To all the people who don't like/freak out about their data being harvested: would you use such a device, if it is completely open (both hardware and software) and the data is under your control?
It's unethical (and in many cases illegal) to record and analyze other people's conversations without consent. The intended usage is to only record your own speech but it inevitably leads to compromising others as well.
If I had control over the recordings, I could use it for "good" (useful to me) causes. But I can't make any guarantees as to what other people will do with conversations recorded in public.
1984-esque start-up idea: pay people pennies to forward your company the recordings of their surroundings. Make profiles and sell "anonimized" datasets of the interactions.
Definitely. If it's harvesting data exclusively for my own use, then it's working for me rather than against me, or at least rather than treating me as merely a vessel from which to collect data.
Devices such as these and "smart speakers" are sold at a loss because their lifetime value to the vendor is in gathering and analyzing data. They are attacked more emphatically than smart phones by privacy enthusiasts because they are so grossly unbalanced when comparing end-user value versus their cynical treatment of users' data interests. A smart phone can have its "smart agent" features disabled and remain a highly valuable device to its user. But if you take away the smart agent feature from these more recent "smart" devices and you're left with an inert brick.
I'd be much more inclined to, yes. The "Tony Stark" fantasy is a neat one - it's just heavily tempered by the reality of how much data and control we're letting out of our control.
The only company I'd even think about maybe-sorta-kinda trusting with this kind of device would be Apple, and that's only because they've put a clear priority on making more and more stuff happen on-device and on not selling info on what happens off-device.
we are letting out of our control because it's more convenient. Nowadays to truly own your data, you have to go to great lengths, but the solutions are arriving, but probably not for the mainstream consumer any time soon.
Not really. Alexa doesn't solve a problem that I have. I generally question the usefulness of solutions like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant. I'm sure they're useful to some people, but that pool of people seems to be rather small.
Speech as a means of controlling a device also seems down right stupid. Personally I don't see it being superior to a keyboard in any form. Certainly there are scenarios where voice commands are the better/safer choice, but again, those cases are extremely few and not something I encounter.
Honestly what's use case for Echo Frame, who seriously needs this?
Yes, in a heartbeat. Privacy concerns aside (though that is a huge factor!), I tend to use more niche software that isn't supported at all by most of these "smart" devices. I have a phone running Ubuntu Touch and I've preordered the Librem 5, for example.
While I might be willing to try working on support for a new device provided its interfaces are documented, I have little desire to buy an expensive new device knowing I'd have to reverse-engineer the thing before being able to even use it.
If the sounds are never recorded it is better than 'recorded, but kept securely'. Open hardware/software still has bugs and storage/processing is a daunting problem.
It's unethical (and in many cases illegal) to record and analyze other people's conversations without consent. The intended usage is to only record your own speech but it inevitably leads to compromising others as well.
If I had control over the recordings, I could use it for "good" (useful to me) causes. But I can't make any guarantees as to what other people will do with conversations recorded in public.
1984-esque start-up idea: pay people pennies to forward your company the recordings of their surroundings. Make profiles and sell "anonimized" datasets of the interactions.