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Does Alexa listen in to conversation and pass it on to marketers?


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Curious...

We were siting here talking about a holiday destination that we hadn't talked about before and KBOOM up came an add in the Google add feeds on the side of the webpage... for that VERY destination!

Coincidence?

Does Alexia silently listen in all the time? Can you turn this off?

I know Amazon and Google are competitors an all but is Amazon collecting data using Alexa  and on selling this data? 

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Second question concerning Alexa. 

Is there any way to move the playing track on Alexa into the Control4 now playing... that is make Alexa a Control4 music source>>>

So say something like...

"Alexa play the top 40"... and have that play straight out of the Control4 audio ecosystem rather than from the tin can Alex Amazon box./???

You would link your Alexa and Amazon Echo accounts making Spotify the default music service, then in 2.10.x select the Echo as the Spotify source???

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not sure about Alexa listening in to my family's conversations...seems like some conspiracy theory talk to me.... but maybe I trust too much.. HA

 

I would think you could set up some voice triggers do start the music from control4.  Which Alexa driver do you have?

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Alexa has a dedicated microcontroller that listens all the time, just for the 'wake word', which can be set to 'Alexa', 'Echo', or 'Computer'.

It buffers all incoming sounds, and when it recognizes the 'wake word', it then transmits what it hears through to the Amazon cloud to do it's magic.

Amazon would have to have *many, many* more computers and *much* more bandwidth to support full-time listening in on everyone's conversations.

i.e. I suspect it's coincidence, and/or Google knows enough about you already to guess your holiday habits and predilections.

Also, Alexa is *not* Google... I'd find it even *more* unlikely that Amazon would share what you say with Google.  They're competitors, and it's unlikely that Amazon would go out of their way to help Google sell you something...

:)

There was an interesting 'Reply All' podcast where they looked into something similar (Facebook ads), and they couldn't convince any previously-admitted conspiracy theorists that Facebook wasn't listening in to them over their computer microphones to send them targeted ads, despite being able to show them that they had done related searches or had friends who had done related searches.

https://gimletmedia.com/episode/109-facebook-spying/

RyanE

 

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^ Sure...

...well there is body recognition in facebook and instagram right now and on selling of that info to advertisers without the users permission it's a dog eat dog world out there and it's my guess everything is fair game frankly...so I believe anything is possible in this space....don't forget facebook started with next to zero privacy rules at all and have been dragged kicking every step of the way since inception only changing their rules on privacy if they are made too.. I mean that is exactly how facebook makes it's money... by stealing your privacy... it is precisely why they don't allow avatars. All this feel good stuff about "promoting friendship" as the reason you have to give your actual name is a crock of sh!t and a smokescreen covering the real incentive : (monetising your identification) ..  just saying 

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^ Sure...
...well there is body recognition in facebook and instagram right now and on selling of that info to advertisers without the users permission it's a dog eat dog world out there and it's my guess everything is fair game frankly...so I believe anything is possible in this space....don't forget facebook started with next to zero privacy rules at all and have been dragged kicking every step of the way since inception only changing their rules on privacy if they are made too.. I mean that is exactly how facebook makes it's money... by stealing your privacy... it is precisely why they don't allow avatars. All this feel good stuff about "promoting friendship" as the reason you have to give your actual name is a crock of sh!t and a smokescreen covering the real incentive : (monetising your identification) ..  just saying 
They aren't stealing your privacy. You are giving it away. I'm with RyanE never had a Facebook

Sent from my BBB100-1 using Tapatalk

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If nothing else, no-one is forcing you to have google home, Alexa, Facebook, instagram etc.

The fact that information is the companiy's main income maker is not a secret, or outside anyone's ability to know without any amount of effort.

Your concern on the listening 100% of the time has been asked a million times already, months if not years back by now. You're not going to get any answers you can't already find on the internet by posting on here.

Simple reality is that no matter what anyone says, you will not believe the answer unless it's the answer you want to hear. So stop asking.

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On ‎1‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 5:21 PM, wappinghigh said:

^ Sure...

...well there is body recognition in facebook and instagram right now and on selling of that info to advertisers without the users permission it's a dog eat dog world out there and it's my guess everything is fair game frankly...so I believe anything is possible in this space....don't forget facebook started with next to zero privacy rules at all and have been dragged kicking every step of the way since inception only changing their rules on privacy if they are made too.. I mean that is exactly how facebook makes it's money... by stealing your privacy... it is precisely why they don't allow avatars. All this feel good stuff about "promoting friendship" as the reason you have to give your actual name is a crock of sh!t and a smokescreen covering the real incentive : (monetising your identification) ..  just saying 

You can delete the recordings under the Amazon Account "Content and Devices"/Alexa. 

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A few days ago I would have thought this topic was nuts, but it happened to me last night.

We were in the living room talking about a TV show (Monk) we hadn't mentioned or seen in *years*.  Alexa must have been listening because a few hours later a Monk suggestion popped up right in front of the Amazon shows I was currently watching.  Very odd.

Coincidence?  Perhaps. But I may test this out further.  

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