MilennialZero on Nostr: My Google Nest mesh routers have the ability ("Alexa") to listen to my voice ...
My Google Nest mesh routers have the ability ("Alexa") to listen to my voice commands. However, I have not "trained" these devices using my voice. But the Nest routers are still listening to voices it hears in the rooms of our house, trying to interpret what the voices are saying. Of course, this data gets fed back to Google search engine, which is now showing me search results based on what these devices think I've been talking about at home in private, with my partner.
This is kind of a future shock story in itself, but there's an interesting wrinkle in that one of the Nest devices is in the lounge room, next to our TV. So "Alexa" is now listening to our TV. When someone on the TV says something that starts with a word that sounds like "Alexa ..." or "Hey Google ..." the Nest routers sometimes interprets that as a request to Google Alexa.
Occasionally Alexa will say something in response to something it heard on our TV. Yeah.
Worse yet - my wife listens to audiobooks at night while we're sleeping. Another Google Nest router is in our bedroom. So in the middle of the night, "Alexa" will respond to something it heard on an audiobook, that it thinks started with it's "wake word".
Which always scares the shit out of us, because it's a disembodied voice immediately next to our bed, speaking to us in the middle of the night.
I probably could do something to turn off "Alexa", but at this point I'm like fuck it. I don't even care.
Google knows what I'm saying to my wife at home, in our private conversations. So the secret police will be knocking down our door some day.
This is kind of a future shock story in itself, but there's an interesting wrinkle in that one of the Nest devices is in the lounge room, next to our TV. So "Alexa" is now listening to our TV. When someone on the TV says something that starts with a word that sounds like "Alexa ..." or "Hey Google ..." the Nest routers sometimes interprets that as a request to Google Alexa.
Occasionally Alexa will say something in response to something it heard on our TV. Yeah.
Worse yet - my wife listens to audiobooks at night while we're sleeping. Another Google Nest router is in our bedroom. So in the middle of the night, "Alexa" will respond to something it heard on an audiobook, that it thinks started with it's "wake word".
Which always scares the shit out of us, because it's a disembodied voice immediately next to our bed, speaking to us in the middle of the night.
I probably could do something to turn off "Alexa", but at this point I'm like fuck it. I don't even care.
Google knows what I'm saying to my wife at home, in our private conversations. So the secret police will be knocking down our door some day.