Amazon's Alexa listening & sending without consent

[vsheetz]

And people have made fun of me all these years for putting tin foil inside my hat...

[redcolorado]

Originally Posted by vsheetz

And people have made fun of me all these years for putting tin foil inside my hat...

Does the shiny side go inside or out?

[NLOVNIT]

I don't know if my Echo dot is always listening or not, but sometimes, out of the blue, she'll start playing the music I usually ask her to play....without me asking her to.

Also, there's a local TV station that advertises being able to give local news briefings through Alexa. The dot is in close proximity to the TV so when the commercial says her name, she'll wake up. I don't have the app loaded to do local news briefings, but she'll start giving national news.

Lori-

[TonyDi]

I love technology, but some of it is way over the top. Too many silly things. I saw an app for your smart phone that shows when your dog walker took your do out. The route they walked and where it stopped to poop. TMI

[sdennislee]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things

IOT It’s/they are everywhere.

[Finance]

Yeah, the potential is in a lot of devices these days. Sometimes Siri wakes up on my phone without being called, because it heard something similar.

[raineman]

I guess at the end of the day, I don’t really care if I am recorded. I am not a criminal. I have nothing to hide. And already mentioned, most phones, tablets and TVs already do this.

Those that say no way will they allow theses devices in your home. I believe someone here referred to it as ‘being bugged’. Just makes me wonder what people say that they would be so afraid of being head. Oh well, it is just a fact of technical life these days.

[nothermark]

The problem is that anything you say can be misconstrued by the AI's that do the monitoring. That can trigger attention you do not want.

The end goal of the monitoring is to be able to precisely tailor adds to the end user. In other word to sell you things you do not know you need or to tailor your opinions over various things. Just think about what any political party would love to be able to do...

[wa8yxm]

Originally Posted by 60sumtin

As much as like my electronic toys I'm not a fan of the internet connected things. Apparently Amazon's Alexa can hear and send conversations when it shouldn't. Story here.

Some folks simply do not understand (The people in the story)

In order to work all the Voice command things MUST listen ALL THE TIME, else they can not do their job. So they are ALWAYS streaming audio to the internet so the host control computer (Amazon, Google or whomever) can understand you and send the signals to your home systems to do what you command. They can not work otherwise.

now RECORDING that's another matter but if they are streaming, then in theory (And practice I suspect) people can "Tap" the stream and record.

BUT. You give it permission to stream when you plug it in. Because it can not do its "Magic" any other way.

[DanKathyC]

if the nsa, fbi, cia etc legally collected information that the ultra cool tech companies are willing given just so we can have new and useless stuff i expect the s@^%t would hit the fan. to quote K in men in black"god what a gullible breed"

[60sumtin]

Originally Posted by wa8yxm

Some folks simply do not understand (The people in the story)

In order to work all the Voice command things MUST listen ALL THE TIME, else they can not do their job. So they are ALWAYS streaming audio to the internet so the host control computer (Amazon, Google or whomever) can understand you and send the signals to your home systems to do what you command. They can not work otherwise.

now RECORDING that's another matter but if they are streaming, then in theory (And practice I suspect) people can "Tap" the stream and record.

BUT. You give it permission to stream when you plug it in. Because it can not do its "Magic" any other way.

Yeah, I understand how it works, that's why I don't have one.

The problem is, according to the article, no commands were ever given. Its was listening to a background conversation and acted on its own without ever getting permission, not only once but four times. Had the recipient of the message not called them to tell them it was sending conversions to them without their knowledge they would have never known. I doubt this is an isolated incident.

[CaptBill]

Originally Posted by raineman

I guess at the end of the day, I don’t really care if I am recorded. I am not a criminal. I have nothing to hide. And already mentioned, most phones, tablets and TVs already do this.

Those that say no way will they allow theses devices in your home. I believe someone here referred to it as ‘being bugged’. Just makes me wonder what people say that they would be so afraid of being head. Oh well, it is just a fact of technical life these days.

Well, I do care if I am recorded, and I am not a criminal. You say you have nothing to hide? So the privacy of your conversations with your investor, broker, banker, wife, or other family and friends is of no concern to you. Incredible, what some people are willing to give up, for the convenience of saving a few seconds of their time to do something.

As posted earlier in this thread, all info gathered from these voice-activated services may be recorded on servers in or out of the USA. Who controls these servers? How secure are they? Hackers have gained access to some of the supposedly secure servers in the country; financial institutions; stores; military; you name it. Buying into this marketing tool just adds another way for hackers to steal your identity. Oh, that's right; you don't have anything to hide. So if your bank accounts and P/W's; your identity is stolen; well you just don't care. OK.

[stepside454]

I have no desire to have one of these devices . Our daughter has one , I don’t get the point

[NLOVNIT]

Just a reminder folks, keep posts to the topic at hand. Sarcastic/personal attacks against members are against Community Rules & can be subject to deleting & account moderation.

Thank you,
Lori-