73Billiken Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 SLU is quick to note that it’s “the first college or university in the country to bring Amazon Alexa-enabled devices, managed by Alexa for Business, into every student residence hall room and student apartment on campus.” ......... Then, of course, there are the privacy concerns of having little cloud connected recording devices populating the school’s living spaces. SLU is attempting to get out in front of that here. The company addressed those issues on a privacy page, writing, Because of our use of the Amazon Alexa for Business (A4B) platform, your Echo Dot is managed by a central system dedicated to SLU. This system is not tied to individual accounts and does not maintain any personal information for any of our users, so all use currently is anonymous. Additionally, neither Alexa nor the Alexa for Business management system maintains recordings of any questions that are asked. https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/19/a-university-is-outfitting-living-spaces-with-thousands-of-echo-dots/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 ...................... "Alexa research me Napoleon's exile to Corsica, develop a eight-page term paper on what you find, send it to the printer and alert me when it's done while I play Madden 2018 over here ...." MattyMo213 and kappy96 like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 Billiken Rich and brianstl like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLU_Lax Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 40 minutes ago, 73Billiken said: SLU is quick to note that it’s “the first college or university in the country to bring Amazon Alexa-enabled devices, managed by Alexa for Business, into every student residence hall room and student apartment on campus.” ......... Then, of course, there are the privacy concerns of having little cloud connected recording devices populating the school’s living spaces. SLU is attempting to get out in front of that here. The company addressed those issues on a privacy page, writing, Because of our use of the Amazon Alexa for Business (A4B) platform, your Echo Dot is managed by a central system dedicated to SLU. This system is not tied to individual accounts and does not maintain any personal information for any of our users, so all use currently is anonymous. Additionally, neither Alexa nor the Alexa for Business management system maintains recordings of any questions that are asked. https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/19/a-university-is-outfitting-living-spaces-with-thousands-of-echo-dots/ This is a bad idea. SLU is not typically great at sniffing out potential unintended consequences and then preparing mitigation plans. I think of the basketball game where the fire alarm went off. The refs blew the whistle and stopped play. They then looked at Crews for direction, but he just shrugged “I don’t know” and looked to May. May shrugged back at Crews and people with the school just mulled around as Guy announced “Folks, nobody is telling me what to do”. I took my young daughter outside because she was freaked out. The ticket takers were super nice. They also said they had received no instructions and were trying to find out what to do. All the connectivity they are bringing will have unintended consequences. This is a school where those in the ADs office appeared to have no plan if a fire broke out in the arena. While it’s a different department, I would venture to say they aren’t ready for this. I hope Amazon has taken full control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WUH Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 20 minutes ago, Box and Won said: Exactly! If I am a SLU undergrad, my first task on move-in day is to disable this... SLU_Lax likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 40 minutes ago, WUH said: Exactly! If I am a SLU undergrad, my first task on move-in day is to disable this... The problem is the vast majority of kids today have no issues with giving up their privacy. WUH likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMM28 Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 Seems like a "hello fellow kids" move by the king of those moves, Fred Pestello. I appreciate SLU trying to be on the cutting edge, this just seems a little weird.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 20 minutes ago, JMM28 said: Seems like a "hello fellow kids" move by the king of those moves, Fred Pestello. I appreciate SLU trying to be on the cutting edge, this just seems a little weird.... My guess is that SLU getting something of value out of this deal was a bigger factor than trying to be cutting edge. I am sure they are getting a cut of the sales and some kind of technology upgrades in exchange for putting a point of sale for Amazon in every resident's room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old guy Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 Having Alexa in the dorms is purely an image move, they want to project an advanced image, cutting edge as JMM says, for SLU. I completely agree they have not thought of unintended consequences, unless the main purpose of the Alexas is to develop a record of what is happening inside dorm rooms at all times of the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matty Light Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 Maybe Alexa is going to be the arbitrator of whether consent was issued. JMM28, dlarry and majerus mojo like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoon-Balls Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 Maybe SLU is secretly getting paid boatloads by Amazon to obtain a psychological profile of all our students so that Jeff Bezos can develop the world's most powerful AI? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old guy Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 31 minutes ago, Matty Light said: Maybe Alexa is going to be the arbitrator of whether consent was issued. You might be correct here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 37 minutes ago, Matty Light said: Maybe Alexa is going to be the arbitrator of whether consent was issued. Oh hell no............ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almaman Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 I’ve had Alexa for 1/2 a day. My first venture into any non Apple product. Fire 7 for 30$. She seems more user friendly than my old hag Siri. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BourbanStreet Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 6 minutes ago, almaman said: I’ve had Alexa for 1/2 a day. My first venture into any non Apple product. Fire 7 for 30$. She seems more user friendly than my old hag Siri. Convinced my now wife to put it on our wedding registry. In the 2 months we've had it, majority of what I have asked her has been about the weather or about the dog fact of the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 I unplugged ours after about a month. Something creepy about it being on all the time bothered me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old guy Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 1 hour ago, BourbanStreet said: Convinced my now wife to put it on our wedding registry. In the 2 months we've had it, majority of what I have asked her has been about the weather or about the dog fact of the day. However much or however little you use it yourself, if your wife really likes it and uses it a lot it is a good thing to have. almaman likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlarry Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 1 hour ago, BourbanStreet said: Convinced my now wife to put it on our wedding registry. In the 2 months we've had it, majority of what I have asked her has been about the weather or about the dog fact of the day. I use it for weather, music, and as a reminder to go turn the water off when I'm watering the grass. Every once in awhile she opens her big trap for no reason while me and the wife are eating dinner. Then I have to tell her to shut her face. It's kind of creepy. I've looked into getting smart lights and outlets then I remember it's not very hard to flip a switch or hit a button on a remote control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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