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posted by fyngyrz on Sunday April 01 2018, @06:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the IGNORE-ME dept.

Submitted via IRC for fyngyrz

There is patent activity afoot to cover Alexa and Google Assistant mining for more than activation words:

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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  • (Score: 2) by MrGuy on Monday April 02 2018, @02:27AM

    by MrGuy (1007) on Monday April 02 2018, @02:27AM (#661309)

    The official reasoning will be wishy-washy hand-wavy and say it's ok because "with a computer" and "on the internet" and the masses will rejoice.

    I share some of your cynicism that being a big corporation has the potential to make some things "above the law." That said, the fact that this is "with a computer" (i.e. using a device) and "on the internet" (i.e. transmitting by wire) are PRECISELY the two aspects that constitute a violation of the act in the first place.

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