Technology….or coincidence?

[Gimme_my_MME]

Unless you read the T&Cs on everything you click “accept” to, you’ll never avoid this.

HA! That's why I just never hit accept. Can't get me now cookie monster!

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[JoelOclock]

Oh we’ve gone to caps now. Lol. No search history, which was why it stood out as so odd to the two of us and the only conclusion we had was the Echo. Occam’s Razor.

Amazon has already had to backpedal, clarify and ramp up public relations once before about Echo’s listening when Bloomberg published their article a few years back. If what you are saying is true that is great. Hope that’s the case, but count me as skeptical due to history and my own personal experience.

You don’t have to search the exact book lol. Haha Occam’s razor. The simple explanation is the one you’re dismissing. You have no idea how hard it is to parse transcripts for millions of customers and then to make a recommendation the next day. Compared to all the explanations I and others have already provided. Believe what ya want I guess. I’m out trying to convince the conspiracy theorists

 

[NewGuy]

Zero chance of convincing me. It was a totally left field topic. Nonfiction (which she never reads). Not at all related to anything she’s ever read before. Recommendation was literally the next morning. And we’ve never had any such recommendation again. Just the annoying “based on your purchase history it may be time to order such and such again.” There is a mute button on the Echo for a reason. Personally I’d find it too annoying to turn it on and off, and am not worried about anything discussed around it.

Companies do things all the time their employees are surprised by. Sometimes even things they swear they don’t do. More than enough examples in the tech world of this…

It’s very easy to check how much bandwidth your devices are using. It would be very easy to prove if your phone or Echo was streaming all of your conversations to Amazon, Facebook, etc.

But they’re not…which is why you don’t see a steady stream of data usage for those devices.

Here’s a good article that’s now ten years old about how Target was able to tell that a teenager was pregnant before her family knew based on some changes in her shopping behavior. No listening in on conversations needed.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmi...-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/amp/

 

[alexgorod]

We easily forget all ads and recommendations that we are not interested in, but when it matches our desires, we sure recognize them as spying or mindreading.

 

[RosarioM]

You’re wrong. It can’t do that.
Source: I work there - on those devices

To provide more insight, it’s a common misconception. The reality is more mundane, your wife has a book taste that is common enough to recognize from other indicators

Nice try Jeff Alexa

 

[Maquis]

Damned, look what I started! ?

 

[Logal727]

This site I go on is always trying to sell me Mach-E accessories!

 

[timbop]

My wife had an Amazon book recommendation made based on the conversation she and I had been having one evening. Very clearly the Echo was eavesdropping as we’d never discussed anything similar before. I found it creepy. My wife actually really liked the book so was happy for the recommendation. ??

I am firmly convinced that Siri constantly listens to our conversations. My wife has had a similar experience more than a few times.

You’re wrong. It can’t do that.
Source: I work there - on those devices

To provide more insight, it’s a common misconception. The reality is more mundane, your wife has a book taste that is common enough to recognize from other indicators

I don't have an echo or any other smart speaker and turned off voice recognition on my pixel. Whether that actually inhibits big brother I don't know. My wife loves Siri and thus is more than happy to let her phone listen to everything she says. It clearly listens for keywords and then targets ads for her - we're not talking about similar books to what she's read but things far afield from normal browsing/shopping behavior.

Just because I wear a tinfoil hat doesn't mean I'm wrong about needing one ?

 

[Jimrpa]

And this is why I don’t want any of the Amazon eco system in my home or car (and yes, I am a prime member and watch prime video - through my Apple TV). Ever since I saw that Amazon came out with that creepy bedside alarm clock thing with a camera, and nobody was bothered by it, I figured they’ve won the big brother game.

 

[Jimrpa]

I am firmly convinced that Siri constantly listens to our conversations. My wife has had a similar experience more than a few times.

The advantage to Siri is that she’s too stupid to be threatening ?
All joking aside - two things to remember are that 1. Apple doesn’t commoditize you and/or your data, and 2. Apple tries to do as much processing on-device as possible (one of the reasons Siri is such a moron). Even Microsoft doesn’t really try to commoditize you very much (as far as I know). They sell some advertising, but I don’t think they do much else. Amazon, Meta, and Google are the big players in the user data commoditization space. Now, if they want to PAY me for my data and all derivatives from it, in perpetuity, I’m listening ?

 

[Motomax]

And honestly, which is scarier: just listening in to your conversation or having enough information parsed from all different sources to build such an accurate model of you that it can predict things with such accuracy?

Meh not that scary, people just aren’t that complicated. This isn’t anything new. You think store reward cards were just to give you good deals? Lol

 

[Motomax]

. Now, if they want to PAY me for my data and all derivatives from it, in perpetuity, I’m listening ?

Amazon will pay you $10/month to send them your purchase history outside of Amazon lol

 

[KevinS]

Makes you look forward to our AI overlords, doesn't it? (cue Kent Brockman)

 

[Bruno44]

Makes you look forward to our AI overlords, doesn't it? (cue Kent Brockman)

 

[Jimrpa]

Amazon will pay you $10/month to send them your purchase history outside of Amazon lol

First, not nearly enough. Second, they collect much more data about me than just “purchase history”. When they begin talking about 6 digits (to the left of the decimal point) per month for a non-exclusive license to use my data, without the right to distribute my data, or any products derived from my data to third parties, without an additional license, then I’ll begin listening ?

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