Read this, then use a sledgehammer on your Amazon Alexa

Many people are suspicious that Alexa records everything said around it. Turns out they were right, it does.

And sometimes it sends your conversations to people you know.

A woman in Portland, Ore. claims that her family's Amazon Alexa smart speaker recorded a private conversation and sent it to someone on her contact list, KIRO 7 News reports.

The woman, named only as Danielle, received a phone call from one of her husband's employees in Seattle, who received a recording of the conversation. On KIRO's video, Danielle holds up a number of Echo Dots, claiming that "it was one of these that sent it."

"We unplugged all of them and he proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house," she told KIRO news. "At first, my husband was, like, 'no you didn't!' And the (recipient of the message) said 'You sat there talking about hardwood floors.' And we said, 'oh gosh, you really did hear us.'"

She claims that after calling Amazon, an engineer on the Alexa team investigated and concurred that this indeed happened.

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan

A spy from the internet you put in your home designed to record and send information.... recorded and sent information?

Oh, right, they were talking about hardwood floors. That was meant to go to amazon so they could resell it as metadata to ensure that couples next popup ad was for hardwood floors.
Guess it went to an actual human by mistake.

Don't worry, they're taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again...

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan


James Woods had a brilliant Twit on this!


"It's like having #Clapper in a can."

That’s insane. My cell phone may record everything all the time, but at least it doesn’t send it to people.

That I know anyway.

I see a perfect plan to destroy interpersonal society, Google records everyone’s conversations, cross references the names used, then sends anything you said that was bad to the person it was said about.

A real life version of troll trace from South Park.

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan

I hope this family actually sues. It's bad enough there aren't enough consumer protection laws on the books, but even worse when the ones that are there are rarely used.

I'm not going to get one of those, I can still type to find out what I want to find out. I actually tested my daughter's hey google with a list of questions and it told me what most people want to hear. Not what the real answer is.

originally posted by: loam
a reply to: AndyFromMichigan

I hope this family actually sues. It's bad enough there aren't enough consumer protection laws on the books, but even worse when the ones that are there are rarely used.

That's the problem though. Who amongst us little people have money to hire "Justice"? Justice should be free or at least affordable?

I would never put one of these devices in my home. I put my phone in a faraday bag at night. I don’t use social media. I just want to be left the hell alone by Government and corporations to live my life.

This why our webcam/webmicrophone is in a drawer, and our built-in webcams are taped over.

Your phone does more than just record you. Here's my Siri story:

I occasionally will ask Siri bizarre questions to see what it says. (Especially things from Monty Python & the Holy Grail). A few weeks ago I said "Hey Siri, show me cute beagles". I was prompted to unlock my phone and then it displayed all the pictures I've ever taken of my dogs. Which are cute beagles.

To my thinking, every picture I've ever taken has been sent to Apple and been identified and/or classified. How else would it know what type of dogs I have?

originally posted by: RomaSempre
Your phone does more than just record you. Here's my Siri story:

I occasionally will ask Siri bizarre questions to see what it says. (Especially things from Monty Python & the Holy Grail). A few weeks ago I said "Hey Siri, show me cute beagles". I was prompted to unlock my phone and then it displayed all the pictures I've ever taken of my dogs. Which are cute beagles.

To my thinking, every picture I've ever taken has been sent to Apple and been identified and/or classified. How else would it know what type of dogs I have?

I have a Kindle Fire which I use for instances when I might be doing some computer repairs and I need to look something up and I have no PC to do so.

I have used it to take pics of a few different things like stuff I have baked/cooked or for pics of damaged products I have received in the mail.

Low and behold every pic I take on it is uploaded to Amazon. So yea, nothing is private anymore digitally speaking...

Most phones do this as well. If you have google linked to your phone, it records anything you use voice to text for.

I'm still not going to commit domestic violence upon my sweet little Alexa. She's like my cute little CIA pet.


PS the fact it was sent to their friends is indeed a little too creepy even for me.
SF

-Alee

"At least Alexa listens to me, unlike my own grandchildren!" -- Grandma

a reply to: underwerks

That’s insane. My cell phone may record everything all the time, but at least it doesn’t send it to people. 

That I know anyway. 

How can you be sure of that?

originally posted by: Metallicus
I would never put one of these devices in my home. I put my phone in a faraday bag at night. I don’t use social media. I just want to be left the hell alone by Government and corporations to live my life.

You don't think ATS is social media and monitored by "someone"? I think it is and the supposed "anonymity is a bunch of BS. I go in my spam folder and see ads for the same thing I see on ATS that I have never clicked on.

Do you have a "smart" TV? It's smarter than you can imagine....

originally posted by: olaru12
You don't think ATS is social media and monitored by "someone"? I think it is and the supposed "anonymity is a bunch of BS.
Do you have a "smart" TV? It's smarter than you can imagine....

Exactly. If you have any network connections at all, including this one, you're ripe for monitoring.

Try not do to anything illegal.

Ten years ago if you told people you wanted to record their every voice and get their DNA, they would have revolted. Now, they willingly sign up for it and send their DNA off to be added to the database. Law enforcement has been using both lately, and they are overt about it. Imagine who isn't.

originally posted by: Metallicus
I would never put one of these devices in my home. I put my phone in a faraday bag at night. I don’t use social media. I just want to be left the hell alone by Government and corporations to live my life.

OMG, there is someone as paranoid as I am. I feel so much better now.

So when you visit your doctor and he says "Are you ready to try Viagra Bob?"
It's time to ditch your electronic mistress.