Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday April 25 2018, @05:39PM   Printer-friendly
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.

Also at CNN and Fortune.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday April 25 2018, @08:14PM (1 child)

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Wednesday April 25 2018, @08:14PM (#671832) Journal

    Alexa Jihadists like you

    LOL. No, I simply require evidence rather than hyperbolic speculation. When you have some, by all means, get back to me.

    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.

    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."

    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

    Oh. You mean like a cellphone. :)

    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.

    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.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 26 2018, @01:42AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 26 2018, @01:42AM (#671988)

    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.