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I suppose another option is to just leave a note on the counter for your guests, telling them where the echo dots are and that they’re free to unplug them if they’d like. You can say that Amazon’s stance is that the Echo Dots do not record conversations. And that if you were capable of hacking into them that you’d not need to rent out your home
Of course, I’m joking about the last part but am serious about the first part. There’s no reason to disclose them in the listing if the guests can disconnect them, especially since they are not an audio recording device per se.
100% incorrect. I thought the same as you, but I just used the Alexa app on my phone and heard recordings of guests giving Alexa orders. “Turn on the lights” “Play Happy Birthday”, “What time does American 2295 land?”. etc. It was just the order given Alexa, nothing else, but it was a recording. I immediately shut it off.
How can you not see a difference between a guest using their own phone and using a device provided by the host?
Yes, many people are paranoid conspiracy theorists and some people should never leave home.
But this is about how Airbnb deals with things and hosts protecting themselves in case of a complaint.
I knew that you can hear audio that they address directly to Alexa. But I thought that since they are not intended as recording devices you didn’t have to disclose them so I was incorrect too. Looking at the policy I see that smart devices are included in the mandatory disclosure: rules about devices apply to all cameras, recording devices, smart devices, and monitoring devices.
And they have to be disclosed in the same as cameras and you have to say that they’re inside. It will look something like this in your amenities list:
It will have to say that you have smart devices that record audio inside the home. I don’t think it’s worth it. I care very very little about my privacy and yet that would concern me. Maybe it’s best to just lock them away in your personal storage and not leave them out for guests? There’s nothing invasive about them but having to disclose them makes them sound invasive.
What I find funny is that none of us disclose our routers and they are recording devices too. If a host wanted to invade a guest’s privacy, a guest’s browsing data would surely be more interesting than how they walk to their car. I don’t know where it stops really.
I also don’t know what an Echo Dot does in terms of privacy. My computer guy recommended thatI put in Apple HomePod minis because Apple does not 'listen in."
My impression is that many non-Apple products (even a Nest thermostat, I read?) listen in and the information is somehow used by the ‘supplier’ (so Amazon for Echo Dot). Who knows what Amazon does with that. information? I know some people object to that and will one to disconnect the device for that reason.
One thing, though, is that my understanding is that the Echo Dots doesn’t give YOU the ability to eavesdrop. You could configure it to ‘listen in’ to give it a command, or hear a command, but not eavesdrop. The question is whether what Amazon is doing ‘eavesdropping’?
To @muddy’s point I wouldn’t know what to disclose other than it is an Echo Dot because the privacy issues are arcane, and if the Nest example is illustrative we might not even understand all the privacy issues for years. The point is that the Host is not eavesdropping and cannot do so but I wouldn’t use the ‘eavesdrop’ word. I think saying that these are Dot Echos is enough.
My one bookingsdotcom stay was a Nov 09 home share booking on a hilltop above Yakima, WA. It was obviously their daughter’s room full of glass and ceramic horsies, and the first thing I did was to unplug the damned Alexa.
But it was cheap and available. And the view was great.
I won’t have any of those spy devices in my house and I would never have any kind of voice control device in a STR.
You need a new computer guy. the HomePod minis are exactly like the Echo’s. They have the ability to “learn your voices”. They don’t do that by NOT saving recordings of you. Like some have already posted about the Echo’s, you can go into the HomePod’s and listen to the commands that were given to the HomePod (supposedly to help train it).
They also have Intercom capabilities. Which means you can listen to the guests live through the intercom.
Yes, I was trying to distinguish ‘listen in’ to commands – which both do – from ‘eavesdropping,’ which is listening to everything said, even without regard to ‘commands.’
I’m not well versed enough into the language and technology to get into a reasoned discussion on this. I suspect if we had an Amazon tech and an Apple tech on the thread they would be arguing with Apple saying that they product offered more privacy.
My personal sense is that Apple does offer more privacy – they make a big deal about this as part of their brand – but the question is whether many users care enough for that to outweigh other attributes. For example, the reviews I read said that other devices had better sound than Apple’s HomePod mini.
So I don’t think I need a new computer guy. I just might not be representing well the privacy advantages he thought that Apple offered. Nor is my impression that they are in any way ‘critical.’
Yes, the Apple HomePod mini’s have an intercom feature. I’m on a different network than the guest’s network. I don’t know if I could listen on any intercom messages if I switched networks.
But to your point and the point of this thread if I could (do you know?) then I should disclose that with something like “If you use the intercom feature of the Apple HomePod minis it’s possible for the Host to listen to intercom messages and commands although has no intention to do so.”
Do you and others here think that is the appropriate disclosure to make?
"If you use the intercom feature of the Apple HomePod minis it’s possible for the Host to listen to intercom messages and commands although has no intention to do so because 99.9% of people are unbearably dull and your Host has better things to do.
Although you may think that your Host is interested in your and your partner’s 45-minute long tense and hangry what-to-eat-for-dinner discussion each evening, your Host has to keep up with their own mundane conversations (and also needs to figure out what they want for dinner)."
