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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

#441

Post by dmix »

amingilani wrote: post #413

I turned on recording indication sounds on my Google home in accessibility options. Now I hear it beep and randomly start listening when my wife and I talk. Sometimes it does it randomly without me making a sound. I ask it what's up and it ignores me and goes to sleep. Smart speakers are so dumb I'm hardly surprised by this.

Yeah Amazon said there should have been an audible warning it was recording and sending the message. It's apparently just a 'rare' glitch.

Based on Amazon's response I assume the device didn't notify the user at all and it wasn't just a matter of not hearing it.

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

#442

Post by stef25 »

GFischer wrote: post #298
Bartweiss wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a whole class of tech like this for me. An Alexa/Echo/etc, a fitness tracker with GPS and sleep monitoring, a maps program that learns my routine and integrates with a weather app, and so on. And ideally? All of it integrated. It actually sounds nice to say "I'm going home", and have Maps say "today that will take 35, should your oven start preheating when you're 20 minutes out?" IoT devices are overrated, bu…

Maps currently does do what you're saying - Google knows the time I'm going home and displays current traffic information and estimated time to arrive, at least for me. Not yet preheating the oven though :)

Same. But it gets such obvious things wrong. Instead of "traffic to [daycare center] is light" it says "traffic to [some weird company name probably registered in the same building] is light".

Waze also knows where I'm going in advance and most of the time it gets it right, like every Thu evening "are you heading to [evening school] ?". My weekly schedule is exactly the same 99% of the time but sometimes it still makes obvious mistakes. If you need an AI for that it must be a very simple one, yet it still fails.

Google maps also auto saves my parking location most of the time but other times it doesn't, for reasons unknown. Things like that make it hard for me to have faith in future versions of this stuff.

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

#444

Post by grdvnl »

vollmond wrote: post #418
robotmlg wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As it is I hate how I can't talk ABOUT "ok google" around my phone... because it always goes off. On several tech podcasts I listen to ( http://atp.fm , https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/ ) they use fillers like "Yo, dingus!" to talk about alexa/hey siri/ok google

"My lady in the tube did this weird thing today" is something I've heard

It is interesting. But, how long before Alexa knows that is how people refer to her alternatively?

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

#445

Post by BeetleB »

calcifer wrote: post #439
mtgx wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I felt invaded," she said. "A total privacy invasion. Immediately I said, 'I'm never plugging that device in again, because I can't trust it.'" Let this lady's reaction be a lesson to all of those who say "people don't care about privacy." She wired her home with Alexa devices, and yet when she found out how her privacy could practically be invaded through such devices, she seems like couldn't get rid of them fast…

> People care deeply about their privacy. No, they don't. Do you really think if, before she made this purchase, someone explained to her all the things that could theoratically go wrong with this device, she would have chosen not to buy it? She only cares now and acts like she doesn't share quite a bit of the blame because it actually affected her. I think it is highly likely she'll just switch to an Apple or Google…

Completely agree with you. I've seen this over and over and over with people I know. They always want something badly enough that they'll find any excuse to dismiss any downsides to it.

"Amazon/Google/Apple/Facebook/X have very smart people who will not allow this to happen."

"I have nothing to hide."

"People who want to listen to our boring conversations are losers. Let them waste their time doing so."

And the list goes on. I'm not making any of this up.

And then when it (occasionally) happens to them, there is a whole lot of dramatic outrage and someone else must be blamed. (Although in this case, I agree someone else is to blame - but I've seen this play out when people explicitly agree in the contract to consequences, and are warned quite clearly by a human about the implications of the contract).

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

#446

Post by evancordell »

gol706 wrote: post #366
dalbasal wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On making, not buying... A lot of home automation stuff seems like something that would be fun to make, but not something I really want to have. I mean, the AC might be a good energy saver (a smarter thermostat) but that's not something I want , more like something that I would buy if it was cheap and practical enough. To some extent, this is a phenomenon of early technology. It feels full of potential, so you want t…

Another pain point with making is that it's really hard to get it integrated with stuff you have bought. I built my own garage door automation with a Particle Photon board. It works great and can do things like text me if I leave the house with the garage door open using the IFTT support from my WiFi router. The problem is that it's really hard to get it integrated with any other control system that the rest of my ho…

I would check out https://www.home-assistant.io/ for integrating multiple systems together. I use it on a RasPi to integrate a few disparate systems (Amazon, Nest, RadioRa2) and it works very well. There are modules for most existing systems and it's easy to write your own in python.

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

#447

Post by vor0nwe »

grdvnl wrote: post #444
vollmond wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"My lady in the tube did this weird thing today" is something I've heard

It is interesting. But, how long before Alexa knows that is how people refer to her alternatively?

It seems to me that once she knows _that_, it shouldn't be too hard for her to understand when she's not being referred to.

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

#449

Post by grumdan »

calcifer wrote: post #439
mtgx wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I felt invaded," she said. "A total privacy invasion. Immediately I said, 'I'm never plugging that device in again, because I can't trust it.'" Let this lady's reaction be a lesson to all of those who say "people don't care about privacy." She wired her home with Alexa devices, and yet when she found out how her privacy could practically be invaded through such devices, she seems like couldn't get rid of them fast…

> People care deeply about their privacy. No, they don't. Do you really think if, before she made this purchase, someone explained to her all the things that could theoratically go wrong with this device, she would have chosen not to buy it? She only cares now and acts like she doesn't share quite a bit of the blame because it actually affected her. I think it is highly likely she'll just switch to an Apple or Google…

> No, they don't. Do you really think if, before she made this purchase, someone explained to her all the things that could theoratically go wrong with this device, she would have chosen not buy it?

I think this would only indicate that she might care, but thought theoretical worst case scenarios are not sufficient evidence for an actual, non-negligible risk to her privacy. If they had told her that exactly this would definitely happen, I think she would not have bought the device.

I think one problem of explaining privacy issues to non-techies is justifying why theoretical problems often pose a real threat without sounding (to them) like a conspiracy theory nutcase.

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

#450

Post by AnaniasAnanas »

yason wrote: post #297

I am oversimplifying here but: * install device that is designed to listen to speech in the house * the device is connected to internet * the device is capable of contacting other internet peers/services/hosts * the device knows a bit about its owner's internet presence such as contacts * the device is equipped with simple conversational user interface based on fuzzy human speech-command detection These basically bou…

* the device is composed of proprietary blobs

Amazon might as well record everything that you say and send it to the NSA.

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