It’s wild that this is only becoming news now. I remember being in an Amazon conference room about four years ago with some of the team responsible for these transcriptions and listening to a recording of a mom and little kid talking.
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Thousands of Amazon Employees Listen to Alexa Requests for Improvement Purposes [Updated]
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I don't completely disagree with you, but realistically can you expect a company not to listen to the recordings when developing advanced machine learning algorithms for voice commands? Also, I think the employees sharing them in a private chat for help and amusement is a forgivable offense.
Guess we can install a small array of microphone around your house so that you can even better enjoy using the smart speaker because your voice will be captured in high quality Dolby Surround format.
Despite the article clearly saying Apple, Google, & Amazon I see a lot of selective reading and commenting here, not that I expected anything else.
EVERY COMPANY DOES IT! That means Apple, Google, Amazon, and whoever else has a smart speaker, if you think otherwise you're only fooling yourself. And no I don't want to hear your excuse about how you "think" one company does it better or different because honestly you don't know what these companies do behind your back while telling you they don't.
EVERY COMPANY DOES IT! That means Apple, Google, Amazon, and whoever else has a smart speaker, if you think otherwise you're only fooling yourself. And no I don't want to hear your excuse about how you "think" one company does it better or different because honestly you don't know what these companies do behind your back while telling you they don't.
Privacy is basically a fallacy nowadays. My mindset right now is where I go, what do I eat, what am I doing, all are known by government. The only thing matters is whether govt want to actually use those information or not.
Amazon: it’s you customer want such a “smart speaker”. We build one. Now you blame me creating such an illegal device?
Seriously, at least people can stop buying those smart speakers. Security and convenience never come along well.
I am curious though why people feel compelled to buy these (suspected) Trojan horses from Apple, Google and Amazon.
What makes them so relevant to a modern home?
I don't own one and well, life continues.
My lights still switch on, I still play the music I want. I still wake up on time.
*shrug*
What makes them so relevant to a modern home?
I don't own one and well, life continues.
My lights still switch on, I still play the music I want. I still wake up on time.
*shrug*
At Siri headquarters, two besuited Apple agents sit opposite each other, headphones on, smoking galoise cigarettes. They are listening intently, scribbling on notepads while a reel-to-reel tape broadcasts the intimate details of my daily life.
‘Set a timer for five minutes’
‘Set a timer for ten minutes’
‘Set a timer for ten minutes’
‘Set a timer for three minutes’
‘Set a timer for eight minutes’
‘Set a timer for five minutes’
‘Set a timer for eleven minutes’
‘Set a timer for five minutes’
‘Set a timer for fifty minutes’
‘No! I said fifty minutes. Fifty. Not fifteen, Fifty! Five zero!’
‘Set a timer for five minutes’
‘Set a timer for nine minutes’
‘Set a timer for…
‘Set a timer for five minutes’
‘Set a timer for ten minutes’
‘Set a timer for ten minutes’
‘Set a timer for three minutes’
‘Set a timer for eight minutes’
‘Set a timer for five minutes’
‘Set a timer for eleven minutes’
‘Set a timer for five minutes’
‘Set a timer for fifty minutes’
‘No! I said fifty minutes. Fifty. Not fifteen, Fifty! Five zero!’
‘Set a timer for five minutes’
‘Set a timer for nine minutes’
‘Set a timer for…
But of course. Selective outrage is part and parcel of any discussion here…
Apple Good… "Others" Bad.
There is no nuanced debate unfortunately.
i had one of these Amazon speakers. early adopter. got it for $100 cuz amazon really wanted to have them make a big splash. at the time i was really into new tech gadgets so I had to have it. I think it was about a month into owning it, my buddy comes over one night and we're having drinks and he's telling me this story about our mutual friend Alex. we keep hearing this strange noise coming from the bedroom, two rooms away. eventually we're both like, "what is that?" and go in the other room to hear the speaker say something akin to "im sorry i couldnt quite make that out..." Two rooms away, and its listening is good enough (even at that early stage) to pick up a similar name from that distance and start listening.
I kept it about another week before selling it to some dude on craigslist for $50 over what I paid for it.
To be perfectly honest, that was the first incident in a string of many that's ultimately led me to really disable all "smart" assistants, siri included.
to be honest, we all know Apple doesnt share data... but does that mean they're not listening too?
I kept it about another week before selling it to some dude on craigslist for $50 over what I paid for it.
To be perfectly honest, that was the first incident in a string of many that's ultimately led me to really disable all "smart" assistants, siri included.
to be honest, we all know Apple doesnt share data... but does that mean they're not listening too?
I've started to switch to Apple Maps and DuckDuckGo.
I do use Twitter, but only from my iPhone, about once a week.
I don't have an account in the Facebook-Empire (neither a Google account) and I very rarely use Amazon - because I simply don't feel the need to order anything. We still have shops around here where I can walk in and pay cash.
I like buying products. I don't like being the product. But at the same time, my life does not evolve around buying stuff every day (except for food).
I try to order books from my local bookstore (there's very rarely a need to have something right now) or directly from the authors website.
Yeah. In the Apple parallel universe, people actually believe that Apple employees are not doing any of these things. And that Apple does not pump billions of dollars into Chinese companies that mistreat their employees until they commit suicide. And Apple never "accidentally" stored the GPS movement profiles of all iPhone users. And Apple never fired an employee for showing Steve Wozniak the first iPad on the morning when Steve Jobs publicly showed off the gadget in his keynote. And sure, Apple does not have a Nazi-KGB-Style internal corporate police that turns every employee's rear end inside-out. Yes, only saints and geniuses work at Apple and the company only exists to make the world a better place for everybody - by selling yet another way to consume media on overpriced gadgets.
Apple still is good at designing nice-looking hardware. They're also good at graphics design: Their software also LOOKS nice, but usually is a nightmare when it comes to usability or flexibility or customization. They excel at emotional marketing, which explains the following that they have. But beneath all that shiny marketing and design, they're just another American tech giant that only creates stuff that locks its users into their ecosystem and controls what their customers can and cannot do depending on how much money they spend.
Proper belly laughed at this although at the back of my mind I have a nagging doubt this isn't satire?
Don’t buy these friendly looking Trojan horses. Primarily they’re tools for spying and prying. The services (Alexa and music) are secondary.
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I’m fine with it’s limited ability. Am I really that lazy that I can’t find the answers to my questions myself?
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I’m fine with it’s limited ability. Am I really that lazy that I can’t find the answers to my questions myself?
I keep the microphone off until I need it. I assume all of these devices do this. HomePod and Siri?
Nothing new. This is what the product is for. Google mini as well. These devices only exist to sell ads and products.
Not sure I completely see it from your point of view.
Whilst I can’t say I trust Amazon, (any other company). I do believe the privacy stance of Apple is a farce as the OP posted. A PR exercise of military grade proportions.
Speaking of reading the story, the story did say that Apple was doing it after "hey Siri" whereas Amazon employees reported that they were getting it even with no sign of the trigger keyword "Alexa" being spoken.
If you'd bothered to RTFA, you'd see the recordings don't link them to specifc users. It's like if I gave you a mix tape with no label. You can listen to the songs and understand the words, but you don't know what the names of the songs are, or who sang them. But please, continue your faux moral-outrage temper tantrum. After that, how about you explain how you plan to improve a voice recognition system without any human-based assistance? Kinda hard to teach an AI what it's hearing wrong without an actual human there to hear the same command the correct the mistake.
As far as the "private chat room" -- do any of you millennial snowflakes use Slack at work? How about Facetime with multiple people? Guess what those are. If you said "a private chatroom" DINGDINGDING.
People gossip about their jobs. You do to, even if you're doing it around a water cooler or at a bar after work instead. Or are you really going to sit there and tell me you never talk about that horrible client you had to deal with, and what they said, and this and that? Get over it. They aren't doing anything different than you or I. It's just being perceived different by you because it has "on a computer" attached to it, just like all those BS patents you rail against when they are put on trial in that certain district in Texas.
Nope. Are you so dependent on them that it’s hard for you to imagine not?
Where does that dependence come from?
I received a free Echo Dot with my Hive Hub a few weeks back - sold it without even opening the packaging.