Community Chat

[gloriajean]

I use mine mostly for the radio, when I'm home. And other music. If it's listening to everything I do, there isn't much to report. We do like it for putting things on the shopping list. Both my daughters have Alexa too. I got it for a birthday gift a year ago. My birthday is Saturday so I guess then I have it a year.  The radio station I like the most was just a buzz on my portable radio. On Alexa, it's as clear as a bell. I am not going to be worried. What would they do to me?

[Spurt]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

My dog just jumped on my lap. As I often do, I said, "there's a little black dog on my lap.  I wonder where it came from?"  Alexa which is turned on but was not engaged, volunteered "I'm not sure".  I never mentioned her name.  Creepy.

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@Kachina624

My sis had a similar creepy experience....Alexa was on the kitchen counter and me, my sis,  and a couple of other friends were in the living room talking, and my sis was talking about a new prescription for her high blood pressure that her doctor had given her that wasn't working very well.....and out of the blue Alexa says I think your doctor should prescribe (and she named a medication)....it was creepy because it was like she thought she was in the conversation and her name wasn't even called to ask for advice, and this wasnt the first time something like this happened .....kinda like a sci fi movie or episode of theTwilight Zone.....my sis turned her off....and seldom uses her now....

[Spurt]

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@Alison Wonderland wrote:

Digital assistants (Alexa, Siri, Google) are triggered by a wake word or phrase, but also get triggered when something sounds like the wake word/phrase.

My Echo is triggered by Alexa, Alexis (a few TV characters), sometimes Alex (ads for Alex, Inc sometimes trigger it) and sometimes words that just sound similar the way someone on TV said them. 

I listen to audio books with my iPhone and very rarely the narration inclueds a phrase that sounds like "hey Siri" and my phone will pause the book and tell me it did not understand or ask me to try again,

It's not creepy, it's the way words work. It's just like when a Jaime thinks someone called her name and the person was asking for Amy or some other similar name.

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@Alison Wonderland

I can see saying something that sounds close to the device's name, but in my sister's case and it sounds like in other situations people have posted here, these don't sound like instances that would have "woken them up" either...........

[Spurt]

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@straykatz wrote:

I just don't like the idea of all the technology intruding into everything I do....love technology...don't get me worng there...but hate the fact that every little thing I do or say can be tracked/monitered/recorded just so some obscure company or media source can then advertize or spoon feed me news/stories/entertainment/articles/etc. based on my interests!  I can still think for myself and make my own decisions and feel this "connected" concept will eventually become the norm with people losing their abilitiy to think and make choices for themself.  

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@straykatz

Me neither, .....a little too intrusive for me.   What I find amusing is that everyone loves these gadgets (well ALMOST everyone)....then after awhile you hear them complaining about the invasion of privacy ....but you cant have it both ways these days............

[Q4u]

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@Spurt wrote:

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@Kachina624 wrote:

My dog just jumped on my lap. As I often do, I said, "there's a little black dog on my lap.  I wonder where it came from?"  Alexa which is turned on but was not engaged, volunteered "I'm not sure".  I never mentioned her name.  Creepy.

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@Kachina624

My sis had a similar creepy experience....Alexa was on the kitchen counter and me, my sis,  and a couple of other friends were in the living room talking, and my sis was talking about a new prescription for her high blood pressure that her doctor had given her that wasn't working very well.....and out of the blue Alexa says I think your doctor should prescribe (and she named a medication)....it was creepy because it was like she thought she was in the conversation and her name wasn't even called to ask for advice, and this wasnt the first time something like this happened .....kinda like a sci fi movie or episode of theTwilight Zone.....my sis turned her off....and seldom uses her now....

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Somone commented that whatever they're doing or saying around Alexa is innocuous, what can they do to me? 

I don't think it's a question of what they can do to us so much as it's a questiion of how much information do we want these machines to have.... and where will the info ultimately be stored?  

Now Alexa (and wherever this info ultimately heads) knows there is someone in the household that has high blood pressure and uses xxx medication.  So ok, most do not care about targeted info regarding sales, but what if your family is having a heated political discussion...do we really want our political views and opinions being stored somewhere?  Especially in today's climate? 

And let us not forget Facebook and their recent attempt to acquire Medical info regarding some of their users under the "for research" reasoning.  And will it all ultimately end up being part of some kind of ultra large U.S. data base?  (See link regarding U.S.'s largest Data Base, built in 2014/Utah) 

I don't think that we're at that point right now and that pretty much all the info being gleaned and kept is probably for sales targeting.... but it doesn't take much of a leap to understand that not only do we have the ability to "listen" to pretty much anything out there (private or not), we also have the ability to be able to store it somewhere..... it's something to at least think about ....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Data_Center

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/05/facebook-building-8-explored-data-sharing-agreement-with-hospitals.h...

[PA Mom-mom]

@Kachina624 Yes, I never thought of that. However, we named our's "Echo" because my boss' daughter's name is Alexa. But, it's still very probable that she may listen to both at times. Also, Jeopardy has a game app for Alexa, so you can play Jeopardy anytime.

[PA Mom-mom]

@TW I'm not sure about the hacked idea, but our IT manager at work said he turns off and closes out all of his electronics when he's not using them. He said our laptops, tablets and cell phones are listening to us as well. And he's not the conspiracy theory type. He was an IT specialist in the Navy. My son and daughater have separately had the experience of speaking about something, without an Alexa in the room and without having done any searches, and suddenly have relevant advertisements pop up on their devices. I was there when we were discussing a local and non-chain restaurant we wanted to go to, and suddenly, there was the ad. No previous searches, no Alexa.

[Katcat1]

All these new, expensive adult toys.  My one friend was telling me the price of the new phones -- OMG!  This Alexia gadget is not for me as I can answer my own questions.  I still have a flip phone and it works just fine.   Everyone spends their money the way they want to.  Rather than adult toys, I can buy clothes, shoes and even take a vacation. 

[Q4u]

Even ex-FBI Director Comey stated that he puts a piece of tape over the camara on his laptop!!  I thought that spoke volumes regarding hacking/privacy.  My youngest son is a Computer Guy and we've had some very interesting discussions regarding this subject....

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/08/473548674/why-the-fbi-director-puts-tape-over-his...