Quote:
Originally Posted by rcentros
... most of the time I don't turn WiFi on on my Kindles anyhow ... The Echo, on the other hand, can give Amazon 24/7 audio access to my home ...
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Not owning an Echo, I guess you don't realize that there is a button to turn off all listening if you want. That button is easier and quicker to press than turning off WiFi on a Kindle. Also, the Echo lights up when it's listening - you can't hardly miss it. And if you want even more notification, you can also tell it to make a noise whenever it starts listening too. The only thing it listens for locally (without lighting up) is its "wake up word". Once it hears that word, it lights up and listens more. At this point, the words you say are indeed sent up over the internet for interpretation - the Echo devices themselves don't have that kind of processing power. They have the processing power to recognize their wake up word locally, but that's about it.
I used to be like you - strongly against any "spyware listening device" in my home. But then I realized that my computers have one of those built in too. So do my TV sets. So do the remote controls for my DVR's. And I also realized that our house if pretty silent. We don't walk around blabbering out our social security numbers, account numbers and passwords, and stuff like that. I am probably more at risk of that kind of stuff being divulged straight off of my internet connected computer (although I do take pains to prevent that, having working in computer security and networking as part of my job before I retired).
So, I now have Alexa devices in my house. And they are extremely helpful and convenient. They're not for everybody of course, but I'm happy with my choice to install them, even with my computer security/networking background making me intrinsically suspicious of such devices. If you walk around your house singing a song that contains the word "Alexa" and also your social security number in the lyrics, then I would not recommend an Echo device for you. Or keep the mute button activated - that mutes the microphones, not the speaker. This will turn the thing into a "push-to-talk" device rather than one listening for its wake up word.