Thousands of Amazon Employees Listen to Alexa Requests for Improvement Purposes [Updated]

[fairuz]

Oh, I thought Amazon and Google just “understand machine learning” better than Apple and everyone plays by the same rules?

I keep telling y’all Amazon and Google products are spyware...now we know that’s quite literally the case.

I will NEVER put an Amazon or Google device in my home.

Google also had the secret mic in their security system that has turned into a home assistant randomly. Yep, not for me.
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You want to send them an audio file but not have them “listen” to it?

You’re basically making a phone call to a company to ask them a question and you think they can do that without knowing what you asked them?

I’m at a bit of a loss here as to why people are surprised by this article. I read it and thought “yeah that’s kind of what’s I always assumed.”

This is news??

You don't have to send them the audio recording to make this work.

 

[redpandadev]

Do you not use any Amazon or Google product or service? A lot of people say this, but use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google Search, Amazon, etc. So your data isn't really that private if you use these, even with an iPhone.

I frequently get criticized by friends because I do use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram yet talk up Apple’s privacy all the time.

I do not use Google products, period. I was using Google search only up until very recently switching to DuckDuckGo. I deleted my Gmail and other Google products years ago.

I do buy on amazon and have amazon prime video but do not use any of their voice products.

I see a distinct difference between the Amazon / Google practices vs Facebook/instagram/twitter. With amazon/google, they simply take my privacy. By shear virtue of interacting with their products my privacy is taken. Example: just by talking in a room with an Alexa product, my voice is being recorded whether I am explicitly addressing Alexa or not.

The Facebook/instagram/twitter is a different beast. I choose to share whatever I want (or don’t want) with their products. When I post to Facebook, I make the conscious choice to provide information to Facebook. I do so with the knowledge and assumption that anything I post, regardless of privacy/audience settings is considered public. If I had never explicitly posted it to their service though, they’d never have it.

I know I know I’ll be called out on the above for 20 reasons that what I said is not actually correct and there exceptions and settings and all that. I’m well aware. It’s how I justify the difference to myself though. Comes down to:

With a social networking service, it is intuitively obvious that you are giving up privacy by participating in the network. That is what it is designed to do. With products like Alexa, it is not intuitively obvious. It’s intent is to reposed to voice commands to perform actions. There is no “share” piece of that that would intuitively imply that your privacy is being violated.

 

[fairuz]

Do you not use any Amazon or Google product or service? A lot of people say this, but use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google Search, Amazon, etc. So your data isn't really that private if you use these, even with an iPhone.

Data privacy isn't just a boolean. Google, for example, tracks my behavior but can't tie it to my identity. Facebook maybe has my name, but I don't do much on there other than let it sit as a way for people to contact me if they don't have my number. They don't have audio recordings of me at home.

 

[BigDO]

Do you want to use Apple products, or would you prefer to become the product, so that apps like Siri work better?

If you actually read the Bloomberg article you'll realise that Apple does the same thing to improve Siri.

 

[Sedulous]

Mmm, yes... but they do need to passively listen for audio input constantly. Therein lies the gray zone. How much of that passive audio input is being transferred to the manufacturer's speech recognition server for processing, and later for human analysis? We have no way of knowing.

Could just look at network traffic. It could easily be detected if device is always streaming audio to server. As far as I can tell, hey Siri is required to invoke server side listening.

 

[Nebulance]

Is there an option to enable voice recordings to be sent to Apple when the user says "Goddammit Siri you suck!"

The amount of times I’ve cursed out Siri…

 

[TSE]

Actually, Microsoft has been mining usage of users of their OS at detail since around the time of Windows 8. It actually started earlier, but that's when they started becoming creepy.

That's really too bad - I'm aware of some sneaky things they've been doing but really didn't think they were as bad as the others. Just got a Windows 10 PC as I couldn't afford a MacBook Pro with the specs I need. Anyway to disable it?

 

[jchap]

Could just look at network traffic. It could easily be detected if device is always streaming audio to server. As far as I can tell, hey Siri is required to invoke server side listening.

Good point—we could simply look at the network traffic. Most people don't understand how to do that, however... and they may not be aware of just how much data is being sent out over the Internet by the devices they use.

 

[Slix]

I don't like the idea of any of these Google/Amazon "always listening assistants", mainly because like some mentioned already, it fills a need that wasn't really needed in the first place. I use AirPlay with iTunes to play my music at home. I can control it faster using iTunes or the Remote app than Siri or anything else could get it to process and get it correct anyway.

In some ways, living in the "past" with technology simply works better and more efficient than the "future" stuff like this.

 

[macduke]

I mean, I have no reason to side with Amazon on this and I won’t. But it’s important to remember that this was written by Bloomberg—the same news organization that invented a story about Chinese spy chips being found on data center boards from Apple to Amazon to Google. Nothing has ever been found and they refuse to retract the story despite the thousands of IT Pros and security analysts who have been salivating to find something on one of these boards and has found nada, zilch, zero spy chips. Grain of salt people, big ol’ grain of freaking salt.

 

[apolloa]

Well dduuurrrrrrrr

It’s an AI and this is how AI’s learn, you have to teach them. Also their is a handy little switch to turn OFF this feature, and yes it does ask you at setup if you want to enable it so users DO know about it, unless they do not bother to read the instructions during setup..

Tin foil hat brigade or what..
[doublepost=1554961312][/doublepost]Haha the sheer number of complainers defending Apple on here, who have NOT read this story and totally missed the following is hilarious!

Apple has employees who listen to Siri queries to make sure the interpretation of a request lines up with what the person said. Recordings are stripped of identifiable information, however, and stored for six months with a random identifier.
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It is a huge invasion of privacy. It may not bother you, but I sure don't want a corporation listening in on me.

If it had come out that Apple was doing this people would be at the spaceship right now demanding Tim's head.

But Apple ARE doing this? You didn’t read the story did you....

 

[Ghost31]

I have mixed feelings about it. Privacy is important but on the other side Siri works so bad because of so Apple’s privacy policy.

I’d rather have privacy than Siri being any better. But you could also have it be optional. Like an opt in button “click yes if you want people to listen to you talk trash to Siri”

 

[Laptopdog78]

I had an echo dot, and it somehow made me feel like it was always listening/watching me by the way it acted randomly etc with no request so I got rid. I now have Alexa built into a Sonos speaker. The speaker has the option to turn listening on or off. I turn off most of the time, and turn on when I feel like a music session etc. I feel a little safer lol.

 

[Jim Lahey]

I am very aware of the potential privacy compromises with Alexa, but I choose to use an echo dot for controlling my Hive central heating system and also for listening to the radio or giving me the news and weather. For me it is very useful in those circumstances, but I do not use it as a Trivial Pursuit device - I do not ask it stupid questions or tell it my life story. Additionally I very often mute the microphone if I have guests, or even unplug it if deeply personal conversations are taking place.

Overall I feel that it improves my time at home, but I am aware and accept what it is...a data gathering device. So long as it continues to help me I am ok with that within the scope of how I use it. All possible privacy settings are already in lockdown. Honestly though, I do so much shopping with Amazon that they already know everything about me. I don’t feel that I’m giving too much away by also letting them know what I sound like

Others will take a different view and that is also entirely understandable.

 

[Khedron]

Facebook, Google... now Amazon... possibly soon Microsoft...

I really love Tim Cook's Apple in a lot of ways, and security & privacy is one of them. He really is a rebel and sticking to his guns in a way to benefit the consumer.

"Apple has employees who listen to Siri queries to make sure the interpretation of a request lines up with what the person said."
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Yet another reason to avoid all Amazon. First it was Ring recordings the other month now Alexa.... If you want it to stop, stop using Amazon for your shopping and other stuff. They will get the message and either stop or go out of business. Both would be great things for us all.

"Apple has employees who listen to Siri queries to make sure the interpretation of a request lines up with what the person said."
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Comical. People laugh at Apple for not having good "Machine learning" / voice assistance when it's really just other companies sucking every byte of personal data to make the "user experience" better.

"Apple has employees who listen to Siri queries to make sure the interpretation of a request lines up with what the person said."
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Exactly why I don't mind Siri not being as robust with her actions.

"Apple has employees who listen to Siri queries to make sure the interpretation of a request lines up with what the person said."

 

[YaBe]

As long as they record and listen just and only after you said Alexa, Ok Google, or any combination to make it work, I am ok with it, I know they are recording that.

It is also stated inthe arcicle that:
"Alexa users have the option to disable the use of their voice recordings for improvements to the service"

Wonder if all the provacy freaks have tape on all their devices mic ... i mean who knows right?

Tape the smart tv mi, tape the computer mic....

 

[Khedron]

I’d rather have privacy than Siri being any better. But you could also have it be optional. Like an opt in button “click yes if you want people to listen to you talk trash to Siri”

"Apple has employees who listen to Siri queries to make sure the interpretation of a request lines up with what the person said."
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I frequently get criticized by friends because I do use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram yet talk up Apple’s privacy all the time.

"Apple has employees who listen to Siri queries to make sure the interpretation of a request lines up with what the person said."
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It is a huge invasion of privacy. It may not bother you, but I sure don't want a corporation listening in on me.

If it had come out that Apple was doing this people would be at the spaceship right now demanding Tim's head.

"Apple has employees who listen to Siri queries to make sure the interpretation of a request lines up with what the person said."

 

[matc]

Finally a good explanation why Alexa works so much better than Siri.

 

[480951]

I had an echo dot, and it somehow made me feel like it was always listening/watching me by the way it acted randomly etc with no request so I got rid. I now have Alexa built into a Sonos speaker. The speaker has the option to turn listening on or off. I turn off most of the time, and turn on when I feel like a music session etc. I feel a little safer lol.

This is the reason I got rid of mine too. It kept activating randomly, and when I checked to see what it heard there was absolutely nothing that sounded like the wake word. Twice it was silent.

 

[GaryMumford]

I don't have any Amazon or Google voice or music products. I do not use any Google products (including search). I do use Amazon prime (for deliveries) and I do control what information I share with Amazon (re: address and payment details). All my Macs, iPhones, and iPad are locked down. Nothing goes out that I don't know about.

If you want to use Google and Amazon in the manner that the article addresses, have at it. I want no part of it.

If you want to try and paint me in some corner with the "its all the same because everyone has information on you already" rhetoric, you can try that on someone else.

Just out of interest, what search engine have you set as your default on iOS/Safari... Bing, DuckDuckGo or Yahoo?

 

[acorntoy]

That is extremely creepy, I can't imagine the trauma felt by those who were told by Amazon to just "let it go" after being forced to LISTEN to that kind of stuff taking place. Probably threatened with termination if they tried to do anything as well.

 

[Textime]

Incredibly unacceptable. What the hell is wrong with these large tech companies completely trampling on customer privacy.

It's not their fault. It's the fault of the people who buy their products.

 

[Ghost31]

"Apple has employees who listen to Siri queries to make sure the interpretation of a request lines up with what the person said."
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"Apple has employees who listen to Siri queries to make sure the interpretation of a request lines up with what the person said."
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"Apple has employees who listen to Siri queries to make sure the interpretation of a request lines up with what the person said."

Yes. How does that conflict with what I just said. I’ll say it again. I WOULD RATHER SIRI STAY CRAPPY THAN HAVE PEOPLE LISTENING TO EVERY REQUEST I MAKE. Privacy > convenience for me.

 

[Basic75]

"We take the security and privacy of our customers' personal information seriously."

I can't help but laugh at this. It's the lie all big corporations tell us just after some data breach due to shoddy security is reported.

 

[skitidetdu]

Even if Apple listens to Siri requests it is not the same as listening to an actual recording from someone’s private sphere. It doesn’t surprise me but at the same time scares me.