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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

#701

Post by Declanomous »

davidandgoliath wrote: post #520
Declanomous wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought the original Surface Pro the week it came out. I actually really like the interface and thought that it was great. I didn't really understand why so many people hated Windows 8 until I tried to use in on a desktop. Even with a touchscreen it's pretty annoying. I'd been using Linux as my primary OS for years at that point, so I think I'm pretty critical of Microsoft in general, however they did a good job bui…

> The state of touchscreen support in Linux was pretty bad the last time I checked though. Anecdotal — but have had no trouble for the last two years with my dell xps. Other issues with said laptop (keyboard), but touchscreen support in linux isn't one of them.

Ah, I saw that the Dell XPS came with Linux and had a touch screen, and I was kind of wondering about that. I guess I'll have to try Linux with a touchscreen again.

My Surface Pro 1 is the only computer I have with a touchscreen right now, and it has enough other driver issues (the wifi and the Wacom drivers suck) that I probably won't be trying again on that.

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

#702

Post by komali2 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #647
komali2 wrote: post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it irresponsible?

If that person does make it on to a watchlist it's wasting resources and causing them 'harm' (eg always stopped at border checks).

We always get stopped at borders anyway, what do you mean?

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

#703

Post by bmarquez »

komali2 wrote: post #606
hokeyStrussle wrote: post #597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you show me anything other then the parts where Scott Adams simply debunked Trump's tactics for conversational interference as related to business negotiation?

Just browse his Twitter, he regularly retweets Trump's ad hominems.

Retweets don't necessarily mean endorsement.

Adams frequently pitches his book "Win Bigly"...marketing himself as one of the few people to predict Trump's rise, due to his rhetoric. Showing examples would just be marketing for Adams.

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

#704

Post by teddyh »

vidarh wrote: post #637
eXpl0it3r wrote: post #484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Like the countdown at the end of Monsters vs. Aliens:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ5DA22tBOY#t=4m27s

“8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

…

Hmm, nothing happened, maybe my count w… [ＢＯＯＭ]”

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

#705

Post by mykull »

r00fus wrote: post #435
DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The device did not audibly advise that it was preparing to send the recording, something it’s programmed to do. Apparently it's not programmed to do that. Unless this was a hardware glitch or cosmic-ray event.

cosmic ray - is that an exploit name or the secret government program that mandates Amazon provide this information on request?

If by chance this is not a joke, you should look into ECC memory and why it exists.

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

#706

Post by saon »

_b8r0 wrote: post #621
AnaniasAnanas wrote: post #565

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What are you giving your mom? A Mac running OSX or a PC running Linux? I gave my 60 year old mother my old PC running Debian with dwm as its WM. She likes it. > The idea that if these devices ran free software they would be more humane than the proprietary software they currently run is ridiculous. Is it though? I am pretty sure that Amazon already gathers free data from its users, such a thing would not exist in a…

To be fair, don't the Alexa service and the Echo devices run on Linux?

I dont know if it does or not but even if it did, that wouldnt make it free software. You cant compile your own alexa, or modify it to remove code you dont want, or submit improvements to it. Android is open source (excluding drivers), but google play isn't, and neither are the apps on it.

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

#707

Post by saudioger »

dingaling wrote: post #271
saudioger wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How is a home speaker any different? you can monitor your network traffic and see how much data it's sending home right now. It's definitely not a constant audio stream. You'd have to be targeted.

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

#708

Post by rectang »

wilsonnb wrote: post #696
rectang wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative perspective you're presenting sounds to me utterly cavalier about the prospect of ruining people's lives. It's like Equifax's attitude towards identity theft: it doesn't affect their profitability, so why care? It's because such blithe dismissal of the damage caused by data gathering is so prevalent in the industry that the likelihood of devastating compromise is so high and the costs borne by the pop…

The problem I have is that you are conflating potential damage and actual damage as the same thing, which is not how you accurately measure risk. I am honestly confused as to how you interpreted my last comment as "utterly cavalier about the prospect of ruining people's lives", when all I said was that your assumption doesn't take into account the actual probability of data being leaked and it doesn't weigh any of th…

Small-likelihood times many-chances times grave-consequences equals a finite but significant number of lives wrecked. A gamble you deem acceptable.

I can only hope that karma visits those who arrogate to themselves the decision to sacrifice a few of their fellow human beings: may they and their loved ones become the sacrifices.

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

#709

Post by perl4ever »

InitialLastName wrote: post #510
perl4ever wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dropped my phone in the gym and it somehow typed garbage all over the Notes app where I keep my grocery list and record of what I did in the gym last... This sort of thing makes me nostalgic for the old days of explicit "Save" commands in every application.

I'll settle for a reasonable "undo" feature.

Undo seems to be a concept in Android apps sometimes, but I'm not aware of a universal way to access it, like Ctrl-Z.

And once you have Undo, it's nice if you always have Redo, in case you Undo once too many.

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

#710

Post by grkvlt »

komali2 wrote: post #527
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…

Hahah so my favorite thing to do when people use Siri, Google voice, Alexa etc is shout "WHERE TO BUY COCAINE, SAN FRANCISCO" or "HOW TO JOIN ISIS" or "PLUTONIUM FOR SALE NEAR ME" The commands are usually recognized but turn up nonsensical results.

Yeah, but how old are you and your friends? I think eventually most people grow out of this sort of immature 'pranking' and just find it a bit boring...
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