My parents have an alexa kettle that can only be turned on by speaking to alexa or using an app.

My parents have an alexa kettle that can only be turned on by speaking to alexa or using an app.

So I can have tea as long as they have a wifi connection.

Welcome to the 21st century.

I was foolishly pressing the "on" button with my finger. Like a *peasant*.

Does anyone have any literature on why having these listening devices in your house is a bad idea?

My instinct is "it's obviously bad just cos" but that isn't exactly helpful.

@miffyhelen "Enshittification" by @pluralistic sums it up really well!

It's not designed to make life better for you, it's designed to extract money from you. But it's marketed well, I guess.

miffyhelen@beige.party no literature but the kettle is purely bad because the cloud connection provides exactly zero benefit to the end user.

Some other smart tech you can try to justify (e.g. ability to adjust home temperature while I am out of the house, etc.)

This kettle is smart for the sake of ticking a box and ultimately that makes the appliances dumber as a result