17% of Americans Use Smart Speakers

Well jeez.. I guess I better go buy one too since all the cool kids are doing it.. ;)

I’ll be honest - I would have limited use for Echo if not for home automation. Yeah, they’re handy for a few other things but home automation is my killer app for it.
 
Your data isn’t being stolen. That’s where you’re wrong. You’re compensated with free services. Now, whether you feel that the value provided by those services is worth it is entirely up to you, but it isn’t exactly a state secret why so many services are given to folks free - it is because the data you generate is a commodity businesses covet.

And about “name calling” - you’re the one that called people stupid to start.

What free services? Not trying to be a smart arse, just cannot think of any "free" service I use. Unless you want to say every Internet WEB site should be paid for any access to it. Hmm,...ok,..I can do that. Wait,..are you saying ALL sites are reselling our data? Hmmm,...you know,....it probably will get there sooner or later given how no one cares about it.

I would be happy to pay any site or company, I use, if they would let me opt out on data collection as we will never see the day where that will be illegal to do.

I certainly did make a generic statement calling people who are willing to give away everything "stupid". Taking it personally would be the readers choice. Although, not to be obtuse, I do see where it could ruffle some feathers. I am willing to own it.
 
What free services? Not trying to be a smart arse, just cannot think of any "free" service I use. Unless you want to say every Internet WEB site should be paid for any access to it. Hmm,...ok,..I can do that. Wait,..are you saying ALL sites are reselling our data? Hmmm,...you know,....it probably will get there sooner or later given how no one cares about it.

I would be happy to pay any site or company, I use, if they would let me opt out on data collection as we will never see the day where that will be illegal to do.

I certainly did make a generic statement calling people who are willing to give away everything "stupid". Taking it personally would be the readers choice. Although, not to be obtuse, I do see where it could ruffle some feathers. I am willing to own it.

So, I am talking about Echo specifically. There is a huge infrastructure dedicated to providing services to Echo, processing speech, running apps, integrating with third-party apps/environments, etc. Amazon could charge a monthly fee for using those services and they’d be justified, as many vendors charge more for less.

The sites/devices aren’t necessarily collecting and selling YOUR data - a big part of what they collect are analytics based on your usage patterns. The same happens when you order online from most big vendors - have you ever ordered something from Amazon or Newegg and the next day, got an email with suggested purchases which suspiciously complements your previous purchase?
 
So, I am talking about Echo specifically. There is a huge infrastructure dedicated to providing services to Echo, processing speech, running apps, integrating with third-party apps/environments, etc. Amazon could charge a monthly fee for using those services and they’d be justified, as many vendors charge more for less.

The sites aren’t necessarily collecting and selling YOUR data - a big part of what they collect are analytics based on your usage patterns. The same happens when you order online from most big vendors - have you ever ordered something from Amazon or Newegg and the next day, got an email with suggested purchases which suspiciously complements your previous purchase?

Yes, I know about the "whys" and "whats" of the data being gathered. Question, do you know exactly what data is being gathered? No one thinks we have a right to know what is being collected? I have issues with that.

Last I checked you have to be a Prime member to get that for "free". On top of that they also make a butt load of cash on the data (you really do not know what data they are collecting,...as they do not have to tell anyone what they are collecting) being farmed by those devices.

Soap box time.......

I can see where technology can make life easier. I can also see where technology can complicate the shit out of life. For all the good things that smart phones can do for people, they have also become a serious problem. It is the same for any technology. All technology does come at a cost. Some times the "sparkly" outshines the negatives and people are less aware of what is happening to them. They get lulled into this, "I cannot live without it mode" and things get murky really fast.

I have watched people go from the jovial, life of the party person, to the most secluded introvert from having a phone. It is a scene repeating itself over and over again. I find myself having fewer and fewer poeple who want to talk. It's "Text me..." or nothing. If you manage to get them to go out, they are not there. They just sit with thier phone and type on it the entire time. Never looking up, never saying a word. Too many people like that.

It drives me harder to get away from all these devices that are taking over and controlling us. Echo is just another device you think you are controlling, but it will own you one day. The day when you think, "I do not know what I would have done without it,....." is the day you lost yourself to a machine. Sure, you will rationalize all of it away, as human beings are very good at that.

I have lost to many family and friends over the machines.

Off the soap box.....

I work in the technology sector and have done so for over 30 years. I am very comfortable with it, but I am also leery of it. I will often sound like a crazy old person. I do it intentionally as I might as well give the reader something to hang me with as hey are going to do it anyway. It will not stop me from yelling, cussing, screaming, how we are being screwed by the things we do not know. Ignorance is not bliss, it is a popular mechanism to use for controlling the masses.
 
Yes, I know about the "whys" and "whats" of the data being gathered. Question, do you know exactly what data is being gathered? No one thinks we have a right to know what is being collected? I have issues with that.

Last I checked you have to be a Prime member to get that for "free". On top of that they also make a butt load of cash on the data (you really do not know what data they are collecting,...as they do not have to tell anyone what they are collecting) being farmed by those devices.
I know I assume they collect ALL the data - who's home and when, how many times a particular brand or product type is mentioned, what tv/movies I watch (and when,) as well as the more obvious record of all my commands. I think you're barking up the wrong tree though, I'm guessing that most people with an Echo (other than grandma who got it as a gift) are fully aware that it's going to be collecting data - the media has been talking about that since they came out. The stuff that warrants a soap box is the stuff that's hiding in plain sight - that loyalty card for example. How many people actually realize how much data they're giving up? I'm betting most people just think that the store knows their name, phone number, and maybe an email address, and don't realize that all of their purchases are being logged and analyzed to build a portrait out of data. Same goes for all the cool new internet connected thermostats, internet connected cars, and of course cell phones. That people were shocked to learn Facebook was collecting data is just staggering to me.
 
Yes, I know about the "whys" and "whats" of the data being gathered. Question, do you know exactly what data is being gathered? No one thinks we have a right to know what is being collected? I have issues with that.

Last I checked you have to be a Prime member to get that for "free". On top of that they also make a butt load of cash on the data (you really do not know what data they are collecting,...as they do not have to tell anyone what they are collecting) being farmed by those devices.

Soap box time.......

I can see where technology can make life easier. I can also see where technology can complicate the shit out of life. For all the good things that smart phones can do for people, they have also become a serious problem. It is the same for any technology. All technology does come at a cost. Some times the "sparkly" outshines the negatives and people are less aware of what is happening to them. They get lulled into this, "I cannot live without it mode" and things get murky really fast.

I have watched people go from the jovial, life of the party person, to the most secluded introvert from having a phone. It is a scene repeating itself over and over again. I find myself having fewer and fewer poeple who want to talk. It's "Text me..." or nothing. If you manage to get them to go out, they are not there. They just sit with thier phone and type on it the entire time. Never looking up, never saying a word. Too many people like that.

It drives me harder to get away from all these devices that are taking over and controlling us. Echo is just another device you think you are controlling, but it will own you one day. The day when you think, "I do not know what I would have done without it,....." is the day you lost yourself to a machine. Sure, you will rationalize all of it away, as human beings are very good at that.

I have lost to many family and friends over the machines.

Off the soap box.....

I work in the technology sector and have done so for over 30 years. I am very comfortable with it, but I am also leery of it. I will often sound like a crazy old person. I do it intentionally as I might as well give the reader something to hang me with as hey are going to do it anyway. It will not stop me from yelling, cussing, screaming, how we are being screwed by the things we do not know. Ignorance is not bliss, it is a popular mechanism to use for controlling the masses.

But do I care if Amazon knows I order a big pack of TP every 6 weeks, or do I care if they know I’m ordering Echo to turn on all my outside lights? I don’t get the hysteria. They’re not collecting private health information, for example, or private financial information. And regardless of all of that, I’m a tech professional and use a lot of technology every day which does collect data about me. I can’t avoid it for the most part. I’ve used computers for nearly 40 years and I can’t give them up at this point because of how easy they make life.

Any time I charge something, my credit card company adds that data to a profile. Sure, I get reward points, but what’s your data worth? The point is, this is a reality in the 21st century. Maybe it will change, maybe it won’t. But if I tried to protect my privacy simply because I think I’m not being compensated fairly for the use of my data, I’d expend so much time that the money value of that time would easily eclipse any potential payment I’d receive if I decided to trade my data for money.
 
What free services? Not trying to be a smart arse, just cannot think of any "free" service I use. Unless you want to say every Internet WEB site should be paid for any access to it. Hmm,...ok,..I can do that. Wait,..are you saying ALL sites are reselling our data? Hmmm,...you know,....it probably will get there sooner or later given how no one cares about it.

I would be happy to pay any site or company, I use, if they would let me opt out on data collection as we will never see the day where that will be illegal to do.

I certainly did make a generic statement calling people who are willing to give away everything "stupid". Taking it personally would be the readers choice. Although, not to be obtuse, I do see where it could ruffle some feathers. I am willing to own it.


The problem is you are in such a massive minority most companies find its either not worth it to offer the option as it would create all this extra work, or its simply not sustainable. The most basic motivation in human behavior is to get something cheaper or for free, and if you think about it, its fine, 40000 years ago people just went out into the woods and collected for free what they could with no thought about it actually being sustainable or what the cost was. I have seen hundreds of forums and news sites over my lifetime try to implement a fee or paywall and watched every one of them fail. People dont want to pay for what they can get for free. But lets actually break that down what is the cost? If some company knows that I like midget porn what do I really lose? What if they discover that people that like midget porn also like to eat strawberries on a full moon, and buy yo yos? Now I get ads for strawberries tonight and yoyos, I get ads and offers that are more relevant to me. And at the end of the day my freedom is still there just because a company knows my weakness for midget porn, strawberries and yo yos doesn't mean that I have lost freedom its still up to me to not fall for the marketing. But to me all that's better than getting random ads for things I will never care about and having to pay for services or pay more for them. The other thing is I just know that a lot of this stuff is inevitable. You cant stop a company from learning about you, its just becoming impossible with information out there. And all of this isn't that different then your typical small town lifestyle that humans lived in for thousands of years, if you did something in the farm village the local gossip lady spread the word and everyone talked about it, I saw rudy out with the midget at the river!
 
But do I care if Amazon knows I order a big pack of TP every 6 weeks, or do I care if they know I’m ordering Echo to turn on all my outside lights? I don’t get the hysteria. They’re not collecting private health information, for example, or private financial information. And regardless of all of that, I’m a tech professional and use a lot of technology every day which does collect data about me. I can’t avoid it for the most part. I’ve used computers for nearly 40 years and I can’t give them up at this point because of how easy they make life.

Any time I charge something, my credit card company adds that data to a profile. Sure, I get reward points, but what’s your data worth? The point is, this is a reality in the 21st century. Maybe it will change, maybe it won’t. But if I tried to protect my privacy simply because I think I’m not being compensated fairly for the use of my data, I’d expend so much time that the money value of that time would easily eclipse any potential payment I’d receive if I decided to trade my data for money.

It certainly will not change unless there is a push for the change.

The overall response, "I have nothing to hide" is what people use to rationalize how much they give away. Most all the data is used for marketing and advertising, and that is the light side of the gathering, the dark side being one of having that collected data turned against you or used to manipulate you.

One day the machines will be telling us what to do and we will do it. Why? Because it is so much easier than thinking for ourselves. Sounds super paranoid, right? It is happening right in front of us and we will not do a thing to stop it. Stepping stones. People stopped learning to spell because the machines will do it for us. It is easier that way.

Now, not all things we have handed off to machines are bad. The bulk, today, are not bad atll and have let us gain a bit more free time to do other things. The things that add to our daily burden are the things that perplex me. A smart phone is a burden to me, that is why I do not have one. Most people will just drop their jaws in disbelief at that one.

What is my data worth? Far more than I am getting, for the most part. It is worth enough to make many,many companies, collectively, hundreds of billions of dollars a year. It is data I use to be able to volunteer because I got paid for it. Now, they just take it and I get dick in return. More than anything, I would like to be able to opt out of it. I think that is a reasonable thing to ask for.
 
Yeah, good thing our cell phones which we almost always carry in our pockets in and out of the home can’t be used to spy on us right? The ones that are typically connected to both a WiFi and cellular network, have a couple of microphones and 2 or more cameras? You know, the ones that everyone carries so you’re almost always in range of one?

It’s 2018, if you’re worried about your privacy you pretty much have to live completely off the grid.

Airplane mode, phone off, keep it in the garage when not in use.

Prior to that, used to keep the badger song on a loop so the NSA agent listening in would have that stuck in their head, forever.
 
It’s hilarious how people are still delusional enough to think their data is safe and that they are in full control of it with the ridiculous “precautions” they take. Your data is already out there, the moment it goes out the first time it’s permanently out there and being passed (sold) from one company to another - and they’ll continue to collect/update your data one way or another. Not to mention the number of data breaches that have and constantly keep occurring - your data is also in the wrong hands.

You see all those new fancy privacy policies that are pretty much on every website now? Those all collected your data in some form. And let’s not forget your ISP and cellular companies all have records of everything you’ve ever searched for and the websites you visited. Yup, they’re selling that data too. Guess it’s time to stop using the internet altogether!

It’s too late unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple decades and haven’t entered any your data anywhere or searched the world wide web. Acting like a paranoid lunatic is only good for the comic relief of reading about it in this thread. And I hate to break it to you, but it’s only going to get worse as companies try to personalize/cater specifically to the individual.
 
Airplane mode, phone off, keep it in the garage when not in use.

Prior to that, used to keep the badger song on a loop so the NSA agent listening in would have that stuck in their head, forever.

I hope that last sentence is a joke, but in the off chance it isn't, I'm going to let you in on a huge secret - the NSA doesn't need your phone to be within earshot of you. They probably already know as much about you as you do and I seriously doubt them overhearing you ordering pizza, laughing at the TV, or making jokes matters to them.
 
I hope that last sentence is a joke, but in the off chance it isn't, I'm going to let you in on a huge secret - the NSA doesn't need your phone to be within earshot of you. They probably already know as much about you as you do and I seriously doubt them overhearing you ordering pizza, laughing at the TV, or making jokes matters to them.

Then I hope they have been enjoying the sweet sound of badgers, mushrooms and snakes for the last five years.
 
It’s too late unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple decades and haven’t entered any your data anywhere or searched the world wide web. Acting like a paranoid lunatic is only good for the comic relief of reading about it in this thread. And I hate to break it to you, but it’s only going to get worse as companies try to personalize/cater specifically to the individual.

When I want to be catered to individually, I'll go out to eat.

If a company is trying to personalize/cater to me, and it really matters that greatly to them that they do so, they can start by convincing my wife to have a three way with me and a female AI sexbot. Otherwise they can fuck off.
 
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