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Amazon Error Allowed Alexa User To Eavesdrop on Another Home (reuters.com)
A user of Amazon's Alexa voice assistant in Germany got access to more than a thousand recordings from another user because of "a human error" by the company. From a report: The customer had asked to listen back to recordings of his own activities made by Alexa but he was also able to access 1,700 audio files from a stranger when Amazon sent him a link, German trade publication c't reported. "This unfortunate case was the result of a human error and an isolated single case," an Amazon spokesman said on Thursday. The first customer had initially got no reply when he told Amazon about the access to the other recordings, the report said. The files were then deleted from the link provided by Amazon but he had already downloaded them on to his computer, added the report from c't, part of German tech publisher Heise.
Its possible because Amazon and others have convinced people its a great idea to have hot mic; under third party control in their homes.
That's not even what I'm talking about. Why is it even possible for an Amazon employee to make these voice files available to other users through the interfaces available to them? It's understandable why the data is there, but not understandable why someone can make the files available to another user with a click. Even if it's done with a backdoored system, those files ought to be encrypted to the user.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This isn't the only case we've heard of exactly this type of phenomenon. There's been another incident where exactly this happened, and yet another where someone could hear live conversations directly from someone else's Alexa device. Until people realize live mics in the home under someone else's control are a bad idea, which I'm not convinced will ever happen, we'll keep hearing about these sorts of incidents.
One of my more paranoid friends is convinced in a few years you'll be ostracized if you don't have these devices implanted in every room because if you don't, you clearly are trying to hide something and shouldn't associate with the "normal, decent god fearing" humans that want to be sure they are safe and secure at all times. I used to think he was babbling bullishit, but the way we're going I'm not so sure.