Alexa? Questions...

I couldn't relax with something "listening" to me either @simone_in_wiltshire. It's freaky ...

 

I wouldn't bother with one, they don't do anything useful.

 

Everything that could listen has been disabled, and people are complaining why I have never on my phone
I do have it on now and then.

 

I only have a dumb phone, but admit to a smart tv...

 

Our smart tv is about 8 years old so maybe it's not as smart as it likes to think

 

Our tv (21”) is at least 20 years old and suffering from the diseases of old age. We never turn it on.

My ipad has a camera lens facing away from the user and another facing toward the user. I have covered the latter with a sticky label. I don’t kid myself that this is of much use in providing privacy and I am pretty sure that if it wanted to it could listen in on conversations. Also, every word we type on here is probably ringing bells in some dark corner of the computerverse.

 

OH has an Alexa in his "office"/man-cave. I refuse to have one anywhere else in the house. He occasionally uses it to listen to music. It definitely listens in even when it's not being used - he often finds "recommendations" in his Amazon account that he hasn't actually searched for but tenuously related to something we've talked about in that room.

 

I remember being invited into somebody’s house once when we were carol singing in the village. The owner told us not to stand out in the rain but to come inside and sing in the hall. There was an Alexa bug in the hall and I remember wondering what it would make of the shepherds abiding in the fields. And then I remembered this and couldn’t stop giggling. Probably everyone else thought I’d had too much Christmas cheer.

 

I don't have either! Which may be over-cautious given I live alone so there would be precious little for them to record. The occasion expletive when I stub a toe perhaps.