Just bought Google Home, Google Home Mini and some Philips Hue bulbs and got to say I'm really impressed.
Ask Google to turn your lights on, ask Google to play music or give you a weather forecast. Once you've linked your account you can even ask it to tell you how long it will take to get to work and it will give a real time answer based on current traffic from looking at Google maps.
Walk in the kitchen in the morning and ask Google to turn the light on, play your local radio station and give you a weather forecast and traffic update is amazing. I'm genuinely impressed
Same here, that said we use Hive for lights and heating, but there’s no facility for it to log anything other than that, I’m not paranoid enough to want the camera option. Yet.
Blade wrote:So did you guys all leave Facebook if your that paranoid about data mining????
I don't use the Facebook app and I don't use Facebook messenger. I only have the browser version. I don't do any quizzes, click any links unless it's youtube or a website I know and I don't go public with my posts. My date of birth is wrong as are other details. My notification settings are all off, my phone isn't linked to facebook and I used my general gmail spam email address for registration. All of my privacy settings have been adjusted.
Sounds good advice and appreciate the share, maybe I should check my settings.
Thing is like Monty says people have a microphone and 4k camera in their pocket 24/7 and how many of us really read all the permissions when we download an app.
Maybe I will get hacked and someone take data without me knowing but I haven't got the time or energy to worry about every situation tbh.
@kwacky sounds like you switched on and aware and good for you buddy, but I would suggest you are a minority.
The way I look at it, is if they want something that bad they will get it regardless if I have a digital assistant or not. Its a good system imo but by the sounds of it not for everyone.
I've been online since the early 90s, so I've grown up with the expansion of data sharing. It's not too difficult to keep your online footprint to a minimum.
I don't agree with the phone comparison. You choose when to use it and what to share from it. Switching location off your phone takes two presses of a button.
The Google and Amazon products are always on. No one knows what information they're storing or passing on.
Your privacy is never going to be safe with any company that monetises data. It's the main reason I pay the Apple TAX and try not to use anything from Google. Apple don't give a fudge who, where or what I am and all my data is end to end encrypted.
I will tip my hat to Apple in that regard. They do lock you in to their products but they're very good at keeping your information within the Apple family.
They are great pieces of kit, no doubt about it. This is the tip of the integrated technology in the home. it won't be long before these systems clock what's going on the house, make recommendations for energy savings, draw up a shopping list for you to email and hook up with your cars to have the heating come on when you're close to home.
Blade wrote:OK thanks guys, appreciate the advice I will have a look when I get a spare minute and sounds like I should perhaps improve my data security.
That a side I really like Google Home and the kids think its amazing .
Just don't do big screen porn with the sound on when everyone goes out