this post was submitted on 25 May 2025
142 points (92.8% liked)

Technology

70302 readers
2905 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
L4s@hackingne.ws
142
‘Alexa, what do you know about us?’ What I discovered when I asked Amazon to tell me everything my family’s smart speaker had heard (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 15 hours ago by wegbier@feddit.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
40 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] stevo887@lemmings.world -5 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Why?

Edit: No one answers the question yet downvotes me for asking a simple question that wasn’t clearly answered in the article. That article really didn’t say anything outside of Amazon documents every prompt ever.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 15 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Because they have no idea why not to. Despite having written the article explaining that clearly.

[–] stevo887@lemmings.world 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Must have missed the part where the article explained anything clearly other than Amazon documents all your prompts.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

That’s not enough?

[–] stevo887@lemmings.world -1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

That it’s listening and remembering when I talk to it? That’s not exactly spying on us.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

A couple of days later, I received an email containing links to gigabytes of information: particulars of every purchase I’ve ever made – from the noir novel I bought on the day that Amazon UK launched to the 28th pair of headphones acquired in as many years. Records of every page turn of every Kindle ebook I’ve opened, every moment of Prime content I’ve watched, measured by the second. And, of course, the details of every interaction we have ever had with our Echo; every question asked, every song requested, every timer set.

They don’t make it easy to find gold among the fields of data available for download.

That’s exactly what it is.

[–] stevo887@lemmings.world 0 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

It gave him back every piece of data he had put into Amazon which was tied to a log in. Where is the spying? He willing did this and the whole piece felt like an observation more than a worry. Just my perception that though.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

"it gave him back every piece of data"

Back from where? Back from Amazon where it lives, after being collected from the writer's house. Where it is regularly used for algorithmic massage to better pluck dollars off of them and further direct their media habits.

Honestly, this is not hard.

[–] stevo887@lemmings.world -2 points 7 hours ago

Collecting data is different than spying.

[–] stevo887@lemmings.world 2 points 10 hours ago

Was there any indication that it was listening outside of being prompted? That’s just an assumption and would be no different than the phone we all have in our pockets most of the day.