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Re:Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person by LinuxBender on Thursday December 20, 2018 @02:28PM (#18728211)
This is just my opinion, based on my experience and personality.

Voice first running entirely on prem with no internet connectivity, sure I would go for that.

Talking to the internet? No way. Not even if I had root on the device with the source code to the OS, firmware and applications.

Re:Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person by j88439h84 on Thursday December 20, 2018 @03:59PM (#18729075)
> Talking to the internet? No way. Not even if I had root on the device with the source code to the OS, firmware and applications.

Can you explain how this is different from running your linux computer with a webcam attached?

Re:Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person by sincerely on Thursday December 20, 2018 @04:27PM (#18729292)
Do you really think the people who are concerned about Google Home/Alexa/etc don't also have their webcam covered with a sticker?
Re:Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person by LinuxBender on Thursday December 20, 2018 @05:30PM (#18729778)
I don't leave a webcam attached, or a microphone.

I can also debug any code running on my machines and have some idea of what they are doing. I can also limit when they are allowed to talk to the internet and to what address.

Re:Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person by j88439h84 on Friday December 21, 2018 @03:23PM (#18736298)
> Not even if I had root on the device with the source code to the OS, firmware and applications.

Can't you debug code and control network access in that scenario?

Re:Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person by LinuxBender on Friday December 21, 2018 @06:09PM (#18737537)
Maybe if I have the debugging symbols and kernel headers. Even then there are circumstances where it won't help.

For example: Nearly all cell phones check in to their manufactures website from time to time. Nearly all of them look for a header that triggers a debug mode that turns on CarrierIQ. (It isn't called this any more, AT&T renamed it to an empty name to stop people from searching for it).

Trying to find obscure functions and understand how they interact with the servers they check into can be very difficult at best. It often leads to more questions than answers, at least based on my experience.

Re:Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person by melling on Thursday December 20, 2018 @02:35PM (#18728296)
I guess you’ll have to wait another decade or two.

In the meantime, I’m “feeding” my devices every day.

Hopefully voice-first becomes a solved problem, and you’ll get your device sooner.

Re:Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person by LinuxBender on Thursday December 20, 2018 @02:37PM (#18728323)
What's funny about that is, I had voice recognition software in 1991 that could start up any application on my computer, reboot my computer, etc. Surely there must be a small device with the processing power of my old 386-DX40.

I believe it was made by a company called Covox or something? There were several other companies that made similar software back then.

Re:Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person by danso on Thursday December 20, 2018 @02:48PM (#18728449)
Could your device recognize multiple speakers, with varying accents and grammar style?
Re:Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person by LinuxBender on Thursday December 20, 2018 @02:52PM (#18728489)
Yes. Not very well, but yes. Each person had to say a few sentences. This is fine for home use unless you run a halfway house.

Certainly not as well as the software we implemented to listen to phone calls in the background on wireless networks in the mid 90's. That was the wildfire project and was fun. We abandoned it, since our lobbyists were able to kick the hands-free laws down the road.