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from the giving-the-kids-a-big-brother dept.
Amazon has unveiled a Kids Edition of its Echo Dot smart speaker:
The $79 Echo Dot Kids Edition takes the original device's design and wraps it in a kid-friendly, colorful case. Otherwise, the hardware is the same as the tiny smart speaker that debuted in 2016. While the regular, $49 Dot is considered a more affordable and accessible version of the regular Echo speaker, the Kids Edition costs more thanks to its bundled software. Amazon includes a two-year warranty plus a one-year subscription to the new Amazon FreeTime Unlimited service, an expanded version of Amazon's new FreeTime for Alexa.
FreeTime gives users "family-focused features" and new parental controls that adults can use to restrict what their kids can do with Alexa. Family features include "Education Q&A," allowing kids to ask Alexa science, math, spelling, and definition questions, "Alexa Speaks 'Kid,'" which gives Alexa kid-appropriate answers to nebulous statements that kids may say such as, "Alexa, I'm bored." Parents can also limit the times during which kids can speak to Alexa (like no talking to it after bedtime), restrict the skills kids can use, filter out songs with explicit lyrics, and more.
[...] But even with the added parental controls, some will be wary of a speaker designed to listen to their children. Like the original Dot, the Kids Edition has a mute button and parents can put the device in "sleep mode" to prevent it from responding to commands. However, the mic will always be listening for its wake-word just like other Echo devices.
In the new Parent Dashboard in the Alexa app and online, parents can monitor how kids are using their Echos (including all their utterances, or the phrases Alexa thinks it heard before trying to respond) and limit their abilities. According to a Buzzfeed report, Amazon claims it isn't making back-end profiles for users with data harvested from Alexa. While the virtual assistant can now recognize voices and provide personalized answers based on who's talking, the company maintains that data is only being used to make Alexa smarter and more tailored to each user.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday April 25 2018, @07:02PM (9 children)
Pretty sure the "privacy and surveillance implications" for a four year old are pretty minor. So to speak. If it could be shown that there actually are any. Which, thus far, it can't. "Oh look, little Jimmy crapped his pants again and is in time-out. MAKE A NOTE OF IT FOR MARKETING!" Not.
If and when Amazon can be shown to be abusing anyone's privacy, that's the time to bring out the pitchforks and torches. Until then, no.
By all means, encourage vigilance. If the day comes when Amazon actually invades our privacy, we should burn the things. But the hyperbole about these things being a present threat to privacy is really old and stale.
And... not to put too fine a point on it, but... Amazon knows very well people would shit themselves and fall in it if the device started keeping track of more than what you want it to, for anything beyond the purposes of working with Amazon and "doing stuff" for the user (lights, etc.) They'd be shooting themselves right in the foot. I'm a fan of the device (until LAN based STT arrives) and I'd be first in line to pour gasoline on it if it stepped beyond wake-word triggered service/functionality.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Wednesday April 25 2018, @07:11PM (2 children)
As much as I hate to Godwin the thread, we have historical records showing that when shit is burning, it's already too late to erase the databases.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday April 25 2018, @08:02PM (1 child)
Yes, so if the devices start listening and building databases of our private speech, we should burn them.
But it isn't. So we're not there.
PS: Never fear to Godwin a thread, certainly not with me. Hitler is a historical lessen that should be trotted out whenever and wherever it seems relevant. Of course, you have to actually be right, which metric you failed this time around, but don't let that stop you. :)
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 25 2018, @09:44PM
You're being quite affirmative. In this day and age where the consumer information is often the most valuable asset of a company, tell me exactly why you know that storage and processing does not happen at every opportunity. Especially in this litigious country where any buggy answer by a personal assistant could be grounds for a lawsuit. Recording of every interaction with the device is essentially required.
And like Uber deciding to keep track of customers long after the end of their ride, who's deciding when an interaction is really over?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @07:50PM (2 children)
> If the day comes when Amazon actually invades our privacy, we should burn the things.
It's a proprietary IoT device with Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity—a device which only works when connected to Amazon's servers—that's being mass-produced and offered for $80. That sounds like something that could appeal to criminals. Someone asked on another forum: "Can Amazon Echo be hacked? [quora.com]" and was told "unauthorised people can tell it what to do and the Echo goes along...[a]nyone could get a black plastic shell from an existing Echo, put whatever they want inside, then trick people..."
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday April 25 2018, @08:03PM (1 child)
$49, actually. Echo dot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @08:28PM
The summary says the Kids Edition has "parental control" software. That's a security feature.
(Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday April 25 2018, @07:59PM (2 children)
By then, its too late. Alexa Jihadists like you would rally around Amazon insisting the benefits far outweigh any risks, and demand exceptions to any privacy regulations.
No, the time to demand fully open and public code disclosure, specification and legal attestation of the full extent of recorded speech or transcriptions, full user access and total delete capability for voice history is PRECISELY NOW.
When you are ready to put a device in your home with a direct connection to your local Police department, Sheriff, FBI, (all for your safety and convenience, of course) with such flimsy promises and patronizing assurances as given by Amazon, then you may come to the defenses of Alexa, but until then, its time for you to STFU, and stop being an useful idiot enabler for the spying corporations.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday April 25 2018, @08:14PM (1 child)
LOL. No, I simply require evidence rather than hyperbolic speculation. When you have some, by all means, get back to me.
I object to none of that. Good ideas, all of it. You've demanded it of Amazon, right? Because it does no good to demand it of me. I'm just waiting for Mycroft to get LAN-based STT going to hop trains. I can't make Amazon do anything at all. My input to them is limited to things like "turn the lights on" and "play Led Zeppelin."
Oh. You mean like a cellphone. :)
So sorry, oh Mighty Internet Warrior, you don't own a STFU button. That thing you think is a STFU button is not connected to anything. Sorry to have to be the one to burst your bubble.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 26 2018, @01:42AM
Cell? That is not always listening and you can change the OS. Can you say the same for this Amazon device? No? Then please proceed shilling.