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by kingnothing 2715 days ago
Your smartphone is also always listening. What's the difference?
2 comments

For one, Amazon doesn't make smartphones, and I trust them the least.

In the iOS ecosystem, Siri can be set up to only listen in response to a button-press (don't remember which is default), and the watch only listens on wrist-raise. Those at least creates some physical barrier to passive listening, even if it requires a certain degree of trust in the devices.

> In the iOS ecosystem, Siri can be set up to only listen in response to a button-press

Sure, that's assuming you trust Apple (if you don't, then you might imagine that those settings don't actually do what they say they do). If you trust them, then you're fine. If you're in Google's ecosystem, and you trust Google, then you're fine. Ditto for Amazon. But the point here is that people don't trust these entities.

And then somehow target a smart home speaker, while simultaneously carrying around an always-on, always-connected, geo-located, potential listening device in their pocket, all day long.

I don't use a smartphone
I don't know why GP specified "smartphone", there's nothing special about the new phones. A nokia 3310 could spy on you all the same.

In fact, the nokia 3310 would probably be even less secure than modern phones.

Do you see legitimate uses for smartphones?

The way I see it is if you already own a smartphone then echo or home don't really add additional exposure.