<story><title>Google is nerfing all Home Minis because mine spied on everything I said</title><url>http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/10/10/google-nerfing-home-minis-mine-spied-everything-said-247/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wizzzzzy</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m in two minds about Google home, alexa etc. 
On one hand, the novelty &amp;#x2F; utility of these devices makes me half inclined to get one but the fundamental idea of having a device in my house, connected to the internet that is sat there listening to me 24&amp;#x2F;7 leaves me feeling slightly uneasy at best. The idea makes me feel like I&amp;#x27;d be treating all the things I&amp;#x27;ve read in the past few years about tech companies, privacy etc with complete contempt.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rsync</author><text>&amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;m in two minds about Google home, alexa etc. On one hand, the novelty &amp;#x2F; utility of these devices makes me half inclined to get one but the fundamental idea of having a device in my house, connected to the internet that is sat there listening to me 24&amp;#x2F;7 leaves me feeling slightly uneasy at best.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I am totally opposed to these devices in my home and am, frankly, aghast at the notion that they would see wide deployment or that &amp;quot;voice is the future ... blah blah&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;However, I &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; have the ability to consider other viewpoints and when I do, I am completely underwhelmed by the proposed use-cases of these devices.  According to Amazon themselves, the things I could do with Alexa include:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What&amp;#x27;s on sale today ?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Find me a Chinese restaurant&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What&amp;#x27;s the weather&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;These are use-cases that suggest a user who either has no particular preferences or is satisfied with extremely simple, non-nuanced information (or both).  These use-cases are the literal manifestation of dumbing yourself down far enough for the computer to pass your (very easy) turing test.&lt;p&gt;Other use-cases like &amp;quot;play my party playlist&amp;quot; are a wash in terms of simplicity or speed vs. just (pressing whatever play button you have in the system you use).&lt;p&gt;Are there any examples that I would find interesting or nuanced or definitive improvements over existing tools ?</text></comment>
<story><title>Google is nerfing all Home Minis because mine spied on everything I said</title><url>http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/10/10/google-nerfing-home-minis-mine-spied-everything-said-247/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wizzzzzy</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m in two minds about Google home, alexa etc. 
On one hand, the novelty &amp;#x2F; utility of these devices makes me half inclined to get one but the fundamental idea of having a device in my house, connected to the internet that is sat there listening to me 24&amp;#x2F;7 leaves me feeling slightly uneasy at best. The idea makes me feel like I&amp;#x27;d be treating all the things I&amp;#x27;ve read in the past few years about tech companies, privacy etc with complete contempt.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>subsubsub</author><text>Honest question. Why do you feel this way about a hub, and not about your smartphone?&lt;p&gt;(assuming you have one)&lt;p&gt;Is it because, although your smartphone has the ability to listen to you in the same way, it is not the stated aim of the device?</text></comment>