TV News Broadcast Accidentally Activates Alexa, Initiates Orders (cw6sandiego.com)

ShaunC writes: In San Diego, TV news anchor Jim Patton was covering a separate story about a child who accidentally ordered a doll house using her family's Echo. Commenting on the story, Patton said "I love the little girl, saying 'Alexa ordered me a dollhouse.'" Viewers across San Diego reported that in response to the news anchor's spoken words, their own Echo devices activated and tried to order doll houses from Amazon. Amazon says that anyone whose Echo inadvertently ordered a physical item can return it at no charge.
Meanwhile, Engadget reports that a team of Twitch streamers has convinced one Google Home device to answer questions from another, and they're livestreaming the surreal conversation.

Comments

Re:Well that's a hell of a security hole.

[sumdumass]

It's more like the little girl told the echo what it wanted for Christmas or something and the news caster paraphrased.

In case he wasn't though, Amazon's own voice ordering fact page says that when you attempt to order something it searches

Your order history - only Prime-eligible items.
Amazon's Choice - Amazon's Choice items are highly rated, well-priced products that are available to order immediately.
Prime-eligible items - including delivery by Prime Now for eligible items.

in an attempt to find/idntify what you ordered. If a dollhouse was on the Amazon's Choice list, it would have been ordered under this policy.