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Amazon's Alexa Recorded a Woman's Private Conversation and Sent it to a Contact
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Wow, all these insane comments about invasive tech. If you don't want to accidentally send a random voice recording to one of your contacts, don't give your list of contacts to a voice enabled device. Everything Alexa did in this article is an "opt-in" function on Echo. You don't have to give Echo your list of contacts. You don't have to enable voice messaging or phone calls. You can also opt-in to reduce the length on confirmation feedback if you decide Alexa is too chatty.
I agree Amazon probably needs to think about coming up with some more complex wake words, but this whole thing is no different than butt dialing. So much FUD!
I agree Amazon probably needs to think about coming up with some more complex wake words, but this whole thing is no different than butt dialing. So much FUD!
+1000. As a UK news site noted:
There are a number of ways to stop such a thing happening to you.
One extreme one is simply not to use the messaging feature at all, and to have no contacts. That way, people will never be sent your conversations because Alexa won't actually know who to send them to.
But a slightly less extreme one is to make sure that the volume on the Echo is always turned up, so that you can hear any prompts. And, of course, if you are in the same room as the Echo it is worth keeping an eye on what it is doing.
If you are concerned that it has been doing so without your knowledge, head to the Alexa app. There you can see a history of everything it has heard you say, and you can delete the recordings of your voice.
And if the Echo is regularly waking up by accident – if, for instance, you have someone in your family called Alexa, or something like it – you might want to change the wake word. It can easily be changed to Echo or Amazon through the app, though of course you will then have to make sure you are careful about saying those words too.
Exactly. Imagine click bait headlines like "iPhone in rear pocket secretly records woman's conversation and sends to a random contact!" Happens to a friend of mine all the time
. It's why you need to pay attention.
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Just an AP styleguide comment: The news organization is a television station whose call letters are KIRO, channel 7, hence KIRO 7. Not "Kiro7" or "the Kiro7" - it's not a website or publication title like the Huffington Post.
Standard AP style would be: "...Seattle's KIRO 7 news" and "...In a statement to KIRO 7, [...]"
Standard AP style would be: "...Seattle's KIRO 7 news" and "...In a statement to KIRO 7, [...]"
I wonder if Siri reacts to playing rap music lyrics in the same way or if musical rhythm negates that response. I don't have any RAP, so can't test this hypothesis
......or maybe ask Kendrick Lamar if Siri scolds him when he performs
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I think about the things Amazon is currently pushing. A "smart" lock that lets them come into your house. A "security" camera that sends video to them. The next "mistake" Alexa makes could be to let an Amazon worker come into your house and deliver a bunch of expensive goods you don't want while you're in the shower. Or perhaps it will "inadvertently" hear you ask it to videotape you and send a copy to everybody in your contact list.
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There's one guaranteed way to prevent this. Don't waste your money on a big brother telescreen.+1000. As a UK news site noted:
There are a number of ways to stop such a thing happening to you.
One extreme one is simply not to use the messaging feature at all, and to have no contacts. That way, people will never be sent your conversations because Alexa won't actually know who to send them to.
But a slightly less extreme one is to make sure that the volume on the Echo is always turned up, so that you can hear any prompts. And, of course, if you are in the same room as the Echo it is worth keeping an eye on what it is doing.
If you are concerned that it has been doing so without your knowledge, head to the Alexa app. There you can see a history of everything it has heard you say, and you can delete the recordings of your voice.
And if the Echo is regularly waking up by accident – if, for instance, you have someone in your family called Alexa, or something like it – you might want to change the wake word. It can easily be changed to Echo or Amazon through the app, though of course you will then have to make sure you are careful about saying those words too.
Exactly. Imagine click bait headlines like "iPhone in rear pocket secretly records woman's conversation and sends to a random contact!" Happens to a friend of mine all the time
We aren't. We're buying smart assistants, which like any assistant, can misunderstand requests.
Welcome to real life. It's not perfect.
No need to be fearful of technology just because it might make a mistake. With that kind of attitude, we'd have to avoid everything from autopilots to toaster timers.
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I think that there are some reasonable accommodations that can essentially protect those of us who really enjoy new technology and like to play with it. I do have attractive little flat metal sliders covering the camera on our laptops/desktop/ipad. We do not use any Google or Amazon connected products, e.g., Nest. It is our opinion that a connected Washer/Dryer or Refrigerator is not useful for us, although others might have a reason to feel differently. We have televisions that are 4K, but do not have cameras. Also "turn off" the Voice Recognition feature in smart television settings. That information goes to a variety of sources, including Amazon. We have one Twitter and FB account only for viewing family photos or articles from a few trusted sources that are referenced there.
We do have door locks, thermostat, and smoke alarms that are HomeKit enabled. We have iPhones and HomePods. Of course this presupposes that Apple protects our privacy, and from what I understand, it is a very different protocol that still allows us to control our privacy.
Bottom Line, we all have to be proactive in not sharing personal information indiscriminately on the internet and use Apple devices with an eye on security. There is nothing that can be done about the audio, video, digital books, games, apps, e-mail,purchases etc. that we use being accessed by others. It is our personal intention to at least preserve as much privacy as possible within the 4 walls of our home without going full bore survivalist and while enjoying the advantages of technology.
We do have door locks, thermostat, and smoke alarms that are HomeKit enabled. We have iPhones and HomePods. Of course this presupposes that Apple protects our privacy, and from what I understand, it is a very different protocol that still allows us to control our privacy.
Bottom Line, we all have to be proactive in not sharing personal information indiscriminately on the internet and use Apple devices with an eye on security. There is nothing that can be done about the audio, video, digital books, games, apps, e-mail,purchases etc. that we use being accessed by others. It is our personal intention to at least preserve as much privacy as possible within the 4 walls of our home without going full bore survivalist and while enjoying the advantages of technology.
These are great devices, personally I have all outside calling features turned off on them so no issue for me. I don't see the entire calling/messaging to outside contacts being needed in this class device, phones do this better. I do use local video chat within my Alexa Show and Spot device group only, to be able to "drop in" on my 96 year old mom who can no longer figure out how to answer a phone.
You do have to be smart about this stuff and all voice operated devices screw up, all the time.
You do have to be smart about this stuff and all voice operated devices screw up, all the time.
This is EXACTLY why I got rid of my Alexa device after only two months of use. It's bad enough we have phones with stuff like Siri "listening" for a command but to have Alexa all around your house is worse. If it weren't for my job, I would NOT have a cell phone. These voice activated things aren't exactly what you think folks. Believe me, within the IT community for which I work, we are well aware of what we can use these things for.
If I had to guess, there's probably a bug in the software. It was supposed to send the audio to who knows where, but instead it sent it to a contact.
This so true! I was about to buy a HomePod a few days ago, but something told me to stay away. I don't like the idea of a microphone being turned on ALL the time. I have a Google Home Mini and when I'm not using it, I keep the mic turned off. I would never want anyone to know my private conversations. Granted this lady Danielle was just talking about hardwood floors, but what if it was something more serious?
To be honest, a lot of improvements to people's lives have been made by lazy people. It's not people looking for an easier way that's the problem, it's people who don't consider the consequences of what they do and how it affects both themselves and others.
It seems to be a bit simpler and more straightforward than that, as various posts have mentioned, based on some investigation work that has been done so far.
The interesting thing to me, is that after it thought it heard a command, all else followed because it was trying to avoid saying "I don't understand". Like trying to match what it heard, to a known contact and asking for confirmation (likely a 'yes')
It reminds me of a system we did years ago, where it was considered too dangerous to rely on only a Yes or No response. Those were a problem because users often give kneejerk responses. So we added random questions with non-Y/N answers, forcing the user to pay closer attention.
Perhaps smart assistants need something similar. Like asking you to repeat a random word to make sure you heard them. (In this woman's case, she was asked a couple of questions by her Echo, which she either did not hear, or ignored.) Something like, "Okay I'll send that message to Tom. Please confirm by saying 'red rover'."
It reminds me of a system we did years ago, where it was considered too dangerous to rely on only a Yes or No response. Those were a problem because users often give kneejerk responses. So we added random questions with non-Y/N answers, forcing the user to pay closer attention.
Perhaps smart assistants need something similar. Like asking you to repeat a random word to make sure you heard them. (In this woman's case, she was asked a couple of questions by her Echo, which she either did not hear, or ignored.) Something like, "Okay I'll send that message to Tom. Please confirm by saying 'red rover'."
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This is why Siri remains stupid. Anyway this is a wake up call, Siri, google, Alexa, Cortana... that can record us.
Well, yeah, of course they can.
But they only do so if that functionality was enabled by the user, and then they think the user asked them to do so. Their programmed job is to listen for the wakeup word, and then try to decipher and execute the user's request.
In return, the user's responsibility is to notice when the listening indicator light is turned on, and to have the volume up enough to hear its confirmation questions.
Because these stories are trying to be frightening.
Exactly, it's made me lose a little more respect for MacRumors. Not only is it not a Mac story, they had to go and sensationalize the story when they probably didn't need to.
I guess I am trying to understand what people are thinking with these things anyway. I can’t see the need for these things when I have a smartphone with me all the time anyway.
Maybe a SONOS or Apple version just to get really good sound? LOL. I just don’t see the point of them.
Maybe a SONOS or Apple version just to get really good sound? LOL. I just don’t see the point of them.
To be fair, there have been general industry stories here for a long time, so that's hardly new or strange. And realistically speaking the headline is essentially what happened (minus the specific "woman" part).