What's Your Thoughts on Google Home and Amazon Alexa?

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Nightfall
Nightfall Posts: 10,067
in The Clubhouse
I didn't want to muddy up someone else's thread but it got me curious what you all think.

Is the convenience of voice activated amenities worth having big brother directly in your house? Information you ask it being used for targeting ads to you like Facebook?

You pay for the device then the parent company makes ad profit off your using the device you paid for.

Other thoughts?
afterburnt wrote: »
They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.

Village Idiot of Club Polk
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  • Conradicles
    Conradicles Posts: 6,036
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    Not interested.
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,027
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    I am lazy enough already.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,792
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    Not in my house, ever.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 24,554
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    100% agree Jesse.
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  • jdjohn
    jdjohn Posts: 3,000
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    We have an Amazon Elexa. It's a great $150 timer.
    "This may not matter to you, but it does to me for various reasons, many of them illogical or irrational, but the vinyl hobby is not really logical or rational..." - member on Vinyl Engine
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  • afterburnt
    afterburnt Posts: 7,892
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    Everything else is spying on you.
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  • mrbigbluelight
    mrbigbluelight Posts: 9,258
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    I'm not a big fan of In-Q-Tel so, no thanks

    ls7rvd5c9kf9.jpg


    Sal Palooza
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,792
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    Buttbook, another thing that'll never be here.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • EndersShadow
    EndersShadow Posts: 17,528
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    We just got google assistant..... honestly I'm boring, so nothing worth finding out about me if they keep the mic live 24/7 (which they say they dont).

    If they are data mining my search history to feed me up ads..... they are barking up the wrong tree..... I'd be getting ads about buying tigers, elephants, and horses as so far the most usage its got is "What does a (animal) sound like".... The kids love it. The bug the crap out of it with nonsensical questions just to get a response.

    Other than that, we are using it to control our thermostat and ask what time it is....

    Like I said, boring.....
    "....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963)
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  • Msabot1
    Msabot1 Posts: 2,098
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    Want my two cents worth?.....F.T.S.......
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  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,906
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    Never for me too. At least the "Clapper" never collected data on you. :)

    Also seems a bit redundant, since you can ask your phone anything by voice also. These things are for millennials, the equivalent of what a "slinky" was to us. Cool toy for the first couple weeks, then it may just sit on a shelf in the closet the rest of it's life.

    I saw a commercial the other day for a wifi connected washer/dryer. Showed a lady loading up the washer, then using her phone to turn it on. Ok, your standing right in front of the frickin' thing, because you still have to manually load it, so how lazy do you have to be to not manually push a button on the washer ?

    Some products and ideas make zero sense.
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  • delkal
    delkal Posts: 764
    edited April 2018
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    I can't believe people will voluntarily install a listening device that sends everything you say to the internet. Google is not your friend. You are their "product" that they sell anything they can about you. And has anyone heard of the NSA?

    Same with voice activated phones. My son came over one day and we started talking about him buying a tool set. We started talking about signing up for the Craftsman club and he should Google it. His phone was in the other room (and he never searched for anything) but the next day he got an email from the Craftsman club to join. Really?
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,027
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    Spurred by this thread, I am seriously considering goin' analog for my future internet activities. I actually used to have one of these (srsly); had I known what was comin', I shoulda kept it :|

    15947088165_bd40b4f045_b.jpgHeathkit analog computer by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

    Vacuum tubes, baby!

    Of course, I'd need to source a teletype* and a strip chart recorder or X-Y analog plotter (for hardcopy)... but I've already got a nice hi-res display to use with it.


    12530471863_e9633d834c_b.jpg545A by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

    ____________________
    * This is a dead giveaway that I am being a wee bit facetious. I don't think a teletype would be very useful for an analog computer :#
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  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,906
    edited April 2018
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    delkal wrote: »
    I can't believe people will voluntarily install a listening device that sends everything you say to the internet. Google is not your friend. You are their "product" that they sell anything they can about you. And has anyone heard of the NSA?

    Same with voice activated phones. My son came over one day and we started talking about him buying a tool set. We started talking about signing up for the Craftsman club and he should Google it. His phone was in the other room (and he never searched for anything) but the next day he got an email from the Craftsman club to join. Really?

    Funny you should mention that. I was in Costco the other day, about 5 minutes into the store my phone goes off. It's Costco asking me if I want to download their app. What? !!

    Turn off all your location services.
    Post edited by [Deleted User] on
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    Sony 850c 4k
    Pioneer elite vhx 21
    Sony 4k BRP
    SVS SB-2000
    Polk Sig. 20's
    Polk FX500 surrounds

    Cables-
    Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
    Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
    Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
    Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

    Kitchen

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    Grant Fidelity tube dac
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  • Viking64
    Viking64 Posts: 6,678
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    delkal wrote: »
    I can't believe people will voluntarily install a listening device that sends everything you say to the internet. Google is not your friend. You are their "product" that they sell anything they can about you. And has anyone heard of the NSA?

    Same with voice activated phones. My son came over one day and we started talking about him buying a tool set. We started talking about signing up for the Craftsman club and he should Google it. His phone was in the other room (and he never searched for anything) but the next day he got an email from the Craftsman club to join. Really?

    I have experienced getting sidebar ads for things I Googled for years now. But just last week, a friend's daughter was having a conversation kicking around ideas for a vacation to a specific European country. No searching. Just talking face-to-face with her phone in the same room. The next day, her news feed was filled with ads for trips to that specific country only.

    At least with all of this Big Brother/1984 stuff happening, pretty soon we will have those cool rat cages that you strap to a person's face. :p
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  • decal
    decal Posts: 3,205
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    Hey Google, wipe my arse.......................
    If you can't hear a difference, don't waste your money.
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  • jflail2
    jflail2 Posts: 2,868
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    Yea.......no thanks. I'm not paying someone to listen to my every word, when I've got a phone that can do the same searches. Cell phone tracking is bad enough these days (we're exploring buying data on this at work, and the level of detail for each "unique numeric identifier" is downright scary.)
    2007 Club Polk Football Pool Champ

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  • Jaybeez
    Jaybeez Posts: 748
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    Nope. We have a fair amount of technology in the house, but there is enough snooping without Alexa and the like.
    Heard an interview yesterday that Alexa even tracks your tone of voice so advertisers will know when in the day you are typically not irritated, and thus be in a better place with regard to receiving their ads.
    Really? No thanks.
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  • mrloren
    mrloren Posts: 2,454
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    No, not ever never ever.

    The data that is collected on us is already over the top. Big brother in the old USSR would be slobbering wet if they ever had the data on their people the we now have.

    All that data collected on us is just unreal. NSA was to stop collecting, yeah right, just ask our security lead. Those server farms are up and running.

    Having one of those in my house would not be fun. I could just think of Chili night. I would have a delivery of Beno, HASMAT team and SWAT within a couple of hours.



    oops I almost went on a rant.
    When I was a kid my parents told me to turn it down. Now I'm an adult and my kids tell me to turn it down.
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  • xschop
    xschop Posts: 4,684
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    https://youtu.be/HZHwxIL9oYo
    Don't take experimental gene therapies from known eugenicists.
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  • verb
    verb Posts: 10,176
    edited April 2018
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    Not to mention Alexa is evil. :smile:
    https://youtu.be/p8phGxzUC_Y
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  • ken brydson
    ken brydson Posts: 8,648
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    For @tonyb and @mhardy6647

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,027
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    ken brydson wrote: »
    For @tonyb and @mhardy6647

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk

    https://youtu.be/g2O7rZTBs7w

    :)

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  • afterburnt
    afterburnt Posts: 7,892
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    @mhardy6647 so you think tubes are safe?


    https://youtu.be/xx961KlJcww
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,027
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    afterburnt wrote: »
    @mhardy6647 so you think tubes are safe?


    https://youtu.be/xx961KlJcww

    That was terrifying.

    :|
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  • Nightfall
    Nightfall Posts: 10,067
    edited April 2018
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    If you don't watch South Park I don't know what you're doing with your life. That show is always on point.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sij8Mt9RL_M
    afterburnt wrote: »
    They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.

    Village Idiot of Club Polk
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  • mikeyb128
    mikeyb128 Posts: 2,885
    edited April 2018
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    delkal wrote: »
    I can't believe people will voluntarily install a listening device that sends everything you say to the internet. Google is not your friend. You are their "product" that they sell anything they can about you. And has anyone heard of the NSA?

    Same with voice activated phones. My son came over one day and we started talking about him buying a tool set. We started talking about signing up for the Craftsman club and he should Google it. His phone was in the other room (and he never searched for anything) but the next day he got an email from the Craftsman club to join. Really?

    This type of scenario has happened to me as well. Very creepy... has anyone here seen the terminator?! That is going to happen people, we’re already on our way.
    Post edited by [Deleted User] on
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  • smglbrth
    smglbrth Posts: 1,460
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    I don't understand why people, well, the older generations, trust this stuff. I'm with Jesse as well on this. Never, ever, will any of this stuff be in my home. Anything with a microphone can "listen in" nowadays. You think you have privacy? Think again...
    Remember, when you're running from something, you're running to something...-me
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  • halen
    halen Posts: 677
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    I use google home, a lot! I understand it is not for everyone mainly due to privacy. I also use IFTTT with it.

    I could tell my window blinds to open/close, turn on/off/dim all the lighting, turn on hood vent, AC/Heat, all my Dyson products, my robotic vacuums, lock my doors, access my home surveillance system, tell my robotic lawn mower to go mow, etc.

    The google home mini itself is also used for reminders, traffic, weather and whatever else I may ask it.

    So do I like using google home? Yes. Why not Alexa? Alexa requires much more specific commands but supports many more brands.

    I also use Siri for automation from iPhone. It is built in the phone. I care less about Apple’s HomePod.

    Halen
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  • afterburnt
    afterburnt Posts: 7,892
    edited April 2018
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    smglbrth wrote: »
    I don't understand why people, well, the older generations, trust this stuff. I'm with Jesse as well on this. Never, ever, will any of this stuff be in my home. Anything with a microphone can "listen in" nowadays. You think you have privacy? Think again...

    Anything with a microphone can be listened to also. It was a long time ago that they figure out how to tune it to your old land line telephone's microphone. A microphone generates a signal whether it is hooked up or not. Of course this was done on a case by case basis back in the day. Nowadays they have the capacity to listen to everyone all of the time. Do yooz know why they started playing music on the White House windows? There is pretty much no escaping it. My microwave is logging all of my key strokes right now!
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