It records everything you say (and what people around you say,  too).

Amazzon Beee Buzzzz

What’s the craic? Clark Schultz reports: Amazon acquires wearable personal AI company

“Enabling a digital memory”
Amazon has acquired wearable personal AI company Bee for an undisclosed amount. … Its flagship product, simply called Bee, is an always-on, wrist-worn, or clip-on wearable that leverages advanced AI to listen to users’ conversations (converting speech to text), summarize interactions, track tasks, and provide timely reminders and insights.
…
The company has highlighted its seamless integration of AI into daily life, which is seen as enabling a digital memory and assistant that operates quietly in the background. … “AI must live alongside us, learning not just from commands but from the texture of our lives: our relationships, emotions, and aspirations.”

Run the numbers for me. Amanda Silberling obliges: Amazon acquires Bee, the AI wearable that records everything you say

“Security and privacy risks”
Bee, which raised $7 million last year, makes both a stand-alone Fitbit-like bracelet (which retails for $49.99, plus a $19-per-month subscription) and an Apple Watch app. The product records everything it hears — unless the user manually mutes it — with the goal of listening to conversations to create reminders and to-do lists for the user.
…
These products come with a number of security and privacy risks, given that they record everything around them; different companies’ policies will vary in terms of how voice recordings are processed, stored, and used for AI training. In its current privacy policies, Bee says that users can delete their data at any time and that audio recordings are not saved. … It’s not clear if these policies will change as Bee is integrated into Amazon, however — and Amazon has a mixed record on the handling of user data.

Will it be more private than Humane or Rabbit’s offerings? Mike Wheatley is unsure: Amazon buys wearable AI device maker Bee for an undisclosed sum

“Consumers are likely to have a lot of concerns”
Bee, officially known as Bluush Inc. … appears to have had more success than rival AI wearable startups such as Humane AI Inc. and Rabbit Inc., thanks to the low-cost nature of its devices. Humane AI’s now-discontinued Pin, in contrast, was sold at a hefty price of $499, so it wasn’t surprising that it ultimately went out of business. Rabbit is still around, but its R1 device costs four times as much as Bee’s wristband.
…
Bee has always made a big deal about its privacy, conscious that consumers are likely to have a lot of concerns. … For its part, Amazon said in a statement that it “cares deeply” about user privacy and security, … but it stopped short of saying it will adhere to its original policy of not storing audio data, so questions remain about how strong its privacy commitment really is.

Horse’s mouth? Bee founders Maria de Lourdes Zollo and Ethan Sutin are “excited” and “happy”—presumably as if standing on Uncle $crooge McDuck’s diving board:

Bee is joining Amazon and we couldn’t be more excited! … What began as a dream with an incredible team and community now finds a new home at Amazon.
…
[We] couldn’t be happier with this new partnership. … We’re confident that with Amazon’s history of interaction innovation, and together with Panos and his team, we will be able to build all that we’ve set out to do and more!

How are existing customers reacting? Veteran podcaster Leo Laporte is not at all happy this week:

Instantly deleted my account and all my accumulated data from six months of wearing this thing. It’s disappointing but to be expected, I guess.

But it doesn’t store what it hears. Them’s weasel words, thinks srmalloy:

Run the audio through speech recognition, filter it for keywords, discard the audio, store the keywords, and aggregate them to produce a model of your interests, then sell the model. You can say definitively that you’re not storing the audio, [despite] the fact that you’ve [mined it] for identifiable — and marketable — tags they can sell to companies wanting to deliver more focused advertisements.

If you wear one, we are no longer friends. So says 31337Logic:

I would not associate with anyone who wears one of these. You can freely choose to give your soul to Amazon for free, but there’s no reason I need to as well.

Huh? I don’t understand. A frustrated mynameismulan puts it another way:

Here’s the thing that people don’t understand: You don’t have to buy this ****, but other people buy it. … You’re still being listened to. … It’s so ****ing obvious.

But does it even work as advertised? marc__1 doesn’t think so:

I bought a Bee and used it for two months. While the concept has potential, I didn’t find it particularly useful. It would present me with “facts” it believed it had learned about me from listening to my conversations, along with rough summaries of my entire day. Essentially, it was just telling me things I already knew.
…
I can also see devices like this posing a significant security risk, as the Bee records all conversations without requiring consent. My employer doesn’t currently have any explicit policy about using AI devices like this, but I avoided bringing the Bee to work, assuming they wouldn’t be thrilled about it.

And would Amazon be able to sell this outside the U.S? gweihir says it’s “illegal in Europe:”

In Germany, even possession of such a device … is illegal unless it is clearly and well-visibly a recording device. And recording a conversation without informed consent (i.e., you must explain storage, purpose, deletion, etc.) is illegal … all over Europe.

Meanwhile, schjlatah lives in a “two party consent” state:

[Will I] need to start every conversation with a ToS and a disclaimer?

And Finally:

Breakin’ the law, breaking’ the law

Previously in And Finally

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