It is not "pathetic baseless fear mongering" when we already have evidence that governments around the world are willing to overstep their bounds in terms of monitoring their own people.
> In this case, as the website makes clear, you have to say the word "Alexa" for it to start listening.
In order for it to hear the key word 'Alexa', it has to be always listening. They're just saying that they promise not to process the audio any further until they hear Alexa. Of course the obvious question is 'Does this promise apply for every situation?' What happens when Amazon gets served with a request to procure data from a user? Do they state this in the terms and conditions or in their privacy policy?
Have you not read the news in the last year? It is relevant. They don't need to manufacture anything. They can just coerce private companies to give up their customers' data in the cloud. The companies aren't even allowed to announce it.
> or forcing them in peoples' homes.
Hence my argument for holding off from buying this and other devices like it.
> In this case, as the website makes clear, you have to say the word "Alexa" for it to start listening.
In order for it to hear the key word 'Alexa', it has to be always listening. They're just saying that they promise not to process the audio any further until they hear Alexa. Of course the obvious question is 'Does this promise apply for every situation?' What happens when Amazon gets served with a request to procure data from a user? Do they state this in the terms and conditions or in their privacy policy?