In the 80s, we used to say that in the Western World we were watching TV, when in the Eastern bloc TV was watching you... Thanks to marketers, we have now reached the development level of USSR. And the most marvelous thing is that we pay for it!
I like the convenience of being able to talk to 'equipment' to make it do something. But I don't trust those behind the equipment to be either incompetent in terms of their data security or downright devious and invasive. I've even tried to brew my own versions with a R.Pi so the data never leaves my control but it is just such a faff to make it work properly and the quality of the recognition is no where near as good as Alexa-type devices which are of course always being tweaked and improved - by virtue of the sheer amount of training data the rest of the world is giving it. Having said that, I sit here in my office with four cameras potentially pointing at me (laptop, separate webcam, phone, tablet) all with a microphone each and I don't feel a need to switch them off or cover them up. Go figure?
Surely you should be at least a ltitle worried about smart devices in the homes of others, what if you visit them? What if they discuss you while you aren't there? Those devices being present anywhere results in your secrets landing on shady servers somewhere.
In the 80s, we used to say that in the Western World we were watching TV, when in the Eastern bloc TV was watching you... Thanks to marketers, we have now reached the development level of USSR. And the most marvelous thing is that we pay for it!
I like the convenience of being able to talk to 'equipment' to make it do something. But I don't trust those behind the equipment to be either incompetent in terms of their data security or downright devious and invasive. I've even tried to brew my own versions with a R.Pi so the data never leaves my control but it is just such a faff to make it work properly and the quality of the recognition is no where near as good as Alexa-type devices which are of course always being tweaked and improved - by virtue of the sheer amount of training data the rest of the world is giving it. Having said that, I sit here in my office with four cameras potentially pointing at me (laptop, separate webcam, phone, tablet) all with a microphone each and I don't feel a need to switch them off or cover them up. Go figure?
Surely you should be at least a ltitle worried about smart devices in the homes of others, what if you visit them? What if they discuss you while you aren't there? Those devices being present anywhere results in your secrets landing on shady servers somewhere.