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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."
Why?
Because an Orwellian society never seemed so technologically sexy.
Fuck that, rip them all out!
Life is not for the lazy.
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
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.
I'd be pissed if I had already made plans to stay in one of their halls and they then pull this crap.
Yes, it would be very difficult to unplug it if you personally had a problem with the device.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
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.
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
"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.