Hopefully this may be of interest to some people. Amazon are running a promotion in some countries where you can get Echo devices in return for developing Alexa skills.

The one that seems easiest to achieve is only valid in certain European countries "Publish your very first, new Alexa skill during the promotion period and earn an Amazon Echo Dot."

Region End Date
UK, Republic of Ireland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy & Spain 30 November 2019
Japan 10 December 2019
Mexico 31 October 2019
Australia & New Zealand Promotion expired, could be another at some point
US & Canada No promotion yet, page suggests there will be one soon
4 years ago

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I wouldn't put one of those in my house if they paid me.

4 years ago
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Same here. I don't trust these smart speakers or voice assistant devices that could potentially be abused by companies (or hackers).

4 years ago
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i love having wire taps in my house. i have 3 google home mini's and 1 amazon echo. and honestly i love them.

i use alexa to read my harry potter books for me <3

im not a criminal so i dont care what the speakers hear and record from me lol. only people who do care are criminals that talk about illegal stuff

4 years ago
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You don't talk loudly about your illegal activities when alone at home? Weirdo.

Being serious tho, I can see people like lawyers actually being a bit paranoid about them and having valid reasons to not trust thingies that constantly listen, plenty of lawyers in my family and they tend to be excesively reserved about some stuff... yet they don't seem to care about sharing the stuff that actually sounds incriminating for their clients.

4 years ago
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touche, i didnt think of lawyers, i would say they are a good example to defeat my reasoning lol. totally understandable in their case

4 years ago
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im not a criminal so i dont care what the speakers hear and record from me lol. only people who do care are criminals that talk about illegal stuff

Neither are most people but many don't like the idea that such devices could potentially be used to listen in on or record things that are spoken or heard in confidence and which are supposed to be private. Many people put a very high value on privacy and their right to it and there are numerous reasons why they understandably wouldn't want their personal stuff out there for public consumption, so it has to do with invasion of such and not because of any illegal activity (I hope you were joking). If you don't understand that then I'm not sure what else to say other than things like the Facebook & Cambridge Analytica scandal wouldn't have been a huge thing if these kind of concerns weren't a big issue. Anyway if you like such devices that's fine, good for you. There is the convenience factor. However with that convenience comes a potentially dark and sinister underside to this sort of modern technology that will concern many people. Dystopian themes (and warnings of such) are found throughout popular entertainment culture, whether it be movies, literature, games, or whatever and this sort of technology plays into that.

4 years ago*
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what an attitude... well if you argue like that, you are living in an illusion and you are delusional.
or just, stupid argument

4 years ago
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lol. there are 8 billion people in the world. if you think the government is out to get just you. then that would be delusional lmao

4 years ago
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i never said that, what the f are you talking about

4 years ago
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To those complaining about using these as a wire tap, I hope you guys are not using mobile phones now, or should be disabling the mics.

4 years ago
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You're right and I'm sure the government has their ways of tapping in to them for surveillance if it came down to it, but they've become so ubiquitous and accepted now. So you might say it's an uneasy compromise in the minds of some as we have become so dependent on smart phones. Though I can't say quite the same about these smart speakers or voice assistant devices as the level of utility by the average person is nowhere near that of a smart phone (plus you don't take them with you everywhere).

4 years ago*
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