• Doctor_Satan@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    If you traveled back in time and told J. Edgar Hoover that in the future, the American public voluntarily wire-tapped themselves, he would cream his frilly pink panties.

  • impudentmortal@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    How disheartening. I knew going in that there would be privacy issues but I figured for the service it was fine. I also figure my phone is always listening anyway.

    As someone with limited mobility, my echo has been really nice to control my smart devices like lights and TV with just my voice.

    Are there good alternatives or should I just accept things as they are?

    • Hexarei@programming.dev
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      7 hours ago

      There aren’t any immediate drop in replacements that won’t require some work, but there is Home Assistant Voice - It just requires that you also have a Home Assistant server setup, which is the more labor intensive part. It’s not hard, just a lot to learn.

      • Terrasque@infosec.pub
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        2 hours ago

        And for now it’s voice assist is garbage in comparison. I have home assistant, and a few Alexa units, so I set up nabu and tried it, but it’s slow and can maybe do 1 in 5 commands, while Alexa is much more reliable.

  • MurrayL@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    If you do not want to set your voice recordings setting to ‘Don’t save recordings,’ please follow these steps before March 28th:

    Am I the only one curious to know what these steps are? The image cuts off the rest of the email.

    • MurrayL@lemmy.world
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      37 minutes ago

      If anyone else is wondering, I’ve not found a verbatim quote of the steps but I did see an article that mentioned the consequences. It seems like you will be able to turn this off but it will disable Voice ID:

      anyone with their Echo device set to “Don’t save recordings” will see their already-purchased devices’ Voice ID feature bricked. Voice ID enables Alexa to do things like share user-specified calendar events, reminders, music, and more. Previously, Amazon has said that “if you choose not to save any voice recordings, Voice ID may not work.” As of March 28, broken Voice ID is a guarantee for people who don’t let Amazon store their voice recordings.

    • pogmommy@lemmy.ml
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      2 hours ago
      1. Unplug your amazon echo devices
      1. Hit it with a hammer
      1. Send it to an electronics recycler
  • yucandu@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Wow there are way fewer “so what it’s the same as your smartphone” and “everyone does it, google, apple, it’s no big deal” comments on Lemmy.

  • DirkMcCallahan@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Today: “…they will be deleted after Alexa processes your requests.”

    Some point in the not-so-distant future: “We are reaching out to let you know that your voice recordings will no longer be deleted. As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities, we have decided to no longer support this feature.”

    • Eheran@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      They could also transcribe the recording and only save that. I mean they absolutely will and surely already did do that.

    • Dave@lemmy.nz
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      10 hours ago

      Or simply “…they will be deleted after Alexa processes your request and generates a token for AI training”.

    • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.org
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      12 hours ago

      And finally “We are reaching out to let you know Alexa key phrase based activation will no longer be supported. For better personalization, Alexa will always process audio in background. Don’t worry, your audio is safe with us, we highly care about your privacy.”

  • fubarx@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    So… if you own an inexpensive Alexa device, it just doesn’t have the horsepower to process your requests on-device. Your basic $35 device is just a microphone and a wifi streamer (ok, it also handles buttons and fun LED light effects). The Alexa device SDK can run on a $5 ESP-32. That’s how little it needs to work on-site.

    Everything you say is getting sent to the cloud where it is NLP processed, parsed, then turned into command intents and matched against the devices and services you’ve installed. It does a match against the phrase ‘slots’ and returns results which are then turned into voice and played back on the speaker.

    With the new LLM-based Alexa+ services, it’s all on the cloud. Very little of the processing can happen on-device. If you want to use the service, don’t be surprised the voice commands end up on the cloud. In most cases, it already was.

    If you don’t like it, look into Home Assistant. But last I checked, to keep everything local and not too laggy, you’ll need a super beefy (expensive) local home server. Otherwise, it’s shipping your audio bits out to the cloud as well. There’s no free lunch.

    • Terrasque@infosec.pub
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      1 hour ago

      Also, the home assistant voice solution is still very much in it’s starting stage, and way behind where Alexa and similar commercial solutions are

  • Lenny@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    I don’t think Google home listens in.

    Because I’d absolutely be disappeared by now if it did.

  • MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Easy fix: don’t buy this garbage to begin with. It’s terrible for the environment, terrible for your privacy, of dubious value to begin with.

    If every man is an onion, one of my deeper layers is crumudgeon. So take that into account when I say fuck all portable speakers. I’m so tired of hearing everyone’s shitty noise. Just fucking everywhere. It takes one person feeling entitled to blast the shittiest music available to ruin everyone in a 500yd radius’s day. If this is you, I hope you stub your toe on every coffee table, hit your head on every door jam, miss every bus.

  • CuddlyCassowary@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Now they can hear me scream “shut the fuck up Alexa!!!” every time she says “…by the way…” when I just want to know what time it is.

    • lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      12 hours ago

      Me while cooking mac and cheese for the kids:
      “Echo, set timer for 8 minutes”

      Echo: “GOOD EVENING [me], SETTING TIMER FOR 8 MINUTES

      No, shut the fuck up and just set the goddamn timer without the extra fluff. I’ve seen Ex Machina, I know you have no empathy, so knock off the “nice” shit and do what I fucking ask without anything else.

      • Beacon@fedia.io
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        12 hours ago

        There are a few settings that make it better. Like enabling “brief mode” or something like that

          • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            You can buy an egg timer for a few bucks. They say the perfect number of words; zero.

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    It’s always been this way for the cheap speakers. They’ve no processing power on-board and need the cloud just to tell you the time.

  • jcs@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    If anyone remembers the Mycroft Mark II Voice Assistant Kickstarter and was disappointed when development challenges and patent trolls caused the company’s untimely demise, know that hope is not lost for a FOSS/OSHW voice assistant insulated from Big Tech…

    FAQ: OVOS, Neon, and the Future of the Mycroft Voice Assistant

    Disclaimer: I do not represent any of these organizations in any way; I just believe in their mission and wish them all the success in getting there by spreading the word.