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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?
All use is currently anonymous. Let's just nudge that temperature a degree higher. You won't notice yet.
Why?
Because an Orwellian society never seemed so technologically sexy.
Fuck that, rip them all out!
Life is not for the lazy.
Yeah, knowing that the platform is managed by SLU instead of Amazon would make me worry even more about the platform being abused.
I'm sure that Amazon has some safeguards in place about safe storage and destruction of voice recordings, but SLU's IT department? Some student intern will probably start using it to snoop on the ladies dorms to get the latest juicy gossip.
If you thought facial recognition was getting good, think about voice recognition.... that ostensibly isn't used.
Just that the questions have an IP address (dorm, library, etc.) time of day, context, and therefore can be fingerprinted.
This will not turn out well.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
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
Seriously.
This is all wrong. Young people will not understand what they are giving away here.
Alexa...How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?
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 predict, six to twelve months from now:
“Oh, you mean those recordings. When we said things weren’t being recorded, naturally we weren’t referring to those...”
#DeleteChrome
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
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!
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...
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.
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.
But do they have money-back guarantees for grammar?
Have gnu, will travel.
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
If they dont now then they will soon.
First rape case in a dormitory with this system installed will make alexa forced to show if the accusation is correct or not. Unless of course the majority of cases will be dismissed because all parties involved were intoxicated to the point they did not know what was happening to them - who raped who is then a valid question and yet one that cannot be answered. Still for all other case of indecent conduct a consent can be determined.
Hundreds of Echo Dots in a broom closet with am MP3 player looping Nickelback.
Have gnu, will travel.
I think a good test would be to have a really incriminating-sounding conversation in the dorms and see what red flags go up.
"Yeah, she kept screaming 'no', but I know she wanted it."
"Yeah, and then the bombs will go off. You got your ammo yet?"
"$50 will get you the exam ahead of time. $250 for the answers."
"Make America Great Again!"
Reminds me of the days when /. sigs were used to spam Echelon.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
"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.
Yeah, knowing that the platform is managed by SLU instead of Amazon would make me worry even more about the platform being abused.
Especially given that the platform being "managed by SLU" is probably located not at the university, but rather on an AWS server. That would make TWO 'interested parties' who have everything they need to invade students' privacy with a few clicks of a mouse.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Weasel words. The input is parsed and transcribed. Who needs a recording?
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.
Yeah, I'm not even sure who has access if it's managed by SLU, because SLU very recently fired all or nearly all of their IT staff and outsourced everything to Dell and Microsoft. To my understanding, what local staff remains has experienced significant turnover, and has very little control over anything.
Incipiamus, fratres, servire Domino Deo, quia hucusque vix vel parum in nullo profecimus.
Weasel words. The input is parsed and transcribed. Who needs a recording?
Lie words. I have a Dot. Using the Alexa app, I can listen to the recording of every time Alexa has woken up and thought she was asked something. I don't know what "Alexa Business" does, but Alexa certainly does make and keep recordings.
Or is there some new definition of "recording" where "a digitized copy of audio that can be played back later" does not count as a "recording"?