The most concerning part about this article is that they put one in their nine-year-old's bedroom.

Your phone is doing it too. TV too, if you have one. Don't forget about your doorbell!

In 2023, 60% of UK households had a smart speaker, up from 22% before the pandemic.

Jesus Christ. I had no idea so many people were buying these things. That's astounding.

If you'd asked me to guess what percentage of households had one, I'd have guessed single digits.

Based on the article, it lets her ask them things that she doesn't want to ask her parents, though I'm not sure that if I were 9 years old that I'd suddenly want to discover that my parents have a list of everything I've asked it and are reading through it, much less that Amazon has a database.

What is the absofuckingworstly scariest thing about this is that I've personally read quite a few sci-fi books, like in half of them, like in any universe, such things were usually a Trojan horse by the threat of the week to exterminate the good guys, or at least Palpatine's way of spying, or whatever.

OK, Palpatine's coolest microphone was decorative trees with skin changing colors depending on vibrations, and a very complex system of restoring the sounds from image, if I remember that correctly, in one X-Wing book.

So how the hell does it happen that such things are presented in movies and books and series like a threat, and yet people buy them?

I can believe in people loving touchscreens because touchscreens were unfortunately popularized in Star Trek and even, sigh, Star Wars prequels, and everything sci-fi.

But this is something that was being recommended against in such media for decades.

Yeah, that is a terrible violation of trust. A parent should stop listening when they find out that they have a copy of such conversations of their child. They shouldn't write a newspaper article with citations about it

I got several free from both google and amazon. My electric company gave me one too.

Why would they do that

Because we are the product...

They work great as an intercom, if you have them in every. Room

Yeah, an intercom between you, your kids, and Amazon.

I have HomePods to activate my lights, and listen to the news in the shower. Sure, it doesn’t do all the fancy shit that Alexa does, but at least Apple has a track record of respecting privacy.

I have three unopened google pucks that I received as gifts over the years.

I had four, but I opened one to take apart to help identify if it was possible to hack it.

at the time it was not. the only part that can be reused it the plastic shell.

remember when Texas power turned off peoples heaters when they were freezing to death as Rafael Edward Cruz went on a tropical vacation?

yeah, they did that because those people registered their smart thermostats with the company and gave them control to set the temperatures in their own damn homes.

"smart" means, "you don't own it".

Alexa, why does daddy yell and hit mommy?

Because you won't eat your veggies and make your bed.

To add to the other responses, and I suspect the real reason, is that Coco is listening to Audible Audio books regularly and/or music. It's mentioned and then dropped by the article fairly quickly.

Interesting how every comment on the article is doing the "you're a terrible parent, how could you do that" routine when I'll bet it's there because Coco either took the first one in or asked for a second one. Kid wants, kid normally gets one way or another.

I sold my Alexa devices when the Sidewalk crap came out

Still waiting for a replacement for the Echo Show though, having a smart speaker with a display was handy at times

but at least Apple has a track record of respecting privacy.

...to keep the same amount of data for themselve.

Don't kid yourself. Apple collects the same amount as everyone else does. And if either get hacked, it doesnt matter if they keep it or sell it.

They say they don’t associate the data they collect with anyone. There’s no way to trace back to my device.