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forced to buy an echo for new house. any suggestions? (lemm.ee)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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my family is moving into a much bigger house than we used to have. we use amazon echos as an intercom system through the announcement feature. because our house is bigger, i’m being forced to get one myself for my room. i haven’t needed one for years because i use their app on my phone and i can see their announcements as a notification and i can also kill off most of its tracking by DNS. unfortunately my parents don’t understand this and are forcing me to get one. what can i do to limit its tracking?

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[–] 20 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

i haven’t needed one for years because i use their app on my phone and i can see their announcements as a notification and i can also kill off most of its tracking by DNS. unfortunately my parents don’t understand this

Sounds like you have a reasonable, compatible alternative on your phone already. Will they even notice if you continue using this and never plug the new alexa in?

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  • [–] [S] 14 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    probably not. i might just not plug it in and see how it goes. if it doesn’t work out, i guess i’ll have to DNS block its tracking from a openwrt pi

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    Good plan A.

    For a plan B, If your parents don't understand why privacy is important on the internet they probably won't understand why the echos in your room don't seem to work. Say it's wifi can't reach the router, bend the cable so many times the wires break, "accidentally" become super clumsy with it and knock it over a bunch. This is absolutely a first world problem, it requires a first world solution.

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