Privacy

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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.

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Is there a way to repurpose an Alexa device? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by 3yiyo3@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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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?

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[–] clif@lemmy.world 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