Alexa, only over my dead body—this house will remain largely free of technology
S
Steffen8024 Oct 2018 11:32ypg schrieb:
Where are Amazon’s servers located? You can think normally otherwise!
When someone is mistaken and their devices aren’t as great as they thought, you become very emotional.
Keep discussing this among yourselves. The topic is drifting too far off.I didn’t understand what you’re trying to say here. And where exactly am I being emotional? I have provided arguments. You haven’t provided a single one... just “Alexa is evil and spies on everyone.” So who is being reasonable and who isn’t?
See the Cloud Act, see the BND affair.
Anything sent overseas is accessible to authorities and stored. Anyone who believes otherwise is seriously out of touch.
A convenient delete function in the customer portal doesn’t change this. Voice commands are processed on US-based clouds, and that’s that. The data is also used publicly in noticeable ways, as shown by court rulings in the US relying on court-ordered data from the cloud that was previously thought not to exist.
Or take the Hue lamps. These dumb devices have libssl onboard and are unpatchable, as open as a barn door. Congratulations, thousands, even millions of devices online that are vulnerable. But consumers don’t care. And manufacturers are allowed to keep selling them. Totally insane. But what can you do in this new digital landscape?
Manufacturers of such devices should be legally required to provide security patches for a set number of years, similar to mandatory warranty periods.
Anything sent overseas is accessible to authorities and stored. Anyone who believes otherwise is seriously out of touch.
A convenient delete function in the customer portal doesn’t change this. Voice commands are processed on US-based clouds, and that’s that. The data is also used publicly in noticeable ways, as shown by court rulings in the US relying on court-ordered data from the cloud that was previously thought not to exist.
Or take the Hue lamps. These dumb devices have libssl onboard and are unpatchable, as open as a barn door. Congratulations, thousands, even millions of devices online that are vulnerable. But consumers don’t care. And manufacturers are allowed to keep selling them. Totally insane. But what can you do in this new digital landscape?
Manufacturers of such devices should be legally required to provide security patches for a set number of years, similar to mandatory warranty periods.
S
Steffen8024 Oct 2018 12:00Alex85 schrieb:
See the Cloud Act, see the BND affair.
Anything sent overseas is accessible to authorities and stored. Anyone who believes otherwise is seriously out of touch.
No fancy delete function in the customer portal changes that. Voice commands are processed in US-based cloud services, and that’s that. The data is also used publicly in court rulings in the US, based on court-ordered cloud data that was previously thought not to exist.
Or look at the Hue lights. These simple devices have libssl onboard and are unpatchable, as open as a barn door. Congratulations—thousands, millions of vulnerable devices on the network. But consumers don’t care. And the manufacturer is allowed to keep selling them. Totally crazy. But what can you do in this new digital territory.
Manufacturers of such devices should be legally required to provide patches for a certain number of years, similar to mandatory warranty periods.Off-topic, fail! The issue wasn’t whether Alexa sends commands back to its servers (of course it does and must), but whether Alexa “spies,” which it demonstrably does not. You can find this out with a bit of googling.
Quote excerpt (I probably may not post the full text here): "........colleagues from WDR recently also checked this: the small, regular data packets detected by IT experts while idle are only there to check the Wi-Fi connection; no other data transfer takes place."
It’s not just IT specialists from WDR who have checked this, but various groups much earlier (I even think the CCC, but I’m not sure).
Now I’m curious to see the facts if anyone can prove otherwise…
Steffen80 schrieb:
None of you have one yet... just "Alexa is evil and spies on everyone." So who is being objective and who is not?Did I write "evil"? Or something similar? No, I spoke factually about an open recording device that is connected online and collects data on Amazon’s servers, which are located in the USA. Even if the user deletes the data—Amazon denies this but remains very reserved with further information.
Regarding arguments: I don’t need any. I am not trying to justify myself to you. I just told you that your way of thinking is wrong. Ultimately, I don’t care what you install in your house.
And no, I don’t believe in conspiracy theories.
If Google listens to you 100% on your phone and then sends you targeted ads, do you seriously believe that Amazon Alexa doesn’t do the same? And if the data can be used for advertising, it can also be used for anything else or stored indefinitely.
If you want to have something like this or already have it, you should at least not be as naive as you are and simply accept it. In that case, there is no reason not to use it.
But everything else is just "painting the world the way I like it."
If you want to have something like this or already have it, you should at least not be as naive as you are and simply accept it. In that case, there is no reason not to use it.
But everything else is just "painting the world the way I like it."