Amazon Echo Club

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by issybird

Thanks. I took a look and I already had brief mode turned on (I have no memory of doing this). God only knows how chatty she'd be in verbose mode.

I'm not sure it affects her chattiness when asking her things. I think it's primarily for her responses after doing something you've instructed her to do. Being as how she's never all that chatty with me, I assumed that brief mode might be having an effect. But then I remembered that I rarely ask her questions, or ask her for information any more. I'm usually just telling her to do things for me. So the most I get from her is a low acknowledgment "boop" or an occasional "OK."

Whisper mode was also a godsend. Before they added it, I could wake up late at night with the light or TV still on and would quietly say, "Alexa, turn off X." At which point she would happily pierce the night with a scream of "OKAY!!" at the top of her daytime volume lungs. Now when I whisper, she mercifully whispers too.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by ApK

I believe only one Echo can be in a group, and I'm sure that an Echo can only be in one group.

I do have both of my Dot3s in the Group I named "Study" but that might have been allowed because they are paired together for stereo sound. I think you are correct for non-paired devices in that only one is allowed per Group, and each Echo (or paired set of Echos) can only be assigned to one Group.

Originally Posted by ApK

With "lights," yes, other echo's can control them, by using the group name or by the device names, but not by saying "lights." Saying "turn on the lights" will make that echo turn on the light-type devices in the group it's assigned to.

So if I say "turn on the lights" while I'm in the kitchen, then the kitchen lights turn on. If I say "turn on the lights" while I'm in the bedroom, the bedroom lights come on. If I want to turn on the kitchen lights from the bedroom, I can say "turn on the kitchen."

I just don't know if there's anyway to use this local awareness with anything other than the "lights" keyword.

ApK

Thanks for that information! I had no idea that command would work for lights/bulbs. I only have LED bulbs as far as smart home accessories, so I cannot test other devices, but it does indeed work with the bulbs.

I should probably go back and re-read all the documentation on Groups and other subjects as I haven't looked at it in at least 6 months!

I do use Scenes with individual lights, but only to control a single light at one time. I can turn on/off, set the illumination brightness, and in one case the hues without any issues using Alexa. I haven't set up any sets of lights though.

I only have four lights at current time and control each one separately. I do find that my Kasa smart bulbs occasionally cannot be seen by Alexa even when they can still be seen by my WiFi network and controlled by the Kasa app. I'm not sure if that is caused by an Alexa fault or a Kasa fault, but unplugging the bulb and plugging it back in causes it to reboot, and afterwards Alexa can see it again. This occurs a few times per month on average.

[DiapDealer]

And the smart plugs that have lamps plugged into them (or smart switches controlling lights) can be changed into "light" types in the Alexa app so they'll work with the "lights" command for groups. Yay!

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Don’t be surprised if it arrives a day or two early. I think they do the CYA thing when they estimate delivery date. I often get 2 day deliveries in one. I would be very surprised if they didn’t have gillions of Show 5s pre-stationed at warehouses all over the globe, including Seattle.

You wuz right. It arrived today, a day early

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

You wuz right. It arrived today, a day early

[ApK]

Glad I could help, DD. Now, maybe you can help me get my new Linux system to connect to the PEAP secured wifi at my office.

Regarding brief mode, I wish Alexa had an in-between setting where she'll still say "Okay" but stop offering unsolicited suggestions or subscription pitches along with it.

[tubemonkey]

My Show 5 is here and set up. I closed the camera and turned off the mics. That should keep my dried banana peels away from the prying eyes and ears of the NSA

I'm playing Spotify right now and the sound is even better than my Dot 3. Now I'm playing cartoons on YouTube and I'm quite pleased with the picture quality. Later on, I'll tailor the home screen (clock, weather, etc).

Overall, I love it! Glad I got one

[Raphi'Elohim]

I have a new one sitting in my closet, never opened, as junk :

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday April 10, 2019 @09:00PM from the always-listening dept.

Amazon reportedly employs thousands of people around the world to help improve its Alexa digital assistant. "The team listens to voice recordings captured in Echo owners' homes and offices," reports Bloomberg. "The recordings are transcribed, annotated and then fed back into the software as part of an effort to eliminate gaps in Alexa's understanding of human speech and help it better respond to commands." From the report:
The team comprises a mix of contractors and full-time Amazon employees who work in outposts from Boston to Costa Rica, India and Romania, according to the people, who signed nondisclosure agreements barring them from speaking publicly about the program. They work nine hours a day, with each reviewer parsing as many as 1,000 audio clips per shift, according to two workers based at Amazon's Bucharest office, which takes up the top three floors of the Globalworth building in the Romanian capital's up-and-coming Pipera district. The modern facility stands out amid the crumbling infrastructure and bears no exterior sign advertising Amazon's presence. The work is mostly mundane. One worker in Boston said he mined accumulated voice data for specific utterances such as "Taylor Swift" and annotated them to indicate the searcher meant the musical artist. Occasionally the listeners pick up things Echo owners likely would rather stay private: a woman singing badly off key in the shower, say, or a child screaming for help. The teams use internal chat rooms to share files when they need help parsing a muddled word -- or come across an amusing recording.

Sometimes they hear recordings they find upsetting, or possibly criminal. Two of the workers said they picked up what they believe was a sexual assault. When something like that happens, they may share the experience in the internal chat room as a way of relieving stress. Amazon says it has procedures in place for workers to follow when they hear something distressing, but two Romania-based employees said that, after requesting guidance for such cases, they were told it wasn't Amazon's job to interfere. [...] Amazon, in its marketing and privacy policy materials, doesn't explicitly say humans are listening to recordings of some conversations picked up by Alexa. "We use your requests to Alexa to train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems," the company says in a list of frequently asked questions. In Alexa's privacy settings, the company gives users the option of disabling the use of their voice recordings for the development of new features. A screenshot reviewed by Bloomberg shows that the recordings sent to the Alexa auditors don't provide a user's full name and address but are associated with an account number, as well as the user's first name and the device's serial number.
An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg: "We take the security and privacy of our customers' personal information seriously. We only annotate an extremely small sample of Alexa voice recordings in order [to] improve the customer experience. For example, this information helps us train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems, so Alexa can better understand your requests, and ensure the service works well for everyone."

They added: "We have strict technical and operational safeguards, and have a zero tolerance policy for the abuse of our system. Employees do not have direct access to information that can identify the person or account as part of this workflow. All information is treated with high confidentiality and we use multi-factor authentication to restrict access, service encryption and audits of our control environment to protect it."

https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=amazon+echo

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday April 11, 2019 @06:03PM from the cease-and-desist dept.

Yesterday, Bloomberg dropped a bombshell report revealing that Amazon employs thousands of people around the world to listen to voice recordings captured in Echo owners' homes and offices, and uses them to improve its Alexa digital assistant. "The recordings are transcribed, annotated and then fed back into the software as part of an effort to eliminate gaps in Alexa's understanding of human speech and help it better respond to commands," the report says. "A screenshot reviewed by Bloomberg shows that the recordings sent to the Alexa auditors don't provide a user's full name and address but are associated with an account number, as well as the user's first name and the device's serial number."

While many have assumed that this was already happening behind the scenes, it may still come as a surprise to see proof of the practice. Thankfully, there is a way to stop Amazon from listening to your Alexa recordings. Tom's Guide explains:

1. In the Alexa app, access Settings. You'll find this button at the bottom of the menu in the top left corner of the home screen.
2. Click on Alexa Account. This should be at the top of the page.
3. Select Alexa Privacy. You'll be taken to Amazon's external Alexa privacy page. You can review a number of things here, including our voice history, skill permissions, and other data settings.
4. Tap "Manage How Your Data Improves Alexa."
5. Toggle "Help Develop New Features" and "Use Messages to Improve Transcriptions" to Off. Alexa will no longer learn and improve from your responses, but your recordings will be safe and sound.

https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=amazon+echo

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

My Show 5 is here and set up. I closed the camera and turned off the mics. That should keep my dried banana peels away from the prying eyes and ears of the NSA

I'm playing Spotify right now and the sound is even better than my Dot 3. Now I'm playing cartoons on YouTube and I'm quite pleased with the picture quality. Later on, I'll tailor the home screen (clock, weather, etc).

Overall, I love it! Glad I got one

Jeff can probably override the camera and mics, and since he probably has more time on his hands what with the divorce settled, not to mention a lighter wallet, he might decide to go on banana peel patrol!

I bet the shows are really good with music services since they show you the song info on the screen. I tried using a tablet running the Alexa app in conjunction with my Echos, but it would only work for a few songs then the screens would freeze. I gave up. Probably won’t have that issue on a Show though.

[DiapDealer]

That's a big *yawn* for many of us @Raphi. I, for one, simply don't care about any of that. If I was concerned in the least about privacy, I would never connect ANY device I owned the internet (nor post anything that I wouldn't care if everyone in the world read).

Keep in mind that this thread is for people who actually WANT to use these devices. We have no delusions about how they function, and don't really need educated further on the privacy aspects. We're not neophytes.

As always: one person's trash/junk is another person's treasure. *shrug*

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by ApK

Glad I could help, DD. Now, maybe you can help me get my new Linux system to connect to the PEAP secured wifi at my office. .

Eek! That's not anything I've ever had to deal with before. A brief search would suggest you're not nearly alone in that regard, though. I'd love to return the the favor, but it sounds like your best bet is a newer, somewhat cutting edge distro like Arch or Manjaro. I know that's not really helpful, sorry.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Jeff can probably override the camera and mics, and since he probably has more time on his hands what with the divorce settled, not to mention a lighter wallet, he might decide to go on banana peel patrol!
...

I'm pretty sure he can't override the physical camera shutter. And if your afraid he can, there's always good ol' duct tape.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by wodin

I'm pretty sure he can't override the physical camera shutter. And if your afraid he can, there's always good ol' duct tape.

It was a joke, of course. Just sharing a bit of humor with our #1 monkey! For the record I agree with DiapDealer in that I’m not concerned about privacy on my Alexa devices nor do I wear tin foil hats. Besides, I pity the poor fool who did manage to tap into my cameras and/or mics as s/he would surely be bored to death in record time watching and listening to an old fart doing old fart stuff!

[wodin]

Originally Posted by OtinG

It was a joke, of course. Just sharing a bit of humor with our #1 monkey! For the record I agree with DiapDealer in that I’m not concerned about privacy on my Alexa devices nor do I wear tin foil hats. Besides, I pity the poor fool who did manage to tap into my cameras and/or mics as s/he would surely be bored to death in record time watching and listening to an old fart doing old fart stuff!

As was I.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by OtinG

It was a joke, of course. Just sharing a bit of humor with our #1 monkey! For the record I agree with DiapDealer in that I’m not concerned about privacy on my Alexa devices nor do I wear tin foil hats.

How about your kittehs?