my family is moving into a much bigger house than we used to have. we use amazon echos as an intercom system through the announcement feature. because our house is bigger, i’m being forced to get one myself for my room. i haven’t needed one for years because i use their app on my phone and i can see their announcements as a notification and i can also kill off most of its tracking by DNS. unfortunately my parents don’t understand this and are forcing me to get one. what can i do to limit its tracking?
Who is forcing you?
You can just read his post to find out.
Nope, the post doesn’t say.
My brother in high, are you christ?
You should hire a nicely-dressed and polite person to simply relay your messages in person. And while not needed, they could be tending to other tasks, like your laundry or maybe tending the garden…
#ProblemsOfTheUpper-Lowers
Because I want to helpful: if you are moving to a home large enough for you to feel that an intercom is needed, then the cost associated with having a simple system installed would be the best way to maintain your privacy, well, your privacy to those without physical access to your home at least.
I can’t think of any intercom-related reason that outweighs the needless additional network load, nightmarish privacy policies, and instant gratification through retail buttons, that a network of echo’s could provide.
If not using it for Alexa connectivity, why not just get an actual intercom? A pair is like 30 bucks on Amazon, no Internet required.
Or “hey Alexa, order an intercom system on my mom’s account”
Isn’t there an eavesdropping function on Alexa… Maybe it’s actually less communication and more checking in on what you’re doing (not to increase your paranoia)
my parents and siblings enjoy the convenience of alexas and the fact that they can play music. i’ve tried suggesting an actual intercom system and they’re against it
As a parent, if my kid said “I don’t want to be tracked, I’m concerned about my privacy”, I’d get an intercom for everyone in the house and let the Alexa be opt in. Sounds like playing music using Alexa isn’t a game changer for you. What does it matter anyway, what if you like headphones better, the Alexa stuff isn’t mandatory for playing/listening to music.
I hate the drop in feature that alexa devices have. You can drop into any device in your home and no one had to accept. Essentially you can listen in without the other person knowing. If it had some sort of announcement that smoothie device was dropping in and it was possible to accept our decline that would be different.
Don’t get one. If your parents want an intercom system, have an actual intercom system installed. No need to violate your privacy.
Were I in that position, I would resist, just as much as if they were trying to put video cameras in my bathroom and bedroom.
I would suggest alternatives, and offer to research, order, and install them.
I would appeal to my parents’ empathy, try to educate them on the risks of these corporate-controlled hackable devices bring with them, and on the negative impact that surveillance has on human development. I would try to persuade them, and if it came down to it, I would fight. I would look for allies to help: siblings, extended family members, school authorities, counselors… anyone whose views they might respect, both alone and in groups.
If they stubbornly insisted, I would continue to bring it up regularly, both in private and in public. I would make sure that it was a constant drain on their time, and a constant source of resentment, and an issue that they would have to justify not only to themselves, but to the community around them.
And, if I somehow couldn’t keep it out of my space or unpowered, I would open it up and disconnect the microphone, or perhaps wire a physical switch to allow connecting it only when needed. (By the way, reed switches exist that can be concealed within a device and activated from the outside with a magnet.)
And then I would continue to fight.
i haven’t needed one for years because i use their app on my phone and i can see their announcements as a notification and i can also kill off most of its tracking by DNS. unfortunately my parents don’t understand this Sounds like you have a reasonable, compatible alternative on your phone already. Will they even notice if you continue using this and never plug the new alexa in?
probably not. i might just not plug it in and see how it goes. if it doesn’t work out, i guess i’ll have to DNS block its tracking from a openwrt pi
Good plan A.
For a plan B, If your parents don’t understand why privacy is important on the internet they probably won’t understand why the echos in your room don’t seem to work. Say it’s wifi can’t reach the router, bend the cable so many times the wires break, “accidentally” become super clumsy with it and knock it over a bunch. This is absolutely a first world problem, it requires a first world solution.
I mean I desoldered the microphones from my fire tv cube. It had 8 separate mics throughout but it works fine without them, kind of a pain in the ass to do though.
You can’t have privacy with that setup
Get one with a hardware switch to mute the mic.
The microphone disable switch on every google home/amazon alexa device does not physically disable the microphone; it just informs the software that you’d like it to not listen to you. It can still do so whenever it pleases.
This is how/why it is able to respond ‘your microphone is currently disabled’ when you try to command it with that switch on.
Pretty sure that the very first gen Google ?dot? Mini speaker has physical disconnect.
I had thought teardowns proved this wrong and that some of the devices were hardware and/or a separate chip/software stack?
If you are OK opening things up and can use a soldering iron you could out a physical switch on the microphone.
Divorce
“Sorry mom and dad, half the house and your wealth is mine now.”
I’m pretty sure it would be a spouse
OP lives with their parents.
Give em the ol’ Blizzard treatment;
Don’t you guys have phones?
Unplug it
Amazon doesn’t want you to know this one trick
sorry for asking a question about privacy in a privacy community. i can’t just not use it because my parents are forcing me to use it. if i was allowed to unplug it, i would.
Honestly, just muting the microphone is mostly fine. I really don’t believe they transmit shit to the cloud when they’re muted. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how they answer when they’re muted so they’re still listening, but they process the “Alexa” (or whatever wake word you use) locally and then send a short buffer of recording along with everything you say following it to the cloud to process. It’s likely they just hear that you said the wake word locally and then say “Hey I’m muted” without sending it to the cloud.
I know this answer isn’t the most privacy oriented on a privacy community, but I think this option is more reasonable than you’d think.
You mentioned blocking with DNS. You could try setting up Wireshark or something and see if there are any packets from it when you say the wake word while it is muted and how it compares to when you say the wake word when it’s unmuted.
Unfortunately the red LED would always be on because it’s muted, but you could cover it with opaque tape. Like electric tape.
Do it anyways. Everyone has a right of privacy no matter the age.
Ya there’s no such thing as “being forced to use it”. What are they going to do, lock you in your room with no food if you refuse? Just stand up for yourself and say you are not comfortable having it in your room and don’t compromise on it.
Well some parents can lock you in a room with no food especially in developing countries
My neighbor tied her children because she went out and “they fight a lot” she claimed to be outside for 20 or 30 mins but neighbors said it was like half day.
That’s like 5 years in jail right there
Developing countries probably don’t have like 4 amazon echos in the house as an intercom system though, tbf.
You’d be surprised what stuff has a higher priority for purchase.
IMHO the only reason they don’t is because they don’t know how to use it or do not care…
You know, in an ideal world, that makes sense.
But this isn’t an ideal world. That’s the kind of advice that can get a kid literally beaten in a bad scenario. Parents usually hold all the power in a household, and it isn’t the kind of power you can just shrug off.
