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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.


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  • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:24PM (2 children)

    by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:24PM (#671909) Journal

    Am I missing something here about why the Echo is a novel concern for your argument?

    People have had microphones in their electronic devices attached to the internet for decades. Most of the time, they are turned on and off via a "software switch." It's well-known that they have been used (along with webcams) to spy on people by being enabled remotely. In most cases that have received media attention, this came about through malware or hacking, but also software bugs have created the ability at times. (And who knows what the NSA has done at times...)

    So, I'm not saying you're wrong about the Amazon Echo. I'm just not certain what makes it a significantly different concern from a cellphone, tablet, computer with microphone, etc. Do you trust Apple with its proprietary software to not spy on you with an iPhone or iPad or Mac microphone? Would you recommend detailed audits of every update in a similar fashion there? And a lot of such devices with microphones allow third-party software to access microphones with ease. Are you auditing every app and software application installed that theoretically could access your microphone and internet connection? Do you audit every update for those as well?

    Unless I'm missing something, the ONLY main difference with the Echo is that you assume it's listening because it needs voice activation to start. If anything, I'd think it's MORE likely that any significant bugs or flaws that caused privacy concerns would be noticed with the Echo, because it's obvious that's how it works and many privacy folks are concerned about it. Meanwhile, most people probably carry around several devices with them all the time or have such devices in many rooms in their house with built-in microphones, but they don't think about the fact they could be spying on them, because they ASSUME the microphone is generally off. As you rightly point out, with only a "software switch," that's NOT a reasonable assumption.

    So why are we all talking so much about the Echo as if it's of greater concern here again??

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  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:49PM (1 child)

    by Arik (4543) on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:49PM (#671922) Journal
    "People have had microphones in their electronic devices attached to the internet for decades."

    Well I'm a people and I certainly haven't. I think the word that fits better there is 'fools.'

    "I'm just not certain what makes it a significantly different concern from a cellphone, tablet, computer with microphone, etc."

    Nothing, they're all poorly designed junk.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday April 26 2018, @01:05AM

      by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Thursday April 26 2018, @01:05AM (#671976) Journal

      Okay, so at least your perspective is consistent. That's different from a lot of people who seem to suddenly be worried about things like the Echo, when they've basically had surveillance devices in their houses for years.