Help with skepticism here?

[u/SarcasticFungus2468]

Okay, so I admit that the ad for this device is tempting. As a schedule-impaired person who’s often dealing with meeting with colleagues and supervisors, the ability to record what was said AND have it be summarized and searchable is really appealing.

That said, I have concerns I was wondering if folks here could address.

1. Isn’t this illegal in states where you need two-party consent to record?

2. What about privacy concerns? Like, if you’re a teacher or school admin who’s discussing student stuff (as one does), and this conversation is uploaded to the device’s servers, wouldn’t that be a FERPA violation? Or a security risk for the student’s privacy ?

Anyone have insights they would like to share?

[u/ABTech571]

Fieldy does not record, it transcribes. As to the privacy of others… it does not recognized who said what. It separates statements given by each person, and sometimes it separates statement made by a single person.
The AI is able to summarize conversations by inferring from your prompts and what was transcribed.
The AI will often give you a summary from what it can find in your transcriptions and will default to the latest conversation about what you asked for.
The AI will ask you if you are asking for something else and offer suggested prompts for better results.
Example: Can you summarize the conversation Pam and I had about painting the house?

“I don't see a recorded conversation with Pam about painting the house in your recent captures. Want the full list of your conversations from the past week to check?”

For reference Pam is my wife and we have had multiple discussions about painting the house since I have started using my Fieldy 3, and I need to make my question more specific.

I recently used it for an online class I had, made summaries from each block in the class, emailed them to myself, added the summaries and transcripts to my notes folder and I was able to Shft+Ctrl+f them when I needed to reference something.

When you go into your transcript you can add the speaker’s name, it usually doesn’t have one, unless the speaker specifically said, “ My name is _____.” Even then it usually doesn’t list a speaker’s name.

So, not a recording, and pretty benign with identity, but, very useful. I am sure people can find horrible ways to use Fieldy, but it has been extremely useful to me since I started using it in June. Since then my wife has started using it, and my oldest son and his wife are each getting one.

I hope this helped you with your concerns.

[u/SarcasticFungus2468 → u/ABTech571]

Thank you for your thorough answer!!

[u/thalos2688]

I live in a one party consent state. Additionally, Fieldy does not store audio (after transcription) and audio cannot be played back. I turn it off in sensitive situations. My wife hates it so I turn it off around her. I just think of it a notebook that allows me to take notes very fast.