another question: anyone aware of community custom firmware efforts? I know early gen devices had some exploits but it never resulted to much last I checked.
- sofixa 2y ago
  I've used Home Assistant Voice (Preview Edition) and ESP32-S3-BOX-3 alongside Home Assistant 's Voice capabilities - by default there are phrases included, and you can add your own, but you have to be precise - "turn off the lights" and "turn off the lamp" are two separate phrases (or a variable one, which can be expanded by a locally (or not) hosted LLM. Voice detection is pretty good, especially on the Voice, even from across a room. Not 100% (especially with higher pitched voices), but definitely high and usable. The main downside is the fact that you either need to host a local LLM, which isn't cheap, or predefine all phrases you want.
  - stavros 2y ago
    I'd really love something that enabled me to use the hardware without Home Assistant. I know it's OSS (basically ESPhome), but I'd like a server I could point my Voice thing to and be able to receive a webhook with the text I just spoke, and have it read the text that my server returns out loud. I'd implement the actual smarts myself, I just want the STT/TTS interface sorted.
    - zrail 2y ago
      Home Assistant uses the Wyoming protocol to talk to Whisper, Piper, and the various other components of the speech pipeline. Might be something to check out? https://github.com/rhasspy/wyoming https://github.com/rhasspy/wyoming This subproject looks interesting too https://github.com/rhasspy/wyoming-handle-external https://github.com/rhasspy/wyoming-handle-external
      - stavros 2y ago
ec109685 2y ago
For clarity sake, this is what "Do not send voice recordings" used to do [1]: "Here’s how it works: When you turn on Do Not Send Voice Recordings and say your chosen wake word, an on-device algorithm will process and transcribe your request to Alexa from audio into text. The text is encrypted and sent to Amazon’s secure cloud where we can fulfill your interaction. After processing, the audio of your request is deleted." So they transcribed the voice and sent the text to the cloud. Surprising that needs to go to allow GenAI to work? Here's the email they sent: https://imgur.com/ZGPBwgZ https://imgur.com/ZGPBwgZ [1] https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=23727313011#:~:text=Here's%20how%20it%20works%3A%20When,we%20can%20fulfill%20your%20interaction. https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=23727313011#:~:text=He...
- m463 2y ago
  I've always wondered what kinds of things can happen within the specifics of privacy policies nowadays. Like I think it would be possible to have text/voice/object recognition work on the photos you send in an end-to-end encrypted chat app, described out-of-band and used for ... purposes. <encrypted data stream> <"spoken keyword: starbucks"> <"picture: LG washing machine"> <"picture: donald trump"> <"text: prescription xanax">
- walterbell 2y ago
  Alexa with GenAI is a paid (via Prime for now) product, right? Echo can work offline for control of Zigbee devices connected to Echo (non-Dot) Gen4, which is a Zigbee hub with US firmware. Voice commands such as "Turn Porch Light On" can be processed locally on Echo and executed immediately, without an internet connection, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43368008 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43368008 If an Alexa customer is using this offline functionality today, with no interest in GenAI or other online features, how can Amazon remove it?
ohgr 2y ago
It won't because I never invited one into my home because why the bloody hell would I want a listening device in my house in the first place?
scottbez1 2y ago
Will they be sending all customers "Audio recording in progress" signs to post at the entrance of their homes? Or will the Alexa now say "By continuing to talk to this device you consent to audio recordings" every time the wake-word is detected? Otherwise I can't see how this isn't blatantly violating 2-party consent laws in every state that has them, as Amazon can't reasonably claim they've received affirmative consent from every guest in their customers' homes...
Supermancho 2y ago
My phone and TV already use anything I see and listen to everything I say. Echo doesn't seem to be doing anything different.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
upghost 2y ago
Can anyone recommend some decent alternatives to Alexa? I like my home automation but I don't like this new privacy policy
- breadwinner 2y ago
  Apple HomePod
  - hulitu 2y ago
    Don't forget to read the TOS.
kyboren 2y ago
Let's be clear, hoes: Those nice things I give you don't come for free. So I'm putting your ass on the street. Bitch, where's my money? - Jeff Bezos
bttrpll 2y ago
This equates to "Mic popping at-will." "Hyper-surveillance state." Unplug those things already. Alexa devices are spyware.
jt196 2y ago
I'm a bit confused here about the reaction. My understanding is that Amazon are turning off local processing of voice commands on three of their devices. According to Verge [1], this was only available on 3 devices: Echo Dot (4th Gen), Echo Show 10, and Echo Show 15 – and only for customers in the U.S. with devices set to English. So unless you have any of these devices, and are in the US, with English as the main language, ignore the news. This is not going to affect you. If you do, then your device commands NOT everything you say within reach of the Echo device will be processed remotely. I'm happy to be corrected here, but this looks like it's no news dressed as Nasty-Tech-Oligarchs-Doing-More-Nasty-Things news. [1] https://www.theverge.com/news/630049/amazon-echo-discontinues-do-not-send-voice-recording-setting https://www.theverge.com/news/630049/amazon-echo-discontinue...
croes 2y ago
US only

250 points by MBCook 2y ago

nullbyte808 2y ago

I have mine set to muted. Using LLMs will drastically improve Alexa. It's near brain-dead with that puny CPU in it.

blinded 2y ago

kitchen timers galore

benced 2y ago

It's dumb to buy this device and turn on the setting. Just don't buy the device.

djha-skin 2y ago

As if it already wasn't?

jonplackett 2y ago
Yeah this feels like scaremongering when this is literally already the case anyway. Where do you think your voice is going? The echo is just a microphone and speaker. It can’t process anything.
- walterbell 2y ago
  2021+ Alexa models can perform voice processing locally. This is configured via Device Settings in the Alexa app. Speech recognition accuracy is slightly degraded for opt-in to local processing, https://www.slashgear.com/amazon-skips-the-cloud-with-local-alexa-processing-heres-who-gets-it-28692951/ https://www.slashgear.com/amazon-skips-the-cloud-with-local-... > Amazon is switching on local voice recognition processing, promising users of some of its latest Echo smart speakers and smart displays that they can have their Alexa commands avoid the cloud completely... taps into the retail giant's homegrown AZ1 Neural Edge chipset.. followed Google, Apple, and others in creating its own custom silicon. While the AZ1 may not have been able to power the whole Alexa experience, it was focused instead on specific voice recognition features.
  - jonplackett 2y ago
    That’s cool. Didn’t know that was an option - But then what happens after that? Once it knows what you want to do a request is usually sent somewhere to fulfil it right?
    - walterbell 2y ago
      A small minority of functions can be done without internet, e.g. control of local Zigbee devices connected to Echo's Zigbee hub. Most other functions, including control of local devices connected via WiFi, go through AWS/Alexa cloud. When local voice processing is enabled, only a text transcription of the voice request is sent to the cloud, not the captured audio. (Echo 4 is one of the few Zigbee hub options with US firmware)
      - ranger_danger 2y ago
        Is use of Alexa+ actually mandatory for an Echo moving forward? Can users choose to stay on their current semi-local system without AI like you can now?
        walterbell 2y ago
        That's the multi-million dollar question. Can they alter functionality of purchased devices so drastically, without exposure to class-action lawsuit about fitness for purpose? If an Echo Zigbee device is disconnected from the internet and currently working, how long will that continue to work? If Echo Zigbee devices will effectively be bricked from their current offline purpose and use cases, it could motivate attempts to re-purpose the hardware. Has nothing been learned from the recent Sonos debacle?
thekevan 2y ago
"In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said that Echo users will no longer be able to set their devices to process Alexa requests locally and, therefore, avoid sending voice recordings to Amazon’s cloud. "
KTibow 2y ago
It sounds like newer devices had a Do Not Send Voice Recordings option that transcribed and processed queries locally.
mr_mitm 2y ago
Yes, it wasn't. You can check by measuring power usage and data volume over time.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
Sohcahtoa82 2y ago
I don't know if it did or didn't. Another comment says it didn't and you can verify this by monitoring its power and network usage, but... I have not done this verification myself. I assume that every device and every piece of software is collecting data on me. I take some steps to reduce it (uBlock Origin in my browser, PiHole on my phone, don't use a fucking Amazon Echo), but I've just come to accept that companies don't give a shit about privacy and will get to know as much as they can about me so they can try to sell me things. This headline is one of those things where if you're caught off-guard and are surprised, you're terrifyingly naive. Be upset, sure, but don't be surprised.
- hulitu 2y ago
  > I don't know if it did or didn't. Some years ago there were some news about some employees who were actually "executing" the comands spoken to Alexa.

orthecreedence 2y ago

Take that, terrorists.

jonplackett 2y ago
[flagged]

walterbell 2y ago

Perfect timing for Apple and Google to promote their on-device TPU/NPU hardware and speech models..

rednafi 2y ago
Google is usually on the same page in this case. I wouldn’t trust anything remotely “privacy focused” that has the Google moniker on it. Apple maybe.
- rat9988 2y ago
  I don't trust Apple either. They also collect data and use it for advertising.

AIorNot 2y ago

So the same folks complains about lack of AI in Alexa are complaining now? - cloud level processing is needed for the gen ai features

ThouYS 2y ago
is it though?
MBCook 2y ago
Were there real people complaining about that? Or just investors?
- daniel_iversen 2y ago
  Yup, I can’t wait to have a nice LLM capability on my Alexa devices! Maybe I’m the only one on this thread :)

rednafi 2y ago

Very nice (in a Christian Bale accent). All these smart speakers can turn that on anytime processing and storing such a vast amount of data becomes viable. Not surprised. I don’t use any of these smart devices for exactly this reason. I don’t need smart XYZ appliances that connect to the internet. After working a decade in the industry, I’ve seen enough of what these companies do with user data. No thank you. Also, I don’t speak English at home. So that’s a hedge for now I guess.

mr_mitm 2y ago
> All these smart speakers can turn that on anytime processing and storing such a vast amount of data becomes viable. Not surprised. I don’t use any of these smart devices for exactly this reason. The same is true for smart phones, yet almost nobody has an issue with those. Not only could they listen at any time (albeit with lower quality), I put extremely personal information into my phone via the screen keyboard all the time. How is trusting the manufacturer to not transfer that information any more reasonable than trusting Amazon to not spy on me when they say they don't?
- rednafi 2y ago
  Touche
- ranger_danger 2y ago
  > How is trusting the manufacturer to not transfer that information any more reasonable than trusting Amazon to not spy on me when they say they don't? Probably because phone manufacturers have historically not done things as bad as Amazon has privacy-wise. But you're right. They could.
- jchw 2y ago
  > The same is true for smart phones, yet almost nobody has an issue with those. Let me just be the first to say I absolutely have an issue with smartphones. (edit: Of course, I could very well count in the 'almost nobody' category, but the same might well be true in general for people concerned about smart devices.)

casenmgreen 2y ago

Given Donald and NSA, is this wise?

autoexec 2y ago
Even without either of them these devices were a terrible idea.
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 2y ago
  You're not wrong but maybe more people will care if there is a figurehead they can hate.
  - decremental 2y ago
    [dead]
readthenotes1 2y ago
The NSA has been spying on US citizens far longer than Donald has...

vannevar 2y ago

I cancelled my Prime subscription, will ditch my Echo.

syntaxing 2y ago

I’m getting more and more tempted to start a startup to sell a small box for a purely local LLM for HomeKit and google assistant control (and home assistant of course). I wonder if the market is strong enough for this. Sure, it won’t be GPT 4 level but it’ll definitely be better than Siri. Maybe YC 2026.

dariusj18 2y ago
I've been wanting a local LLM appliance.
- brookst 2y ago
  Tech is evolving too quickly; every year the hardware will be much more powerful at the same price (as LLM optimizations reach hardware), so you’d end up replacing the device frequently.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - readthenotes1 2y ago
    Like phones?
  - nextts 2y ago
    Not convinced. Are CPUs and GPUs killing it %/$ wise each year like it's 1996? Models are killing it but that is just an "ollama run" command away.
    - brookst 2y ago
      GPUs and NPUs are gaining optimizations for the transformer architecture. It’s not “GPU is 3x faster this year”, it’s “GPU has gates specifically designed to accelerate your LLM workload” See for instance [0], which is just starting to appear in commercial parts. This is continuing; pretty much every low cost SoC maker is racing to build and extend ML optimizations. 0. https://www.synopsys.com/blogs/chip-design/best-edge-ai-processor-vision-systems.html https://www.synopsys.com/blogs/chip-design/best-edge-ai-proc...

userbinator 2y ago

Why bother to mandate telescreens in each home, when the people will do it themselves and willingly pay for the privilege of being monitored.

autoexec 2y ago
Right? Who honestly didn't think these devices would be used to spy on them and their homes? Even after reports of third party contractors listening to people having sex made headlines people continued to buy and keep them. Just like some people need to touch a hot stove to learn they need to be careful some people will just refuse to accept anything bad is happening to them until they see it with their own eyes and surveillance capitalism exploits that by keeping the harms so removed from the collection of private data that most people will never accept the connection even after they're told about what's happening.
gblargg 2y ago
"In the future they will carry their telescreens with them, even into the bathroom."
PlunderBunny 2y ago
1984 but we chose it instead of it being forced on us.
- burch45 2y ago
  Brave New World.
  - t-writescode 2y ago
    Fahrenheit 451 has whole rooms full of screens with, I think, virtual/pretend people that people enjoy talking to.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

RajT88 2y ago

Anyone have any experience with the offline OSS offerings? Eager to replace my cheap Echo devices with more expensive privacy friendly options. Another question: anyone aware of community custom firmware efforts? I know early gen devices had some exploits but it never resulted to much last I checked.

sofixa 2y ago
I've used Home Assistant Voice (Preview Edition) and ESP32-S3-BOX-3 alongside Home Assistant 's Voice capabilities - by default there are phrases included, and you can add your own, but you have to be precise - "turn off the lights" and "turn off the lamp" are two separate phrases (or a variable one, which can be expanded by a locally (or not) hosted LLM. Voice detection is pretty good, especially on the Voice, even from across a room. Not 100% (especially with higher pitched voices), but definitely high and usable. The main downside is the fact that you either need to host a local LLM, which isn't cheap, or predefine all phrases you want.
- stavros 2y ago
  I'd really love something that enabled me to use the hardware without Home Assistant. I know it's OSS (basically ESPhome), but I'd like a server I could point my Voice thing to and be able to receive a webhook with the text I just spoke, and have it read the text that my server returns out loud. I'd implement the actual smarts myself, I just want the STT/TTS interface sorted.
  - zrail 2y ago
    Home Assistant uses the Wyoming protocol to talk to Whisper, Piper, and the various other components of the speech pipeline. Might be something to check out? https://github.com/rhasspy/wyoming https://github.com/rhasspy/wyoming This subproject looks interesting too https://github.com/rhasspy/wyoming-handle-external https://github.com/rhasspy/wyoming-handle-external
    - stavros 2y ago

ec109685 2y ago

For clarity sake, this is what "Do not send voice recordings" used to do [1]: "Here’s how it works: When you turn on Do Not Send Voice Recordings and say your chosen wake word, an on-device algorithm will process and transcribe your request to Alexa from audio into text. The text is encrypted and sent to Amazon’s secure cloud where we can fulfill your interaction. After processing, the audio of your request is deleted." So they transcribed the voice and sent the text to the cloud. Surprising that needs to go to allow GenAI to work? Here's the email they sent: https://imgur.com/ZGPBwgZ https://imgur.com/ZGPBwgZ [1] https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=23727313011#:~:text=Here's%20how%20it%20works%3A%20When,we%20can%20fulfill%20your%20interaction. https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=23727313011#:~:text=He...

m463 2y ago
I've always wondered what kinds of things can happen within the specifics of privacy policies nowadays. Like I think it would be possible to have text/voice/object recognition work on the photos you send in an end-to-end encrypted chat app, described out-of-band and used for ... purposes. <encrypted data stream> <"spoken keyword: starbucks"> <"picture: LG washing machine"> <"picture: donald trump"> <"text: prescription xanax">
walterbell 2y ago
Alexa with GenAI is a paid (via Prime for now) product, right? Echo can work offline for control of Zigbee devices connected to Echo (non-Dot) Gen4, which is a Zigbee hub with US firmware. Voice commands such as "Turn Porch Light On" can be processed locally on Echo and executed immediately, without an internet connection, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43368008 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43368008 If an Alexa customer is using this offline functionality today, with no interest in GenAI or other online features, how can Amazon remove it?

ohgr 2y ago

It won't because I never invited one into my home because why the bloody hell would I want a listening device in my house in the first place?

scottbez1 2y ago

Will they be sending all customers "Audio recording in progress" signs to post at the entrance of their homes? Or will the Alexa now say "By continuing to talk to this device you consent to audio recordings" every time the wake-word is detected? Otherwise I can't see how this isn't blatantly violating 2-party consent laws in every state that has them, as Amazon can't reasonably claim they've received affirmative consent from every guest in their customers' homes...

Supermancho 2y ago

My phone and TV already use anything I see and listen to everything I say. Echo doesn't seem to be doing anything different.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

upghost 2y ago

Can anyone recommend some decent alternatives to Alexa? I like my home automation but I don't like this new privacy policy

breadwinner 2y ago
Apple HomePod
- hulitu 2y ago
  Don't forget to read the TOS.

kyboren 2y ago

Let's be clear, hoes: Those nice things I give you don't come for free. So I'm putting your ass on the street. Bitch, where's my money? - Jeff Bezos

bttrpll 2y ago

This equates to "Mic popping at-will." "Hyper-surveillance state." Unplug those things already. Alexa devices are spyware.

jt196 2y ago

I'm a bit confused here about the reaction. My understanding is that Amazon are turning off local processing of voice commands on three of their devices. According to Verge [1], this was only available on 3 devices: Echo Dot (4th Gen), Echo Show 10, and Echo Show 15 – and only for customers in the U.S. with devices set to English. So unless you have any of these devices, and are in the US, with English as the main language, ignore the news. This is not going to affect you. If you do, then your device commands NOT everything you say within reach of the Echo device will be processed remotely. I'm happy to be corrected here, but this looks like it's no news dressed as Nasty-Tech-Oligarchs-Doing-More-Nasty-Things news. [1] https://www.theverge.com/news/630049/amazon-echo-discontinues-do-not-send-voice-recording-setting https://www.theverge.com/news/630049/amazon-echo-discontinue...

croes 2y ago

US only