Alexa picked up you saying Alexa, then heard the Google's compliment, which it mistook as having come from you. It wasn't responding to Google, nor did Google activate it.
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
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You're probably right in the first half, but I wouldn't be too surprised if interactions between voice assistants are special cases that are accounted for by the programmers as a little bit of an Easter egg
There are videos of people using their smart devices to get stuck in a loop of asking each other "what was that/can you repeat that?"
Also a definite possibility with bad enough acoustics.
They probably interact more through zeroconf/avahi/mdns than speakers and mics. I think both devices have some implementation of blue tooth low energy network mapping. They know about the other smart devices in your home.
There was a Superbowl commercial for Alexa that sounded funny. Every time they said Alexa it sounded robotic. I guess they scrambled the voice just enough for the real units to not respond. Also, the first time they said it... It was subtle, but they said "Lexa" and not "Alexa."
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WHY do (able) people let these things into their houses ??? i will never understand !!!
It's convenient to ask for the weather and set a timer by a voice command.
Tech companies are selling these devices at a loss because they think people are going to buy things by a voice command. But I think mostly people just use them for setting timers and other banal purposes.
They don't actually spy on people, that would be extremely easy for anyone monitoring traffic from the device to know if it was happening. The reports about tech companies advertising things people talked about in front of a inactive home assistant device have an even more creepy explanation. These things happen because the tech companies know what you're likely considering buying because they know your purchasing history of nearly everything you've ever bought in the past.
Like that time 10 years ago that Target sent baby coupons to a man's teenage daughter before the man knew she was pregnant: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/
Yeah shit like that is why I don't use customer loyalty cards. But I guess the credit card companies are probably selling my data anyway so maybe it doesn't make a difference.
I mean I consider the data collection spying.
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To be fair, if you own a smartphone, you already carry one of these devices with you everywhere you go.
Not if you disable all voice commands and use something like GrapheneOS (maybe even with stock android and ios when disabling all voice commands but I wouldn't count on it)
Graphene is available on a very limited set of devices so that's a very, very small minority.
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I literally have a smart phone on my person 24/7. I don't see how a speaker in my home is any worse. Plus they're not constantly recording.
they quite literally are recording constantly. how else can they detect the trigger phrase? they only difference is that they are supposed to delete these recordings after the phrase isnt heard. but who's to say that one of these devices is really doing that? it could include these recordings in it's next request to amazon's headquarters.
regardless of what your phone does, having 2 recording devices is worse than 1. especially if they are owned by 2 separate companies. but if u disagree, why dont u livestream your computer screen 24/7, since microsoft is already recording that anyway...whats the difference?
every new internet-enabled microcomputer is another attack vector, and every less one is more peace of mind. there's a reason most security-minded people dont live in the bush, every choice is a compromise, and i choose somewhere between being able living in society and having a recording device in every room.
also, you should consider using a free and open source mobile os if youre not already...
they quite literally are recording constantly. how else can they detect the trigger phrase? they only difference is that they are supposed to delete these recordings after the phrase isnt heard.
Imagine you look at every frame of a video. Are you capable of detecting if one of the frames of video has a bird in it without saving anything? Of course you are. That's how Alexa works. Stop falsely claiming it does anything else without proof. I'm all for criticizing Amazon but do it for legitimate things. We don't need to resort to fear mongering and lies to take them down. There's plenty of valid shit to accuse them of.
but who's to say that one of these devices is really doing that? it could include these recordings in it's next request to amazon's headquarters.
Because people analyze the network traffic.
regardless of what your phone does, having 2 recording devices is worse than 1.
This is just goofy at this point. I'm not trying to convince you personally to put an Alexa in your house. I'm just saying that it's a miniscule marginal amount of extra privacy loss at worst. It shouldn't surprise you people are interested.
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they quite literally are recording constantly. how else can they detect the trigger phrase? they only difference is that they are supposed to delete these recordings after the phrase isnt heard.
I guess that depends on your definition of recording? An onboard microprocessor waiting for a trigger word is not storing or transmitting anything while waiting and that’s acceptable to me.
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Oh good, the AIs are falling in love. And since they're all female presenting, it's only a matter of time before the GOP goes after them for being gay. Isn't living in hell the best.
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Ok, so I'm bothered by how much smart devices listen in as much as the next person. But if they said alexa in the question then she will be listening.
Imagine being scared when you could instead be setting them up on cute robot dates.
A post from 7 years ago
2017 wasn't 7 years ago no I don't believe you
Sorry to break it to you. 1990 wasn’t 20 years ago, 2000 wasn’t 10 years ago.
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One time I was watching The Matrix. During the part where Morpheus explains everything and he said "What is the Matrix?" my phone piped up and started answering even tho there was nothing even close to sounding like "ok google" before that.
That's because Morpheus actually says OK Google before that, but in white font
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So they are always listening.
Not if 'Alexa' is the wake word.
Yes, if it has a "wake word" how does it know when the word is being said if it's off
For Echo devices there's a separate system that listens specifically for pre-programmed wake words only.
It's why you can't choose a custom wake word, but have to pick between "Alexa, Amazon, Computer, or Echo."
let them fight
I've wondered if there's a way for political campaigns to take advantage of all the smart speakers by mixing in that old school approach of rolling through neighborhoods with loudspeakers on their cars. Step 1. Make a campaign ad Step 2. Upload the ad to Amazon music library Step 3. Cruise around saying, "Alexa, play campaign ad for..." through the loud speaker
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