A couple of years ago, a good friend was given an Alexa as a birthday gift. He took it out of the box and plugged it in. Walking past it, he mumbled, "Damn cat." After that, he unplugged the device and put it back in the box, Within a week, his email, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds were pummeled with ads for cat food, veterinary services, and pet sitters. He gave Alexa back to the person who'd gifted to him in the first place.

I got spooked years ago searching for my parents via google about digestive issues, etc. Or any searches, then get endless ads. Adult pee pad panties, etc I'm over it now. It is what it is.

It is less about spying but more about planned future purchases. Advertising. Planned years ago. Houz, Food52, all started with a progressive future plan and some do work as a very lucrative business. Eventually. Some give up. Or fail.

My parents comfort and daily life in their early 90's....they could not give a rats begonia about sneaky advertising.

I have a first generation in the kitchen. It mostly listens to the TV, which keeps it company. :)

Having a network connection outage is a real bummer--I went several months in the Fall with only my iPad on cell reception. No Alexa. But all the goodies S was talking about area a lot cheaper and easier through the 'net than they are with a stand alone home automation hub. I have one of those for my stereo, but it's so old changing out the router is a big ordeal. Downside either way.

Coming home from the store with an armload of groceries to tend to and an earworm? Ask Alexa to play the song while you're unloading. Cured!

I've never had ads showing up from my conversations. Ricky, are you sure that isn't a joke turned into urban legend? Still, nothing gets discussed in my kitchen that I'd blush to have the world know about. Well, maybe blushable, but only of the very ordinary human variety that really doesn't matter. Of course, I also turn off the targeted advertising features on my devices whenever I can. And Amazon were once kind enough to buy one of something I really wanted and kept looking at (and bought when they listed it), so I don't mind so much if they track my purchases.

I bought a Sonos sound system with built-in Alexa. I was after the music more than Alexa, but I'm glad I have her.

I use her for timers, music and to turn off the bedroom light when I'm done reading. I'm not getting the full use of her capabilities.

Here in Cathedral City, my alarm clock is set to 107.3, a Cathedral City station that plays lounge music and some big band music - the type that is especially popular in Palm Springs. One morning I woke up to Johnny Mathis singing "Chances Are" and the music was so soothing that I didn't turn the alarm off and just stayed in bed listening to it, until something else came on. Later that day, I downloaded that song. Kevin already had a Johnny Mathis CD, and so I got it from that.

In Los Angeles, my alarm clock is set to KXLU, the Loyola Marymount University station (LMU is in Westchester, not far from my house), and I can get woken up to punk rock, new wave, dream pop, or who knows what. Often I hear a new song when I wake up listening to KXLU and end up buying it. It's one of the best sources I have for new music. The DJs are a bit ditzy and talk like surfers, and so it's sometimes difficult to figure out the name of the song I'm listening to, even though they supposedly have their playlists on line - some of the lists are and some are not. I emailed one of the DJs once about a song he had played, and he emailed me back saying that he could not remember.

Anyway, I prefer to be surprised by new music rather than something I already have when I wake up.

I also find Alexa a bit creepy, and I do not want a machine eavesdropping on me. If I lived alone and were lonely, I might feel different about that, but then that might make me even more psycho than I already am.

Basically, I prefer to do a lot of things manually rather than rely on technology. That way I feel more independent and worry less about how I will cope when services, such as power and internet are interrupted. As it is, we already have spotty GPS service in Coachella Valley, and so I cannot rely on my phone to navigate me here. However, I really don't need that here the way I do in L.A., where I definitely need help to navigate around traffic.

I chose to travel to Cathedral City yesterday (Tuesday) because Tuesday is the least popular travel day, and so traffic was a breeze yesterday. I have my orthodontist appointment tomorrow at noon in Desert Hot Springs, which is why I have to be here now, and it is extremely easy to get to his office. After going there only once, I don't need any assistance, although I will write down the cross street, so that I don't forget.

If there were a car Alexa that was reliable, I might consider that. I don't need or want her in my house. I would like to be able to talk back to GPS.

NOPE! Not gonna do it! We made the mistake of putting a NEST thermostat in. The stupid thing thinks it knows what we want! I end up getting out of bed at 1 in the morning to turn off the heater! (and a crazy heating bill!).

We prefer heating for a short time, then keeping the 2 front rooms warmish with a gas insert during the winter, and a cool bedroom at night.

I don't need my kitchen telling me what to do!

We have one. I hate the blasted thing.

Maybe I'm the only one, but I experience exactly what Ricky/Fawnridge has said. Elery and I will talk about Alaska and as if by magic, I start getting advertisements for Alaskan cruises. He remarks that we're nearly out of cat food? Voila! Chewy dot com appears. Talk about the grandkids starting school and outgrowing their shoes? Zappos pops up with a statement that they sell brand name shoes for less.

Elery does not experience this on his iPad, but I can't avoid the advertisements on my desktop, even with an ad blocker.

And, every time I ask something I get a response that says "I'm sorry, I don't know that. Here's something I found on the web." It's never an answer to what I asked.

The grandkids play with it, and at least having Alexa make a sound like an elephant only results in ads for the local zoo...

Annie

Never! Not on my watch. I find it really creepy.

Some of her jokes are quite funny too!

Annie, lol. 😂. I think of kitchen multi-taskers with many timers needed would find her indespensible. We call her 'girlfriend'. I've had many timers set just this morning with beans and a multi-grain on the stovetop. We are smoking some sausage today....soo hot here. 95º+. We need all the reminder we can get....

No noticed experience with forced ad pop-ups but maybe i have an ignore brain for that.

When the first one showed up in DH's christmas stocking a few years ago, it was a joke gift. He loves it. Creepy at first. Making morning coffee, emptying the dishwasher, out goes the garbage...music or a pod cast. Hands free.

I expected a 50/50 love/hate. At work i polled the crew and it was 90% possitive but mostly "why ask?". Just a thing everyone has.

Only one millenial who i adore, named Alexa, threw it out the window during a heated arguement with her X boyfriend. (i think there is another name choice rather than Alexa in the settings).

At the moment DH is in the kitchen and has set three timers in just a few minutes prepping the second smoker times.

I avoid multi-tasking as much as possible - to me it is generally very inefficient and can cause a lot of needless errors. I am a very focused person, and I have a very long attention span - thus I am able to work on one very complicated project at a time without interruptions and get results that I would not otherwise attain. This helped me a lot in furniture design, in which I had to figure out construction details, which could get quite complicated, especially for lighting designs.

That's how I prefer to work, but of course the kitchen is a different story. In fact, the kitchen is the only place in which I will multitask, in order to get a multi-course meal completed at the correct time. I have to put my mind in a different gear to do this, which is not difficult, and I have not felt the need of any assistance. I actually do not like having assistance when I am cooking, and this may be part of the reason why I would not want Alexa in my kitchen.

I might like having an Alex in the kitchen, however.

We have a smart speaker in the kitchen ...Ii normally use it for baackground music while cooking, but it is a useful timer and for a quick recipe lookup or two, or even a recipe substitute suggestion ... yeah, it knows we wanna cruise. Now, if i wanted land in Moldova, I dunno what would happen.

I looked up 'Wild Alaskan Company' seafood yesterday via link from another cooking forum...the usual free something with first order....24oz free king crab legs code. I did not bite. My freezer is just where i like it this time of year. Thinning for garden harvest.

It was the header ad signing into the NYTimes this morning. I get a few e-mails from past orders from beans, Zwilling, etc. Not much of a bother really. I like a heads up for deals.

This post was just about how useful it has been that i was previously unaware of. Having 8-10 timers set with different names...."Alexa, set the grain timer for 20 minutes", the chick pea timer for 30 min, the oven for 3 hours braising short ribs....then later, "Alexa, how much timer left on the short ribs?". Even with three or four burners full, i can sit down at the kitchen table, check the pantry for a grocery order downstairs, start a load of laundry, check the mailbox, the garden, snip some herbs....all before it gets too hot outside.

Start a half cup summer/winter wheat, 20 min head start, move to back burner, add 1/4 cup quinoa, 15 min, soaked chick peas on the front burner....20 min, turn down to simmer, 1/2 hour, move to cool, half tossed in spices to oven roast, half for humus. Black beans, then eggs on to steam. Easily all timed hands free and often off to do other things.

Cold salads, slaws, and blender prep, dressings, are afternoon quickies when it is so hot.

Lots of meal choices for a couple days.

I agree with the listening in. I was an early adopter for the Amazon Alexa. When we started seeing our private conversations show up in ads, DH said no way, so she got unplugged and hasn't seen much use since. We have a whole home Sonos system now with Alexa built in. The Sonos smart speakers have a button to turn off the 'listening in' part. Sonos was founded by my DH's former boss and I consulted for them for a number of years, so we felt comfortable that our privacy was respected when 'listening in' was off.

I haven't used it much in the kitchen, but agree that the hands free feature to set multiple timers would be useful.

Editing to add: @Lars There is Android Auto which is a voice assistant for the car. It is a google product, so uses Google maps, and the google assistant. It runs off a smart phone plugged into your car, and you can ask it to navigate to a location, play a podcast, news channel or playlist and call a number in your contacts. I find it useful when on a long drive and it is really useful in traffic, as it shows traffic flows on the map, suggests alternative routes to avoid traffic and lets you know the time you are expected to arrive at the destination, taking traffic into consideration. When privacy is a concern, we unplug or turn off the phone.

I don't think Android Auto will work when there is spotty GPS. Kevin's truck has GPS installed in his sound system, and it uses satellites instead of cell phone towers, and it always works, even in the blackout regions of national parks, but it does not have traffic info. Still, it can help us keep from getting lost (again) in Death Valley. It doesn't always give the best route directions, and of course it does not consider traffic at all.

Also, having a niece named Alexa isn't helpful!

Auto Alexa doesn't do GPS, but will connect to Google or Apple Maps or Waze, which presumably do use GPS but also have straight maps. It's mostly a voice assistant to control the speakers, like the regular one, and play stuff from the 'net.

If you or your niece is named Alexa, you can change the name to "Amazon" (which it connects to), "Echo" (the actual name of the device), or "Computer" (which I assume is to be like Star Trek).

If you don't like the targetted ads, you can turn them off in your settings. I've never gotten them. I don't know how much I believe what's not said here, but this is what Amazon says about Alexa vis-a-vis privacy, "Designed to protect your privacy – Amazon is not in the business of selling your personal information to others. Built with multiple layers of privacy controls including a mic off button." Of course, if you turn off the mic, you lose voice control, and it's the voice control that makes it useful in the kitchen.

My favorite trick is that when you tell it shopping list items, they appear in the app in your phone, so when you're at the store, there it is. I'm pretty sure some of the bigger recipe and shopping apps can interact with it too, but I just use the Alexa one. Sometimes what it mis-hears is hysterical, but I can usually figure out what it was supposed to be.

she has great difficulty with french words; My amazon shopping alerts are often very interesting.