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Comment by mola | Hacker News Reader

If people are willing to install amazon microphone in their home. Why can't we call them amazon microphones? Why does amazon try to hide that under a meaningless word like "device"?

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Just like a Ring is a spycam in a doorbell. I feel shit passing these things when just walking the streets in my city, and look the other direction so the facial recognition that may or may not be there, does not catch me. But hey, that's the curse of being privacy-aware. I dread the day that I find Amazon or Google or Apple super-microphones running in a friend's home, and I try to avoid controversial subjects in our conversation.. just in case.

People who buy Rings know 100% that they're security cameras with a doorbell feature. They compete with other security cameras, not doorbells.

Then, when you look the other direction, the Ring on the house across the street gets you anyway.

Security cameras have been watching everything we do for decades but the one network vibe of these doorbells is kind of dystopian.

I think it's a reasonable distinction.

The Echo is much more than "a microphone". Yes, it has a microphone, and I don't think Amazon is trying to pretend it doesn't. But a smart speaker is obviously not just a passive listening device, as implied by "Amazon microphone".

When will the truth be palatable? When we normalize it. By calling the device an Amazon microphone, we are telling the truth that this device is a listening device, not just a speaker. This name has less sugar coating, so if it is still too bitter, just call it what you want.

By that logic, your phone should be called a "microphone".

Ignore all the additional stuff it can do, it has a microphone, therefore it's OBVIOUSLY a passive listening device, ergo "microphone" /s

Well it is quite more.

It also tracks your position via satellites.

I don't think they are, and Amazon might not think so either. I think people would be less willing to install these devices if they were more often called Amazon microphones.

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