[armagon]

We have an some Echo Dots.

While I'm somewhat concerned about the privacy implications, it has been very convenient. The biggest problem it has solved is "how to listen to music", and if that isn't a pain point for you, you don't really need it.

My kids have told Alexa to recognize their voices. I have several boys, and Alexa really can't tell them apart very well. (And, I haven't figured out how to edit the profiles; one of them taught Alexa he was John Cena, and I don't know how to correct it; another son uses a deep voice to tell Alexa he is Batman, which is kinda funny) I would not be concerned, at this point, about other people's devices keeping shadow profiles of you. (This statement probably needs to be reassessed every five years).

I did play with an open source voice assistant, but these are so much better, hardware- and software-wise. Would I take a self-hosted voice assistant if it reliably did most of the things I use Alexa for? Absolutely.