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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

#631

Post by sleepychu »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #628

"He told us that the device just guessed what we were saying," she said. Danielle said the device did not audibly advise her it was preparing to send the recording, something it’s programmed to do. Is it possible there's an exploit out in the wild for these devices that allows an attacker to control the device remotely. Is it possible an attacker told the device not to make an audible announcement?

Yes, but it's improbable. You can communicate with Alexa at human inaudible frequency and instruct it to set it's volume to 1/10(0/10?) but of course you need to be reasonably local and targeted.

Is it possible that there's a remote exploit? Yeah of course but if it's in the wild enough that this particular individual was struck by a seemingly random (and valueless) attack we'd be seeing a lot more of these in the wild than we are.

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

#632

Post by belorn »

eksemplar wrote: post #591
HankB99 wrote: post #572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's good but I think I prefer http://dilbert.com/strip/1994-04-24

Heh, from back when Scott Adams wasn’t a crazy alt-right, moon-landing conspiracy, Alex Jones loving, jerk. Or perhaps hid it better. Sorry to derail it, but I’m a millennial who grew up with Dilbert, and it just feels so wrong now. :(

You don't like Trump or people who support him. What does this have to do with this article?

Not everything in the world need to be connected and associated with US politics and trump vs anti-trump politics. If we brought in the political views of every creator, inventor and artist than we would not be able to discuss anything on HN other than politics since every creator, inventor, and artist has a political view and people who agree and disagree with that political view.

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

#633

Post by vidarh »

shagie wrote: post #575
duxup wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember the first voice command stuff on google. Buddy of mine was trying it out and I couldn't help myself but shout: "NEW TEXT MESSAGE TO JENNY! FUCK YOU! SEND!" Fortunately the phone was too slow to take it all (even if it had Jenny would have found it amusing, she was a cube or two away). But yeah first thing I thought of was that if it's listening how easy is it for it to mistake intent or someone else or etc…

Back in college, long ago... the Mac 660 AV was state of the art for personal computing. The computer lab I worked in had just updated all the old SEs to these over the summer - I was part of the group that set up and plugged in a few score computers. With the microphones. Our manager was a bit concerned about if the microphones would get stolen as he looked out over the rows of computers with the microphones on top…

Our computer lab had a bunch of SGI Indy's, and it was first machines the CS department had with cams on them. It took less than a semester from they were installed until every student had learned that if the camera cover was not in place it was practically an invitation for someone to log in remotely and prank them while using the camera to observe from a safe distance. I like to think that it infused a healthy dose of concern for privacy and security in the student population..

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

#634

Post by celticninja »

hokeyStrussle wrote: post #596
roryisok wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that's just great. How am I supposed to talk about my cocaine poodle now

I mean, that's an ambiguous term to begin with, and you'd confuse even humans with it. Like, are you referring to a sculpture made of cocaine in the image of a poodle, or are you talking about a poodle train in the ways of a St. Bernard rescue dog, capable of relaying quantities of said substance, or perhaps something else entirely?

I like how you went with the at Bernard analogy rather than day a traditional police drug dog.

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

#635

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

cookiecaper wrote: post #357
tj-teej wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you replace "fuzzy human speech-command detection" with "buttons which can accidentally be pressed" - how is this different from butt-dialing?

a) Your phone has a microphone that picks up information spoke more-or-less directly into it. An Echo is specifically equipped with a microphone array designed to extract audio from anywhere in the room. b) There is a great deal less ambiguity around "pressing buttons" than there is around interpreting speech. While it is unlikely that your phone will incorrectly detect button presses, it's very common for voice-acti…

It's interesting that the pattern of human communication where things are just one misheard statement/command away from occurring has been well modeled in these devices.

Does having the device programmed to make mistakes make it more comfortable to use, because we know humans are infallible too.

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

#636

Post by vidarh »

flukus wrote: post #574
HankB99 wrote: post #572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's good but I think I prefer http://dilbert.com/strip/1994-04-24

This is even better because of the date, we had voice operated computers 24 years ago that ran on machines that wouldn't even be called a potato these days and they didn't need to send the voice off for cloud processing. And voice control didn't fail way back then because it wasn't good, it failed because it was a terrible input mechanism and that is why it will fail again.

It's a terrible input mechanism for general usage. It's a fantastic input mechanism when you don't have another one handy, open and ready to use. E.g. I use Alexa to trigger my Harmony hub to turn on the TV and switch to the right input with one command, instead of figuring where the hell someone left the remote or digging my phone out and open and app. It's faster, and easier. If a phone call comes in, I don't need to find the remote or the app to mute or pause what's on TV, I just ask for it and it happens. If my hands are full I can still turn the light that I forgot about off on my way to bed.

The "failure" the first time around was that people wanted it to be the main interface, instead of accepting that where it works is as an ubiquitous auxiliary interface that's available everywhere in the house, rather than trying to compete with a keyboard when you're right in front of said keyboard.

Voice competes by working at a distance, even when your hands are not free.

It will never replace a keyboard, as there are so many instances where speaking commands is impractical, but it doesn't need to replace a keyboard to be useful.

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

#637

Post by vidarh »

eXpl0it3r wrote: post #484
duxup wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans are terrible. When the computers take over.... I won't be happy about it, but I'll kinda understand.

Just shout "self-destruct" all the time and we'll be fine.

Alexa has 4-5 joke responses to self destruct. E.g. "I'll start the countdown but only on the understanding you'll dramatically cancel it at the last second", and "3-2-1 Boom. Hmm that didn't quite work did it?" or something like that, and a few others.

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

#638

Post by JdeBP »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #341
duxup wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember the first voice command stuff on google. Buddy of mine was trying it out and I couldn't help myself but shout: "NEW TEXT MESSAGE TO JENNY! FUCK YOU! SEND!" Fortunately the phone was too slow to take it all (even if it had Jenny would have found it amusing, she was a cube or two away). But yeah first thing I thought of was that if it's listening how easy is it for it to mistake intent or someone else or etc…

My friend installed IBM OS/2 WARP beta when it came out, it too was voice controlled. We would shout into his room, "select all, delete" or "format c" or other childish fun commands.

Of course, and as was widely known (and mentioned when this subject came up) at the time, FORMAT C: would not have actually worked (on systems where C: was the boot volume) because OS/2 locked volumes that were in active use as filesystems, preventing them from being reformatted.

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

#639

Post by 2T1Qka0rEiPr »

Question - how can these potentially nefarious acts be mitigated, where I plug a device into my home network which listens/watches "periodically".

I guess naively I'm thinking some sort of light/display which says "Amazon is sending/retrieving data" - it would need to be from a third party to have integrity, and I suppose in order to actually allay the fears of the masses it would need to be plug-and-playable.

Does such a thing actually exist?

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

#640

Post by Cthulhu_ »

triggercut wrote: post #571
bcaa7f3a8bbc wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminds me an old trolling technique - using "XBox Shut Off" as your nickname in video games ;-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGZeU4s28kk

"What's up Youtube?! It's your boy hey google rm -rf"

"What's up youtube? It's your boy Alexa order me an 80 gallon barrel of lube every week!"
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