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Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

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Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#51

Post by joshstrange »

tambourine_man wrote: post #30

People are volunteerelly paying for their houses to be tapped for the convenience of being able to shout: play me some song. I’m so out of touch with this world it’s scary.

It's a little more than just that. Every light in my house is controlled with Alexa which is a very nice and hard to explain until you have tried it. Also my home theater system is all controllable via Alexa as well. This kind of thinking makes no sense to me.

> People are voluntarily paying for their houses to be tapped for the convenience of being able to shout: play me some song. > I’m so out of touch with this world it’s scary.

I could just as easily say "People are voluntarily paying for their locations to be tracked for the convenience of being able to get live maps on the go" (ie. cell phones, which also are listening to everything you say unless you disable it)

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#52

Post by dep_b »

My experience is totally anecdotal and I'm not even an Alexa owner, but I had a Skype conversation with a client that had one them set up in his office and it was constantly triggering, even when the word wasn't used.

So if it though it heard "Alexa, send this message to John: {conversation of ten minutes}" it just did what it thought it was supposed to do. But it's weird they didn't hear any audible confirmation or anything.

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#53

Post by wooter »

simion314 wrote: post #46
wooter wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

great way to just have companies add an annoying, always on LED, that wastes energy to avoid lawsuits. how about we let the market regulate, as it is doing currently. did amazon respond faster than the government has on surveillance? yes. should companies that don't abuse their power/neglect their software be punished for all eternity because of amazon's actions? i think not.

Do you also get mad for the LED in your TV,router and monitor, that shows the device is in stand by or on? I t would be a small one and you should have an hardware slider for brightness , you could also tape it off

yes. if you want that, you can only buy from a company that does it. if enough people agree, they'll all do it or fail. i don't abide by the 'its such a good idea, everyone must be forced to do it' mentality

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#55

Post by laumars »

ctrl-j wrote: post #33
imrehg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how would you even do that? It's not a tape recorder, where someone has to physically press a button, there are no moving parts, thus it must be software controlled.

Inline voltage to the microphone? A microphone is still a physical device.

True but the microphone is always on (otherwise how would the device be able to listen for voice commands). Thus what you're describing would effectively just be a power LED rather than a recording LED.

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#56

Post by simion314 »

gsich wrote: post #37
simion314 wrote: post #12

This devices should by law always have a big LED on when recording, you would have the option to set it's brightness though. Also why could it send data out without any confirmation from the user.

The device is always recording. How else would it detect the keyword?

Yeah, that is true, is much harder to implement

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#58

Post by wooter »

gsich wrote: post #39
wooter wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

great way to just have companies add an annoying, always on LED, that wastes energy to avoid lawsuits. how about we let the market regulate, as it is doing currently. did amazon respond faster than the government has on surveillance? yes. should companies that don't abuse their power/neglect their software be punished for all eternity because of amazon's actions? i think not.

LED and energy waste? Please...

i'm sure cumulative energy use across all regulable devices is not insignificant. thats how government policy works.

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#59

Post by kinsomo »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #49
kinsomo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> where someone has to physically press a button, there are no moving parts, thus it must be software controlled. If the microphone uses an amplifier, you could wire an LED to light when power is supplied to the amp. The indicator light is physically part of the circuit, so its operation cannot be modified by software. There are probably other, better, ways to do it, I'm not an electronics guy.

Due to watchword detection, the microphone amp would always be on.

> Due to watchword detection, the microphone amp would always be on.

I don't think that would be a bad thing; especially if there's a switch to disable the mic. When you turn it off, you'll get reliable feedback to know it's actually off.

I think it's important that these kinds of devices have simple feedback and control mechanisms that can be independently verified and reasoned about. Software is too opaque and too untrustworthy.

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#60

Post by tzahola »

virmundi wrote: post #48
tambourine_man wrote: post #30

People are volunteerelly paying for their houses to be tapped for the convenience of being able to shout: play me some song. I’m so out of touch with this world it’s scary.

I like the idea, but wonder if the same features are possible on a stand alone tool. For example, the device does the NLP there on the premise. It exposes a plugin API for apps. The app gets the text translation by registering a callback URI. Then it can do want ever it wants with that. Expose a streaming receiver api for music. Essential get rid of the middle man service. Is this possible of a Pi?

Yes.

https://snips.ai

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