Or maybe you don’t install a data mining spy device in the office?
Is it any different than speaking in front of your smartphone?
I don’t own an echo or Google whatever but I’ve definitely mentioned things and then got ads for that thing within the hour/day. Like cat litter when I don’t even own a cat, just mentioned it once for cleaning up spills.
More likely there’s a bunch of data points it can use. Coming within BT range of someone who does have a cat for example. Otherwise all the major smart phone companies would need to be in collision to keep the secret because the battery drain would be so blatant of it was recording, processing, transfering etc.
I don’t have a smoking gun for Google advertising based on conversation, but I mentioned in an email (Gmail) that someone I know was going to the Calgary Stampede, and Google Ads flogged Stetson cowboy hats and the Stampede for weeks after that. It was so conspicuous because normally it’s just, “hot singles in your area”, “hot Christian singles in your area?” maybe, “hot Christian moms in your area?” Nowadays it’s like, “grannies near you want to fuck.” FML.
My pastor mentioned a specific verse in his sermon recently. I went to type it in my notes. My phone’s keyboard (Gboard) suggested that specific verse immediately. Not just the book. The chapter and verse numbers, too.
So keep cell phone in lockers, no smart TVs, and no Alexa or similar devices.
If the patient’s name is Alexa, you’re gonna have a bad time
If this is a medical facility, I’d never trust them ever again if I saw an echo there.
Dentist office I went to has a private room with an Echo, they use it to switch playlists without having to touch anything, I guess. Figure they didn’t really think it through…
But yeah I was a bit uncomfortable with that. Not that anything private was discussed, I simply had a cavity filled. They’re excellent dentists tho, best I’ve ever seen, so I won’t be going elsewhere.
Maybe mention the potential privacy issue if they’re still using echo on your next visit. They might’ve not aware of it.
In my experience with “mentioning the potential privacy issue” people are aware, it’s just an awkward conversation that they’d prefer not to have.
Imagine being a receptionist at a dentists office and some whackadoodle rolls in to the waiting room on their electric scooter, and loudly exclaims… “are you aware that you and all of the staff here are absolutely completely 100% butt naked under your clothes and hosiery? It’s unhygienic, unsanitary, non-inclusive, and completely unsatisfactory. I just thought you should know and perhaps talk it over with your boss”.
Your reaction to this hypothetical scenario is the reaction you can expect when talking to your dentist about privacy.
Wait until you hear about the listening devices that 90% of people carry around in their pockets everywhere they go.
You’re all missing the real kicker here - this sign is only here for the HIPAA auditor. Everyone knows that no one is actually going to mute the thing.
We’re not all like that. Some of us do really care (a whole lot) about the person, and not just “the patient”. We get eye-rolled and sighed at sometimes because we speak up; but it doesn’t matter because advocating for our patients is one of our top priorities.
Some hospitals have better work-cultures than others, but all of them have at least a few who truly give a damn
Also muting it probably doesn’t stop it listening, it just stops its response.
No, there is a button to make the Echo stop listening.
If you want to prove me wrong, it should be incredibly easy to press the button and record the Echos network activity. If you’re right you’d still see network traffic. But nobody has been able to show this so far. I wonder why?
Yeah I read the other comments after making mine. However everyone keeps calling it a “physical” button, and I don’t think that’s accurate. It won’t be a physical switch that opens a circuit, it will be a button that operates a transistor that opens the circuit.
Still, I see no good reason to trust the device - especially in a medical setting.
If the Echo stored the audio and then sent it sometime after you unmute, it would still pass your test.
I’m not sure that’s the case. We have one at work and if it thinks you’re calling out to it repeatedly it will say out loud that its mic is off and that you have to enable it.
It might just be the part that listens for “Alexa” but that audio buffer is available to the device and it can do things with it.
It’s fascinating how people know that these devices break their privacy, yet they keep using them.
Some people just don’t care about their privacy and I’m not judging them, you do you!
Professionals should care about their client’s privacy though. That shouldn’t be a debate.
