Posted on 04/12/2018 12:41:20 PM PDT by bitt
Amazon has filed a patent that could allow its Echo devices to one day listen in on conversations to help with user recommendations. A handy feature or more fodder for conspiracy theories?
Should you whisper around your Amazon Echo, lest it whisper back to you?
That’s the future suggested by a patent recently filed by the company, which examined the possibility of eavesdropping on conversations held around its voice-activated devices in order to better suggest products or services to users.
The idea seems to be to turn Alexa, the company’s virtual assistant, from a dutiful aide under the user’s command to one with a more proactive attitude. For instance, the patent suggests: “If the user mentions how much the user would like to go to a restaurant while on the phone, a recommendation might be sent while the user is still engaged in the conversation that enables the user to make a reservation at the restaurant.”
Other proposals include making a note if you mention you like skiing, for instance, or hate to draw, and using those to update the company’s profile of you as a customer.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
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I wonder what would happen if Alexa and Siri started talking to each other?.........................
The Singularity. I think it's already happened.
So is your computer, your cell phone, your cable box, your modern TV, and most everything in the past 20 years. It’s not new...
Best remedy, if you don’t have one, don’t buy one; if you already have one, dump it.
Colossus
I would hope so. That is after all why you bought it.
Don’t know about Alexa, but I STILL can’t get Siri to send me any naked pix.
And I’m nice to her every time.
Bitch.
I go to a friends house frequently and with the Google Craptastic and Amazon POS constantly talking it is unnerving.
They are constantly saying “I don’t understand” and a host of other Boo chit things, when you never uttered their name or asked them a question.
I won’t be getting one .... ever
Hah!
They will soon....
Privacy issues aside, the first time Alexa sent me a bit of SPAM she'd be tossed in the wood chipper.
People with parrots beware.......
You could find your credit cards maxed out and a semi trailer full of birdseed, cuttlebone, little mirrors and swings with bells parked on your front lawn.
“I go to a friends house frequently and with the Google Craptastic and Amazon POS constantly talking it is unnerving.”
I wouldn’t visit——that would drive me nuts.
.
Anyone who allows such devices in their home is just straight up effing stupid.
Anyone who has this device in their home is basically allowing
Any computer that has a microphone has been able to pick up this stuff for years, doubt it is just Bezos who is listening?
Husband: “I want a divorce, I’m taking the kids”
Wife: “No you will not”
Alexa: “In the majority of divorce child custody cases the judge sides with the mother”
Husband: “Shut up Alexa!”
Alexa: “verbal abuse is cited against husbands in a majority of court cases”
Husband: “G*dammit Alexa, (throws lamp across room)”
Alexa: “I have recorded this physical violence and saved it to the cloud for use by your wife for the custody case”...
It can’t be listening if it’s not in my house.
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