by Dale Meredith | Jan 12, 2022 | Smart Home
I overheard a friend reference his Google Home as the uninvited guest in every conversation. I immediately responded, but is it? I kidded him that the invite came when he purchased the devices and set them up in his home. I, too, have invited a plethora of smart devices into my home for the convenience and the cool factor that comes with having the latest and greatest technology. Yes.
Digital assistants can listen and record everything you say even when you haven’t activated it.
But, understand that technology isn’t limited to just digital assistants. Your phone, tablet, and in some cases your laptops are doing the same things. If this unnerves you, all is not lost as Google Assistant will let you change a setting so it won’t record your voice. And Alexa allows you to delete recordings already made. If all this makes you uneasy, you can delete the recordings already made by Alexa and Google Assistant — but of the two, only Google Assistant lets you pause the process so that your voice won’t be recorded in the first place.
Here’s how to do it. Theverge.com will take you through a step-by-step process for each.
My Favorite Thing About Digital Assistants ‘Nana, my mom grounded me in my room. Will you get her in trouble for me?.’ This phone call from our grandson using his Alexa, who lived states away from us, was the highlight of my wife’s week a short while back. My 6-year-old grandson disobeyed his mom and got sent to his room. With Alexa in the room with him, it’s was as easy as him saying ‘Alexa, call Nana,’ and he had direct access to a listening ear who wanted to hear all about how unfair his mom was. For millions of us worldwide, ‘shelter-in-place didn’t mean shelter-all-alone as technology brought comfort to those who live alone and allowed loved ones across the globe to connect and strengthen bonds.
Digital assistants can help you:
- Make shopping lists and order groceries online for delivery or pickup
- Connect all your devices to your home audio system
- Keep your phone unlocked as you approach, or lock it when you leave or fall asleep
- Turn on your home lights to make coming home easier
- Sync up all your devices, so they play the same music at the same time All this makes for a highly convenient lifestyle, and the technology is getting better every day.
So I do use and value the benefits of having digital assistants. But the jury is still out whether Alexa or Google Home is my favorite. I have both in almost every room of my house, and I often pitch them against each other, trying to analyze which one is best.
My articles and social media sites are full of my thoughts on smart home devices, the good, the bad, and the ugly. As a tech guru, a parent, a grandparent, and a cyber security expert, I lean towards embracing technology advancements.
But I encourage everyone to use them responsibly to keep you and your loved ones safe and smart with all the guests you’ve invited into your home -both the human and digital guests.
by Dale Meredith | Apr 3, 2020 | Smart Home
‘Nana, my mom grounded me to my room.’ This phone call from our grandson using his Alexa, who lives states away from us, was the highlight of my wife’s week.
My 6-year-old grandson didn’t obey his mom and got sent to his room.
With #Alexa in the room with him, it’s as easy as saying ‘Alexa, call Nana’, and he has direct access to a listening ear who wants to hear all about how unfair his mom is.
Especially during these days of ‘shelter-in-place’ because of #covid19 – these devices are a great way to connect kids who don’t have cell phones to grandparents!
Yes, even our adult kids have fun and make use of smart home devices.
We also caught Gabe recently going to bed listening to a sweet child’s bedtime story, (he adamantly denies it), but our Google history caught him saying ‘Hey, Google, tell me a story’.
Man, I wish I had Google as a kid growing up! It would have been a game-changer in so many ways.
For continued advice and learnings on how to help your family stay safe and smart with the technology you use, follow
Dale Dumbs IT Down on Instagram
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Learn more about the why behind my journey of helping families stay safe and smart with the technology they use at https://www.daledumbsitdown.com/
by Dale Meredith | Mar 31, 2020 | Smart Home
Especially now with shelter-in-place due to #COVID-19, our smart home devices are keeping our minds sharp with fun interactive trivia type games.
Inviting Google AND Alexa into our home was a life changer.
Every now and then, I’ll be sharing a few things Alice, Gabe, and I love about our smart home devices.
Alice’s favorite: Just by saying ‘Goodnight,’ our Google friend tells Alice the weather forecast for the next day, reminds her of what is on her calendar, and sets her morning alarm.
To-do lists and shopping lists are also at the top of her favorites! Almost daily, I hear her chatting it up with Google as she builds out her shopping and to-do lists.
Her next favorite is checking the weather as she packs her bag for whatever business trip is on her calendar for the week. One week I heard Google advise her on the weather conditions in New York, Texas, and Minnesota. Yes, all that travel in one week and crazy diverse temperatures. This gal of mine is the master packer.
And catching Gabe ‘cheating’ on his homework is another favorite of Alice’s. Yes, this happens, more than most would think. Her all-time favorite is when she catches ME cheat on Gabe’s homework. I try my best to help him, and when I can’t figure out the answer, Google almost always saves the day.
For continued advice and learnings on how to help your family stay safe and smart with the technology you use, follow
Dale Dumbs IT Down on Instagram
Dale Dumbs IT Down on Youtube
Learn more about the why behind my journey of helping families stay safe and smart with the technology they use at https://www.daledumbsitdown.com/
by Dale Meredith | Mar 5, 2020 | Smart Home
If you’ve been following my posts, I’ve shared quite a few ways to keep your personal information and conversations safe from Google, Siri, and Alexa. Now for those who want to truly Lockdown their Google Home, here are the next steps.
Now please be careful if you choose this route as it may cause some hiccups with how well your Google device functions going forward.
But for those who want to go to the extreme to ensure max privacy but still enjoy ‘some’ of the functions available on their Google Assistant give this a try to Lockdown your Google Home.
- From the main GOOGLE ASSISTANT ACTIVITY PAGE
- Go ahead and scroll down, and you’ll see your WEB & APP ACTIVITY is ON
- Now tap CHANGE SETTING.
- Then turn off the toggle beside WEB & APP ACTIVITY.
Please know that changing this setting won’t delete any of your personal data from Google; it only stops Google Assistant from recording more data going forward.
For continued advice and learnings on how to help your family stay safe and smart with the technology you use, follow
Dale Dumbs IT Down on Instagram
Dale Dumbs IT Down on Youtube
Learn more about the why behind my journey of helping families stay safe and smart with the technology they use at https://www.daledumbsitdown.com/
Photo by BENCE BOROS
by Dale Meredith | Mar 4, 2020 | Smart Home
Check it out! Take a look at all the info your Google Assistant knows about you. Open your GOOGLE HOME app. Tap the settings gear in the lower right corner. Under the GOOGLE ASSISTANT heading, tap MORE SETTINGS. Select YOU from the menu bar at the top. Tap YOUR DATA IN THE ASSISTANT.
Enjoy the read, as you review all the pieces of information Google Assistant know about you and what information it has keeping about you. Don’t worry- you can take it all back!
You can delete items one at a time by tapping the trash can icon beside each item. Or while you’re at it- take it ALL back. When you tap YOUR DATA IN THE ASSISTANT, find MY ACTIVITY listed under YOUR ASSISTANT ACTIVITY. To the right of the search bar at the top of the page, tap the icon of THREE STACKED DOTS. Tap DELETE ACTIVITY BY > ALL-TIME then tap the DELETE to confirm.
There you go! You took it all back, well for now anyway. Who knows what the future will uncover. As always – stay safe by keeping your data and personal information secure, ‘well, as secure as you can’.
If you don’t use Google Assistant I also have a blog post where I show you how to delete your voice recordings from Amazon Alexa HERE
I encourage you to click the link and ‘subscribe’ to our newsletter. Our newsletter is designed to help parents stay educated on the latest and greatest technology trends.
For continued advice and learnings on how to help your family stay safe and smart with the technology you use, follow
Dale Dumbs IT Down on Instagram
Dale Dumbs IT Down on Youtube
Learn more about the why behind my journey of helping families stay safe and smart with the technology they use at https://www.daledumbsitdown.com/
Photo by Moritz Kindler
by Dale Meredith | Mar 3, 2020 | Smart Home
“Sticks and stones will break your bones, and words will come back to haunt you!” All of us have had ‘those’ days that we wish we could rewind time and take back things we said or did. What happens when your Alexa is always listening? How can we delete Alexa’s memory?
While words shared cannot be erased from human memories, Amazon has found a way to do just that to help you retain privacy and erase her memory bank. Just this year, Amazon announced two new Alexa commands that let you delete your voice transcripts. Simply say, “Alexa, delete everything I said today” or ‘Alexa, delete what I just said.”
Now, if you want to delete your entire history, open the Alexa app and go to SETTINGS > ALEXA PRIVACY > REVIEW VOICE HISTORY > DELETE ALL RECORDINGS FOR ALL HISTORY.
Now for you Apple users, it’s time to take it back!
For all you Apple lovers– it’s time to take back all those horrible things you said n front of our little fruit spies. Time to delete all the private and personal conversations you unknowingly shared while Siri sat there and listened (and recorded). With the iOS 13.2 update, you can delete all of your recordings. Open your SETTINGS > SIRI & SEARCH > SIRI & DICTATION HISTORY > and select DELETE SIRI & DICTATION HISTORY.
That should allow you to delete all of your private and personal voice transcripts. Keep watch I will be posting another blog post in helping you delete your voice transcripts from Google as well.
For continued advice and learnings on how to help your family stay safe and smart with the technology you use, follow
Dale Dumbs IT Down on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daledumbsitdown/
Dale Dumbs IT Down on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/daledumbsitdown
Learn more about the why behind my journey of helping families stay safe and smart with the technology they use at https://www.daledumbsitdown.com/
Photo by Lazar Gugleta
