Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands • Hacker News Board

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#171

Post by tinus_hn » Fri, May 11, 2018, 10:59 AM UTC

banku_brougham wrote: post #13

Serious off-topic question: Are there docs for Siri so that i can learn what it can/can’t do? I have tried skipping songs, playing a genre, set random play, and similar in iTunes — generally a failure, often initiates an unwanted phone call. On the phone I can successfully call the intended contact about 50% of the time, possibly because I have ~250 contacts. I suspect that if i knew the right words to interact with…

If you activate Siri and say nothing you’ll get a list of examples. Or you can just ask Siri ‘What can you do for me?’

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#172

Post by mdekkers » Fri, May 11, 2018, 11:32 AM UTC

It is beyond me why people would want to put a live mic in their home. Every dystopian story, real or fiction, features some element of constant observation, and here we go, happily placing these devices in our homes. Insane

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#173

Post by Infernal » Fri, May 11, 2018, 12:17 PM UTC

Infernal wrote: post #50

newsbinator wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you could tell Siri, > Send an email to my mom that says, "I have an emergency and I need $2000. Here's the account number to send it to: 12345. Mom, please don't ask questions. This is urgent. Send the money now." Would Siri lookup your mom's email and send that?

If you have previously identified one of your contacts as your mother, yes. If not, Siri will ask who your mother is and if Siri should remember that piece of information.

Tagging on to say I just tried this - even though I activate Siri without unlocking, I was asked to unlock my phone to continue with the email.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#174

Post by jsjohnst » Fri, May 11, 2018, 1:20 PM UTC

buro9 wrote: post #132

jimrandomh wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TV channels already contain inaudible-sound identifiers. Nielsen has people put listeners in their homes, and uses the identifiers to track which channels are getting played.

Er... holy shit to the thought that (Alexa|Assistant|Siri) + Neilsen (or just by Google) could monitor advert viewing in millions of homes.

To scare you further, multiple brands and models of “SmartTVs” have the ability to fingerprint what is displayed on the screen and report back to a cloud service. Said services are also, not surprisingly, poorly secured.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#175

Post by GW150914 » Fri, May 11, 2018, 1:33 PM UTC

srtjstjsj wrote: post #157

osteele wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Alexa, Siri, and Google Home, can hear inaudible commands" "Alexa, Siri, and Google Home, can hear commands that humans can't"

That's less clickbaity than "This Hidden Command" and "You can't." that are specifically designed to hack your psychology and make you feel uncomfortable and threatened by not knowing what they are referring to.

I agree with you and Osteele, but I didn’t feel it was my place to editorialize the title, but I’m happy for the moderators to do it.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#176

Post by rootusrootus » Fri, May 11, 2018, 3:06 PM UTC

dirkgently wrote: post #159

rootusrootus wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes it works great. Sometimes I can't get Siri to do anything right. Anecdotally I've found that Google's voice assistant is quite a lot better. Unfortunately I am unwilling to accept the rest of Google's terms and conditions so I am stuck with Siri for the foreseeable future.

And what are those specific "terms and conditions"? It's funny hoe Google is somehow perceived as evil while Apple or Amazon not. If I have to trust someone with mt data (and we all do), I will choose Google over anyone else.

I do not perceive corporations as evil or not; I look at how their interests intersect with mine and select the most comfortable fit.

Google makes money by knowing everything they can figure out about me, and they're not especially forthcoming about what they know (or worse, what they think they know). Weirdly, I actually sort of trust them at some level, so if they offered me an option to pay up for a guarantee they won't track me or sell my information to the highest bidder, I would be more interested in their services.

Apple is unapologetically interested in getting the largest capital investment from me while being sufficiently committed to keeping my stuff private that the FBI periodically tries to use law to force them to provide a backdoor. At this time I feel that my data is safer with them than any other viable provider. Also, please note the gov't does not seem too concerned about Android devices. That tells me what I need to know, even if the constant security holes and utter lack of updates for devices more than a year old weren't obvious enough (I've had a bunch of Android phones, I'm not an Apple fanboy)

You are absolutely welcome to trust whichever corporation makes you most comfortable, no quibbles from me :). It's still a mostly free country.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#177

Post by toast0 » Fri, May 11, 2018, 4:50 PM UTC

chatmasta wrote: post #92

toast0 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The clock / timer functions of Alexa/Google Home are super useful, but nothing else seems compelling to me. Someone could clearly make an offline device that did voice recognition clock and timer, but does anyone?

Or you could spend $3 and get a kitchen timer that you can slap to start, and beeps when it’s done!

Setting the timer takes a lot of steps and usually wants clean hands.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#178

Post by mulletbum » Tue, May 22, 2018, 12:44 PM UTC

mkirklions wrote: post #77

mulletbum wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone who likes iPhones owns one, so that removes status. Personal anecdote, I dislike Apple computers, but I like their phones. So I am at least one person who doesn't buy them for brand. This notion is outdated.

Can you explain what is good about their phones? Things that drive me crazy- >No widgets >constant reminders to sign-in >constant reminders to update >no double tap/settings seem harder to find >Finger print scanner sucks so bad. >Little annoyances like the animations to change screen take 0.5 seconds too long. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be enjoying on my iphone.

>No widgets Widgets suck and slow down android. Apple stores them in a swipe so they dont refresh constantly. >constant reminders to sign-in Never had this problem >constant reminders to update Constant? You mean, they tell you when they have an update. >no double tap/settings seem harder to find Because it's force touch. >Finger print scanner sucks so bad. Laughable as Apple makes the best one on the market, you should just move your finger more or enter it twice. >Little annoyances like the animations to change screen take 0.5 seconds too long. This is 100% why I hate Android, weird lag in every device. >I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be enjoying on my iphone Maybe that Apple isn't selling your privacy for money.