[HN Gopher] Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amaz...
___________________________________________________________________
Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on
March 28
Author : MBCook
Score : 63 points
Date : 2025-03-14 21:33 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
| blinded wrote:
| kitchen timers galore
| benced wrote:
| It's dumb to buy this device and turn on the setting. Just don't
| buy the device.
| djha-skin wrote:
| As if it already wasn't?
| jonplackett wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 local
| processing, 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 wrote:
| 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?
| KTibow wrote:
| It sounds like newer devices had a Do Not Send Voice Recordings
| option that transcribed and processed queries locally.
| mr_mitm wrote:
| Yes, it wasn't. You can check by measuring power usage and data
| volume over time.
| thekevan wrote:
| "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. "
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| 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.
| orthecreedence wrote:
| Take that, terrorists.
| walterbell wrote:
| Perfect timing for Apple and Google to promote their on-device
| TPU/NPU hardware and speech models..
| AIorNot wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| is it though?
| MBCook wrote:
| Were there real people complaining about that? Or just
| investors?
| rednafi wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| > 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 wrote:
| Touche
| casenmgreen wrote:
| Given Donald and NSA, is this wise?
| vannevar wrote:
| I cancelled my Prime subscription, will ditch my Echo.
| syntaxing wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| I've been wanting a local LLM appliance.
| userbinator wrote:
| Why bother to mandate telescreens in each home, when the people
| will do it themselves and willingly pay for the privilege of
| being monitored.
| MrMcCall wrote:
| Some of the stupidity tests have been getting really, really easy
| over the past 10 years or so.
|
| And yet, the number of stupid people seems to be growing at an
| alarming rate.
| RajT88 wrote:
| 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.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-03-14 23:01 UTC)