ML
    • Recent
    • Categories
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Groups
    • Register
    • Login

    Is the Echo trustworthy?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Water Closet
    58 Posts 13 Posters 4.4k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • scottalanmillerS
      scottalanmiller @travisdh1
      last edited by

      @travisdh1 said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

      @brrabill said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

      I keep thinking of the scene in "I, Robot" where the robots wouldn't let anyone leave their house.

      Thank goodness I think i can take down a Dot.

      I think I can take down a Dot, I don't know about an Alexa tho.

      Alexa is the name of the logic of the Dot. There is no thing called Alexa, a Dot is as much Alexa as any other Alexa based device.

      travisdh1T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • scottalanmillerS
        scottalanmiller @guyinpv
        last edited by

        @guyinpv said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

        Then I questioned long term repercussions of these profiles. Will topics people discuss and think about today become crimes in the future? If people can say Trump said naughty words 35 years ago in a private conversation recorded without his knowledge in a trailer with his homies and thus he must be unfit for presidency, then what can decades of profile data with smart AI say about our futures? We'll know in 20 or 30 years I guess.

        At the end of the day, anybody can be hacked for personal data. And the government probably already knows everything about me. But do we attempt to keep fighting our data-fat overlords and their convenience devices? Or just give in and live in the matrix and pump all our personal lives into their databases?

        This is the stuff that I mean about phones, though. We already have this risk all over the place. My desktop, laptop, phones, tablets and countless other devices, heck even my video game equipment, are all just as equally poised and risky as my Echo. But unlike all of those, Amazon has specifically focused on securing the Echo around this attack vector.

        NerdyDadN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • NerdyDadN
          NerdyDad @scottalanmiller
          last edited by

          @scottalanmiller said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

          @guyinpv said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

          Then I questioned long term repercussions of these profiles. Will topics people discuss and think about today become crimes in the future? If people can say Trump said naughty words 35 years ago in a private conversation recorded without his knowledge in a trailer with his homies and thus he must be unfit for presidency, then what can decades of profile data with smart AI say about our futures? We'll know in 20 or 30 years I guess.

          At the end of the day, anybody can be hacked for personal data. And the government probably already knows everything about me. But do we attempt to keep fighting our data-fat overlords and their convenience devices? Or just give in and live in the matrix and pump all our personal lives into their databases?

          This is the stuff that I mean about phones, though. We already have this risk all over the place. My desktop, laptop, phones, tablets and countless other devices, heck even my video game equipment, are all just as equally poised and risky as my Echo. But unlike all of those, Amazon has specifically focused on securing the Echo around this attack vector.

          Any light to shed on this regarding Google Home?

          scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • travisdh1T
            travisdh1 @scottalanmiller
            last edited by

            @scottalanmiller said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

            @travisdh1 said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

            @brrabill said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

            I keep thinking of the scene in "I, Robot" where the robots wouldn't let anyone leave their house.

            Thank goodness I think i can take down a Dot.

            I think I can take down a Dot, I don't know about an Alexa tho.

            Alexa is the name of the logic of the Dot. There is no thing called Alexa, a Dot is as much Alexa as any other Alexa based device.

            I should know to append /joke or something for you anymore shouldn't I.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • scottalanmillerS
              scottalanmiller @NerdyDad
              last edited by

              @nerdydad said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

              @scottalanmiller said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

              @guyinpv said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

              Then I questioned long term repercussions of these profiles. Will topics people discuss and think about today become crimes in the future? If people can say Trump said naughty words 35 years ago in a private conversation recorded without his knowledge in a trailer with his homies and thus he must be unfit for presidency, then what can decades of profile data with smart AI say about our futures? We'll know in 20 or 30 years I guess.

              At the end of the day, anybody can be hacked for personal data. And the government probably already knows everything about me. But do we attempt to keep fighting our data-fat overlords and their convenience devices? Or just give in and live in the matrix and pump all our personal lives into their databases?

              This is the stuff that I mean about phones, though. We already have this risk all over the place. My desktop, laptop, phones, tablets and countless other devices, heck even my video game equipment, are all just as equally poised and risky as my Echo. But unlike all of those, Amazon has specifically focused on securing the Echo around this attack vector.

              Any light to shed on this regarding Google Home?

              it's really all the same. All equipment is at risk of being hacked. You have two pieces to "trust"...

              1. Trusting the security design of the hardware and software.
              2. Trusting the vendor with what they do with your data.
              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • guyinpvG
                guyinpv
                last edited by

                I'm sure there is some open source Alexa-like project out there somewhere. Voice controlled AI we can run on our own in-home servers and train ourselves, all data kept safe under our pillows. And if there is not such a thing, there should be.

                scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • MattSpellerM
                  MattSpeller
                  last edited by

                  https://hackaday.com/2017/11/30/classic-furby-plus-alexa-equals-furlexa/

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • scottalanmillerS
                    scottalanmiller @guyinpv
                    last edited by

                    @guyinpv said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

                    I'm sure there is some open source Alexa-like project out there somewhere. Voice controlled AI we can run on our own in-home servers and train ourselves, all data kept safe under our pillows. And if there is not such a thing, there should be.

                    There is. It has a silly name that I can't remember. Problem is, though, that the part we fear the most isn't the part covered by source licensing. That helps some, but not much.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • NerdyDadN
                      NerdyDad
                      last edited by

                      Mycroft.ai

                      scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • scottalanmillerS
                        scottalanmiller @NerdyDad
                        last edited by

                        @nerdydad said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

                        Mycroft.ai

                        That's the one.

                        NerdyDadN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • NerdyDadN
                          NerdyDad @scottalanmiller
                          last edited by

                          @scottalanmiller said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

                          @nerdydad said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

                          Mycroft.ai

                          That's the one.

                          The hardware and software is all open-source, but they don't specify about the backend servers that MyCroft reports back to. Unless Scott has read something that I haven't.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • guyinpvG
                            guyinpv
                            last edited by

                            Well I went ahead and bought two Echo Dots. They are much smaller than they seem in the pictures, tiny little boxes.

                            If I do anything interesting with them, I'll share the skills I create!

                            I actually had one today, to see if Alexa will find a song if I sing it to her, lol

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • BRRABillB
                              BRRABill
                              last edited by

                              I ended up buying:

                              Echo Plus
                              Echo
                              Dot (2)

                              Enjoying them so far.

                              @Dashrender has me concerned about ZigBee, though.

                              DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • DashrenderD
                                Dashrender @BRRABill
                                last edited by

                                @brrabill said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

                                I ended up buying:

                                Echo Plus
                                Echo
                                Dot (2)

                                Enjoying them so far.

                                @Dashrender has me concerned about ZigBee, though.

                                Why are you concerned? are you using it? If not, nothing to be concerned with.

                                BRRABillB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • BRRABillB
                                  BRRABill @Dashrender
                                  last edited by

                                  @dashrender said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

                                  @brrabill said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

                                  I ended up buying:

                                  Echo Plus
                                  Echo
                                  Dot (2)

                                  Enjoying them so far.

                                  @Dashrender has me concerned about ZigBee, though.

                                  Why are you concerned? are you using it? If not, nothing to be concerned with.

                                  I am using it. It is built in to the Echo.

                                  @Dashrender can talk more about that...

                                  JaredBuschJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • JaredBuschJ
                                    JaredBusch @BRRABill
                                    last edited by

                                    @brrabill said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

                                    @dashrender said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

                                    @brrabill said in Is the Echo trustworthy?:

                                    I ended up buying:

                                    Echo Plus
                                    Echo
                                    Dot (2)

                                    Enjoying them so far.

                                    @Dashrender has me concerned about ZigBee, though.

                                    Why are you concerned? are you using it? If not, nothing to be concerned with.

                                    I am using it. It is built in to the Echo.

                                    @Dashrender can talk more about that...

                                    @dashrender is irrationally against devices.

                                    BRRABillB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • BRRABillB
                                      BRRABill @JaredBusch
                                      last edited by

                                      @jaredbusch said

                                      @dashrender is irrationally against devices.

                                      He is also staying away from his name being paged.

                                      Perhaps he is scart to discuss.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • 1
                                      • 2
                                      • 3
                                      • 3 / 3
                                      • First post
                                        Last post