this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
62 points (97.0% liked)

Privacy

32442 readers
971 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

My girlfriend gave me an Alexa assistant as a gift with all good will, since she knows I like technology. I know in terms of privacy it is garbage, however I wonder if there is a safe way to use some functions of this device, perhaps without internet. Some way to hack it or something, do you guys know something about this?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

EDIT: I misread. I don't know what an Amazon assistant is. I'm talking about an Amazon echo below

I have one at a cabin in the mountains that has no internet or cell service. It required internet access to sync/auth with my phone so I did it at home then moved it to the cabin. I think it needed to be auth'd to an Amazon account, despite never planning or wanting to use it with an account. It was a "prize" from work.

It is literally impossible for it to connect to the internet at its location but it is a pretty good speaker. Perhaps the loneliest IoT device ever, but I'd never use it in a connected state.

If you only want it for a speaker, you could wall it off to prevent Internet access even at home