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

[iapplelove]

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.

lmao $hits on google yet worships Facebook and IG... good one !

 

[Rogifan]

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.

Do we know this is the reason Siri isn’t as good as it could be?

 

[Morgenland]

Consistent continuation of things.
Good for Apple.
I am happy.

 

[haruhiko]

Amazon: You know what's more advanced than machine learning and Artificial intelligence? Actual human learning and actual human intelligence.

Sorry, the 3065th line of the EULA you signed up by opening the box has already told ya.

 

[burgman]

And you've never said anything that might get you in trouble. Or hurt your credit. Or get you fired. Or taken out of context be considered a threat and therefore a crime.

Here's one that may come into effect in the near future: You say something about a disease you have, or have had, say diabetes or heart conditions or cancer, and you suddenly get fired. You will never be able to prove that you were being listened to, and even if you could, you just agreed to it. You don't care if they listen. The fact that the information revealed wasn't in YOUR best interest but was in the financial interest of your employer or the hospital or an insurance company doesn't mean they did anything wrong. Because you gave them defacto permission. And since many of these diseases are genetic, you won't mind a bit if it affects your kids or your siblings.

And health is just one aspect. I touched on financial but you don't need to be sick or in a hospital to have financial information stolen from you, and to have it adversely affect your life.

How did you pretzel jump from companies listening to snippets to improve voice recognition software to a what if paranoid scenario that you wrote? Amazing if you, and others, really believe that’s the future.

 

[GuruZac]

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

Terrible logic. Exactly how is it not Amazon or Facebook or Google’s fault, for the total lack of respect for an ounce of privacy? Because we both know customers were not told or aware of the extent of what Amazon was doing, or Facebook etc.

 

[44267547]

I’m a fairly private person by nature (But yet very extroverted), and I value my privacy, which is one of the reasons why I stay loyal to Apple, because I truly believe they do care about the consumers personal protection. In the sense of what these ‘smart speakers’ (i.e Dot, Echo, ect) try to advocate, they generally just don’t appeal to me, nor do I need to ask them questions about the ‘weather’ or ‘what movie is playing currently in the theaters’.

 

[GuruZac]

If you'd bothered to RTFA, you'd see the recordings don't link them to specifc users. It's like if I gave you a mix tape with no label. You can listen to the songs and understand the words, but you don't know what the names of the songs are, or who sang them. But please, continue your faux moral-outrage temper tantrum. After that, how about you explain how you plan to improve a voice recognition system without any human-based assistance? Kinda hard to teach an AI what it's hearing wrong without an actual human there to hear the same command the correct the mistake.

As far as the "private chat room" -- do any of you millennial snowflakes use Slack at work? How about Facetime with multiple people? Guess what those are. If you said "a private chatroom" DINGDINGDING.

People gossip about their jobs. You do to, even if you're doing it around a water cooler or at a bar after work instead. Or are you really going to sit there and tell me you never talk about that horrible client you had to deal with, and what they said, and this and that? Get over it. They aren't doing anything different than you or I. It's just being perceived different by you because it has "on a computer" attached to it, just like all those BS patents you rail against when they are put on trial in that certain district in Texas.

Lol, and you’re telling me about faux outrage? You just wrote three paragraphs giving an angry awkward diatribe. I love that you also accuse to me of being some temperamental millennial when again, you’re the one seemingly way too easily triggered.

 

[WatchFromAfar]

Consistent continuation of things.
Good for Apple.
I am happy.

Perhaps I'm dumb; Amazon listening to an Amazon devise that's "Good for Apple" how? Why "I am happy."? Talking bull****

 

[Scooz]

lol.. I don't think employees come that tiny.

What reason would Amazon have to change the casing from metal to that cozier textile finish? Pretty sure it’s a union demand.

 

[Col4bin]

Well, it’s pretty obvious Apple’s not doing the same with Siri at least!

 

[Roller]

Google uses searches to target you with ads, and if you're ever charged with certain crimes, your search history may be scrutinized. But you initiate those searches explicitly. I don't believe that people look at digital assistants in the same way, even if it takes a specific word or phrase to activate them before subsequent commands or questions are sent to Amazon, Apple, or Google. If companies are going to save data like this to improve their assistants or for any other purpose, transmission should be disabled by default and users should be required to opt in.

 

[tcgjeukens]

Interesting ethics conundrum here. Peoples’ right to privacy versus protecting someone from something as potentially brutal as sexual assault.

Wait a minute. Let's consider the implications.
If Apple, Google and Amazon have a "listening device" in your house ...
If their eavesdropping picks up sound bites that may seem sociably disturbing ...
Who decides what ethics standards apply and when to intervene?

Should it be Apple, Google, Amazon or Facebook? Or do we prefer the current political wind of a government?
What if your Huawei device is listening too?
What is the NSA is listening via your designed in America device?

Revisit your own take on "in technology we trust".
Request and buy devices where you can control the camera and microphone with physical toggle buttons.

 

[andrew12]

How do you know they’re educated?

Being educated does not guarantee being rational, logical, or not being self-sabotaging. Being taught does not equal having learned, just as having learned does not equal application of knowledge. Besides, history is replete with “educated” monsters and their equally “educated” henchmen and supporters.

 

[vipergts2207]

Are you suggesting we install microphones in everyone’s homes and have people listen in to see if anything bad is going on? What could possibly go wrong?

There’s no ethics conundrum at all. Amazon should not get involved in reporting people over private conversations regardless of the content.

The hell? I didn’t come close to suggesting anything of the sort. This is a case where someone willingly installed a listening device in their own own home, where they know it sends audio off to Amazon. Not even close to the scenario you’re talking about.

 

[WatchFromAfar]

Google uses searches to target you with ads, and if you're ever charged with certain crimes, your search history may be scrutinized. But you initiate those searches explicitly. I don't believe that people look at digital assistants in the same way, even if it takes a specific word or phrase to activate them before subsequent commands or questions are sent to Amazon, Apple, or Google. If companies are going to save data like this to improve their assistants or for any other purpose, transmission should be disabled by default and users should be required to opt in.

"Google uses searches to target you with ads" Google is an advertising agency, that's their job; why are people surprised, shocked by this?

 

[burgman]

Nope. Are you so dependent on them that it’s hard for you to imagine not?
Where does that dependence come from?

Where does that ignorance on how the internet works come from? You are on a forum that uses analytics from Google and Amazon web services, as does your ISP. All of our connected devices and routers have addresses that are tracked 24/7 by your ISP And beacons that call home at regular intervals. Oh I use a VPN, or my own Pi device so I’m hidden, yeah right. Not using voice assistants makes sense in business environments, for personal use they make my life easier in many ways. I’m completely aware that I have a listening technology in my home/car/pocket that I don’t have complete control over and act accordingly. I can live with that, others can’t but don’t boast about things you think you know, but don’t.

 

[GuruZac]

Google uses searches to target you with ads, and if you're ever charged with certain crimes, your search history may be scrutinized. But you initiate those searches explicitly. I don't believe that people look at digital assistants in the same way, even if it takes a specific word or phrase to activate them before subsequent commands or questions are sent to Amazon, Apple, or Google. If companies are going to save data like this to improve their assistants or for any other purpose, transmission should be disabled by default and users should be required to opt in.

100% agree.

 

[Morgenland]

Perhaps I'm dumb; Amazon listening to an Amazon devise that's "Good for Apple" how? Why "I am happy."? Talking bull****

Sorry, yes you are...

 

[vipergts2207]

Wait a minute. Let's consider the implications.
If Apple, Google and Amazon have a "listening device" in your house ...
If their eavesdropping picks up sound bites that may seem sociably disturbing ...
Who decides what ethics standards apply and when to intervene?

Should it be Apple, Google, Amazon or Facebook? Or do we prefer the current political wind of a government?
What if your Huawei device is listening too?
What is the NSA is listening via your designed in America device?

Revisit your own take on "in technology we trust".
Request and buy devices where you can control the camera and microphone with physical toggle buttons.

That’s why I called it a conundrum. This isn’t a case where someone had a bug unknowingly planted in their home. Here’s another edge case. What if your Ring doorbell happens to catch your neighbor beating their wife and/or kids? Do you not report it to the police because they have a right to privacy?

 

[TroyBoy30]

perfectly fine with me. you know there is an option on your apple products to send in info as well right?

alexa is far superior to siri. guess we know why now.

 

[Timemaster]

perfectly fine with me. you know there is an option on your apple products to send in info as well right?

Big difference between amazon vs Google and Apple here. Amazon is opt out with the setting hard to find.
Google is opt in and the setting is a little hard to find. Apple is opt in as well.
The opt in system means a lot fewer people give you the info. On my Google homes I have not opted in.

 

[Pepe4life]

Let’s not forget that Jeff Bezos has a huge fat contract with the CIA

 

[Music Ambulance]

If Apple would do this in a way that was anonymous I would have no problem with it.

 

[haruhiko]

Terrible logic. Exactly how is it not Amazon or Facebook or Google’s fault, for the total lack of respect for an ounce of privacy? Because we both know customers were not told or aware of the extent of what Amazon was doing, or Facebook etc.

Blame the victim again.
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If Apple would do this in a way that was anonymous I would have no problem with it.

Lol if a company like Amazon is listening to each and every recording you sent to them, except that the clip isn't tagged with your name, how actually anonymous is it?

Think about it. If Amazon releases a video echo dot which records video of your home and your video clips are being reviewed "anonymously" by Amazon employees or contractors, do you think it's acceptable? How anonymous is it?