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Saint Louis University Is Outfitting Student Living Spaces With Thousands of Echo Dots (techcrunch.com)
Saint Louis University announced this week a plan to outfit living spaces with 2,300 Echo Dots. The smart speakers will be ready by the time classes start later this month. TechCrunch reports: 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." It's certainly not the first to adopt Amazon's smart speakers, but it's among the largest scale for this sort of deployment. While the product has become a mainstay in plenty of American homes, it does seem like an odd choice dorms and student campus. SLU has worked with Alexa for Business to create 100 custom questions, including, "What time does the library close tonight?" and "Where is the registrar's office?"
The company addressed [the privacy concerns] 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."
The company addressed [the privacy concerns] 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."
What is the answer to question #3?
"Additionally, neither Alexa nor the Alexa for Business management system maintains recordings of any questions that are asked."
I'd be pissed if I had already made plans to stay in one of their halls and they then pull this crap.
All use is currently anonymous. Let's just nudge that temperature a degree higher. You won't notice yet.
Doesn't alleviate any privacy concerns.
Students should be able to opt-out, by being allowed to either have the Echo's removed, or unplugged form power.
"Additionally, neither Alexa nor the Alexa for Business management system maintains recordings of any questions that are asked."
But that doesn't state that there are NO systems maintaining the recordings.
sorry not good enough. first order of business: chuck that pos out the window.
Why?
"Your privacy is not compromised" is, of course, bullshit, people have been working on matching a voice print to the person since the voice was first transformed to an electric signal.
Because an Orwellian society never seemed so technologically sexy.
Fuck that, rip them all out!
Life is not for the lazy.
No sane human being has any need for this worthless bullshit other than for SPYING.
So, Saint Louis "University" admits to the world that A) they're entirely irrelevant and B) they clearly know it, but C) are unable to think of any solutions to the problem other than unimaginative gimmicks that'll drive the "institution" into further irrelevance.
This is, of course, a real shocker to the rest of us.
The company addressed [the privacy concerns] on a privacy page
Personally, I would be more inclined to address the "privacy concerns" with a screwdriver or a baseball bat.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Don't believe them.
"Currently Anonymous" means they aren't currently checking the data. They might start. Or they might not, who knows!
Sort of like when I was in college, they asked for residents to fill out questionnaires on drug use, which asked questions about your roommate's drug use as well. These were "Anonymous" as well, but you had to physically hand them in to your RA.
Seriously.
This is all wrong. Young people will not understand what they are giving away here.
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.
So on the 2nd day of classes it could be no longer anonymous. The Bias Response Teams will be very busy as ease-dropping SJWs make sure no one anywhere gets away with saying the n-word, using the wrong gender pronoun, or speaks positively of Trump.
Alexa...How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?
So, are they integrated into the campus security system? Can it be integrated into the access control system, with facial recognition and past curfew monitoring? If so, are the Chinese universities and hotels already readying their orders for the system? Alexa?
There has to be a way to block the mic. Actively, a white noise generator right next to it. Passively, covering the mic so it can't hear anything.
unitil the first time someone uses alexa to spy on someone they don't like and take a recording of them having sex. Then publishes it on the internet. Or better yet plays it back on all the devices on campus at once. I mean, doesn't sound like a bad idea right? Let's bug every room on campus and include a speaker so we can broadcast a message to everyone all at once. Nothing could go wrong with that , especially using hardware that was designed with the assumption it was in someone home or business and not open to a physical cyber attack for as long as anyone might want to attempt it.
Memory Mic... Mind Mic
Listening Lamp... Attention Appliance
E-ear... Hailing Mic
Ear Hustler... Deaf Dongle
Sound Snagger... Noise Nabber
Utter Bank...?
Would were! Should is! Could be! And live a hundred times three.
*AHEM!*
"We're listening..."
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
So they're not keeping any "personal information for any of our users"?
Of course not.
They're keeping it FOR Amazon.
Is that a deliberately misleading statement?
Disconnect the things, or failing that, put it in a soundproof box, or wrap it with duct tape. Lots of duct tape.
There should be a choice to install these things, an informed choice!
As students need beer money!
What a blatant rip-off of his plot ideas. Sort of like Quidditch tournaments for the Potterverse, just that the brooms of those are largely non-functional.
you have an right to privacy in hotels rented rooms are the same.
Worst case some should sue for the right to not be forced to live on college campus
Form what I can tell there's some debate about whether FERPA laws would allow this.
FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act):
https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen...
This school admin even asks how he can remove Alexa form the network:
https://community.spiceworks.c...
Alexa why can't I rent my own apartment for less? WITH OUT ROOM MATES + MY OWN BATHROOM?
are kicking themselves.
Just give the microphones a brandname and make it a lifestyle product, and people will PAY you to install them in their homes/workspaces.
Who knew people were this stupid? Fucking idiots.
What a strange word to choose to include in a sentence trying to reassure people about privacy.
electronics and non pure water get along really well (to well, resulting in dead electronics)
if student loans had bankruptcy then the banks then will the schools you need to cut costs and not jack up rates / fees for this!
Alexa for Business. I've not heard of that before. Sounds interesting...
Pricing: $7 per device per month. Huh? Sounds very pricey for management of a self-serving gadget.
$7 X 2,300 devices = $16,100 per month! FUCK THAT SHIT!
Alexa: State law and regulations passed by the board of trustees require that all Freshman or other students with less than 30 completed course hours attending public university live on campus, unless you are enrolled only part-time, married, age 21 years or older, have dependent children, live with a parent or guardian within a 25-mile radius of campus, or can show proof of a medical need preventing you from living in provided dorms.
So they make students pay, then sell them out to a corporation
Typical north american school
For the students on the other hand, saying they will just go along with this is being very naive, they are intelligent human beings you know. I for one would immediately go about disabling this garbage or screwing it up just to send a message about my displeasure with their crap.
I thought I was glad that there were no camera-phones during my stupid college years; this is so colossally bad ... I can only hope that there remains a faint flicker of resistance in today's youth, such that this spawns an entire generation of people adept and practiced at breaking ubiquitous surveillance.
I fear not, honestly.
-Styopa
Hundreds of Echo Dots in a broom closet with am MP3 player looping Nickelback.
Have gnu, will travel.
"currently anonymous"
currently.
'6079 Smith W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You're not trying. Lower, please! That's better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad, and watch me.'
"1984" was a warning, not a proposal. Putting Orwell's telescreens (minus the screen) in everyone's room makes you look creepy. Should I report to Minitrue for debriefing?
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Saint Louis University Is Outfitting Student Living Spaces With Thousands of Surveilance Bugs.
All fun and games until you electrify your junk
Seriously, are we in crazy land here??
EVERYONE who even suggests doing something like using such a device, must either get an *intense* mental therapy, or, if he exposes others to it, also go to prison!
No, we need to stop acting like *I* am the one, who must be joking here!
We need to take this seriously: People. who. use. "smart speakers". on. others. must. go. to. prison!
If I ever get anywhere near power, this is one of the first things I will do. No discussion.
Make sure you do the deed right next to an Alexa device, that way you can capture the consent part.
They could be speaking the truth, and lying thru their teeth at the same time :
All they need to do is to keep the voice-to-text results (a simple string) and a soundblurb long enough to do a voice match ("hello Alexa" perhaps ? It can be reasoned its not part of the question).
You mean the university does not know who is assinged to live in each living quarters?
Oh, you mean it is anonymous because the name of the person living in the quarters is in one database and the surveliance system data is in another, and no when "currently" knows how to cross-reference those two databased?
So this university does not know the definition of 'anonymous'? That is even more scary!
You got my vote.
Although it should be obvious that these devices can and will be used for eavesdropping, it's not necessary. College students post their entire private lives onto social media anyway.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Huxley, not Orwell. In Orwell's 1984, the masses are subjugated by an elite. In Huxley's Brave New World, the masses are seduced by all sorts of entertainment and conveniences available in a modern society, so they can be controlled by the elite. Any form of dissent is viewed as socially abnormal, so it was society you had to fear, not retribution by the elite. Actually, I'm not sure if an all-controlling elite even existed (it could be inferred since the social structure would make it possible). It may have just been all of society being self-guided by hedonism and self-appointed morals.
Student convicted and expelled and blacklisted for being an ebul hax0r after unplugging one of them in 3... 2.... 1....
I already told me roommate I'd smash one if it was in the house. Fuck that nose. Disconnect it and throw it out your dorm room window. Do not want.
How can I stop the thought police turning up to correct my non-SJW behaviour?
Can I drive past the dorms with a megaphone blaring, "Alexa: order 2 dozen cases of extra-small Trojans!" over and over again?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
"neither Alexa nor the Alexa for Business management system maintains recordings of any questions that are asked."
Nice wording. What about Amazon or SLU? And voice recordings are as anonymous as video recordings; Anon until someone wants to identify you.
As a graduate from SLU, I would rather have had our tuition rates decreased than extra gimmicks provided. Tuition is currently $43k per year, plus another $5-7k per year for room and board.
I bet they find a way to deanonymize that pretty damned quick
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
This has to be a joke right? How much did Amazon's bazillionare pay for this one, seriously. The arrogance in the Universities reply is astounding.
Headline in 6 months will be "Amazon AI predicts X", where X is based on data they've recorded from these stupid things.
The state's wiretapping law makes no distinction to whether or not the people being listened to are "anonymous".
It also doesn't matter if conversations aren't "recorded" - all the law cares about is interception (and they are recorded - saved as text).
Lastly, it doesn't matter if the students all agree to the presence of these devices, that doesn't cover visitors.
So why isn't this illegal?
There is not a lot more to add, really.
SLU has worked with Alexa for Business to create 100 custom questions
Those are rookie numbers. Seriously, 100?
I'd now pester the University for the creation of a 'Safe Space' from surveillance fear triggers!
...and "currently anonymous" says to me it doesn't have to be. Simply change it after the semester starts and update the privacy policy!
Their children aren't the ones developing them.
Lots of those guys came to the US. Some joined the defense industry. Some security contractors, some scientists, some went into what is now known as the tech industry. While I am not saying some, most, or all of them are involved in a giant conspiracy to recreate those conditions, I am sure some are aware of how stupid humans are and just how far they can push without arousing suspicion.