from the need-to-add-some-dits-to-do-morse-code dept.
Saint Louis University is placing 2,300 Echo Dots in student living spaces
Saint Louis University has announced that it will be placing Amazon Echo Dot devices, powered by Alexa for Business, in every student residence hall room or student apartment on campus. While other colleges, like Arizona State University, have put Echo Dots in student housing before, SLU says this is the first time a college will equip every student living space with an Amazon Alexa-enabled device.
[...] In regards to privacy concerns, SLU says that because it is using the Amazon Alexa for Business platform, every Echo Dot is managed by a central system that is not tied to any individual accounts. No personal information will be collected so all use is anonymous. The Echo Dots will also not keep any recordings of questions that are asked. If a student wants to opt out of using the Echo Dot given to them, they can simply store it, unplugged, and turn it in at the end of the school year.
Also at Engadget.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @12:48AM (6 children)
Let's see ... I predict Dean Wormer likes this. "Alexa, can you tell me which students are selling drugs, which ones are using drugs, which ones are drinking in their dorm rooms, which ones are cheating, and which ones are having sex?"
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday August 20 2018, @01:25AM (1 child)
I'm sure it's all over at the Delta-house.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Monday August 20 2018, @10:25AM
Janrinok says, "This is a nice STEM submission, there is tech in it, and college girls." Toga! Toga! Toga! From Bluto Blutarsky to Donald Trump: The United States of “Animal House” at 40 [salon.com]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday August 20 2018, @03:30AM (3 children)
This should have read:
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday August 20 2018, @03:46AM (1 child)
Why would Amazon *pay*?
A good salesperson could have even mamaged to make the University pay! No way this cost Amazon any more than the wholesale and delivery costs of the devices.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday August 20 2018, @06:08AM
Ah, yeah. good point.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 20 2018, @05:09AM
Oh, the Uni paid. Good money. Great cause.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @12:51AM (12 children)
People believe this shit?
Revenue-source, you are under mandatory surveillance. Failure to connect the Amazon Dot will increase your tuition since that would remove a revenue source we extract from you. You'd be stealing unrealized revenue from Saint Louis University, and we will prosecute you to the maximum extent available by the law for that theft from us.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @01:12AM
Nobody expects the Jesuit Inquisition.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday August 20 2018, @01:41AM (9 children)
" If a student wants to opt out of using the Echo Dot given to them, they can simply store it, unplugged, and turn it in at the end of the school year. "
That's not good enough. You must tell them that you don't want one in your room at all, and that they must take it now if you return it to them. If for some mysterious reason they refuse, then you must disassemble it, identify its communication components, and slice the traces leading to them with an X-acto blade. This might be difficult for people to determine, so I will show you:
(1) - First, you will disable the power by slicing all traces coming from its DC-DC converter. It's not good enough to simply unplug the power supply, you must disable it internally. Look for either a solid black self-contained block or the larger stuff like capacitors and toroids and slash all traces emerging from those components. Look for anything that looks like a watch battery and slash all traces around those as well.
(2) - Next, search for the antennae. But first, disable any intermediate components. They have a metal "can"around them to prevent electromagnetic interference. Slash all traces emerging from metal "squares" such as in the left side of this [alicdn.com] image.
(2b) - If you see anything that looks remotely like this, [directindustry.com] slash it all to ribbons.
(2c) - If you see anything that looks remotely like this [directindustry.com] or this [semiconductorstore.com] or anything similarly weird, slash it all to ribbons.
(3) - Now you are sanitized. Carefully reassemble the unit and place it into your closet and secure it with tamper-proof tape. The university staff will wonder why it is not phoning home and will surreptitiously enter your dorm room to see what is wrong.
(4) - Come on, ASU -- I thought you were smarter than that. Aren't you like liberal and anti-"the man" or something?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @03:03AM (3 children)
Seems excessively stupid. Just unplug it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @05:25AM
WHOOOOOOOOOOSH.
AC above is living in the 90s!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 20 2018, @05:40AM (1 child)
All spy electronics now include superdupercapacitor energy storage and p2p neutrino beam communications. Forget unplugging it, you have to throw it into a volcano.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @02:54PM
So? Just wrap it in tinfoil and cook it inside the common area's microwave for a minute. Problem solved.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday August 20 2018, @06:06AM
(5) You can do immense damage if you have one of these [ssl-images-amazon.com]
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Monday August 20 2018, @06:10AM (1 child)
... take it out into an open field, put it on top of a tree stump, tape a "PC Load Letter" sign to it, and use their second amendment rights to tell Amazon what they think of their surveillance tech.
(Score: 2) by gawdonblue on Monday August 20 2018, @07:51PM
"PC Load Letter" - what the fuck does that mean?
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday August 20 2018, @03:53PM
So it's not even a gift, they are lending you one until the end of the semester. What is this? Try before you buy? The first taste is always free, like any good drugdealer wanting to hook some new clients.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday August 20 2018, @04:09PM
See, I was thinking "They're *giving* each student an Alexa? Then they won't mind if the students smash *their* Alexa device with a sledgehammer, right?"
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @06:40AM
And why are universities using proprietary, privacy-invading garbage? They should be using Free Software, which respects people's freedom, desire to learn, and independence. I guess not too many universities care about those things.
(Score: 5, Funny) by RandomFactor on Monday August 20 2018, @12:53AM (1 child)
https://twitter.com/ronfutrell/status/839260375518326784?lang=en [twitter.com]
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday August 20 2018, @06:13AM
Even though I had to moderate you funny, I believe the humor is based on very unpleasant underpinnings.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday August 20 2018, @01:22AM (7 children)
Or report it "stolen" = sold online, amirite?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @02:10AM (6 children)
Possibly.
Amazon (esp. A4B) has apparently no way to tying a device to an account and tracking stolen/missing devices. At least that was the situation several month back when on a conf.call with a manager from Amazon. No lockout, no tracking, nothing. It seems they don't understand or care about stolen devices because it is all new business and sales to them.
Posting anonymously for obvious reasons.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday August 20 2018, @02:26AM (1 child)
people believe these things don't have an equivalent of an IMEI?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @08:39PM
They do have a MAC address (for wifi access)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @02:33AM (2 children)
I don't understand. If devices are not tied to accounts, how does Amazon decide who to bill for purchases made with the devices?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 20 2018, @02:44AM (1 child)
Last time I checked, the devices (such as the Kindle) are tied to accounts, but if it gets lost or stolen, you just deregister it from your account.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @03:20PM
Yes, the device is tied to an account - as long as it it tied to it. If the device gets stolen you can deregister it from your account.
But there is no obvious way of reporting it stolen, and I got the impression that Amazon didn't have a way to notify the original owner that his stolen device was being used by Mr. XXX. Granted, for my company's deployment scenario Amazon would give the devices away, or at a deep discount, so the monetary loss would be small. But with no system in place to lock out devices or make them scream "I'm stolen" the devices will be stolen.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday August 20 2018, @06:22AM
I consider the whole lot of deployed devices to be "sleeper cells".
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snotnose on Monday August 20 2018, @01:32AM
I suspect we'll see 20 minute clips of old Playboy centerfolds, changed artistically every 10 seconds with nice camera effects, to the audio hackers got off these things.
When pornhub can identify the moaner, and especially get pix, those will be the vids with the little star that sez us cheap asses can't see them.
/ um, posting for a friend
// pornhub? never heard of it
/// Playboy? Dad subscribed but hid them from me
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday August 20 2018, @02:10AM (1 child)
What happened to "every student gets iPad" program?
Anybody is in prison for that?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Monday August 20 2018, @05:19AM
L.A. Unified to get $6.4 million in settlement over iPad software [latimes.com] (2015)
LAUSD Officials Won't Face Federal Charges In iPad Scandal [patch.com] (2017)
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday August 20 2018, @02:10AM (14 children)
I must be getting old. First I had to look up what the Echo Dot is. Then when I'm reading Amazon's marketing materials I just felt disturbed. While it would be cool to hands-free set a timer while cooking, I would only consider a system that was local and self-contained -- this extreme phoning home is just nuts. Or maybe I'm just old.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Monday August 20 2018, @02:41AM (13 children)
Consider the babies being born this year. Good ol' 2018, aka Trump Era, Stardate 2.
They are being born at a time when these devices are supposedly available to 20% of American adults [techcrunch.com]. That's a proportion that will go up as budget smart TVs and laptops integrate it by default.
They are being born at a time when smartphones and tablets are ubiquitous. Cameras are everywhere. Computer chips can cost as little as pennies. When they turn 5-10, VR headsets will probably be everywhere.
What's weird to you and me is going to be the normal state of affairs for the new generation. It's going to be one hell of a ride. Literally?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Apparition on Monday August 20 2018, @03:30AM (1 child)
Where's the "+1 Scary" mod when you need it?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday August 20 2018, @03:17PM
I really do feel the same way as you. But I also wonder if the same was said of that horseless carriage thing, the printing press, and indoor plumbing.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Pslytely Psycho on Monday August 20 2018, @03:48AM (6 children)
Fuck, I wish I could disagree with you, but alas, I cannot.
I will comfort myself knowing they likely won't get flying cars. Little helicoptors don't count. Full on Blade Runner/5th Element rides only.
Can I rename Alexa to Wiretap?
https://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/a3MzOb5_700b.jpg/ [9gag.com]
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 20 2018, @05:02AM (2 children)
You can have sex with your wiretap. [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Monday August 20 2018, @06:51AM (1 child)
One of my colleagues left where I hang out at ( I would call it "work", but being retired, I found a small shop which tolerates my presence in exchange for any wisdom I may bring them... I don't actually *do* anything, as the younger people are much better at it than I - hell, most of the time I can't even see the pins I would have to test-prod! ).
Anyway, when he left, he presented us all with several large boxes of "treasures" that he did not want to move, but could not stand to just toss them. We found your typical assortment of test equipment, electronic toys, part samples, all sorts of assorted assemblies, and two of these "dot" thingies. I recognize it from the pictures in this forum.
Now, we are all pretty technically literate here. Not geniuses, but we know which end of the soldering iron to pick up. We could not figure out what to do with those things.
Personally, I was afraid of it.
It may have been a very useful device. But I am so ignorant of what it is, how it works, what it may require before it will do anything, and apparently, thanks to intellectual property and copyright law, no-one else is spilling the beans.
I recognize my fear quite clearly... one of my fellow Soylentils hit the nail on the head... its the "Fear of the Dark Alley at 2AM on a Foggy Night" thingie. There is nothing in the alley I should fear, but I cannot verify that there is no mugger lurking. Probability of a mugger is very low, but there is almost a certainity that if there is a mugger, I will get mugged, as he is already prepared for the encounter, which will be a surprise to me.
I have no idea what kind of ulterior motives are programmed into the thing. Nor can I verify. Nor do I trust those who will vouch for it, as they hide behind hold harmless clauses. I have the same trepidation of having that thing in my house as inviting a random homeless person ( who may have ulterior motives as well ) into my house, or spewing off banking credentials to some "businessman" that merely asks for it.
Not a one of us took them.
Today's electronics are not at all like the electronics I grew up with as a kid. I would take anything. It all had the same vacuum tubes and sockets, resistors, capacitors, coils, and transformers inside. I had a ball taking stuff apart and reassembling it into other stuff. Today's parts are generally so special purpose that my old paradigm is hopelessly obsolete.
They ended up in the dumpster.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gaaark on Monday August 20 2018, @01:49PM
That's why I'm promoting mycroft.ai
Open source and a good alternative to the dot, etc.
Fun to play with and it has a good voice now: gets better all the time (why help Amazon when you can help open source).
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gaaark on Monday August 20 2018, @01:44PM (2 children)
Get mycroft.ai
You can rename it anything you want.
I call mine Kaylee
http://www.tombsofkobol.com/images/tv/Firefly-Kaylee.jpg [tombsofkobol.com]
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @03:05PM (1 child)
> mycroft.ai
> Open Source
Nice!
> build with a Raspberry Pi
Oh shit! I have a few spare of those. Awesome!
> Once connected, you must pair the device at https://home.mycroft.ai [mycroft.ai]
Wait.. how is this better than Alexa again?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday August 20 2018, @09:29PM
Read the terms and conditions
Without limiting any of the other licenses you grant in this agreement, you hereby grant Alexa and its affiliates a royalty-free, nonexclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right and license to Your Trademarks, Content, data, information, photographs, images, videos and other materials and items you provide or make available to Alexa (collectively, “Your Materials”) including, without limitation, the right to use, reproduce, perform, display, distribute, adapt, modify, re-format, create derivative works of, and otherwise commercially or non-commercially exploit in any manner, any and all of Your Materials; provided, however, that nothing in this agreement will prevent or impair our right to use Your Materials without your consent to the extent that such use is allowable without a license from you or your affiliates under applicable law (e.g., fair use under United States copyright law, referential use under trademark law, or valid license from a third party). “ ETC, ETC
https://www.alexa.com/help/terms [alexa.com]
They OWN your shit, man.
Mycroft is nothing like that.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 20 2018, @06:29AM (3 children)
Oh, come on, takyon. The world is already weird. Step back just a few generations. The Battle of New Orleans was fought AFTER THE WAR WAS ENDED!! It took days to send messages short distances, and weeks to send messages longer distances. It might take months to get a message from one continent to another, depending on the season and local political and weather conditions.
Only a couple generations ago, telegraph was the only reliable means of "fast" communication available to the masses. Radio and television were still in their infancy. The presidential election in 1960 was decided by the newfangled television. JFK looked like a healthy, active, virile man on television, compared with some emaciated old bastard who looked ready to croak.
The idea of turning on a machine, and browsing the news, at your leisure, for ANY CITY IN THE WORLD would have seemed a lunatic's dream, up until a few years ago. Less than half of my lifetime ago, it wasn't possible to read or listen to the news like you can right now.
Today, I can do that news thing, while at the same time, keep multiple game windows open, to play my war games with any number of people from around the world - Russian, Chinese, British, whoever.
Yep, the world is weird, and it will only get weirder.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday August 20 2018, @06:58AM
I love the instantaneous communication to anywhere part of technology.
The part I fear has to do with my inability to understand exactly what my stuff is doing. And Congress with all their IP/DMCA/Copyright_Law/Digital_lock crap isn't helping at all.
Even my own Government will get their panties all in a twat if they ask a question, and I fail to truthfully answer.
I expect the same from them. And I do not get it.
So, the result is a lack of trust, and an underlying suspicion that leads to all sorts of tinfoil-hat speculation and conspiricy theory.
I fear the Dot. But I welcome the Arduino. One I know what its gonna do, the other I haven't the foggiest idea what its doing.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 20 2018, @11:15AM (1 child)
The computer days are very different from the telegraph days, and the smartphone days are even weirder. You can hand a toddler a supercomputer that is also a surveillance device (soon to be enhanced by "AI"). This has only been possible for about a decade. And even though it's far from the most transformative change, the 1984 telescreens are being realized: pretty soon, almost every new TV will have smart speaker functionality (Alexa, Google Home, etc.). If TVs up their microphone game, maybe we'll see cheap webcams [theguardian.com] thrown in by default (embedded in the bezel), enabling the complete 1984 experience. Then you have Tinder today, designer babies tomorrow, and lots of other weird things taking hold or incoming. Rather than society adjusting slowly, people will adapt to these sudden changes or fall behind. Possibly, the pace of change is accelerating (greater global population = faster scientific and technological progress). Moore's law will be a great test of that. We'll see if the industry pulls 3D chips out of its hat at the last minute and continues pushing too much performance in every form factor. Because if performance increases another order of magnitude or three, things will get really weird. And I haven't even touched on neuromorphic because I've packed in too many predictions already.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Monday August 20 2018, @02:49PM
A short read: Orwell was an Optimist [fyngyrz.com]
⚠️
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @06:47AM (1 child)
Do this in my freshman intro classes at Uni. "Everyone who agrees, press your Clicker!" Immediate protest: "We were not told that this course utilized Clicker." My response, "True, and everyone who pushed a Clicker is now, and forever, disenrolled from my course. Too harsh? Perhaps. But I want to keep these damn data collecting robots out of my classrooms, and my browsers, and my home, and my anus, for as long as possible.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday August 20 2018, @07:03AM
I think that's a little harsh on completely gullible students who most likely have a lifetime training on being an obedient little team-player ( well, isn't that the main purpose of University training anyway? Weed out the trouble-makers who point stuff like this out? ).
The people who see through it and won't buy the shit presented to them seem to either become fabulously wealthy leaders of men, or homeless.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday August 20 2018, @12:50PM
I'm sure I could find an appropriate radio station for it to listen to all day every day. I'd make it listen to Nigel Farage and people talking about football.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @03:04PM (2 children)
WTF is an "amazon echo dot"?
Next time that might be included in the summary. I guess it's some lame IoT spy device but that's just a hunch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @03:22PM
I can sympathize but also wonder which cave in Pakistan you've been living in? And exactly how hard for you it is to go to https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+echo+dot&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday August 20 2018, @09:47PM
It's a novelty microphone and loudspeaker connected to an Internet search engine that processes human speech and analyses all sounds looking for information that may be useful in deciding what products and services to advertise to you.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].