161–170 of 185 posts
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People perhaps assume all audio is processed locally and/or isn't stored except ephemerally. I'd imagine there's a default "we store your data for AI training purposes" that would allow them to keep all audio.
> People perhaps assume all audio is processed locally and/or isn't stored except ephemerally. Is there info on this from Amazon? I'd assume they do what you mention, have the speech recognition in the Alexa and just send up the words, not the entire audio stream. Interesting implication of that in this case: if the actual audio is gone and you just have the transcription, is that valid as evidence? Or is it somethin…
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That would result in a much larger payload, and a payload size that is variable depending on how long it has been, and how much audio was record-able between requests. But if instead we observe a small payload of constant size given the same request, regardless of how long between requests, then we can reasonably be assured the device is not doing this.
Or you can be reasonably sure the device is only sending a payload of max size N at a time, padding your requests with some recording data when it can
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Or you can be reasonably sure the device is only sending a payload of max size N at a time, padding your requests with some recording data when it can
Any smart tv could be doing the same thing. Why do you think that Amazon in particular is likely to be conducting a massive, secret and illegal surveillance operation?
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You don't see any distinction between A) Giving the government access to communications that provider already has legal access to. B) Collecting additional data from inside homes by exploiting current legal access to the software?
When the only difference is Amazon making a silent firmware push, or endangering $10B+ of business? No.
If I hosted 10 billion dollars worth of unrelated business functionality, then told you to provide me with access for widespread surveillance purposes in an unrelated vertical of your business, you would think that is justifiable?
I beg your pardon, but what color is the sky where you are? Business doesn't work that way. Neither does ethics or morality.
Profit does not whitewash societal harm. It may create other business opportunities to remedy negative externalities, but there is no guarantee that the nature of the harm inflicted has a profitable capitalism compatible remediation.
This is one of those cases.
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Why would you need voice? Just translate to text and send that. It’d be a very very small payload.
A defense lawyer would have a ton of fun poking holes in the accuracy of speech-to-text, especially on a small device. (You could easily determine if the device is doing this kind of processing by looking at power draw or thermals. This stuff takes a lot of crunch). Amazon isn't stupid. They know that if a back-door is found in these devices, or if they have bugs that allow them to be compromised, that they are toast…
I know that this article itself doesn’t have much content but I’m interested in what the police are actually requesting, and what they end up getting. Do they assume/suspect that Echo/Amazon continuously records and logs audio, akin to a security camera? Or do they have evidence that Echo was actually activated around the time of the murders, or afterwards by the suspect himself? I was also interested in this quote:…
I sincerely doubt people don't realise that anything after the trigger is sent home, since a "feature" of alexa is that the app let you see each request you made, how alexa answered, and let them know if she got it wrong. I think it's more a case of "don't care" / "don't realize the risks"
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When the only difference is Amazon making a silent firmware push, or endangering $10B+ of business? No.
What does their business situation have anything to do with it? If I hosted 10 billion dollars worth of unrelated business functionality, then told you to provide me with access for widespread surveillance purposes in an unrelated vertical of your business, you would think that is justifiable? I beg your pardon, but what color is the sky where you are? Business doesn't work that way. Neither does ethics or morality.…
The "government wants to listen to every Echo user" idea is paranoid fantasy.
The "government would really like to listen to these individuals, but doesn't want to go through full court proceedings" is less fanciful and not without precedent.
It's not just profit. It's the morass of backroom bargains to stave off regulation, honest desire to "do good", future contracts, and political goodwill.
There's a rich history of US technology companies enabling the government / military for all of the above reasons.
I know that this article itself doesn’t have much content but I’m interested in what the police are actually requesting, and what they end up getting. Do they assume/suspect that Echo/Amazon continuously records and logs audio, akin to a security camera? Or do they have evidence that Echo was actually activated around the time of the murders, or afterwards by the suspect himself? I was also interested in this quote:…
> What is it that users don’t realize? You answered yourself in an exemplary fashion, but I'll state it explicitly (and simply). People don't think about it. I'd like to imagine anyone who realises the implications of owning such a device would refuse to own one, although I know I'm mistaken. I don't mean that people should know better (although ofc they should), but new technology is all too easily likened to any ho…
You are mistaken. I use my Alexa everyday. I suppose if someone creates a better version that doesn’t phone home, I’ll switch. In the meantime, I really enjoy having this type of device.
By the way, last year I blogged about the need for HN users to constantly complain about Alexa’s privacy.
https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/groundhog-day-amazon...
If you could take that energy and build an open source replacement, that would be more worthwhile.