It never occurred to me that the little robot on the other side of our bedroom may be recording our conversations. Eliot received the Echo from Amazon (Alexa) for his birthday last August. I can’t begin to think about everything the intelligent voice control system (IVCS) may have heard over the last few months. 

I’m not as concerned about intimate details, as I am about who I called silly and boring. We also discussed personal financials and information that others may have told us in confidence. I would be horrified if any of this ever got out.  

Amazon claims that the Echo keeps approximately 60 seconds of audio in memory. The information supposedly is on the device, not in the cloud. I’m not sure if that is comforting or scary. I don’t think most people understand the possible consequences. 

We love our Echo and have no intention of giving it up. We will try to read all that we can on this topic and figure out how to keep our private details private in the digital age. 
We are all in this together. Read more about this subject from Shelly Palmer, tech writer. Click here. 

News From New York 

This was posted on Facebook. Pictures here: Josh Rubinger (l) with his children and Jared Nussbaum. Both men are our former co-op board members from 301 East 62nd St. I felt a bit nostalgic when I saw this because we probably would have been celebrating with them. 

Wishing you a healthy and happy 2017

Miami sunset last night. Photo by Eliot Hess

Outside My Front Door 🚪

iPhone photos by me

Lance is an editor at Mashable, a tech site.

In Memoriam 2016: Remembering the Famous Figures the World Lost. Click here

The sales reports are in. Amazon had its best season yet.  Five times better than last year. The online retailer shipped over 1 billion items for the holidays. Echo devices were the most popular. Prime customers dominated the sales records .

Amazon claims they couldn’t keep Echo devices in stock. Americans will be yelling “Alexa” more than “mommy” or “daddy” over the next year or so, according to Amazon. December 23 was the biggest day for Prime customers. Amazon also figured out that Americans were purchasing approximately 46 electronics per second on their mobile device on Cyber Monday.  Woohoo! 

Retail is surely changing. 

Next subject 

My favorite movies, in the order that I love them. 

You may not believe this but it’s just a matter of time that some of our children, or grandchildren, will take a robot as a life partner. In fact, at the recent Love and Sex with Robots conference in London, industry experts predicted that human-robot marriages will become commonplace by 2050. 

You can read all about it here.The New York Post just did a story about this. While many of us consider The New York Post to be a rag, they do have unique and bizarre stories that eventually come true. 

Make sure you watch the video too. 

My cousin Allan spent the week in Israel with his two grandsons. I had the pleasure of watching their terrific journey together. 

Happy Holidays To All