Amazon Explains Why Alexa Recorded And Emailed A Private Conversation (mercurynews.com)

Amazon has issued the following statement about why their Alexa device recorded a woman's private conversation and then emailed it to one of her friends: Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like "Alexa." Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a "send message" request. At which point, Alexa said out loud "To whom?" At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customers contact list. Alexa then asked out loud, "[contact name], right?" Alexa then interpreted background conversation as "right." As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely.
This apparently didn't satisfy the woman whose conversation was recorded, according to the Mercury News:
Now her family has unplugged all the devices, and although Amazon offered to "de-provision" the devices of their communications features so they could keep using them to control their home, Danielle and her family reportedly want a refund instead.

When reached Friday, an Amazon spokeswoman would not comment about whether the company will issue a refund.

Other smart home speakers carry similar privacy risks. Last year, for example, Google had to release a patch for its Home Mini speakers after some of them were found to be recording everything.

Comments

Re:Interesting Explanations

[fahrbot-bot]

OK, so these deices ARE listening to everything at all times. But don't worry. It will only be used in good ways.

Dear Jeff Bezos, Amazon, The Washington Post and FBI,

Will you each please send Donald Trump an Amazon Alexa? He already hates you and thinks you're spying on him, so you might as well give him an actual reason. Also, this will liven up the news and Twitter feeds a bit.

Thanks!