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back to article Amazon mumbles into its coffee when asked: Will you give app devs people's Alexa chats?

Amazon is apparently considering a plan to provide app developers with transcripts of people's conversations with their Alexa boxes. We're told the Bezos Bunch is mulling whether to change their developer policy to give the third-party coders who create Alexa "skills" app software the raw transcripts of what users say to Alexa …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    "Amazon declined to comment"

    Probably the best option... Alexia was listening to them!

    16 0 Reply
  2. hellwig

    We do not share...

    ...customer identifiable information to third party skills without the customer's consent.

    Explicit consent, or does downloading their skill imply consent? I don't recall an echo reading off a list of permissions before installing skills.

    Would it be all conversations? If I told Alexa to call my mom (who is stored by name in my phone book), then another skill could peak my mothers name? Seems identifiable to me.

    Remember when AOL dumped all that anonymous data that totally identified an old lady? These companies are not as smart as they try to convince us they are.

    15 0 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    These devices are the physical manifestation of late-stage capitalism. (This and pokemon go)

    1 3 Reply
    1. Mark 110
      Reply Icon

      Tempted as I am by all tech I just can't think of how this improves my phone or PC interface. Its a voice interface. Looks good on a star-ship bridge. Sucks balls in a living room.

      15 0 Reply

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Reply Icon
        Unhappy

        "Its a voice interface. Looks good on a star-ship bridge. Sucks balls in a living room."

        Seriously, I think Amazon have a vision of this as the ubiquitous interface to all of you IoT connected lifestyle in the 21st century. The gateway appliance that will let you set your thermostat, security system, start your car and order your SO's anniversary gift. The "browser" or "mouse" of the 21st century.

        I'll let others decide if that's a vision they share.

        0 1 Reply
    2. SundogUK Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      We are still in early stage capitalism.

      0 1 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When you use a skill, we provide the developer the information they need to process your request. We do not share customer identifiable information to third party skills without the customer's consent.

    by not answering the follow up question they invoke MRDA.

    1 0 Reply
  5. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    I am so happy

    I have just purchased a feature phone that boasts up to 200 hours on standby. My Android can barely manage 24.

    I will have no apps, no effin spy thingy listening in, no messages sent back to the mothership. Just a phone and SMS.

    Feels like freedom.

    8 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I am so happy

      If your Android can only go 24 hours on standby, it needs a new battery.

      1 0 Reply
      1. Paul Crawford Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: New battery

        Exactly! A New android phone typically manages 36-48 hours!

        0 0 Reply
        1. Alumoi Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: New battery

          Exactly! A New android phone typically manages 36-48 hours while in airplane mode with the GPS, wireless and location turned off.

          3 0 Reply
          1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
            Reply Icon
            Joke

            "A New android phone typically manages 36-48 hours while in airplane mode...

            with the GPS, wireless and location turned off."

            But, but, but how will you know where you are?

            How will people know where you are? Your Facebook status would go un-updated.

            You'll be in an information Black hole that could last for ages. Who knows what vital tweets you might have missed? Stephen Fry might have made an astonishingly erudite remark and you would not be able to instantly comment on it.

            6 1 Reply
            1. Alister
              Reply Icon

              Re: "A New android phone typically manages 36-48 hours while in airplane mode...

              Stephen Fry might have made an astonishingly erudite remark

              Oh come on, let's not get beyond the bounds of credibility here...

              5 1 Reply
      2. Warm Braw
        Reply Icon

        Re: I am so happy

        >If your Android can only go 24 hours on standby, it needs a new battery

        It may need one, but replacement may be impossible. It's a way to ensure that you are obliged to get ever-more-intrusive new models until such time as the phones start replacing themselves without your involvement.

        3 0 Reply
  6. fidodogbreath

    Yeah,whatever

    We do not share customer identifiable information to third party skills without the customer's consent.

    I'm sure they "value customers' privacy," too.

    0 0 Reply

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