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Woman says her Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

1K views 24 replies 14 participants last post by  farmrbrown 
#1 ·
Flat mate just showed me this article. He was a bit concerned, LOL.

A Portland family contacted Amazon to investigate after they say a private conversation in their home was recorded by Amazon's Alexa -- the voice-controlled smart speaker -- and that the recorded audio was sent to the phone of a random person in Seattle, who was in the family’s contact list.

"My husband and I would joke and say I'd bet these devices are listening to what we're saying," said Danielle, who did not want us to use her last name.


https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/wo...ation-sent-it-out-to-random-contact/755507974
 
#3 ·
I don't like talking on the phone either, sometimes I can be a bit short on conversation. LOL. Way my flatmate keeps eyeing the Alexa it may disappear.
 
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#4 ·
Flat mate just showed me this article. He was a bit concerned, LOL.

A Portland family contacted Amazon to investigate after they say a private conversation in their home was recorded by Amazon's Alexa -- the voice-controlled smart speaker -- and that the recorded audio was sent to the phone of a random person in Seattle, who was in the family’s contact list.

"My husband and I would joke and say I'd bet these devices are listening to what we're saying," said Danielle, who did not want us to use her last name.


https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/wo...ation-sent-it-out-to-random-contact/755507974
I don't want electronic devices that listen to me.
I don't even like to talk on a phone that much.
According to the news people are recording what a lot of people are saying on the Net. FB etc.
 
#6 ·
I realize anything posted on the internet is out there for anyone to see but I don't feel my conversations in my home should be recorded and sent to others without my knowledge or permission.
 
#7 ·
I realize anything posted on the internet is out there for anyone to see but I don't feel my conversations in my home should be recorded and sent to others without my knowledge or permission.
I agree.
You should only be sending them to me for screening......
The number is BR-549..........call now...........
 
#8 ·
Your phones listen to you, even if you're not talking on it.

My wife asked me to buy beer, so I went to the store and bought beer.

I get home with the beer (Rickard's Red, she wanted a different brand).

She asked me why I bought Rickard's and what not.

Her phone was sitting on the counter, guess what she got an ad for online? Rickard's Red. The first time she ever got a beer ad.

By the way, it was the first time Rickard's Red was ever even said in our home.

Her and I have been noticing this more and more.
 
#9 ·
Had similar experience last week with a friend I stopped by to chat with, he told me about it the next day.
The 2 things we talked about, one of which he hadn't even thought about in years (portable sawmills) popped up ads later that night on his smart phone which lays out on his desk at work next to him.
I laughed and pulled out my old flip phone and told him if it ever eavesdrops on me, it's getting flushed immediately.
LOL
 
#13 ·
Most voice activated hardware, like Alexa don't process your speech locally, it sends to a server on the internet for processing. I was chatting with some Microsoft people, talking about cloud storage (OneDrive) and they commented that they hadn't worked out how to monetize the data people store on OneDrive, but they were working on it. It's been reported that Microsoft is shifting the company focus from Windows to cloud services. Which means, Windows will become a subscription service, along with Office365. Most (if not all in some cases) of your data will be stored in the cloud. Which MS will data mine.
 
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#16 ·
Sorry but I am not very tech savvy, so I have to ask a question. People buy a device that can record what you say, and has the ability to transmit the recording to another person. And then they get upset when it actually happens. Why on earth would you have something like this in your house? What is this device supposed to do? Is there a real reason to have one of these things in your home. Can it be accessed by a third party, to listen to private conversations?

Sorry, I just can't get my head around this.

Muleskinner2
 
#19 ·
Sorry but I am not very tech savvy, so I have to ask a question. People buy a device that can record what you say, and has the ability to transmit the recording to another person. And then they get upset when it actually happens. Why on earth would you have something like this in your house? What is this device supposed to do? Is there a real reason to have one of these things in your home. Can it be accessed by a third party, to listen to private conversations?

Sorry, I just can't get my head around this.

Muleskinner2
Since no-one has answered your question in several days I'll make an attempt. Alexa and a few other devices are voice operated devices that control "smart" devices so you can speak to it instead of typing on your computer or pushing a button on a remote. I know there are people on this board who have one and love it. I personally, cannot see a need for it and would never use one. These devices are not supposed to "eavesdrop" on conversations. They are supposed to be activated by the user saying it's name. Of course it can listen to conversations within the range of it's speakers. And like any other internet connected device it can be hacked by other people and it can malfunction and have stupid and embarrassing glitches.

Supposedly it can do things like "turn on the oven" "record my favorite show" tell you "how much milk is in the refrigerator" and "turn the lights on". To do those things you also have to have internet connected appliances. Yep, they are out there. There is even a washer with a computer monitor built in to the front.

The manufacturers all claimed their helpful "smart" devices would never be used for evil or malicious purposes like broadcasting your private conversations or allowing thieves free access to your home but as these products are becoming more popular, more issues are surfacing.

Just because some people are paranoid, doesn't mean Alexa isn't out to mess with you.
 
#22 ·
Since no-one has answered your question in several days I'll make an attempt. Alexa and a few other devices are voice operated devices that control "smart" devices so you can speak to it instead of typing on your computer or pushing a button on a remote. I know there are people on this board who have one and love it. I personally, cannot see a need for it and would never use one. These devices are not supposed to "eavesdrop" on conversations. They are supposed to be activated by the user saying it's name. Of course it can listen to conversations within the range of it's speakers. And like any other internet connected device it can be hacked by other people and it can malfunction and have stupid and embarrassing glitches.

Supposedly it can do things like "turn on the oven" "record my favorite show" tell you "how much milk is in the refrigerator" and "turn the lights on". To do those things you also have to have internet connected appliances. Yep, they are out there. There is even a washer with a computer monitor built in to the front.

The manufacturers all claimed their helpful "smart" devices would never be used for evil or malicious purposes like broadcasting your private conversations or allowing thieves free access to your home but as these products are becoming more popular, more issues are surfacing.

Just because some people are paranoid, doesn't mean Alexa isn't out to mess with you.
Thank you.

Muleskinner2
 
#24 ·
I am in my new house, in which I have exactly three furniture items, and I wanted to make a list of things to bring over from my temporary residence.

I told Alexa to make a new list. She said, “Ok, what do you want to call it?”

I said, “Things to bring.”

On my phone, the name of the list is Things To Brain.

I think Alexa has trouble with my Texas accent.
 
#25 ·
LOL
https://www.economist.com/books-and...f-voice-recognition-not-all-accents-are-equal

IN A spoof advertisement on a humorous website, a woman asks her Echo, Amazon’s voice-controlled speaker system and assistant, to play “the country music station”. The device, mishearing her southern American accent, instead offers advice on “extreme constipation”
The automatic captioning did worst with the Scottish speakers, transcribing more than half of the words incorrectly, followed closely by American southerners (from Georgia).
 
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