Last time I was in a Silicon Valley Hotel, I had to sign a waver that I accepted that there was an Alexa in my room. Of signed it, and unplugged it (as well as the TV). I will not have these horrible things near me. The hotel claimed they would charge if you unplugged it. They didn't.
Pretty soon, I imagine there will be Airbnb Experiences ads that tout something about "living simply" with hosts that specifically do not have "smart" devices in their home.
Not exactly a listening device, but I was in an AirBnb once. Every time I would open the door, I could hear a notification being played in the upstairs unit. It wasn't the back door that caused the notification, but the actual door the apartment I was staying in. It was displeasing.
Right but doesn’t someone have to vacuum and clean the place anyway? Seems like the additional cost of adding “plug in the Alexa if it’s unplugged” to the cleaning checklist would be completely negligible.
this is not going to help when Google, like Amazon, is pushing for things like always listening ear buds (announced today). Anyone around you can be leaking conversations or other sensitive information.
>The latest version of Google's Pixel Buds will be able to get hands-free access to Google Assistant so you just have to say "Hey Google" ...
This is extremely intrusive technology being introduced to solve problems that don't exist, so that more data can be harvested about everything surrounding your life.
> “As Mr Osterloh points out, its Nest cameras shine an LED light when they are in record mode, which cannot be overridden.“
Yeah, as of about a month ago it can’t be overridden. The changes they’ve made to Nest devices recently just confirm the fact that their products are heavily predisposed to violating the privacy of anyone nearby.
