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Originally Posted by OtinG
I really don't think you have to worry much about Amazon directly abusing your information. I think the huge threat is that they are never going to police the 3rd party apps and Alexa skills the way they should. Google will let developers put almost any app on Android; they are sleazy and could care less if those apps are a threat to users. Amazon is better than Google, but Alexa runs on Android and it is crazy easy to hack Android. Google has definitely shown no restraint in harvesting user informations and selling it to other customers. That is sick. And if you think Amazon isn't peeking at your information and activity, request a song to be played on an Alexa device then go to Amazon.com and you will see advertisements pushing that song and artist front and center! Or google a song or any item, and it appears on Amazon.com the next time you go there. Amazon definitely spies on us to find what things we like and or interested in and then they relentlessly push those items in our face trying to get us to purchase them.
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Very good point about 3rd party apps. So many developers are jumping on the Alexa bandwagon that it would be difficult for Amazon to search all that code for abuses. But I hope they are at least trying.
I don't mind a sort of 'passive' interest in my activities on Alexa, such as music I'm listening to or book genres I like. I would think twice about using some search terms--if Alexa was any good at looking things up--regarding health or other info. That's why I use Startpage or DuckDuckGo search engines instead of Google.
Google is very aggressive at sucking up every ounce of info possible on everyone. Turn off location services, Google is still following you. Think the microphone on your phone isn't listening, it likely still is:
https://www.slashgear.com/ok-google-...ning-06526391/
And the most recent bit of obnoxiousness from Google:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/30/1...istory-privacy
If Amazon ever gets that bad I will disengage from them just as I've been doing with Google. The big difference is Amazon wants to sell products. Google wants to sell you as the product to advertisers.