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AI Privacy

Amazon Wants You To Turn Your Fire Tablet Into a Portable Echo (cnbc.com) 50

Amazon on Thursday introduced software and accessories that will turn its Fire HD tablets into a portable Echo. From a report: The company on Thursday unveiled a new case and stand for the Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 tablet so those devices will act almost just like the Amazon Echo Show, a larger gadget that has a touch display. You can call up recipes in the kitchen, see song lyrics for music that you're playing, place video calls to friends, start movies and more, all without touching the tablet and with a visual interface that was previously available only on the Echo Show and Echo Spot.
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Amazon Wants You To Turn Your Fire Tablet Into a Portable Echo

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    No more Alexa for me. period. I pulled the plug. I pulled the plug on Google assistant too. I think you all should do the same.

    • No more Alexa for me. period. I pulled the plug. I pulled the plug on Google assistant too. I think you all should do the same.

      Paranoia, paranoia, hey hey hey!

    • by antdude ( 79039 )

      Pull everything that can watch and hear!

  • I'm not quite at the point where I will go to a shack in Montana to keep Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple from spying on me...

    But I'm close.

    • You don't have to go full-on Ted Kaczynski and become a mountain-man. Just get rid of all the devices you own that are known to be capable of being leveraged into surveillance-and-data-collection devices. Wean yourself off your smartphone and get a plain dumbphone, one that can be turned completely 'Off', or at least that the battery can be removed (or, I suppose, get a smartphone with a removable battery, and take the battery out when you want actual privacy). While you're at it, stop using plastic to pay
  • As long as I can turn that functionality off and rely on it to actually stay off then I guess that is ok. If Amazon insists on listening to everything I say no matter what I do then I won't be using their Fire device unless they are paying me a salary to do so.

    • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

      I do not have any of these devices and do not want them either, so I am ignorant as to their operational details; can a 'Fire Tablet' be turned completely off? Or can it only be put in 'sleep mode' and wake itself up if ordered to remotely? If the latter is true then the only way you can ensure your privacy around such devices is to either put it in an enclosure of some sort that is soundproof and lightproof, or as far away from you as possible so it's out of earshot.
      • Fire tablets can be powered off just like any other Android tablet. The Alexa "hands-free" option can be disabled.
      • I do not have any of these devices and do not want them either, so I am ignorant as to their operational details; can a 'Fire Tablet' be turned completely off?

        Sure. Plus if all else fails drain the battery. Hard for it to function without power. That wasn't my question however. My question is can the FUNCTIONALITY be turned off in software and reliably depended upon to remain in that state. If not then these devices can die in a fire. If I can turn the setting off then no biggie.

  • by nwaack ( 3482871 ) on Thursday June 28, 2018 @12:18PM (#56860316)
    Seriously, stop it. I don't want or need my electronics to be constantly listening to what I'm saying.
    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by RickyShade ( 5419186 )

      Seriously, stop it. I don't want or need my electronics to be constantly listening to what I'm saying.

      What are you plotting?

    • But Nwaack, if you don't let Amazon, Google, Facebook, and whoever else wants to join the data-collection-gang-bang stick their virtual penis up your private-data-anus, you won't get any more Shiny Pretty Baubles from them! Then where will you be? You'll be Left Out! You won't be like Everyone Else anymore! Don't you want to belong, Nwaack? Surely you don't want to opt-out of the Group-Think? You have to go with the rest of the Herd!
  • Yeah, sure, Amazon. What you really want is more collection of very-much-private data in people's homes, so you can sell that to whoever. Fuck you sideways with a rusty chainsaw, Amazon.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    "Amazon wants you to turn your fire tablet into a portable echo."

    English motherfucker, you speak it?

How many hardware guys does it take to change a light bulb? "Well the diagnostics say it's fine buddy, so it's a software problem."

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