Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the HIStalk crowd. I wish you the joys of the season!
Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 7/28/25
Several people have asked for my opinion about Bee, which Amazon is acquiring. The company makes the Pioneer, a wearable that records and transcribes your day. It captures not only what you say, but also the conversations of those around you. It tries to entice users by providing summaries of the day, reminders, and other suggestions from within its companion app.
Unsurprisingly, the solution also requests permission to all of the user’s info, including email, contacts, location services, reminders, photos, and calendars in an attempt to create “insights” as well as a history of the user’s activities.
The device costs $50, which can be avoided by using the Apple Watch app, and then a $19 per month subscription on top of that. The solution uses a mix of large language models to operate, including ChatGPT and Gemini.
A quick visit to my favorite search engine pulled up a number of pages that mention the device. Some reports say that it isn’t able to differentiate between the wearer’s conversations and what they were watching on TV or listening to on the radio.
I wasn’t surprised at all to hear that significant privacy concerns have been expressed. The company keeps transcripts of user data, although it doesn’t store the audio. I laughed out loud when I read quote from an Amazon spokesperson who said that Amazon “cares deeply” about user privacy and plans to give users more control over how their data is used after acquiring the startup.
Along with anyone who has had to go through multiple levels of annoying menus (that seem to change regularly) while trying to rein in their Alexa device, I’m not buying it. Although Amazon claims to not sell customer data to third parties, they have plenty of uses for it in-house. Anyone who visits Amazon can see how their targeted marking winds up in different places.
Putting on my end user hat, I have to say this is one of the more ridiculous tools, offerings, or solutions that I’ve seen. However, there must be a huge number of people who disagree with me, because if it weren’t a potential moneymaker, I don’t think Amazon would be acquiring it.
What if the user is located in a two-party consent state and is now recording conversations without notifying the other parties? I found a funny video about the device, where Wall Street Journal reporter Joanna Stern said it “turns you into a walking wiretap.” She also asked the device to do an analysis of her use of swear words over the course of the month and shared her statistics in a funny recap.
The company’s website plays a pretty mean game of buzzword bingo. Examples: “turns your moments into meaning”and ”earns and grows with you” as it “sits quietly in the background, learning your patterns, preferences and relationships over time, building a deeper understanding of your world without demanding your attention.”
The website shows an example of a user and their team “discussing ideas for the next product release.” That’s right, you can wear it to the workplace and have it collect all the company’s intellectual property over the course of the business day. I’m betting that most company’s employee handbooks don’t have language that addresses this. If I were in the corporate compliance department of anywhere with employees, I’d be sending out a memo ASAP.
The website also gives examples of how the device and its app can dispense parenting advice and manage issues such as “dealing with resistance to potty training and handling emotional outbursts.” I’m sure that pediatricians and family physicians will be thrilled to review the device’s recommendations at well-child visits (sarcasm intended) along with everything else they need to cover.
The website also had the device’s terms and conditions, which were 10 printed pages long. Here are some of my favorite highlights:
- By accessing the device, you agree that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by all the terms, which can be unilaterally altered at any time and for any reason. The company will alert users simply by updating the “last updated” date on the terms page, and users “waive any right to receive specific notice of each such change” and accept the “responsibility to periodically review these Legal Terms to stay informed of the updates.”
- Bee specifically calls out in the second paragraph that it offers no HIPAA protection.
- The user accepts the responsibility to be compliant with any applicable laws or regulations and agrees to terms regarding the collection of data with respect to minors.
- Users are prevented from disparaging the company or its services.
- Users agree not to use information obtained “in order to harass, abuse, or harm another person.”
- Users agree not to “harass, annoy, intimidate, or threaten any of our employees or agents engaged in providing any portion of the Services to you.” The use of the word “annoy” caught my attention, since I can’t imagine an employee engaged in customer service or support who doesn’t find at least some percentage of the users with whom they interact to be annoying.
I found some user comments on Reddit and the following phrases were some of my favorites:
- I made the mistake of using the app to retrain my voice, and since then it doesn’t think I’m EVER talking, everything I say is recorded as “unknown”. So instead of thinking other people were me, now I’m not even me.
- While the little convo summaries are often amusing, now I am trying to figure out how this thing is supposed to be useful.
- Users accused the system of “trying to gaslight me.” Some of us get enough of that in our daily lives, so we don’t need an AI tool to contribute as well.
The website says the device is sold out, although the company is taking back orders and plans to ship new units by September. That means either their marketing team is trying to create some FOMO (fear of missing out) or that lots of people are ready to take the plunge, privacy be damned.
What do you think about the Bee Pioneer? Would you consider wearing one? Are you taking steps to specifically ban it and similar devices and applications from your workplace? Leave a comment or email me.
Email Dr. Jayne.
I ordered one out of sheer curiosity. I was anxious to test it and try it and see if I could find some reasonable way in which it made sense in my life. I’m a busy mom and professional and I thought it might help me with remembering an prioritizing my to dos. Those things that I collect in my day but are harder and harder to recall as I get older and busier!
Unfortunately, the device would not take a charge after depleting the 75% battery it came with out of the box in the first 2 days. I’ve contacted Bee no less than 10 times with no response. Needless to say, I’m no longer excited to try their product and I just wish I had waited until I had the ease of ordering/returning with Amazon so I at least wouldn’t be out my $50. Gotta wonder if Bee decided to sell out this early because they couldn’t handle the inflow of problems themselves. Certainly don’t have time to return a paying customer’s emails.
I’ve been testing Bee AI, an ambient listening device that quietly captures life, not just work. It’s Gen 1.0. Rough in spots. It listens to my TV and my podcast addiction (yes, I have a problem). But even with that, I can see where this is going.
It’s not about transcription. It’s about contextual memory. About helping you live, not just record.
The clarity came when I tried to explain it to my 8-year-old daughter, Harlow.
She still runs wild with the neighborhood girls. She knows what’s real. Not screens. Not filters.
Friendship. Drama. Laughter. Bikes and baby dolls. That’s real.
We talked about phones. I told her I hope one day they just go away. Not because I’m anti-tech, but because I believe the best technology should feel invisible, not addictive.
I gave her this example:
“One day, I just want to say out loud:
I want to take Harlow to see Lilo and Stitch.
Find us two seats at the end of the row.
Add it to Waze.
Block off my calendar.
Mark me DND.
Remind me one day before, and again two hours before showtime.”
That’s it. No screen. No scroll. No dopamine trap.
Just intent, action, and presence.
That’s where we’re heading.
And if we’re not, then we’re building the wrong things.
Maybe it’s not Bee AI. But the Amazon acquisition proves the concept. It already outpaces Alexa in utility.
There’s gold in human interaction. And it’s been mined for over a decade—used to shape behavior without our permission.
The difference now is this:
We finally have the chance to build tools that listen with us, not at us.
I have a couple of “pre-Amazon” devices in hand, think of them like the original fax machines.
This is not how it will play out. In exchange for giving up all privacy for yourself and anyone withing range of a mic you will receive a constant stream of ads and behavioral suggestions to drive spending. Look at how the internet has evolved over the past 20 years – the same thing will happen here. The focus will always be on how to monetize your data and how to influence your purchasing behavior.
“do not taunt Happy Fun Ball” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqeZl8OI2M
Sounds like the classic “solution looking for a problem”…besides I already got a spouse that is ready to remind me what I said, got to do, schedule my day, and more!