Why Virtual Assistants Freak Me Out

CallMeKate

CallMeKate

Well-known Member
Location
Mid-Atlantic US
Do you use virtual assistants? I won't... I hear too much negative/scary, but if you have good stories about them, I'd like to hear those, too. What got me thinking about this was a few other conversations here where people were saying they talked to friends, even on a landline, and immediately started getting ads, etc. for what they talked about... and wondered who was "listening." Could it be Alexa or another virtual assistant in the room if the conversation wasn't through a mobile device?

The day I knew I'd never have one was when I was talking to an old friend about 5 years ago. He lives alone without close neighbors. He was sleeping one night and heard his Alexa say "I'm sorry, I can't do that"... the house had been totally quiet. Too creepy for me.
 

CallMeKate said:
Do you use virtual assistants? I won't... I hear too much negative/scary, but if you have good stories about them, I'd like to hear those, too. What got me thinking about this was a few other conversations here where people were saying they talked to friends, even on a landline, and immediately started getting ads, etc. for what they talked about... and wondered who was "listening." Could it be Alexa or another virtual assistant in the room if the conversation wasn't through a mobile device?

The day I knew I'd never have one was when I was talking to an old friend about 5 years ago. He lives alone without close neighbors. He was sleeping one night and heard his Alexa say "I'm sorry, I can't do that"... the house had been totally quiet. Too creepy for me.
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Alexa in my house does that occasionally ..jumps in when it isn't being spoken to.. but usually it's something that it's responding to on the TV or more often a voice which may be similar to mine on Youtube.

With regard to your friend, he could easily have been talking in his sleep to have Alexa respond...

I don't have Amazon Echo in my bedroom.. or Google Nest Home Hub, both of which I have in the house..one upstairs, the other down..

I'm not concerned about it listening.. I live on my own now for the last 17 months.. it never bothered the O/H when he was here and he was very Technically minded.. and so if the worst it's going to do is taget me with Ads.. I 'm not overly concerned. I'm no part of MI5.. or have any state secrets, I'm not a criminal, so I can't see how anything that gets said in my house could be incriminating even if it was listening for that end ..
 
I do use Google Home . Like Holly said, I am not too concerned leaving the mic on the one I mainly use (I have three through my home). I do admit that once in awhile the female voice will say something and I start to feel like I am in the movie Her. But they are always nice things so I don't mind. Plus it's easier for me to tell it to set an alarm then it is for me to set the alarm on my phone. Yes, I can be very lazy thanks to technology at times.
 
MarkinPhx said:
I do use Google Home . Like Holly said, I am not too concerned leaving the mic on the one I mainly use (I have three through my home). I do admit that once in awhile the female voice will say something and I start to feel like I am in the movie Her. But they are always nice things so I don't mind. Plus it's easier for me to tell it to set an alarm then it is for me to set the alarm on my phone. Yes, I can be very lazy thanks to technology at times.
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I too have 3.. One google upstairs, one google downstairs in the kitchen.. and Alexa in the Livingroom... I call it Alex because I have it set for the male voice.. The female is too snooty for me... :ROFLMAO:
 
i'm on virtual disconnect... yet easy to find but what may seem saccharine could just be a honeytrap. ya never know? 'cause when the cloud is your kingdom it's a good time to reign.

lol... can't imagine anyone makin' sense of my digital footprint anyway. especially ai (thus my linguistic acrobatic manuouvers.)
 
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always place silly putty firmly on your microphones 'n cameras... it keeps both 'safe' on standby and is reusable. it's also great for cleaning nooks 'n crannies. non-newtonian materials have incredible audio dampening qualities and happen to make great gadget cleaners too.

hacks aren't always digital.
 
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HoneyNut said:
I like the google assistant on my phone, but the chromebook drives me nuts. I have to carry my phone across the room and whisper to it or else the chromebook tries to horn in on the request and I wind up with two timers going off.
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I have a Pixelbook and under Assistant settings I have an option to turn it off. You might check that out if you haven't tried it already.
 
CallMeKate said:
Do you use virtual assistants? I won't... I hear too much negative/scary, but if you have good stories about them, I'd like to hear those, too. What got me thinking about this was a few other conversations here where people were saying they talked to friends, even on a landline, and immediately started getting ads, etc. for what they talked about... and wondered who was "listening." Could it be Alexa or another virtual assistant in the room if the conversation wasn't through a mobile device?

The day I knew I'd never have one was when I was talking to an old friend about 5 years ago. He lives alone without close neighbors. He was sleeping one night and heard his Alexa say "I'm sorry, I can't do that"... the house had been totally quiet. Too creepy for me.
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No. I don't see any purpose in them.
The most I deal with- not by choice- are those in various companies' Live Chats.
 
For years security experts have warned of privacy risks associated with using Amazon’s and Google’s AI-based, virtual assistants. Alexa- and Google Assistant-powered devices have been known, to share your conversations with
random people.
When people work from home (like my husband and myself) the line between professional and personal lives blend and that is a great risk factor.

Some think it’s so cool to have these devices ( perhaps they just like a voice
telling them what to do if they live alonein their home but what they are actually doing is saying to the nefarious community out there is “ look at moi, look at moi” (from Kath and Kim) lol.
 
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