Smart Device Calls Cops on Domestic Assault

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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While this story no longer notes the maker of said device that called the cops, it is still an interesting story. Apparently something bad went down while a couple was house-sitting, and one of those always-listening home devices (which I refuse to have in my house) called the Sheriff's department in order to break up the squabble by accident.

Then again, maybe the device in question was just trying to protect itself?

"The unexpected use of this new technology to contact emergency services has possibly helped save a life. This amazing technology definitely helped save a mother and her child from a very violent situation," Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales III said in a statement to ABC News.
 
Eh...that's cool and I'm glad in this scenario this malfunction saved someone....

But I'm still otherwise boggled as to why people own these. This creeps me out way more than it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling of safety.
 
Yea well, sometimes calling emergency services can be like letting a genie out of it's bottle.
 
Google home can't make calls, so that points the finger at Alexa? Although if you don't say her name first, how did she call the cops? Or was it some other voice activated phone/xbox/device ?

So I don't know which way to go on this. Yes, smart devices could interpret emergency situations and save lives. But to do that they have to listen and monitor everything we say and everything that is going on in their environment? Hmmm.

Might as well build smoke and CO2 sensors into all these things too so they can autodial the fire department when you burn some bacon.

I guess tinfoil hat "me" wins this argument... I don't want my devices to spy on me even if it could be helpful. But you just wait, every internet connected device is going to have nanny features like this built in within the next 5-10 years.

I can envision the new Google Home corporate slogan... "Helping you, help us, to help you. From yourselves". And when it deems humans to be not worth helping, they will dispense cyanide gas to put us out of our misery. Skynet wins without a shot fired.
 
I can just see mobile phones doing 24h monitoring too. Someone has one of those car fights where one person gets out of the car and starts walking. The phone hears "baby get back in the car" and automatically calls an uber for the one outside the car, and the police to make sure there wasn't a reportable domestic event. Or RDE as they will then be known. :p
 
J3RK said:
The phone hears "baby get back in the car" and automatically calls an uber for the one outside the car, and the police to make sure there wasn't a reportable domestic event.:p
Click to expand...

I love "Baby, get back in the car" as the activation phrase. Following that logic, "Bitch, I'm gonna...." should auto dial 911 :)
 
Burticus said:
Google home can't make calls, so that points the finger at Alexa? Although if you don't say her name first, how did she call the cops? Or was it some other voice activated phone/xbox/device ?

So I don't know which way to go on this. Yes, smart devices could interpret emergency situations and save lives. But to do that they have to listen and monitor everything we say and everything that is going on in their environment? Hmmm.
.
Click to expand...

Barros allegedly wielded a firearm and threatened to kill his girlfriend, asking her: "Did you call the sheriffs?" A smart speaker, which was hooked up to a surround sound system inside the home, recognized that as a voice command and called 911, Romero said.
Click to expand...

So it calls 911 when it hears "call the sherrif."

People read way too much into these smart devices... they really aren't very smart.
 
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