New devices for a new Alexa.
The Alexa product line has never been profitable. They lose billions on them. They continue to shove it into unwitting peoples’ homes in the hopes that it will drive sales at Amazon. It will end up being a cost-per-use thing, just a hunch.
Fuck amazon.
Setting aside any issues with Amazon themselves running these…
I suspect that there is, at some point, going to be one almighty privacy clusterfuck when someone manages to mass-compromise Internet-connected speech-recognizing microphones.
I’m not saying that Alexa devices are even the worst here. I’d be more-worried about stuff like inexpensive security cameras out of China from some random company that promptly goes under and doesn’t provide any security updates.
But I really think that people don’t stop and consider “am I really prepared to put a sensor in my house that may have some random party on the Internet in control of it at some point in the future?”
I never understood willfully installing Big Brother in your own home on your own dime.
Alexa has already been compromised in a few different instances. Weirdos having full conversations with kids, etc.
Then add in the fact that systems from Google and Amazon are, well, owned and operated by these corpo giants with interests that don’t involve you other than harvesting your behavior.
You also make a very valid point about the cheap IP cams from China. I spent some time configuring a home system several years ago, and I couldn’t finish/make it operational. The security holes that I had no ability to close were astounding (like hard-coded, default admin passwords).
I never understood willfully installing Big Brother in your own home on your own dime.
It’s fascinating that modern oligarchy has been able to convince some people to wilfully replicate some elements 1984 in their homes.
In my experience (USA), it is magnitudes more than “some people”, unfortunately.
People read 1984 and thought, “Winston is my hero!”
Yeah, I won’t ever put one of their listening devices in my house.
I bought the marketing BS about the stupid Alexa when the screen when it came out.
It was such a pile of shit I left a long 2-star review on Amazon ranting about how pointless it was. Amazon phoned me numerous times trying to talk to me about my review and experience (why do product people have my phone number?). I declined to engage.
Fast forward a few years and I can guarantee the “beautiful” new offerings are going to be just as shitty as the last time.
