Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

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markwilding
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Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby markwilding » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:43 pm

Amazon have started to sell Alexa in Spain. At the moment they are offering 40 per cent reductions making the price rather attractive. Not checked yet but I hope the language can be changed from Spanish to English and visa versa.

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby El Cid » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:56 pm

Strange coincidence, but the Apple HomePod is also available in Spain this week.. Alexa and Siri have spent the last 6 months learning Spanish! As you say, I hope they both still speak English.

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby TorreDelAguila » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:59 pm

Careful where you site the Echo. Camera is all-seeing, just as the mic is all-listening, and able to pick up speech from adjoining rooms. Local muting does not prevent video/audio being remotely activated. To think that we're actually paying to have these bugging devices installed in our homes! Who would ever have guessed?

Just in case you think I'm being paranoid, worth reading Google's security/smallprint/web-articles on this, and the comments on them. Also worth noting that police have already been involved in legal tussles with Google about access to what some of these devices may have picked up at premises where crimes were being investigated.

Google articles describe how verbal commands you give these devices are archived by them "for device enhancement purposes", and how to get access what they have recorded for your device. Commands may be one thing, but what else?
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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby El Cid » Thu Oct 25, 2018 10:44 pm

If you look at the Echo app, it shows all the commands that you have issued. It cannot récord them on the phone so they must be coming from the Google Cloud.

I have to say that, after about 4 months with the Echo, I am not impressed. I usually end up swearing at it and so does my wife! Next week I will order the Apple HomePod. At least that will access my Apple Music subscription.

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby markwilding » Thu Oct 25, 2018 10:50 pm

I subscribe to Spotify so Amazon is the one for me. The Apple Home pod is a little expensive compared to the echo. I think Firsttango is thinking about buying Homepod as well. Don't forget to tell us how you get on with it and if it's worth the extra dosh.

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby casita-bonita » Fri Oct 26, 2018 10:56 am

Like Chris I wouldn't have one of them in the house. Can't trust those buggers.....
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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby TorreDelAguila » Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:06 am

We do have one in the house, I'm afraid. Not my choice - it was a present from family to keep in touch via video calls*, which it does rather well. It's just some of the other things it does that concerns me.
* I know there are alternatives, but I'm on a losing wicket there. :silent:
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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby BENIDORM » Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:30 am

I have to say...Do you really need these 'Big Brother' devices in your home.?

I really do draw a line when it comes to my invasion of privacy and really wonder why people need to use such devices, is it 'keeping up with the 'Joneses', or is it 'Boy's Toys Syndrome'...????..or some other reason?

I watched a report recently about the possibility that Robots and Dyslexics will rule the World in the future..
............so there is hope for me yet..if it's not in the too distant future.. :D .

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Gordon Robomember... :wave:

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby El Cid » Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:37 am

I just want a decent Internet radio in the bedroom. I couldn't care less if someone hears me say "Play Radio 4"

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby BENIDORM » Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:55 am

Sid,
But what if you talk in your sleep or maybe other activities ?.... :wink:

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Gordon

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby El Cid » Fri Oct 26, 2018 12:10 pm

You have to activate it by a speech command before it will send data to the remote server for processing.. In the case of Apple that is encrypted anyway. Yes, the microphone is live, but unless activated, it does nothing until it hears the trigger word.

Anyway, all they would get is snores, farts and cat purring!

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby BENIDORM » Fri Oct 26, 2018 12:23 pm

:D :D :D ...Well put Sid.... :thumbup:

Maybe it's just me being 'old fashioned' or maybe because of some past experiences, but I still wouldn't be comfortable with this type of device even when switched off...
Happy Dreams Sid,
Regards,
Doubting Gordon... :wave:

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby TorreDelAguila » Fri Oct 26, 2018 3:50 pm

El Cid wrote:You have to activate it by a speech command before it will send data to the remote server for processing. Yes, the microphone is live, but unless activated, it does nothing until it hears the trigger word.
Yes, that's what it says. But is that actually the case, and how would you know? :think:
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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby peteroldracer » Fri Oct 26, 2018 7:16 pm

There is a two-word phrase that could be the most frequently used: it covers astonishment, bewilderment and a request for conjugal coupling. It is not a command that any of these boxes can obey!
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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby El Cid » Fri Oct 26, 2018 9:00 pm

TorreDelAguila wrote:
El Cid wrote:You have to activate it by a speech command before it will send data to the remote server for processing. Yes, the microphone is live, but unless activated, it does nothing until it hears the trigger word.
Yes, that's what it says. But is that actually the case, and how would you know? :think:
If that’s what they say, why should it not be correct? If Google et al really were snooping they would have been found out long ago. As far as Apple are concerned, I would trust them far more than Google or Facebook. Even the FBI could not get them to crack a phone password.

Do I care - no.

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby TorreDelAguila » Fri Oct 26, 2018 10:24 pm

It's not necessarily Google, or any other of the device/service providers, that would necessarily do the snooping, but the mere fact that the technology (devices) are now becoming widely installed, and are capable of intelligent eavesdropping or monitoring. OK, you could harbour the same suspicion about the landline telephone, which has been capable of being remotely switched into listening mode for sixty years now. Echo, et al, take this to a whole different level new though, sensitivity-wise and with digital feedback and control.

These devices are intended by design to be left switched on 24/7, and to be seen as a domestic convenience/toy/item of entertainment/information/amusement - chummy even. Am I concerned? Yes.
Chris

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby chrissiehope » Fri Oct 26, 2018 10:36 pm

There's a program on Channel 4 at the moment called Celebrity Hunted. This involves pairs of celebrities attempting to evade capture for 2 weeks (prize donated to charity). The Hunters are a crack team consisting of ex-army, ex-police etc, with every tech in existence available to them, including listening in to mobile phones (including during conversations), hacking into computers (especially Facebook), using phone masts to pinpoint location, bugging, tracking etc. etc.
Should we be concerned ? For me, if I've done nothing wrong, then no, I'm not worried ;-)
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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby gerrynag » Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:39 pm

El Cid wrote:
TorreDelAguila wrote:
El Cid wrote:You have to activate it by a speech command before it will send data to the remote server for processing. Yes, the microphone is live, but unless activated, it does nothing until it hears the trigger word.
Yes, that's what it says. But is that actually the case, and how would you know? :think:
If that’s what they say, why should it not be correct? If Google et al really were snooping they would have been found out long ago. As far as Apple are concerned, I would trust them far more than Google or Facebook. Even the FBI could not get them to crack a phone password.

Do I care - no.

Sid
I am not sure why you would trust Apple anymore than Google and Facebook.

Apple never said they couldn't crack the phone password, they just said they wouldn't do it for the FBI.

Apple have been hacked a number of times, including by a 16 year old in Austrailia earlier this year, so don't assume that they are completely secure, because like every other network thay can be hacked and have been.

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby El Cid » Sat Oct 27, 2018 8:16 am

The difference between Apple and Google/Facebook etc is that they make all mtheir money from selling a product. The others primarily have no product (excepting a few phones from Google) and have to rely on effectively selling personal data harvested from their users.

Either way., it doesnt bother me - life is too short! As Chrissiehope said, if you've done nothing wrong, dont worry.

Of course Apple could have cracked that password, but the point is that, under immense pressure, they didn't.

Sid

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Re: Amazon Echo now availabe in Spain

Postby gerrynag » Sat Oct 27, 2018 8:52 am

I don't want to be too picky, but they all sell products. However if you mean that Google and Facebook sell more digital services than Apple that's true, though Apple are moving more and more into digital services.
Anyway on that basis, Amazon are far more trust worthy than any of the others, as the vast majority of their sales are for physical products.
Google and Apple don't sell user data, however they both use it to target adverts at their users.

In conclusion, I wouldn't completely trust any of the above.


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