They're terribly useful for listening to music, setting timers, alarms, reminders, checking weather, traffic, unit conversions, and just general web lookups.
I suspect what you meant was, "why do people trade their privacy for convenience?" Which of course is ALWAYS the trade-off one makes when it comes to security.
I personally have decided (for now) that the convenience of the devices outweighs the likely harm they will have on me. Would I have one if I were running for political office? Absolutely not.
A smartphone that would be in your hands or pockets anyways.
It's luxury tech. That's where the market is.
That's a incredibly broad statement... anything you do can be done in another way which someone could define as luxury. I can churn butter, but I like the luxury to buy it instead, I expect you are the same ;).
VUI is just another new interface for devices that provides convenience.
In short: it enables people to get even more lazy. No wonder US has an obesity problem.
Every time I pull out my phone there is the temptation to check my email, message friends, etc.
But with my echo dot (or google home mini, I currently have both while I decide which to keep) I can control my lights by voice without missing a beat, I can play music for my kids to dance to without fumbling through an app, I can check the weather forecast while I'm digging through the coat closet, all without being distracted from what I'm doing and without any extra fluff.
I do not have any locks or security systems connected to them as I do not trust them that far, but for informational and recreational use they have made things considerably more convenient.
If you can find a standalone internet radio that's as convenient as an Amazon Echo, please let me know. It's an underserved market.
Maybe once "okay google" works correctly on my phone, I'll start using one of these.
These devices are as literally Big Brother as it gets.
I personally boycott Google products and do not purchase from Amazon. Google has gone from ‘don’t be evil’ to ‘be evil and pretend we’re still cool’.
When it comes down to it, we are all compromised, and it's just a question of what you are comfortable with. Some people choose not to use electricity at home, and yet they go on living. Your choices are your own, and of the billions of people you should take pride in your individuality and be comfortable in your choices.
Stop this. You are putting blame on the end user for failing to understand complex security and privacy issues.
Also, this is an incorrect understanding of network economies and society.
"it doesn't take a genius" to carefully check a car for safety features, like having brakes. Yet there are regulations to protect car buyers.
Without the intervention of regulators we would not have safety belts and airbags.
Same for building safety. Food safety and so on.
The same goes for privacy. In a world where any device in your home has cameras and microphone it becomes impossible for a lone individual to push back.
You need a whole society to do that.
Then, forgive my tone, but it doesn’t take a genius to understand that you don’t want one constantly monitoring you in your home. Where you have private conversations. This is my point.
These devices are physical spyware - they’re as useful and terrible as Bonzi Buddy but people pay for it.
I use TOR, for everything. Even basic browsing. I’ll take the performance hit any day.
I also disable JS on 90% of sites I visit.
I’ve stayed at an iPhone 6S that I could jailbreak to observe outgoing and incoming network information and block IPs where necessary, and redirect to TOR in the background.
I don’t keep Android devices and let all of my friends know about all the serious security risks involved, and beg them to at least get a refurbished iPhone instead.
I have friends in the psychedelic scene who literally text each other openly about LSD like total idiots when Signal is free.
I have friends who have ended up in prison, not even jail, from this kind of shit.
I talk about psychedelics, I talk about occultism, I talk about revolutionary political ideas, and I talk about private details like my sex life, comfortably, at home, as do many, many of my friends.
Having one of these devices in their home alone could be a ticket to jail or prison for them.
You’re telling me there are advantages for this shit? Because you can turn your lights on without having to grab your phone, or, God forbid, stand up and go flick a light switch, it’s worth it to have corporations listening in to all your shit?
You’ve obviously never had to watch a best friend dragged off by police due to getting nabbed by information grabbed through technology. Good for you! Have a cookie.
Some people are involved in progressing society beyond its pathetic, self destructive status-quo, to move the world forward, and we need privacy to do that.
If you wanna live your little work, wife, and kids life, where you’d never be concerned about a single thing you say while your Echo is around, go for it.
Myself? I actually intend to change the world while I’m on it. So no, I’m not alright with anyone listening in to what I’m doing.
Do not redirect traffic from applications that have not been designed for Tor into the Tor network! They can leak all sort of data making it even worse than non-Tor traffic.
(BTW it's written Tor)