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Amazon and Google, the leading sellers of such devices, say the assistants record and process audio only after users trigger them by pushing a button or uttering a phrase like "Hey, Alexa" or "O.K., Google." But each company has filed patent applications, many of them still under consideration, that outline an array of possibilities for how devices like these could monitor more of what users say and do. That information could then be used to identify a person's desires or interests, which could be mined for ads and product recommendations.
For many, this could change the landscape as to whether these devices are acceptable. It may also open the door wider for open-source, less invasive devices such as Mycroft.
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Hey, Alexa, What Can You Hear? And What Will You Do With It?
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If the thunder don't get you, then the lightning will.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 01 2018, @06:59PM (13 children)
I had a very short look at Mycroft's website. The word "privacy" does not appear there.
What does appear, however, is that as the first step of getting your device to run, you have to "register" with their server to be able to "configure" the device.
Yeah, right.
Come on, I was actually interested and you scared me away in 90 seconds! *disappointed*
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 01 2018, @07:00PM (3 children)
These devices are totally useless for all but the most meaningless tasks.
It's just gimmicky trash.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday April 01 2018, @07:24PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Sunday April 01 2018, @07:33PM
FIFY.
They are very useful to the companies that make them.
The problem I see is that reviewers of these services are enthusiasts who usually have no technical skills at all. and wouldn't know a wireshark if it bit them in the ass.
Even those that attempt some technical reviews take it on blind faith that these devices only listen for key words, or only listen when touched or triggered. They never check for delayed data transfers, or un-explained packet exchanges.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 01 2018, @07:42PM
But, but, but, niggers love it! And that's all that matters!
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday April 01 2018, @07:36PM (5 children)
You scared yourself away. The device is open source. You want to know what it does, go look.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 01 2018, @07:49PM (1 child)
... then that's all I need to know.
(Score: 3, Touché) by fyngyrz on Monday April 02 2018, @01:17AM
Is it really? [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 01 2018, @07:59PM (2 children)
No.
I also don't need a masters in biology to conclude that if it looks like a lion, I shouldn't pull it's tail.
BTW: I did have another look at their site. The text-to-speech runs on their servers. Game over.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Monday April 02 2018, @01:15AM
FFS, it's not that simple. It's open source. You can change the STT engine yourself. Their community is well aware that this is desirable. [openstt.org] You want STT to not be on some BigCorp, Inc.'s servers? This is the way to go.
Or, you know, you could just bitch endlessly and not contribute. I'm sure that'll move us forward.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Monday April 02 2018, @01:21AM
A handy table and some discussion of open STT engines. [svds.com]
Remember: Mycroft is open source. "Lock-in" is not a given. People are working on this.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 01 2018, @07:48PM (1 child)
That is not quite true. It appears that Mycroft is heavily reliant on being "paired", that is, registered. It is also pretty reliant on being internet connected, to make use of various services, such as the wikipedia. BUT - browsing the forums, I found this thread - https://community.mycroft.ai/t/how-would-i-go-about-using-mycroft-without-internet-access-use-of-cloud-services/3323 [mycroft.ai]
Long story short, preventing your mycroft from connecting is possible, although, some functionality will be difficult, if not impossible to achieve.
It all depends on what you have in mind. Mycroft may or may not be a working "solution" for your needs.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 01 2018, @08:05PM
Exactly. You will lose the small, simple functionality of speech recognition. Which is, like, the whole point of the whole thing.
Yes, you can replace the speech recognizer. With a different speech recognizer running on somebody else's servers. Doh.
Hint: the number of freely available speech recognizers which you can run locally is less than three. And none of them work very well once you go beyond two handful of words. Even under ideal conditions. And they're a royal pain to get running.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 02 2018, @02:33AM
I ordered one. They have a "maker" version that you put together yourself. We're doing it as a father/son project to satisfy my kids' curiosity, and we'll be adding a piece that I don't expect to be in the kit as shipped-- ours will have a momentary switch connected to the microphone wires. In other words, it's completely deaf unless someone is holding the button down.