Alexa, are you connected to the CIA?

I do find it troubling how many folks are monitoring and tracking virtually everything I do, from eating habits, travel habits, television and internet browsing tracking, association matrix's of who I meet with etc. How much adding Alexa into the mix adds to this data mining is probably insignificant given everything they can already do. Of course any security threat posed by Alexa already exists if you have a cell phone. There are good reasons they won't let us take a cell phone through the door of an even moderately secure building.

fj12ryder wrote:

winnietrey wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Would you be creeped out if there was an actual person standing outside your window looking in? That's basically what you have with these devices, you just can't see them, but they're there.

Again it is not my intention to start a fight with anybody. But given your above statement what evidence do you have to support your statement.

Please supply articles and references that support your opinion.

Otherwise it is just your opinion, and it may be somewhat less than informed

I strangely suspect you will have some difficulty doing so

Please reread my statement. I'm saying that it is listening all the time. If it isn't listening all the time it won't answer when you ask a question, right?

Cameras on the IoT can be accessed by people who know how and want to spy on people. That has been done. There was an article not long ago about the IoT being used for DoS attacks.

Many privacy advocates are extremely ambivalent about these types of devices. I'm not, I just don't like the idea. So sue me.

An Alexa machine is not listening to your every spoken word. It activates and responds to a key phrase. It is just like the remote control for your television. The remote isn't tracking your every movement, it only responds when you push the correct buttons.
And I still haven't gotten an answer as to why anyone would want to spy on you thru your computer's camera, even if they could. Like I previously posted, the biggest reason people aren't spying on you right now is because they have no interest in watching you, not because it is difficult to do.

winnietrey wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Would you be creeped out if there was an actual person standing outside your window looking in? That's basically what you have with these devices, you just can't see them, but they're there.

Again it is not my intention to start a fight with anybody. But given your above statement what evidence do you have to support your statement.

Please supply articles and references that support your opinion.

Otherwise it is just your opinion, and it may be somewhat less than informed

I strangely suspect you will have some difficulty doing so

Please reread my statement. I'm saying that it is listening all the time. If it isn't listening all the time it won't answer when you ask a question, right?

Cameras on the IoT can be accessed by people who know how and want to spy on people. That has been done. There was an article not long ago about the IoT being used for DoS attacks.

Many privacy advocates are extremely ambivalent about these types of devices. I'm not, I just don't like the idea. So sue me.

fj12ryder wrote:
Would you be creeped out if there was an actual person standing outside your window looking in? That's basically what you have with these devices, you just can't see them, but they're there.

Again it is not my intention to start a fight with anybody. But given your above statement what evidence do you have to support your statement.

Please supply articles and references that support your opinion.

Otherwise it is just your opinion, and it may be somewhat less than informed

I strangely suspect you will have some difficulty doing so

westernrvparkowner wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Hey, as long as it doesn't bother you to have that guy standing at your open window listening and watching you, no issues. Personally it bugs the heck out of me. I'm not fond of Peeping Toms.

I can watch, record, film and track you very easily and legally. With Telephoto lenses, parabolic microphones, spotting scopes and the like, I don't need the internet. As long as I don't step onto your property, it is all perfectly legal. What stops that from happening is two fold. One, there aren't that many perverts out there, and two, you aren't that interesting.

How do you legally manage that without a court order, and/or probable cause? And how do you manage that when the doors are closed, the window shades are down, and the television is on interfering with your parabolic mic? Hmm?

Interesting has nothing to do with it, I just hate Peeping Toms, electronic or otherwise.

You said your hypothetical peeping tom was watching you thru an open window. No court order is needed to sit in your living room and point your spotting scope into your neighbors front windows. You stop those type of intrusions by closing the windows, pulling the shades, not sitting in front of an open window naked.
If you truly don't want people to know where you shop, what you read and what you eat, don't throw out your trash, because once it is out of your hands it becomes available to everyone. Even without the internet you have to take steps to maintain whatever level of privacy you wish to achieve. You do the same thing with the internet. Don't let things you don't want to be seen get posted in the first place.

Yeah, I can't figure out if you're being purposely obtuse, or really are dense, and at this point I simply don't care.

fj12ryder wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Hey, as long as it doesn't bother you to have that guy standing at your open window listening and watching you, no issues. Personally it bugs the heck out of me. I'm not fond of Peeping Toms.

I can watch, record, film and track you very easily and legally. With Telephoto lenses, parabolic microphones, spotting scopes and the like, I don't need the internet. As long as I don't step onto your property, it is all perfectly legal. What stops that from happening is two fold. One, there aren't that many perverts out there, and two, you aren't that interesting.

How do you legally manage that without a court order, and/or probable cause? And how do you manage that when the doors are closed, the window shades are down, and the television is on interfering with your parabolic mic? Hmm?

Interesting has nothing to do with it, I just hate Peeping Toms, electronic or otherwise.

You said your hypothetical peeping tom was watching you thru an open window. No court order is needed to sit in your living room and point your spotting scope into your neighbors front windows. You stop those type of intrusions by closing the windows, pulling the shades, not sitting in front of an open window naked.
If you truly don't want people to know where you shop, what you read and what you eat, don't throw out your trash, because once it is out of your hands it becomes available to everyone. Even without the internet you have to take steps to maintain whatever level of privacy you wish to achieve. You do the same thing with the internet. Don't let things you don't want to be seen get posted in the first place.

westernrvparkowner wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Hey, as long as it doesn't bother you to have that guy standing at your open window listening and watching you, no issues. Personally it bugs the heck out of me. I'm not fond of Peeping Toms.

I can watch, record, film and track you very easily and legally. With Telephoto lenses, parabolic microphones, spotting scopes and the like, I don't need the internet. As long as I don't step onto your property, it is all perfectly legal. What stops that from happening is two fold. One, there aren't that many perverts out there, and two, you aren't that interesting.

How do you legally manage that without a court order, and/or probable cause? And how do you manage that when the doors are closed, the window shades are down, and the television is on interfering with your parabolic mic? Hmm?

Interesting has nothing to do with it, I just hate Peeping Toms, electronic or otherwise.

Kind of comes down to how each of us, perceive the risk benefit ratio. I for one, receive in my mind, great benefit from Alexia, and feel the risk to be pretty minimal. Others would have that ratio reversed in their mind.

Not up to me to judge, to each his own. But I will say, we sure enjoy the selection of music, thing can play any song you can think of.

And I don't see it mentioned but you can turn the mic off, or just unplug the thing if you have concerns, that Alexia is listening when you don't want it to.

Should add I guess, my conclusions are due in large part, to two friends I have that are big guns at Microsoft, Deal with the cloud and servers like this all day long. They have the Alexia devices at home and they also state, risk is pretty minimal

fj12ryder wrote:
Hey, as long as it doesn't bother you to have that guy standing at your open window listening and watching you, no issues. Personally it bugs the heck out of me. I'm not fond of Peeping Toms.

I can watch, record, film and track you very easily and legally. With Telephoto lenses, parabolic microphones, spotting scopes and the like, I don't need the internet. As long as I don't step onto your property, it is all perfectly legal. What stops that from happening is two fold. One, there aren't that many perverts out there, and two, you aren't that interesting.

Hey, as long as it doesn't bother you to have that guy standing at your open window listening and watching you, no issues. Personally it bugs the heck out of me. I'm not fond of Peeping Toms.