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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

#271

Post by dingaling »

saudioger wrote: post #257
djsumdog wrote: post #182

I've told my roommate I'm moving out if he ever buys an Alex/Google/Apple assistant device. I have a microphone and I've been intending to get one of the open source solutions working and just tie it in to mpd, weather and a few other things. But all the processing should really be done on your own device, by hardware you own, software that's open and that you configure, and not send up to someone else's computer (ak…

Do you have a cellphone? That would be much more valuable to target than a home speaker. Likely easier at this point too.

If I'm being actively targeted that's a completely different threat model to a potential passive mass dragnet using 'home assistants'.

Someone could activate my phone microphone remotely and record me but if I'm up against that level of adversary I'm probably in deep trouble.

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

#272

Post by pault »

mns wrote: post #221
jadedhacker wrote: post #125

I feel creeped out by these home listening devices and I don't own one, but don't our phones already have this capability? You can turn "Ok Google" on on an android phone. I sometimes record audio, and the mic is incredibly good. Is there a substantial difference between our phones and these devices? EDIT: Just realized the substantial difference is that Google and Amazon own all of these things. They don't control a…

I got an Echo Dot a month ago, because there was a special offer on Amazon for the Philips Hue system, and it included one free. After reading this and having a discussion with my girlfriend last night about how she needs a backup of something, but we don't have a DVD writer at home (she's not tech savvy and thinks people still back-up stuff on DVDs), and now, the second day my Amazon daily offers is filled with port…

Is it possible she searched for DVD burners from your home IP?

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

#273

Post by flyingcoder »

carbocation wrote: post #258
kinsomo wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have this idea of a system I would like to have in my house. It contains cameras in every room that are constantly watching where people are and relaying the coordinates to a central server. That server makes decisions on if lights should be on or if A/C should be running in that room. But I would never buy this system. I would have to make it myself. I am hopeful that open source software and hardware can produc…

Might be cool to add thermal sensors to that, so the lights don't shut off because you're not moving enough.

That would still mean that the lights would go off if my boss was the only person in the room.

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

#274

Post by kinsomo »

tree_of_item wrote: post #264
kinsomo wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have this idea of a system I would like to have in my house. It contains cameras in every room that are constantly watching where people are and relaying the coordinates to a central server. That server makes decisions on if lights should be on or if A/C should be running in that room. But I would never buy this system. I would have to make it myself. I am hopeful that open source software and hardware can produc…

One reason you might want a server is to have more expressive power than "if someone literally enters the room, turn on the lights". You might want to turn on the lights and run the AC a little before you predict people will arrive, for example.

> One reason you might want a server is to have more expressive power than "if someone literally enters the room, turn on the lights". You might want to turn on the lights and run the AC a little before you predict people will arrive, for example.

Maybe, but that seems like a lot of work for little gain.

You probably don't actually have that much control over the AC in your rooms unless you have zoned heating and a lot of zones, regardless of how smart your sensors are.

Intent is a very important factor when answering the question "should the lights be on," I don't think you'll be able to predict that. For instance: if movement is detected in the bedroom at 2AM, should the lights come on? The answer is: a very strong maybe.

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

#275

Post by Cthulhu_ »

carbocation wrote: post #258
kinsomo wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have this idea of a system I would like to have in my house. It contains cameras in every room that are constantly watching where people are and relaying the coordinates to a central server. That server makes decisions on if lights should be on or if A/C should be running in that room. But I would never buy this system. I would have to make it myself. I am hopeful that open source software and hardware can produc…

Might be cool to add thermal sensors to that, so the lights don't shut off because you're not moving enough.

That's the main problem with motion activated office lights tbf, especially when you're doing software development for example - not enough motion to keep them on.

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

#276

Post by tambourine_man »

grkvlt wrote: post #237
tambourine_man wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Yes, it's ultimately a convenience, but so is indoor plumbing and store bought bread. I’m sorry, clean water and food are not conviniences. They are among the most basics of human needs. That’s the kind of thing that scares me. That someone would make such a comparison with a straight face.

This is the kind of argument that seems really common and I find very annoying. So 'indoor plumbing' is obviously used to provide us with clean water, but the convenience aspect is the indoor part - you can have clean water from an outdoor communal well, instead. Similarly 'store bought bread' is food , but so is home made bread. I just cannot work out if the commenter was being deliberately obtuse or really misunder…

> you can have clean water from an outdoor communal well, instead

Have you ever considered that this is not the case in most of the world? Resources are far from evenly distributed.

It is not by chance that the availability of indoor plumbing correlates to increase in life expectancy. It's nice that I can just open the tap and clean water comes out, but it's also a lot more sanitary than people carrying and storing buckets around.

>I just cannot work out if the commenter was being deliberately obtuse or really misunderstood?

Same here. Comparing the savings of a few steps towards a light switch to clean water and cheap food is intellectual dishonesty at best and severe ignorance at worse.

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

#277

Post by FreeFull »

flyingcoder wrote: post #273
carbocation wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might be cool to add thermal sensors to that, so the lights don't shut off because you're not moving enough.

That would still mean that the lights would go off if my boss was the only person in the room.

That's alright, he doesn't really need the light anyway.

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

#278

Post by floatingatoll »

carbocation wrote: post #258
kinsomo wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have this idea of a system I would like to have in my house. It contains cameras in every room that are constantly watching where people are and relaying the coordinates to a central server. That server makes decisions on if lights should be on or if A/C should be running in that room. But I would never buy this system. I would have to make it myself. I am hopeful that open source software and hardware can produc…

Might be cool to add thermal sensors to that, so the lights don't shut off because you're not moving enough.

I wish more offices would install motion sensors facing keyboards from above, tune-focused for finger motion detection.

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

#279

Post by awat »

chaostheory wrote: post #224
awat wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless it’s expected behavior that malfunctioned. Antecdotally I’ve found a lot of companies support have almost no leeway for appeasement if the triggering behavior is considered “expected behavior” or a bug based off of it.

But this is Amazon. I guess things have changed for the worse on the customer service front though. This happened not too long ago (2-3 years) - probably around the time they posted a net profit In terms of the big picture, this was dumb PR wise and this story should have never happened. For less than a $1000, Amazon could have stopped the story if the PR dept were more in sync with customer service

I don’t disagree at all on the PR side. Spent sometime in the contact center tools space and my general experience is if a company allows it exempt higher level employees avoid engaging with customer service directly at pretty much all costs.

Not saying it happened here but thats how you get $10/hour vendors making judgement calls on customer situations that are front page news.

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

#280

Post by cwkoss »

snarf21 wrote: post #197
amzn_engineer1 wrote: post #66

What actually happened: Alexa misinterpreted some voice commands and activated a "call" skill. The people involved and local news got very excited and escalated this into a conspiracy story. Amazon takes customer privacy EXTREMELY seriously. There's no way a team would get the "ok" to build a skill that randomly records private conversations then sends them to a random contact. It also doesn't make any logical sense…

I get what you are saying but I would say that Amazon does NOT take privacy extremely seriously or this couldn't have happened. Let me be clear that I'm not saying they don't care at all or they are conspiring with the NSA. What I mean by the above is that the "call" skill is much different than the "weather" skill. All Alexa has to do is have a confirmation prompt in the "call" skill and this wouldn't have happened.…

> they are conspiring with the NSA

There is absolutely no reason to believe they are not conspiring with the NSA. They have a huge deal with the CIA, plausible some of these funds are for surveillance capabilities. They would not (and likely would be legally prohibited from) disclosing any relationship they have.

https://venturebeat.com/2014/03/18/snowden-slams-amazon-for-...

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-d...

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