Alexa echo BBC skill now demanding registration
Discussion
After being nagged every morning to link my BBC radio Alexa skill to a BBC account, it now point blank refuses to play unless I give in. Which I won't.
I've deleted the BBC skill and installed the radioplayer skill which works, but you above the added bit of saying Alexa, ask radioplayer to play radio 6. Not a biggie but any other good options out there ?
I've deleted the BBC skill and installed the radioplayer skill which works, but you above the added bit of saying Alexa, ask radioplayer to play radio 6. Not a biggie but any other good options out there ?
Yeah - I have that in Sonos.
Every morning I walk into my workshop and tell Alexa what I want to listen to, pause it, change stations, listen to audiobooks etc.
Then BBC, like every organisation now, decided to "insist" you link a personal account with their offering so they can track your usage (there is no other sound reason) - data is king. A game I'm not up for playing :-)
RadioPlayer works - just interested in aother Alexa plugins that might offer more / be more natural to use
Every morning I walk into my workshop and tell Alexa what I want to listen to, pause it, change stations, listen to audiobooks etc.
Then BBC, like every organisation now, decided to "insist" you link a personal account with their offering so they can track your usage (there is no other sound reason) - data is king. A game I'm not up for playing :-)
RadioPlayer works - just interested in aother Alexa plugins that might offer more / be more natural to use
durbster said:
Am I reading this right - you have bought a device that constantly sends a stream of information about you to an enormous, unaccountable American corporation, and your concern is that the BBC will know that you were 10 minutes into an episode of Desert Island Discs?
Extraordinary.
People are bonkers. Extraordinary.
cobra kid said:
durbster said:
Am I reading this right - you have bought a device that constantly sends a stream of information about you to an enormous, unaccountable American corporation, and your concern is that the BBC will know that you were 10 minutes into an episode of Desert Island Discs?
Extraordinary.
People are bonkers. Extraordinary.
durbster said:
Am I reading this right - you have bought a device that constantly sends a stream of information about you to an enormous, unaccountable American corporation, and your concern is that the BBC will know that you were 10 minutes into an episode of Desert Island Discs?
Extraordinary.
So by your logic, if you are prepared to surrender SOME of your information, so SOME organisations, you may as well give up and just give ALL of it to EVERYONE?Extraordinary.
There has to be a reasonable compromise. I accept some things have a data cost, but also, when I am presented with "give us the data or dont' use our service", then I dont' use the service.
Amazon Echo's are fantastically convenient, and for that service, I accept the data cost from me - and I get a great service. BBC Radio doesn't improve in any way once I register an account with them. It is purely for their benefit only. Hence I won't play ball.
It's far from bonkers. I find it more bonkers that people just give in and give it ALL out.
Each to their own.
Edited by Griffith4ever on Friday 8th April 17:54
durbster said:
Am I reading this right - you have bought a device that constantly sends a stream of information about you to an enormous, unaccountable American corporation, and your concern is that the BBC will know that you were 10 minutes into an episode of Desert Island Discs?
Extraordinary.
I will never understand why when faced with the easy way and the hard way some people always choose the hard way Extraordinary.
Griffith4ever said:
durbster said:
Am I reading this right - you have bought a device that constantly sends a stream of information about you to an enormous, unaccountable American corporation, and your concern is that the BBC will know that you were 10 minutes into an episode of Desert Island Discs?
Extraordinary.
So by your logic, if you are prepared to surrender SOME of your information, so SOME organisations, you may as well give up and just give ALL of it to EVERYONE?Extraordinary.
Griffith4ever said:
There has to be a reasonable compromise. I accept some things have a data cost, but also, when I am presented with "give us the data or dont' use our service", then I dont' use the service.
But you clearly don't. You have an Amazon account which means you were presented with that same choice by Amazon and chose to use their service. Griffith4ever said:
Amazon Echo's are fantastically convenient, and for that service, I accept the data cost from me - and I get a great service. BBC Radio doesn't improve in any way once I register an account with them. It is purely for their benefit only. Hence I won't play ball.
There are lots of benefits to a BBC account. It allows you to customise content and log favourite stuff, plus it can keep track of where you're up to on shows across different devices. It's quite useful.Griffith4ever said:
It's far from bonkers. I find it more bonkers that people just give in and give it ALL out.
On the contrary. I'm very protective of my data. That means assessing who is collecting the data and what they're doing with it. The BBC's usage is very clearly laid out and is about as benign as it gets for a big organisation. Do you know what Amazon are doing with your data that you're freely giving them?
Griffith4ever said:
when I am presented with "give us the data or dont' use our service", then I dont' use the service.
That’s axiomatically untrue, given the service you’re referring to runs via Amazon - whose demands (so many, so varied, so large!) for data you’ve acquiesced to in using Alexa in the first place.As Durbster alludes to, after that choosing the BBC as your privacy hill to die on seems odd.
Durbster & co are surely right in being realistic about the way our data is inevitably signed away if if we want to do anything much online. And there are some practical benefits to logging in to a BBC account.
But I sympathise with the OP, in that I hate the way that the BBC has mutated into a bland corporate Silicon-Valley wannabee, with its fat-cat execs looking to market my data and second-guess my listening preferences. Not the Beeb I grew up with, and I'm reluctant to sign in to its vulgarity and group-think.
But I sympathise with the OP, in that I hate the way that the BBC has mutated into a bland corporate Silicon-Valley wannabee, with its fat-cat execs looking to market my data and second-guess my listening preferences. Not the Beeb I grew up with, and I'm reluctant to sign in to its vulgarity and group-think.
OK - you are clearly not going to get it. It's not a case of "what have you got to lose?", "why choose the difficult path".
I know you are not going to get it because those on here rolling their eyes and making derisory comments are exactly the same people who have not actually contributed/answerd my question in any way at all. You've just come in for an "I never understand why people...." session. I know, I know, it's the way of Piston heads. I guess it's enjoyable.
I listen to R2 for half an hour in the morning when working, and then switch to R6 after Popmaster.I make stuff. I'm not at a desk. I'm manufacturing. That's why I have an Echo Dot in my workshop. Most of the time I've a power tool or a soldering iron in my hand. The voice control is very helpful in this environment. I don't even have a phone in the workshop most of the time. So Amazon are offering me a service , that I want, and for that, they have my name and address and email. It's a deal. I'm happy with it. I agreed with it from the start. Lots of companies have my details, with the same arrangement. I chose something from them and that was the deal.
Every single morning, for around 2months now, instead of it just playing R2 when I ask, I get a lecture about linking my BBC skill to a BBC account. Every single day, and every single day when it asks if I want a link sent to me, I say no. I have done this for the best part of two months. It also asks me if I wanta reminder, every single time. And I say no. A coupld of days ago it refused to play at all unless I met their demand.
I don't want a bloody BBC account. I don't want to set one up. I don't have a BBC TV license. I don't watch BBC TV. I don't want to sit down and create yet another account and logon and password, to join the other pages and pages of them I have. It worked before, and there is no way having an account improves my experience of listening to radio 6 , and a quiz. There is also no way it's needed for it to work oteh than BBC forcing the issue.
It is simply for the benefit of the operator, and not me. So no, I won't do it. I won't do it to the point that if I had to choose a new station to listen to I would. As it happens Radioplayer does the job now.
If you are happy to play along then great, but I'm not. The insistence on regsitering for everything we do, no matter how benign, is insidious.
It's not hard to understand.
I don't want to.
You do.
That doesn't make it "hard to understand". It simply means we have different views. Doesn't make mine wrong, or yours right.
I know you are not going to get it because those on here rolling their eyes and making derisory comments are exactly the same people who have not actually contributed/answerd my question in any way at all. You've just come in for an "I never understand why people...." session. I know, I know, it's the way of Piston heads. I guess it's enjoyable.
I listen to R2 for half an hour in the morning when working, and then switch to R6 after Popmaster.I make stuff. I'm not at a desk. I'm manufacturing. That's why I have an Echo Dot in my workshop. Most of the time I've a power tool or a soldering iron in my hand. The voice control is very helpful in this environment. I don't even have a phone in the workshop most of the time. So Amazon are offering me a service , that I want, and for that, they have my name and address and email. It's a deal. I'm happy with it. I agreed with it from the start. Lots of companies have my details, with the same arrangement. I chose something from them and that was the deal.
Every single morning, for around 2months now, instead of it just playing R2 when I ask, I get a lecture about linking my BBC skill to a BBC account. Every single day, and every single day when it asks if I want a link sent to me, I say no. I have done this for the best part of two months. It also asks me if I wanta reminder, every single time. And I say no. A coupld of days ago it refused to play at all unless I met their demand.
I don't want a bloody BBC account. I don't want to set one up. I don't have a BBC TV license. I don't watch BBC TV. I don't want to sit down and create yet another account and logon and password, to join the other pages and pages of them I have. It worked before, and there is no way having an account improves my experience of listening to radio 6 , and a quiz. There is also no way it's needed for it to work oteh than BBC forcing the issue.
It is simply for the benefit of the operator, and not me. So no, I won't do it. I won't do it to the point that if I had to choose a new station to listen to I would. As it happens Radioplayer does the job now.
If you are happy to play along then great, but I'm not. The insistence on regsitering for everything we do, no matter how benign, is insidious.
It's not hard to understand.
I don't want to.
You do.
That doesn't make it "hard to understand". It simply means we have different views. Doesn't make mine wrong, or yours right.
Many of the people who have responded work in IT and absolutely do get it.
The BBC aren't doing anything nefarious with your information.
You've spent more time on this thread moaning about it than it would take you to setup an account and get on with your life.
Sorry dude but you just want to do things the hard way when there's absolutely nothing in it for you.
If you think you're sticking it to the man then great but you're not you're just making your life unnecessarily complicated.
The BBC aren't doing anything nefarious with your information.
You've spent more time on this thread moaning about it than it would take you to setup an account and get on with your life.
Sorry dude but you just want to do things the hard way when there's absolutely nothing in it for you.
If you think you're sticking it to the man then great but you're not you're just making your life unnecessarily complicated.
Griffith4ever said:
I don't want a bloody BBC account. I don't want to set one up. I don't have a BBC TV license. I don't watch BBC TV. I don't want to sit down and create yet another account and logon and password, to join the other pages and pages of them I have.
Since you’re not paying for any of the content, but you still want to benefit from it, the price of access is a free account. Seems reasonable to me, it’s not like you’d use any of your real-life details.Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff