Item — HN Reader

I want these devices for their simple convenience...

My teenage children often leave lights on in the basement of my home. "Alexa, turn off the basement lights".

I'm also slightly afraid of heights, so I've considered installing smart LED's in the can lights in the eves of my roof. "Alexa, turn the house red."

Sometimes I get hot or cold after I've already gone to bed and I don't want to walk to the thermostat to see if someone has adjusted it. "Alexa, set the temperature to 70 degrees."

I worry about the loss of privacy but the day to day convenience is also pretty compelling.

4 comments

with all the info available about rampant blanket NSA spying/access, and the content of most privacy policies, the basic operating procedure anymore should be to assume that all devices are pwned.

if you're cool sprinkling always-on microphones around your house for convenience, more power to you.

I can't do it.

You probably carry a microphone almost everywhere you go. Your smart phone might or might not record by default but it can certainly be made to do so.

> You probably carry a microphone almost everywhere you go.

That's projection; some of us value an expectation of privacy more than minor conveniences.

> it can certainly be made to do so

Except that isn't the intended purpose of the device. You still have an expectation of privacy. When you normalize an expectation that you might be recorded by 3rd party devices, the 4th Amendment longer applies[1].

This isn't about technology, "targeted advertising", or the NSA. Blinded by shiny baubles and a handful of not-strictly-necessary conveniences, you're normalizing social expectations to accept regular automated recording the "details of a private home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion"[2].

Defending internet microphones because they are convenient isn't useful or convincing. Lots of things sound good when you only consider the benefits.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15853560

[2] http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/533/27.html

It is of course a trade-off. However having accepted one, doesn't mean I should accept the other. I still prefer to have one potentially listening microphone around, than have two.

Sprinkling always-on microphones around the house that don't do much more than push a button you could push yourself.

I completely don't get it.

The annoying things is that all the use cases you just described could be handled locally (over wifi/home-nework) without Alexa being connected to the wider web.

This is all I want; give me the option to not have the assistant connect to the web but still work in a more limited capacity for home automation and to interact with the local files/programs on the computers in my home.

I was under the impression that aside from a limited realm like the wake word, it's Hard to do voice recognition without centralized processing. Some combination of faster CPU (even with network latency detracting), whatever storage requirements there are for samples or fingerprints of every possible phoneme, 0-day neologisms (okay, strictly home automation wouldn't need that part), etc. etc. etc.

>My teenage children often leave lights on in the basement of my home. "Alexa, turn off the basement lights".

I feel that this solution is in every respect markedly inferior to "Kids, turn off the basement lights." You spend more money, your house is bugged, and your kids don't learn.

Most manufacturers also have a phone app. I use Phillips Hue light-bulbs, and they're OK. Sure, there are still privacy implications (NSA can tell if I'm home or not), but not as bad as having a bunch of microphones. My daughter can also control the lights with her tablet.

Main downside: it's annoying to unlock phone, open the Hue app (which is oddly sluggish), wait for it to connect to the hub, then control a device. You can also write your own tools, for example, if you want to turn off lights when there are no mobile devices connected to the wifi (i.e. no one home).

Otherwise I agree that those voice devices have big advantages for people with a disability, elderly, etc. I can't help thinking of old "clap on, clap off" ads from the 80s.