WEBVTT - The Decrypted Gift Guide 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:15.400 Hi everyone, it's Piega Cary and this week on Decrypted, 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:18.239 we're bringing you our holiday gift guide to help with 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:22.000 your holiday shopping. We've spent this entire season exploring the 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:26.120 unintended consequences of technology that it's creators and often us 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:30.200 the consumers, never quite anticipated, So this week we're applying 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:32.120 that to the gifts you might be thinking of buying 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:34.680 for the holidays. But of course there's a few things 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.000 that you really need to know before buying these gifts. 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:41.560 So first up, we're going to be taking a look 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.440 at one of the newest gadgets on the market, the 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:48.479 Facebook Video Portal. So Sarah Fryer, Hello, Hi, thanks for 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:50.680 joining us and telling us about this. So let's just 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:52.920 quickly run over the basics. How much is the portal 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:55.280 and who's it for? So the portal you can buy 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:59.840 a small version for a hundred dollars and a lar 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:03.520 version for three forty nine. It's basically these beautiful big 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:06.119 screens that you can put in your home, in your 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.840 living room or kitchen, and they have these cameras attached 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.680 that can follow you around as you're talking so that 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:16.840 you don't have to move your your phone. Um, so it. 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.480 Actually it's you know, it's a it's a pretty cool technology, 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:24.399 But the question is do people really need this? And 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.959 even more, do people really need this from Facebook? A 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:32.760 company that they're all very concerned about the privacy implications 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.600 of giving data to. So this is a company Facebook, 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.759 who is as their first hardware device, is coming out 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.880 with a product that really is representative the company's problems 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.560 and privacy combined with the product that basically nobody is 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.600 asking for. So I think we'll see pretty soon that 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:51.200 this thing was a dud. I'm sure they haven't sold 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.080 many of them, and I don't really think people want 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.960 a dedicated video chat device in their homes, especially one 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:59.720 made by Facebook, when you can get the exact same 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.720 funk reality in a more mobile setting with more features 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:06.680 through a phone, whether that's an iPhone or an Android phone, 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:10.560 or just your computer itself. Sarah, what's the business case 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:14.400 for Facebook coming out with a product like this? Facebook 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:16.800 needs to come up with some sort of way to 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:22.359 get more integrated into your more intimate relationships. Right, They 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:26.400 have your your Facebook friends, and for a lot of us, 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:28.880 are Facebook friends are just all the people we've met 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:31.640 over the course of our entire life for as long 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.520 as Facebook has existed, so at that point they become 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.080 less friends and more just a phone book or acquaintances, 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.040 and in that case, people don't share is intimately. So 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:45.000 Facebook has been trying to diversify the kinds of messaging 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.320 that people want to do with Facebook products, so they've 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.320 been investing more in messaging products. This portal device is 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:57.600 a spinoff of Facebook Messenger, and I think they just 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.600 want to become essential in that way. At the same 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:05.119 time they're seeing Alexa and Google Home and all these 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:09.480 other devices entering your home. And remember Facebook missed the 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:14.400 move to mobile phones back in They didn't have a 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.359 mobile phone when all their competitors did. So they've been 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.560 playing in other companies ecosystems for a long time, and 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:24.480 the Google ecosystem or the Apple ecosystem. Now everyone's moving 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.400 to these home products, or at least in terms of marketing, 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.840 I haven't seen a huge catch on. Mark probably knows 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.680 more about that, but they don't want to miss the 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:37.280 boat on this next trend, right. But in a couple 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:40.520 of key ways, the portal is is different from some 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:44.320 of the voice activated devices or systems that are already 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.920 on the market for example, Alexa is basically dormant until 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:53.240 it hears the wake word, which is alexa UM. But 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.120 if I understand correctly, the portal is always listening and 0:03:56.200 --> 0:04:00.800 always watching, right, Mark yes. So the interesting thing about 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.520 the portal is that it has two voice assistance. Right, 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:05.760 it has Alexa, which could be triggered by the Alexa 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:07.960 weake word or if you set another weight word, if 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:10.040 that's an option on this device. But then there's a 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.120 separate one for controlling basic functions like beginning a video 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.560 conference or controlling your volume or basic settings here. And 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:18.480 instead of going all the way and creating its own 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.240 voice assistant, or instead of leveraging Alexa all the way 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.160 to control everything, they split it off into two, which 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:27.240 I think raises even bagger privacy concerns because you have 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:30.440 two different voice assistance and what if you're wanting to 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.760 speak to one, but instead it sends that data to 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.080 the other. Right, So there's a lot at stake here 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:37.960 already with one voice assistant. Now they have two different 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:42.080 companies potentially listening into and recording your data. Right, And 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.000 to make matters worse, Facebook has sort of flip flopped 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.240 a little bit on exactly what UM it's plans are 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.479 for using the data that comes from the portal and 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.240 how that would feed into its advertising model. Right there. 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:59.599 The company has been extremely insistent about how privacy safe 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:02.000 the poor it will be. They'll store the data on 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.520 the device, they won't communicate with the cloud unless you're 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:07.280 trying to make a call over a messenger. Um. There 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:12.360 are not any ways to actually record video uh from 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:14.960 the device. The only way that they would send something 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:17.440 back is if there was some bug and they had 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.280 to take a snippet of what kind of software problem 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.119 there was to fix it. Um. So all of those 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:25.760 things come into play, and then you know, we've also 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:28.800 talked about what Mark said, and then there are the 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:32.400 questions about whether they'll use the data for advertising. Honestly, 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.520 I think the bigger problem is not the portal device. 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.479 It is the current climate in how people think about 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:42.119 Facebook and how much trust they've lost with the company 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:45.839 over this year or two of privacy scandals. Actually should say, 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:48.520 over the course of fourteen years of privacy scandals, because 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:53.400 this company has always perennially had to apologize for for 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:56.880 taking too much of someone's data or not being clear 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.120 about how they were going to use it. And so 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.799 I think that that you despite despite the steps they've 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:06.320 taken with the portal, it'll still be extremely difficult to 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:10.520 convince users to use it. And you know, add that 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.440 on top of the fact that they're late entrance into 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:19.840 this relatively crowded market. Now, all right, so what we're 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:21.880 going to talk about next is the Echo Show and 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.960 the Echo spots. So these are pretty mainstream gifts by now, 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.720 good for parents, spouses, and Nico Grant is here to 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:32.320 talk with us about that. These days, prices have really dropped, right, Yeah, 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:35.640 the Echo doll is now thirty dollars. That's one without 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.240 its display. They have two with screens now, the spot 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.080 in the show that's a hundred and thirty dollars and 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.240 two and thirty dollars. But for these types of devices, 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:46.280 that's not a lot of money. That's pretty much at 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:48.359 the bottom of the range for you know, the latest 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:51.920 and greatest consumer products, especially from a major player like Amazon. 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.680 And what's also dropped is our concerns as consumers about 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:59.640 what it means to have a listening device in our homes. Yeah, 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:03.200 I mean, it's remarkable the extent to which people are 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.880 willing to adopt this a completely different product category than 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:11.680 they're used to. When we've seen at least anecdotally instances 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.760 in which there were, you know, creepy events that happened 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.840 involving Amazon Echo devices. There was one in particular, in 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:24.200 which a police department requested the audio and the transcript 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:28.480 of an echo conversation over the course of a night 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:32.520 to see whether a man had killed h an acquaintance 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.240 of his who came over to his house. Now, we 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:37.680 did a whole episode on Decrypted about that about a 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.280 year and a half ago, and you can check that 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:42.120 out if you want to hear, you know, some of 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:46.240 the darker sides of home recording. Nice plug for your 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:48.920 old episode, Nico. But you know, since that came out 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.680 eighteen months ago or so, there have been other instances 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.360 of Alexa getting involved in some rather all quid mix ups. 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.640 Like there was one person who had a private conversation 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.760 that was taped at home sent to of his employees. Yes, 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:06.760 there was one instance back in May. Its surfaced and 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:09.960 basically there was a couple, this married couple. They were 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:13.480 at home, they were having a conversation. I don't think 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:18.320 they've ever fully confirmed what they were talking about, but um, 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:22.440 the end result was that their echo device thought that 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:27.880 it heard them prompt by saying Alexa, and then thought 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:32.280 that one of them said to start recording, and then 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:36.640 thought that they said to send the recording, and thought 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:40.880 that they heard a contact name, and then thought that 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.359 there was a confirmation to send when one of the 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.000 spouses said the word right in conversation. I mean, it 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:51.959 was truly a series of unfortunate events, and the end 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:56.400 result was that this private conversation between a couple became 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.760 public with one of their contacts. And frankly, if you 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.800 talk about someone in your life, you know, with your 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:07.360 spouse in your home, where can you Pia? That's quite right, Niko, 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.040 I mean, Mark, I don't know how you think about this, 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:12.880 that this is a sort of the sort of nightmare 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.040 scenario that people like. Early on, we're worried about when 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.199 Alexa you know devices hit the market, But as the 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:23.440 number of skills um on the device has grown and 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:25.840 now it's you know, in the tens of thousands of 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.560 skills that come with these Alexa devices, do you think 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:30.839 the risk of something like this happening is going up? 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.120 Here's my opinion, Amazon, Apple, Google, they all have to 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:37.680 do better. In terms of safeguarding data. A lot of 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.640 them are making really big strides. Apple has been really 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:44.320 vocal about this. Both Google and Amazon have protections in place, 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.360 had to prevent the circumstances that do occasionally happen. As 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.040 Nico was explaining, but I think this just comes as 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.360 part of new waves of major, new modern technologies. But 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.520 to your point about skills. Now, with tens and thousands 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.520 of skills, I believe about fifty skills on the marketplace 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:03.320 right now for Alexa devices across so many different products. 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.240 As they add you features like Apple Music was coming 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:07.800 this month, more and more people are going to buy 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.360 these devices, raising those concerns even further. And Nico, you've 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:13.160 actually been looking around at what some of the more 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.960 interesting skills are. Yeah, you can really play some Russian 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.800 roulette um with a hypnotherapist on the Alexa. So I'm 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:23.559 going to lull you to sleep and and perhaps share 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.800 some secrets with And there's also a fun truth or 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:32.000 dare game, UM, So imagine that. Imagine Alexa recording your secrets. 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:38.640 That's going to be really interesting when your employee finds out. Okay, well, 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:44.000 thanks very much, Nico, thank you. Okay, So Next up, 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:46.240 we're going to talk about the Amazon microwave, and we 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.480 have Garrett dvinc here to tell us about that. Garrett, 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.600 who in your family is getting a microwave for Christmas? Well, 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:55.640 I think I'm going to get myself microwave for Christmas 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:58.320 and Amazon Alexa one, because you know, I have a 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.079 regular microwave, the technology of which has not changed noticeably 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:04.400 in the last fifty years as far as I know, 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:06.880 but I don't really know how to use it. It's 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.280 a bunch of random numbers and I essentially just keep 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:12.760 pressing one more minute, one more minute, one more minute 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.480 into whatever I'm trying to cook is invariably burned on 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.120 the outside and still cold on the inside. And I mean, 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.000 you know, I'm I'm I'm kind of making fun of 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.920 myself here, but I do think microwave tech hasn't changed 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.120 much and it might be something that's actually useful for 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:28.720 voice where you can just say to your microwave what 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:31.840 you have inside of it, and the microwave computer itself 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.120 will know exactly how to cook that perfectly. Okay, So 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.760 Garrett tell us about the microwave. It's a microwave like 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:42.480 any other, except you can control it with voice just 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:46.679 like any other Alexa product. It goes for you know, 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.040 the pretty decent price of sixty bucks. So my assumption 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:52.640 here is that Amazon has price is pretty low just 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.280 to get one more device into your home that is 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:59.000 within the Amazon ecosystem. Now you do need to have 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:02.960 another co device to make this work. Now that's a 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.280 pretty big drawback, right. You're paying sixty bucks for the 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:08.080 microwave itself, and I think that's standard pricing for a 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:11.240 pretty you know, low end, rudimentary microwave. This is an 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.480 Amazon Basics. This is not some high end microwave that 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.800 you'll get Best Buy or something like that. So you're 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.400 paying the sixty dollars plus thirty dollars for an Echo 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.400 Dot or something like that. You would think that Amazon 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.600 would have built in the microphone and the speaker into 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:29.559 the Alexa microwave itself to get it going. I think 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:31.920 that would have been a better value and more interesting 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:34.280 to some people now. But the idea here is that 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.840 Amazon wants you to be connecting multiple devices together, and 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.800 it has something called a Connection kit to enable that. Yeah, 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.000 that's absolutely right. So this is part of their strategy 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.360 of getting as many Alexa devices all talking to each other. So, Garrett, 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.920 that gives us a glimpse of where Amazon is going 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.840 with its ambitions in this space. Right. It wants to 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:55.839 have Alexa all over your home exactly. I mean, when 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.880 it comes to Apple in their ecosystem. Many people, especially 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:02.360 in North America, have iPhones and Apple Music. That's they 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.400 might have Max they you know, that's their connection to 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.520 the Apple ecosystem. On Google, we use Google Gmail and 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.720 Google Drive, maybe Google Music. Amazon is also trying to 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.400 find other reasons to you know, get you to buy 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:16.840 more of their products and down the road digital services 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.320 as well. And if a microwave is one tiny part 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.760 of it, that's what they're gonna do. So this microwave 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.479 is made by Amazon, but the idea is that eventually 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.720 Alexa will be embedded in products that are made by 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:31.800 lots of other manufacturers as well. Exactly. I mean, if 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.520 they can say, look, we already have these devices in 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.240 people's homes, they're used to speaking to Alexa. They don't 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.559 necessarily want to speak to some kind of Samsung assistant 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:43.360 or LG assistant or any of the other you know, 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.560 major manufacturers of home products. They can kind of slide right, 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.160 in there and sort of say, you know, you can 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:52.480 see other companies making products that would just have Alexa 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:54.600 Voice instead of their own home assistant. You know, we 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.880 just heard Nico talking about the sort of unintended consequences 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:01.440 of privacy slip ups with Alexa. But once you combine 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:05.160 Alexa with a generic manufacturer that may or may not 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:08.959 have top of the line security settings, I mean, are 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:12.800 we looking into a future with some unintended privacy consequences. 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.560 I think as Amazon expands the reach of what can 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.400 be done via Alexa, now setting how much time you're 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:23.040 going to cook your popcorn for or maybe starting your car, 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:26.640 is they add more skills, a wider range of categories, 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:28.360 is this thing could be used for, and of course 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:30.880 a wider range of devices that this could be integrated with. 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.840 The stakes are just going to increase. And what about 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.200 data sharing, Garrett, is that something you've looked at that 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:42.000 presumably once Alexa starts plugging in with third party manufacturers, um, 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:43.840 you know, other companies are going to be interested in 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:46.720 finding a way to advertise to us through these voice platforms. 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.800 And that's a whole world that we haven't really you know, 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:54.000 explored yet. Well, the data is of course extremely valuable, 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:56.520 and I think it's something that Amazon wants to lock 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.960 down for themselves. So definitely an issue about data sharing, 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.640 although I do think Amazon won't really want to share. 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:05.080 They'll want to do partnerships so that there's more devices 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.480 that use its systems, but they want to keep all 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:09.880 that data so that they can advertise to you, so 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:12.200 that they can know, you know, when you need a 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.280 toilet paper refill, or when you need a new microwave 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:17.560 that kind of thing, Oh, when you need some more 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:21.920 popcorn for your microwave exactly. Mark anything to add on 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:24.520 on the point about data sharing. It's going to be 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.280 incredible to see how they tie in this microwave system 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:29.720 with their Whole Foods purchase. I could imagine a day 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.720 where it will recognize, you know, you bought you know, 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:38.240 eight of a certain you know, microwavable freezer item. Mic 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:42.040 Wave will know, hey, we've this person purchased eight of them. Right, 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.440 they microwate eight of them, it's time to automatically order 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.960 through Whole Food to refill of another eight or ten 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.360 or twelve. So it'll be really fascinating to see how 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:54.280 these services through Amazon all injury together in the future. Okay, 0:15:54.280 --> 0:16:00.120 thanks Garrett, thank you. Okay, So, Mark, we've looked across 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.080 the spectrum of gifts, um, you know, everything from the 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.760 microwave to the Facebook portal. There seems to be a 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.280 common denominator here, which is that a lot of the 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:12.360 concerns with new gadgets that would be fun to give 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.640 as gifts, they all have some lingering privacy concerns and 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.240 that wasn't something that we were worried about even a 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.720 year or two ago. I completely agree, and it's all 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:25.680 about striking the right balance. If you compare the Amazon 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:29.240 Echo to the Facebook portal, for example, they both at 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:32.080 the foundation of the products have the same privacy concerns 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:36.120 about the always on recording potential, the potential recording things 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:38.800 you don't want it to hear it, misunderstanding you, and 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.800 sending your recordings in information to other people. But you 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.080 really have to outweigh the positives versus the potential negatives. 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.800 The percentage of cases where these things happen overall are 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:53.320 not that high. The privacy landscape is evolving, though, now 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.920 that companies realize it's a major public concern, chances are 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.200 that we'll see companies working really hard to make us 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:03.000 comfortable with their approach to handling our data. I agree. 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:04.399 So I think we're going to see two things, I 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.400 think simultaneously to your point, We're going to see companies 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:09.959 doing more and more to educate consumers and make their 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.240 devices safer. But at the same time, I think we're 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:14.040 also going to see people become more used to it, 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:17.680 and this concept of always on devices and listening products 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:21.080 becoming more part of people's dailyable lives. People getting used 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:23.879 to it, people understanding it, and people wanting it. And 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:26.040 so I guess as people get more and more used 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:27.960 to having these devices in their homes and in the 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:30.480 homes of people they know. Um. If there is a 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.480 takeaway to today's gift guide, it's not necessarily that you 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:36.680 shouldn't be buying and enjoying these these cutting edge and 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.840 new gadgets. Um. It's more that you should learn about 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:42.400 them and be informed when you're making a purchasing decision. 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.640 And that's it for this week's Decrypted. Thanks for listening. 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.919 What other tech gadgets of unintended consequences we want to 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.560 hear from you? You can email us at decrypted at 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.639 Bloomberg dot net or I'm on Twitter at Mark German 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.560 and I'm at pa gad Cary. If you're a fan 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:04.720 of the show, please take a moment to rate and 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.840 review us. It really helps us find new listeners. This 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.240 episode was produced by piagricry enlist Smith. Our story editor 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:15.440 was Aki Ito. Thanks also to brad Stone and Van Remain, 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:20.080 Emily Busso and Magnus Henrickson. Francesco Levy is the head 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.360 of Bloomberg Podcasts. We'll see you next week.