As most of the Lemmy users are security/privacy minded, after a question about alternative voices I’m wondering. Why would you allow a virtual assistance to spy on you constantly? (Especially when you don’t need to due to other limitations)
And as a side note, is there a way to kill Siri completely on IOS (not just go trough all app settings and disable siri there)? (company phone, so alas not jail broken, Android is rooted and GA has been removed, as is the Google app itself)
Actually, it can be useful in the car to send a message to someone like „I’ll be there a couple of minutes late“ or „shall I bring home something?“ without distracting yourself.
It’s easier to say “hey Google, turn off all lights” than go to Home Assistant and turn each off by hand.
I’m sure. But my raspberry pi 3 can barely run Hass without overheating. (had to remove adguard from the same device because that made it overheat a few times a week)
Maybe when I upgrade it to a proper home server, I’ll look into replacing my Google home speakers.
I have a remote for that, kaku remote which sends an off for device one and domoticz turns the lights off for me. When I forget, there is a fixed time in a schedule for off and 2 times for 1, 1 fixed, 1 30m before sun down.
I agree, I find using a web interface/app to cumbersome, the remote is a lot nicer to use. (And I have the original remotes available as well, for when I messed to much with domoticz. ;) )
Why would you allow a virtual assistance to spy on you constantly?
Because it’s not? A low-power process on my phone is listening for the wake word. When it hears other stuff, it ignores it. When it hears the wake word, it processes my request, tied to a separate anonymous identifier used only for Siri itself. I’m not really losing any privacy at all.
And as a side note, is there a way to kill Siri completely on IOS (not just go trough all app settings and disable siri there)?
It’s just the first two toggles (Listen for “Hey Siri” and Press Side Button for Siri) in the Siri & Search menu that you’d need to turn off. There’s not much to it.
I’m all about informed consent - I’m wiling to compromise privacy as long as I know how much I’m compromising in exchange for convenience - using virtual assistants to shoot off texts, make calendar events, etc is invaluable to me for many reasons and it improves QOL more than it harms it - I do what I can to limit how much access there is to my queries, but thats just how I approach it
People use stuff like Alexa or Google home mostly as a voice activated timer, weather reporter, or speaker. If they have light bulbs maybe they use it that too. It can also be handy for voice activated controls for a movie if it can connect to something like a fire stick.
Most people don’t actually know what might be involved in terms of privacy concerns. They see the convenance of tech or something that’s neat. A vast majority of people simply aren’t doing things like uninstalling Google apps or know what a GPL refers to.
There are open source and local versions of home automation and voice assistants.
I have Alexa because it was on sale and useful to me. I don’t really think out loud and can unplug the thing if I want to talk about unionizing. When I replace things or buy new ones I’ll be keeping in mind compatibility with open source or local solutions. Alexa does integrate with a lot of stuff though. I do think it will be discontinued at some point. Amazon loses money on the product and it hasn’t been increasing sales like they hoped. No one trusts the damn thing to buy crap off Amazon for them.
