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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.
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.
Its a feature and working as intended
You want privacy? Don't use these assistants. It's not that hard.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
"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
If only these devices had a button to stop them paying attention.
Oh wait.
+----------------- | What is the question!
This is pretty sensationalist and, overall, poor summarizing. The actual story is nothing like the summary. Yes, the Alexa recorded the conversation and sent it. That is true, but the women's reaction of unplugging them all was immediate and NOT after Amazon's response. This summary portrays the order wrong to sensationalize. Also, the Google Mini issue was limited to very few devices and discovered before general release. The feature (bug) causing the issue was disabled before going on sale to the general public. Then permanently disabled when a fix was not possible. Seriously, the actual story is barely longer than the summary and much better. Do better.
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...
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.
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.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
I saw this scenario coming a mile away. When you use a constant listening device that can execute actions on your behalf with very poor AI then this will happen. Until the AI can rival human intelligence then this device can not be relied upon.
Their own voice recognition software is crap.
There is too much of ~then some noise in the background is interpreted as a command~ excuses to make it a plausible explanation for me.
Do you own one, and have you ever listened to the recordings after it has done something it thought you told it to do? If not, then you have no idea what is plausible, because this scenario is exactly what several of us in the previous discussion predicted as the cause. It also shows that Alexa asked for information explicitly, and for a confirmation like a few people here said it should have done.
They also claimed we know it did not ask, but now we all know different, don't we?
There is too much of ~then some noise in the background is interpreted as a command~ excuses to make it a plausible explanation for me.
Nobody said "some noise in the background". There was a conversation occurring. It wasn't noise, it was speech. The device is designed to recognize speech. Apparently, it's not fantastically good at the job; or even adequately. It should be able to detect when a keyword it's listening for is part of a stream of conversation, meaning it's not meant for Alexa. That should actually be an easier job than recognizing the words. In any case, the actual phrase used was "a word in background conversation", and your misrepresentation is utterly disingenuous.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Alexa: "To confirm you'd like to send this message repeat 5... 6... 8"
User: "5... 6... 8"
There. Pick 3 random positive integers for the send code each time.
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.
They also claimed we know it did not ask, but now we all know different, don't we?
We know what an Amazon spokesperson said happened, implausible as it sounds. Seems to me if this thing was close enough to record their conversation it was close enough for them hear it ask for confirmation, but that doesn't seem to be addressed anywhere.
The fact they can come to some conclusions in this investigation suggests Amazon retains logs a lot of data about every Alexa installed. Do they have the full audio record? Just the commands?
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.
And if a waiter misunderstood me and brought the wrong food, I'd send it back and not pay for it. People in service jobs know to be sure they have your attention, and the good ones will confirm when it's clear you are attending. The bad ones don't get tips.