> Jeff Bezos wanted this (though unsure if it was his idea) for the original Amazon Echo.

What happened to this feature? If Bezos wanted this it would be there.

That’s an excellent point. I see zero reason to believe this story is true. Sounds more like urban legend.

I'm happy to show you the prototype.

I don't know why it was axed, but my best guess is that it aesthetically looked pretty bad, and it was probably a pain to produce at high yields. Also, I can imagine users finding it more confusing than an obvious well-labelled button.

Indeed, let's stop giving credit to him if he didn't actually do it. Alexa and those amazon devices are hardly a model of privacy.

>Alexa and those amazon devices are hardly a model of privacy

How so?

Uploads all of your speech to a company centered in one of the more privacy-hostile regimes, is strictly for-profit, has a set of policies subject to change at any time, policies are hard to read and therefore difficult to track changes in, unclear when the microphone is truly on and uploading. The list actually goes on but I feel like you get the idea.

"one of the more privacy-hostile regimes"

i assume you're referring to the West/EU/USA here. i share your skepticism, especially around the EU's own GDPR. "government agencies and law enforcement", as well as "activities under the scope of Chapter 2, Title V of the Treaty on European Union" are exempted from GDPR.

I am referring to the US. I have never received any actual proof that the theoretical separation of a datacenter from the mother US-based company will make it immune from the US' draconian surveillance laws, therefore I should assume that it's not trustworthy. Given past experience, I think this is a reasonable stance to take.

The GDPR isn't very topical here, because big conglomerates have been violating it since it's inception. Until the teeth have been enforced, we have to assume that a US company is not only shovelling all of your data to every government agency (which would happen even with the GDPR being followed, as you say) that blinks at them a few times but is also selling it to every marketing agency that is capable of paying.

I agree and can somewhat chime in. I am not a lawyer. I have spoken to folks that would be involved if we receive an NSL. We would obey the NSL regardless of GDPR. For standard legal requests, I am not sure of the current status of what we would do. AFAIK no U.S. company will risk disobeying the gag order and compliance aspects of a national security letter.

hmm maybe the part where it's an always-on microphone in your home?

> What happened to this feature? If Bezos wanted this it would be there.

Maybe the Echo team said it was too hard, and Bezos had to "disagree and commit".

Wouldn’t it be the echo team who must disagree and commit?

"This isn’t one way. If you’re the boss, you should do this too. I disagree and commit all the time."

-- Bezos in his 1997 letter to shareholders

Transparent buttons are easy. Transparency is hard.

He might have wanted a transparent mute button until told that it would be $5 per unit and would delay the start of production by 4 months.

Valid points although I suggest “very few people” could be hundreds of thousands or even millions at the scale of consumer phones and thus I submit “a very small percentage” as a more fitting description.

As much as I love math and logic, sometimes I wish it would go fuck itself with all this "majority" shit. It's really putting a hamper on my ability to have any optimism that things might ever change.

The new Echo Flex has this feature though. The mute button electronically disconnects the microphone. This feature is highlighted dominantly in promo materials. No transparency/visual verification though.

The problem I see with this - other than being cool - that it requires motion, so more likely to fail with time.