Amazon second generation Echo Plus speaker with Alexa voice assistant and built in smart hub
Siri and iPhone Tracking Apps
Google Assistant
Amazon Echo, Alexa
” so to better protect yourself.” You mean you have to opt out? That alone should tell you something “ain’t right.”
What do they do with it? Share it with the NSA ofcourse.
Ask me to rate the places I have visited or driven past.
The gadgets don’t collect the data; They’r just a fancy mic and speaker. They merely transmit what they hear and see to the server farms.
There, the farms develop the answers to questions, send the music, etc. and store and analyze everything collected.
And teams of isolated geek SJWs with Starbucks mocha minty latte grandes watch over it all.
>>Speaking of, if you’re in a vacation rental, there’s no guarantee hidden cameras are not in play.
Except it is illegal without disclosure.
Question, how much does it help to “sweep” a room or gas station (pumps) with a cellphone scanning for bluetooth broadcasts?
If they the are gathering information on Me they are going to be really bored.
My Alienware 17 R5 has a “Tobii” eye tracker ‘feature’ that dims the screen if I look away for a few seconds.
I thought the damn screen was going bad out of the box...until I discovered this “feature”.
When it dims, I look at it and it lights back up.
Freaking creepy.
Supposedly something to do with gaming because it’s technically a gaming rig.
Trying to figure out how to kill it, without using electrical tape.
Bookmark.
Amazon Echo
For Amazon Echo to work, the microphone has to hear its “wake phrase.”
Echo records every single command and keeps those audio files in a special database.
To developers, this is a way to refine the technology and cater to your specific voice patterns.
The more data the system collects, the better it will understand and respond to you.
But many users find this disturbing.
In the case of Alexa, the easiest way to delete everything you said in the past day is to literally say, “Alexa, delete everything I said today.”
I know, it sounds like wishing for more wishes, but Amazon assures us the trick works, at least for recent commands.
There’s still the problems of Alexa always listening and what to do about your old recordings.
Let’s tackle the old recordings first.
Unless the delete command is expanded to include all recordings, you still have to remove old files manually.
Here’s what to do:
Open the Alexa app and go into the “Settings” section.
Select “History” and you’ll see a list of all the entries.
Select an entry and tap the Delete button.
If you want to delete all the recordings with a single click, you must visit the “Manage Your Content and Devices” page at amazon.com/mycd.
As for Alexa and Echo devices always listening, well you could turn off each of the devices, but then what’s the point of having them?
The real issue, we discovered, is that Amazon employees around the world are listening to us and making transcriptions.
Here’s how to stop that:
Open the Alexa app on your phone.
Tap the menu button on the top left of the screen.
Select “Settings” then “Alexa Account.”
Choose “Alexa Privacy.”
Select “Manage how your data improves Alexa.”
Turn off the toggle next to “Help Develop New Features.”
Turn off the toggle next to your name under “Use Messages to Improve Transcriptions.”
It all goes to the NSA.
Wonder what will happen if every morning I wake up and announce to whatever device is snooping that it’s a good day to kill a bunch of people? Oh, never mind, we all know SWAT will be bashing through my front door by day three.
Whenever anything is recorded, on paper, film or electronic media it’s open season for the government which will subpoena it and spend hours going through it looking for something to get you on. Since there is no context, they can get you on anything you say.
George Orwell would marvel at how much worse it is than in his novels.