Listen, I feel like I’m missing part of a story here, Cardholderdoe. pls fill me in here
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Good choice.
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For you my friend
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It’s like they’re always singing 
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Do you have one of those things?
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No, I’m at a friend’s house where they have two Echo’s. (A Show and the Dot)
I have a Google Home Mini.
I want an Echo though.
And the Cortana Invoke speaker.
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My mother has 3
This is going to sound dumb but I’m really confused as to what these things… do. Do you have to have ‘internet of things’ things to make them useful?
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My mom uses them for music and cooking as far as I can tell…
Like to make sure she is following the instructions for the food
Cooking?
Yeah, I’m still a little unclear on the concept (from “that’s cute but no thanks” to “I already have a better remote for that” to “is that seriously all it can do?”).
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cook·ing
ˈko͝okiNG
noun
the practice or skill of preparing food by combining, mixing, and heating ingredients.
I wonder about you sometimes
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I don’t see anything in there about virtual assistants encased in spyware tubes
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You mean actual spies engaging in long range reconnaissance?
THEY ARE NOT SPY DEVICES! 
(Yes, it’s a complete sentence.)
I’ve been obsessed with IoT since I was 13-14.
I know for sure that they’re not spy devices.
Damn guess that’s a touchy subject (I don’t know about both sides and I don’t care either way so I’m good)
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It’s overly simplistic to say that Amazon is installing a bug in your home, however they do collect data from your use of the Echo, and pass some of that data on to third parties.
I also have security concerns. I take from your statement that you trust Amazon to keep your data safe; I don’t, but then, I put tape over all my webcams.
I’ll be interested to see what happens when the issue of sharing Echo cloud data to the police comes up again.
For myself, while I’m as committed to technology and capitalism as the semi-solvent bank account owner, in its present state I’ve found the ‘internet of things’ to be a pretty big con for the most part. I don’t need my house to be finessed or centralised in the way currently being offered, and given the colossal security risks that really are present in its current state (at least for the common or garden user who doesn’t change their kettle’s default password, etc) I’ll need a lot more persuading. It’s not that I don’t want to embrace new tech, I’m just pretty disappointed in this area of development.
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I usually unplug mine when I’m not using them.
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