this post was submitted on 25 May 2025
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‘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
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[–] 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 7 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.