What will happen with Hey Disney! now? (Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon)

[mom2rtk]

You have to pick your battles in life. Like I said, nobody cares that your most private sensitive data is being actively breached. We care that Alexa is building a profile on us asking for an extra bar of soap.

I'm pretty sure that's oversimplifying things. Housekeeping already knew who wanted an extra bar of soap. No need for Alexa if that's what you're after.

 

[Chuck S]

I don't care. I use Alexa at home to control lighting, and I ask the temperature/ weather and windspeed almost daily.

 

[Brian Noble]

The only thing worse than late-stage capitalism is late-stage surveillance capitalism.

 

[atthebeachclub]

Our data and privacy is breached all day long. I provided an example earlier. I completely agree that we should have more control over it, and it’s shameful that government across all political spectrums have historically resisted any attempts to give us more control.

Historically the most controlled data was our financial data stored at the IRS. We’re now giving uncontrolled access to a group of unvetted 20-somethings. This makes me angry. Alex a strong trivial data does not.

“Oh well, since everything is breached all day, guess I’ll just let Amazon have free rein instead of simply unplugging Alexa.”

 

[LAS2AMS]

People have a natural tendency to fear things they don’t understand. I’ve used Alexa daily fot almost a decade. Alexa is my primary alarm clock, provides weather and traffic updates, controls my home automation, updated and plays back my calendar, etc. it is an absolutely invaluable resource.

I enjoy the fact that on a cold day, I can use Alexa to start my car or turn the furnace up - from the comfort of my bed. I’m not concerned that Amazon is anonymously saving clips of my voice using the device or tracking my usage…. After all, it’s primarily being done to improve the service I find so invaluable.

There are tons of breaches of my privacy I’m concerned about. Apple has proposed using AI to go through your photos and browsing to report suspicious activity to a third party that will review and report to law enforcement if necessary. The international is good, but yeah, no way.

Hysteria over Alexa is foolhardy. If you want to be an advocate for privacy, this is small potatoes compared to what’s out there.

 

[Cfabar1]

I hear you... my car undoubtedly tracks my every move and knows where my house is and where I work and my routine. It will only get smarter with that...

It doesn't mean however, that when I easily have a choice, I can't choose to unplug the Disney Alexa machine. Personally I think they are unnecessary, so I just unplug it. I don't view the benefit, and do view the downside.

 

[Dave006]

t doesn't mean however, that when I easily have a choice, I can't choose to unplug the Disney Alexa machine. Personally I think they are unnecessary, so I just unplug it. I don't view the benefit, and do view the downside.

You do understand they have a hardware controlled "Mute" button. You don't really need to crawl around to unplug it.

Dave

 

[Gabby01]

You do understand they have a hardware controlled "Mute" button. You don't really need to crawl around to unplug it.

Dave

Assuming the mute button tells the device "don't listen," and not simply "don't reply." As @pzw90 points out, surveillance devices don't necessarily work the way you assume.

 

[vspenn]

those saying you are already providing your information with other actions - credit card purchases, car location, phone location, etc..that is correct. but those are actual facts. What no one knows (and all those companies would love to know) is what are you thinking in your head. You paid $5 for coffee. what they don't know is - would you have paid $6 without actually going through the costs of raising the price and risking to lose you as a customer. same with Amazon and Disney. You paid X for park tickets and Y for the hotel room. Would you have paid more? Did you just get a raise and promotion? these are the conversations that could be picked up that can be directly converted to you paying more anything that you buy/search online. Already flight ticket prices are customized based on your specific computer history/cookies/profile. another person looking at the same flight will be seeing a different price. Collecting verbal conversation, where you may say something that exposes your thinking or willingness to pay is worth lots of money to amazon, disney and others.

 

[BrianL]

I unplugged the "Hey, Disney" Alexa device in my room on my recent stay, but only because the power brick was covering both outlets in the nightstand. That was very poorly planned out and annoying. I was surprised to have no built-in USB ports either.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Is Jeff Bezos commenting on this thread? Or is he paying people to comment? /s

Anyway the first thing I do when entering my room is to unplug the Hey Disney unit and put it in a drawer.

 

[LAS2AMS]

those saying you are already providing your information with other actions - credit card purchases, car location, phone location, etc..that is correct. but those are actual facts. What no one knows (and all those companies would love to know) is what are you thinking in your head. You paid $5 for coffee. what they don't know is - would you have paid $6 without actually going through the costs of raising the price and risking to lose you as a customer. same with Amazon and Disney. You paid X for park tickets and Y for the hotel room. Would you have paid more? Did you just get a raise and promotion? these are the conversations that could be picked up that can be directly converted to you paying more anything that you buy/search online. Already flight ticket prices are customized based on your specific computer history/cookies/profile. another person looking at the same flight will be seeing a different price. Collecting verbal conversation, where you may say something that exposes your thinking or willingness to pay is worth lots of money to amazon, disney and others.

The hysteria in this thread is unreal. You really believe Amazon is eavesdropping in on you and reporting to Disney that the guest in room X and Y hotel is so happy with their vacation, they’re willing to pay more?!

Amazon listens to a fraction of 1% of recordings - completely anonymously - to improve the device. At Disney, it’s not your personal device and if you’re not using it, you have nothing to be worried.

It’s just shocking that with all our invasion of privacy, people are picking literally the pettiest of pettiest things to revolt against.

I love Alexa. If Amazon wants to tell Disney I checked park hours every day, orders some extra towels and played the Toy Story soundscape for my kids, I really don’t care. Let’s be frank: nearly everything you would use Alexa for at WDW, you use an alternate option for. So Disney’s getting that data through another medium anyway.

Much ado about nothing.

 

[vspenn]

It’s not hysteria and nothing that’s connected to internet is anonymous without some major security levels. Your profile is easily matched to your reservation information. Amazon processes all the sat, not 1%. It’s not done by humans but AI can go through mountains of data quickly to find patterns and reach conclusions. And the purpose is to get you to pay more attention- either by targeting advertising you are more likely to respond to, changing pricing in live mode for whatever you are ahoppping for. A simple experiment - it’s raining, you need ponchos, you go in amazon for next day delivery. They already know where you are, they know forecast is for rain - the price for that ponchos will be different than someone ordering a poncho in Nevada. So go ahead and tell Amazon you will pay $20 for poncho because it’s still cheaper than.disney poncho, when someone else order is paying $5 for the same item.

 

[tjkraz]

Some people are worried about data being catalogued by voice assistants. Some people are not. Both positions are valid. Do these threads really change anyone's mind?

 

[LAS2AMS]

It’s not hysteria and nothing that’s connected to internet is anonymous without some major security levels. Your profile is easily matched to your reservation information. Amazon processes all the sat, not 1%. It’s not done by humans but AI can go through mountains of data quickly to find patterns and reach conclusions. And the purpose is to get you to pay more attention- either by targeting advertising you are more likely to respond to, changing pricing in live mode for whatever you are ahoppping for. A simple experiment - it’s raining, you need ponchos, you go in amazon for next day delivery. They already know where you are, they know forecast is for rain - the price for that ponchos will be different than someone ordering a poncho in Nevada. So go ahead and tell Amazon you will pay $20 for poncho because it’s still cheaper than.disney poncho, when someone else order is paying $5 for the same item.

It’s not your personal account and Amazon isn’t using information from Disney to link it to your personal account. It’s not trying to sell you anything. It uses a Disney overlay to provide helpful information, make reservations, make special requests, etc. most everything you would use the device for, you’re using another device for.

I can picture the old school Drake meme with the thumbs up for “making Disney dining reservations through an app tracking every movement with cookies and selling to advertisers” and thumbs down to “using Hey Disney to do the same thing.”

Hysteria, nothing less.

 

[LAS2AMS]

Some people are worried about data being catalogued by voice assistants. Some people are not. Both positions are valid. Do these threads really change anyone's mind?

If you know how to use it, it’s a useful service. People tend to be fearful of things they’re not familiar with.

I’m not on here to change anyone’s mind but there should be a counter argument for those who browse this thread for helpful information, so that they can make an informed decision. And not be inflicted by those who wear tinfoils hats.

 

[JulieBeeRN]

 

[Brian rhymes with dyin]

I unplugged the Alexa within minutes of entering my room. Not because of late-stage capitalism but rather because it had a screen that my kids would touch. But really, what an embarrassing relic from last decade.

 

[Uncle Coaster]

IA simple experiment - it’s raining, you need ponchos, you go in amazon for next day delivery. They already know where you are, they know forecast is for rain - the price for that ponchos will be different than someone ordering a poncho in Nevada. So go ahead and tell Amazon you will pay $20 for poncho because it’s still cheaper than.disney poncho, when someone else order is paying $5 for the same item.

I don’t have a strong opinion on this topic and this question is being asked out of my own curiosity and not intended to be sarcastic…how would unplugging Hey Disney when you get in your room prevent this from happening? Wouldn’t they already know you’re in Orlando based on the reservation?

 

[Gabby01]

The issue isn't Amazon recording what you say directly to Hey Disney--it's Amazon listening to what you're saying in your room, even when you're not addressing Hey Disney. Everyone who has an Alexa knows that she's "listening" at all times--at the very least, listening for her name to be mentioned (although she does tend to butt in even when it wasn't). We've all had the experience of having a conversation with someone in person (not attempting to use Alexa/our phones), in which we mention some very specific thing that we don't normally talk about, and immediately afterwards see an ad for that thing on our phone or computer. When tech companies stop pulling shady moves like that, maybe we'll trust them more. Trust isn't given, it's earned.

This thread is serving a useful purpose--it's alerting people to an announced change in Amazon's policy. From there, people can choose how they want to respond.