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by hammock 2122 days ago
Holy crap. They are openly saying they will now be recording and listening to (and transcribing presumably) your speech at any time.

BTW, pretty sure Facebook and Google are already listening to speech and serving ads off it, just not admitting to it.

3 comments

Where does it say transcribing? To me it sounds like it is processing voice on device into emotion markers and only the emotion markers are send to amazon. So the actual voice information would never leave the device. I do think anything else would not be possible legally because you'd need to have consent from every stranger you have a discussion with, moreso what about trade secret meetings. I can't fathom Amazon would go that way.
It doesn't. However for the last nine or more years (since work on Echo began), transcription has been far and away the #1 way Amazon processes speech - not "emotion markers" or whatever else you are dreaming up. I don't see "emotion markers" mentioned or described, and "it sounds like they are doing something else" is not really a strong argument if you're trying to guarantee that they aren't transcribing it.
Not just "your" (customer's) speech but anyone else you're talking with. Piece by piece we are accepting more and more of this kind of invasion of privacy.

Also how is this ompatibe with laws where both parties must consent to a recording being made. Perhaps Amazon would argue this isn't actually a recording because... reasons.

> your speech at any time.

And that of others who happen to be around, presumably.