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

Not a bug

[Anonymous Coward]

Its a feature and working as intended

Re:Not a bug

[Joce640k]

This.

They bought a device that listens to what you say and sends it to other people.

It listened, it sent. Where's the problem?

Re:Not a bug

[gweihir]

Stupid people that do not even begin to understand the technology they bought in bright-eyed enthusiasm. Of course, it is the technologies fault now.

Now, I do not plan to bring such a listening device into my home, ever. But if I were to, I would at least familiarize myself with how it works...

You want privacy?

[jawtheshark]

You want privacy? Don't use these assistants. It's not that hard.

Re:You want privacy?

[fahrbot-bot]

You want privacy? Don't use these assistants. It's not that hard.

Agreed, but there seems to be a growing assumption that people will have them.

I just noticed that TiVo added "Amazon Alexa" (along with "Get New Experience") to the App sub-menu on my device and neither item can be removed. Seems presumptuous. I will *never* have an Alexa (or similar device) in my home and will never willingly upgrade to their New Experience (which, like the new Amazon interface, seems horrible, unnecessarily busy and dumbed-down).

Just my $0.02.

Interesting Explanations

[oldgraybeard]

"woke up due to a word in background conversation", "At which point, the background conversation was interpreted" and "Alexa then interpreted background conversation as "right.""

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

I think the PR department is going to be working over time to cover this one over.

Just my 2 cents ;)

Re:Interesting Explanations

[93 Escort Wagon]

It is unfortunate that people have gotten so inured to the continual harvesting of their personal data by companies like Facebook and Google that they don’t care about this. Last time I mentioned a similar story (where the Google device sent police to someone’s home) to my family, they all suddenly turned into Eric Schmidt - “privacy is dead, get over it”.

Re:Interesting Explanations

[Anonymous Coward]

They admitted to spying on him and tried to spin it as "investigation". Yet you still use weasel phrases like "thinks you're spying on him" and "give him an actual reason"?

It's fascinating how deeply some people can be programmed. Makes those batshit suicide cults completely understandable now.

Re:Interesting Explanations

[thegarbz]

OK, so these deices ARE listening to everything at all times.

Well of course they are, how do you think they recognise their code word? There has never been a question of whether they are listening at all times, the question has only ever been if everything is being sent back to be processed by the borg, and as far as anyone has been able to tell the answer to that is no, not until the code word has been identified (or in this case, thought it had been identified).

"Smart" my a**

[jabberw0k]

Computers are scary, but call them "telephones" and folks trust them. Meanwhile, anything euphemistically called "smart" really means "a computer you do not, and cannot, control." Those of us without such nefarious gadgets are increasingly treated as second-class citizens. You want a taxi? Sorry, we got rid of those, and without a "smart" so-called "telephone" you can't get a ride anymore. Everyone on the street goes around in a daze under the spell of these gadgets. Remember, we have always been at war with Oceania...

Sigh.

[ledow]

The fact that they know what happened to this level of detail means that it's always recording and they can go back to their records far enough, even days later.

Turn this shit off.

Re:Sigh.

[Obfuscant]

This is insightful?

The fact that they know what happened to this level of detail means that it's always recording

No, it doesn't. It means that it records command sessions so that the user can go back and hear what it was that triggered some event.

and they can go back to their records far enough, even days later.

So can the owner. I've heard what triggers Alexa to wake up because I can listen to the interaction using the app.

Turn this shit off.

If you are telling people to turn the device off entirely, well, if you don't want one don't buy one, and if you have one and suddenly realized that it is listening to what you say and you want to shut it off, then unplug it. Problem solved.

If you are telling Amazon to stop keeping recordings of what interactions Alexa has with the owners, then get screwed. I want to know what caused mine to wake up when I have it on, and how it interpreted the commands. If you're never going to own one then why do you think you can tell others how it should work?

Re:Why a refund?

[Calydor]

If a bank teller misunderstood you and sent all your money to some random guy you once mentioned you knew you'd probably change banks even if they got all your money back.

Re:De-provision or unplug ?

[Obfuscant]

I believe I'm being productive by getting rid of unproductive and useless toys.

Your comment had nothing to do with you getting rid of things you don't want. It was telling others what they don't need and they should get rid of them. That's the non-productive part.

You are free to define what you want and need. Not so much when you try to do it for everyone else. The latter is just arrogance and completely unproductive.

And this is why I never bought one, but ....

[King_TJ]

I'm not going to hand out the smug, pointless "Told you so!" answer either.

The real problem is that people buy these new technologies with unrealistic expectations. Then they get angry when it can't live up to them.

I work in I.T. and I see examples, all the time, of technologies failing in totally unexpected ways. Even the best voice recognition systems I've ever used get my commands wrong at least 1 out of 4 times or so. That doesn't enthuse me about having an "always on" system trying to take commands properly when it's going to hear all sorts of random conversations all day long that don't involve it.