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Amazon May Give Developers Your Private Alexa Transcripts (engadget.com)
According to The Information, Amazon may give developers access to your private Alexa audio recordings. Until now, Amazon has not given third-party developers access to what you say to the voice assistant, while Google has with its Google Home speaker. Engadget reports: So far, Alexa developers can only see non-identifying information, like the number of times you use a specific skill, how many times you talk to your Echo device and your location data. The Information reports that some developers have heard from Amazon representatives about more access to actual transcripts, though how and how much wasn't discovered. If developers knew what exactly is being said to their skills, they could make adjustments based on specific information.
When people speak in Star Trek, the computer is always listening. What changed in that hypothetical future's past that needs to change in our present to make wholesale gathering of our voice comms acceptable?
Don't believe anything I say. I crash test crack pipes for a living.
I don't own any Amazon devices, and that is not going to change.
Palaces, barricades, threats, meet promises
"If developers knew what exactly is being said to their skills, they could make adjustments based on specific information."
Is this supposed to make sense?
I don't respond to AC's.
it ain't private no more
If you buy one of these devices, you clearly don't give a fuck about privacy.
Previously mentioned on Slashdot, Mycroft.ai can be built on a Raspberry Pi and perhaps other clones, and voice processing can be done locally. If I wanted something like this I'd probably use that.
Twinstiq, game news
Devices with microphones that cant be turned off. .coms that want recordings.
Devices with microphones that connect to networks and want recordings.
IoT from
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
It is laughable that in the same sentence that they claim to have only provided de-identified they include LOCATION data on that list.
Unbelievable.
This is fullly expected from an always on mic. Just wait and see what developers get from the model with the camera...
From a technical sense it's pretty understandable as context around what people are saying actually is pretty useful. I personally do not. Ind Amazon distributing other people's data for the greater good.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Seriously, this is gesture interfaces all over again. Remember how your kinect was going to turn you into a martial artist? Yeah, no. Alexa doesn't even promise that much. Shut up and save your money.
I can't take a fart without the Amazon Dot chirping in response. Pretty annoying.
I am not letting a corporation install bugging devices in my home, and I am sure as hell not going to pay for the privilege.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
I live in Maryland, USA former home of Linda Tripp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Tripp#Indictment_by_the_state_of_Maryland/. Since it is likely that not all people (friends, guests, etc.) in a given room even know the mic is present, how are these devices or this behavior legal in "All - Party Consent" states https://www.mwl-law.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/LAWS-ON-RECORDING-CONVERSATIONS-CHART.pdf/?
If the transcript includes, "Mum, can you call me back on 07555 9998818", I think the cat is out of the bag.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
"Amazon May Give Developers Your Private Alexa Transcripts"
Translation: "Amazon Has Already Given Developers Your Private Alexa Transcripts"
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
When I watched Star Trek back in the early 90's, I guess I assumed that all of the processing of voice input was happening right there locally in the computer. Heck, even in the late 90's and early 2000's, our desktop computers had text-to-speech software that didn't require an internet connection. So why did developers decide that all of that processing had to happen remotely, with voice recordings being transmitted to some server?
That, and all the damn analytics, is enough to keep me away. I don't mind, for example, being under the watchful eye of the camera system that I set up to record to a computer with no internet connection. I do mind, especially given the poor track record of IOT device security, when my devices transmit that audio and video to another party that I can be guaranteed is analyzing and using the data for advertising, profiling, or other purposes.
I went ahead and bought a Dot on Prime Day because they were dirt cheap. Now I see what the larger plan was. FUCK. Sending it back.
The problem isn't having a device that can listen in on you.
The problem is that there is no regulation of privacy. The company gets to set the rule. It's one thing while devices like DOT are novelties. You as an individual buy them and bring them into your own home.
10 years from now, almost every room you step in, and almost every new car you buy, and almost street you walk down is going to have internet connected devices. Many of which will be recording you or one or more aspect about you. These aren't going to be devices you buy specifically in many cases. Shopkeepers will be recording you as you walk past their shops. When you fill up your car- BP will be scanning your license plate. The government will be tracking you as you drive down the street. In your car your insurance company will have a required mic and video.
In your own home you may not be able to buy a toaster without internet requirements and your mandatory cable box or internet modem
Everyone is going to be spying on you. It won't just be your Dot. You're not going to have a choice.
What needs to be done is privacy regulations put in place BEFORE this happens, not afterwards. No company should be able to share any data about you without your expressed permission. Nor can a company offer any sort of carrot or stick incentives for sharing data. A company should not be allowed to discriminate in any way between users who chose to share data and those who don't/
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Google and Amazon make their money off advertising. Neither have released a consumer product in the last 10 years that DOESN'T make money off advertising (AWS is not consumer). So why are we surprised? its the same crap over and over. Free email, cheap phones, cheap voice assistants, discounted shipping, cheap streaming services, etc. all to mine your data. There are companies that don't sell your data out there that seems to be doing fine selling high quality products. I don't want to name names for fear of offending dire hards and fanboys, but its pretty clear that if someone values privacy and wants mainstream products, they need to focus their attention on other products that don't come from Google. The answer to this problem is not binary. we don't use something and give up all privacy or not use something to keep it. Companies do not have to sell your data to make money. its just easier and cheaper than creating a good product that protects the user and adds value to their lives. Its harder to solve for privacy. Its harder competing with differentiating hardware. Its harder to captivate consumers with things they need to pay for and value as devices. Its easier to give it away, to play to the lowest common denominator.
Phew! As long as the Amazon Corporation is safe.
PS - I'm willing to settle the damages for $1.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Arguing over the inanities of writers' drama seems like someone ordered a 55 gallon drum of nits from Costco.
I specifically said that it didn't bother me. I completely agree its a TV show.
The fact remains, the ability to auto magically dig through personal logs whenever a writer needs to existed, and more importantly, was used.
But the implications of that capability were never fully explored and integrated. It was a conceit of the setting that they had that this computer capability while somehow it didn't get abused; just like it was a conceit that an individual could own a spaceship that could roll around at the speed of light and they didn't have problems with people suiciding them into inhabited space stations and planets whenever they got depressed.
Google, Amazon, anyone....meta data is the new "gold" for them to sell.
They're unacceptable at first blush because the companies that produce them get audio recordings. Those companies aren't nearly trustworthy enough for that level of access.
That developers can access the recordings as well makes it a million times worse. As untrustworthy as the companies are, random app developers are even less so.
As long as this data is being sent somewhere else, these devices will not have a place in my home.
Vote with your feet.
Is Alexa really that necessary given that so many people are never--never--without their smart phone that they could use to do the majority of things that Alexa does? Ditto for Apple's product and Samsung's (if they can ever work out the bugs).
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
It says it right in the headline. Transcripts, not recordings.