Hey, howdy, hallo,
Amazon announced that starting March 28th (~3 days ago), they’re removing the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” option for Echo devices. That means every command you give Alexa—via Echo speakers or smart displays—will now be sent to Amazon. The company claims it needs the data to improve AI, and that recordings will be deleted after processing.
The linked article breaks down why this is a terrible idea, but I have some other points I wanted to talk about regarding your voice.
Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant—they can make life more convenient. They’ll complete tasks, answer questions, even type out texts. But at what cost? I don’t think most people realize just how invasive these systems can be. For your device to respond to “Hey Siri,” it has to always be listening. Whether or not that data is sent remotely depends—but most devices continuously loop recordings and only start transmitting once the trigger phrase is detected.
Still, if you really think about it, your physical privacy is slipping away. At home with your family? Your phone’s listening. At the grocery store? Dozens of devices are listening. Even out in the woods having a private conversation—your phone is probably listening. It’s a dystopian reality when you realize that having an in-person conversation isn’t really private anymore for most people.
If you like using a voice assistant, that’s fine. But consider switching to a physical button activation instead of voice activation. Ideally, use something like GrapheneOS—though I know that’s not an option for everyone :)
This one hurts the most. I don’t want a TV with a voice assistant. I don’t want to talk to my fridge. I just want an appliance or device that does the task—and does it well. This video by Jeff Geerling reminded me of that. It’s a great watch if you want to get mad at manufacturers. His new dishwasher required an account and a cloud connection just to use basic features… like the “Rinse Only” cycle.
Over the past few years, I’ve made a conscious effort to remove all the “smart” gadgets and appliances from my home. So here’s your reminder to buy something dumb next time. It might take more work to find a TV that doesn’t connect to the internet—but don’t give up.
As I’m proofreading this, it definitely comes off as a bit of a rant. And maybe it is. But in case you can’t get past the rant, here are the takeaways:
If you have an Amazon Echo—or anything similar—consider getting rid of it. Your voice is now being sent to Amazon.
Disable “Hey, X” and switch to the option that requires a physical button press.
It takes more effort, but buy dumb appliances and tech gear when you can.
I hope you had a great March, and I’ll see you in April!
-Josh
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Someone emailed me saying it’d be helpful if I mentioned in my newsletters when I stop or start using certain apps. They were following one of my older videos and using a weather app I had previously recommended. Great point—YouTube isn’t great for up-to-date info, since you can’t update a video once it’s out there.
Rather than adding a monthly blurb to the newsletter, I created this page on my site. It lists all the apps I currently use (with links), what I use them for, and which app store I got them from.
Going forward, I’ll include this link in the newsletter, with a quick note if anything changes. The page also includes a change log at the bottom so you can track updates.
If you have suggestions for the layout or format—or links to other sites that present this kind of info better—I’d love to see them. Just reply to this email.
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“The truth rarely needs effort.” Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing.
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