My day job is designing and developing websites, but in my off time, I like to build all kinds of things, including Ruby gems, iPhone apps, and Alexa skills.
But yeah, I totally see your point of view on this.
My perspective is that almost every innovation throughout history had a positive and a negative side. It increased efficiency or time, while also decreasing privacy or the power of the people.
The wheel made it faster and easier than ever to travel places, and it gave tyrants a new way to transport weapons, armies, and slaves. The car made it even faster and even easier to travel, but it gave governments and spies the ability to stalk, track, and find people more easily. Cameras allowed us to capture spectacular moments and create brilliant shows and movies, but it also gave companies and criminals the ability to capture our most intimate moments if they so desired.
Smartphones were a big one.
They gave us the ability to talk with people on demand, get directions wherever we're going with ease, search the web to our hearts content, pay for meals and items without worrying about wallets and credit cards, listen to music anywhere and everywhere, order food on a whim, and so much more.
They also came with a huge downside. They gave hackers, corporations, and governments the ability to track the location of the people like never before. Archives of our most personal and intimate conversations are now stored on databases across the world. Our photos, search history, credit cards, addresses are all more vulnerable than ever.
But we never could have gotten the upsides of the smartphone without finding a way to deal with and minimize the downsides.
Same thing goes with something like Alexa.
You gain the ability to purchase products, turn on and off lights, have all your questions answered, play music, order food, talk with friends, and more, all with the sound of your voice. You also put your personal conversations at risk to be recorded and spied on by Amazon, the government, or hackers around the world. It's not much different than the smartphone, it's just the next step.
And in my opinion the solution is to find ways to minimize the downside while maintaining as much of the upside as possible.
That being said, I respect your point of view, and I'm definitely open to the idea that I might have it all wrong!
My perspective is that almost every innovation throughout history had a positive and a negative side. It increased efficiency or time, while also decreasing privacy or the power of the people.
The wheel made it faster and easier than ever to travel places, and it gave tyrants a new way to transport weapons, armies, and slaves. The car made it even faster and even easier to travel, but it gave governments and spies the ability to stalk, track, and find people more easily. Cameras allowed us to capture spectacular moments and create brilliant shows and movies, but it also gave companies and criminals the ability to capture our most intimate moments if they so desired.
I don't think that innovations themselves decrease privacy, it's what people do with those innovations. What most people miss is that you don't have to give up your privacy to be able to enjoy the benefits of innovations and new technologies.
You don't need to violate privacy to create a good search engine and/or display relevant ads (DuckDuckGo). You don't need to violate privacy to create a good smartphone (Apple outside of Russia and China). You don't need to violate privacy to create a good home assistant (home-assistant.io/). You don't need to violate privacy to create a good browser (Firefox). The list could go on and on.
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I like what you did there!
But yeah, I totally see your point of view on this.
My perspective is that almost every innovation throughout history had a positive and a negative side. It increased efficiency or time, while also decreasing privacy or the power of the people.
The wheel made it faster and easier than ever to travel places, and it gave tyrants a new way to transport weapons, armies, and slaves. The car made it even faster and even easier to travel, but it gave governments and spies the ability to stalk, track, and find people more easily. Cameras allowed us to capture spectacular moments and create brilliant shows and movies, but it also gave companies and criminals the ability to capture our most intimate moments if they so desired.
Smartphones were a big one.
They gave us the ability to talk with people on demand, get directions wherever we're going with ease, search the web to our hearts content, pay for meals and items without worrying about wallets and credit cards, listen to music anywhere and everywhere, order food on a whim, and so much more.
They also came with a huge downside. They gave hackers, corporations, and governments the ability to track the location of the people like never before. Archives of our most personal and intimate conversations are now stored on databases across the world. Our photos, search history, credit cards, addresses are all more vulnerable than ever.
But we never could have gotten the upsides of the smartphone without finding a way to deal with and minimize the downsides.
Same thing goes with something like Alexa.
You gain the ability to purchase products, turn on and off lights, have all your questions answered, play music, order food, talk with friends, and more, all with the sound of your voice. You also put your personal conversations at risk to be recorded and spied on by Amazon, the government, or hackers around the world. It's not much different than the smartphone, it's just the next step.
And in my opinion the solution is to find ways to minimize the downside while maintaining as much of the upside as possible.
That being said, I respect your point of view, and I'm definitely open to the idea that I might have it all wrong!
I don't think that innovations themselves decrease privacy, it's what people do with those innovations. What most people miss is that you don't have to give up your privacy to be able to enjoy the benefits of innovations and new technologies.
You don't need to violate privacy to create a good search engine and/or display relevant ads (DuckDuckGo). You don't need to violate privacy to create a good smartphone (Apple outside of Russia and China). You don't need to violate privacy to create a good home assistant (home-assistant.io/). You don't need to violate privacy to create a good browser (Firefox). The list could go on and on.