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Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person

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Re: Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person

#21

Post by standerman »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #3

> "Using these files, it was fairly easy to identify the person involved and his female companion; weather queries, first names, and even someone’s last name enabled us to quickly zero in on his circle of friends,” according to the report. “Public data from Facebook and Twitter rounded out the picture.” Please keep in mind the next time you or a friend says "well, what do I care if Amazon knows when I ask to turn the…

Maybe humanity behaves in a manner much more suited to a stable, civilized society when it is being monitored.

Re: Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person

#22

Post by lykr0n »

rdtsc wrote: post #17

I am baffled by how many people have no problems adding always listening and recording Google and Facebook devices to their living rooms. Some are considered tech people who should know stuff like this could happen, but they just don't care or don't think it will happen to them. Somewhere there is an ex-Stasi officer who is thinking "I wish we were that good and had people fooled to voluntarily install listening devi…

This. You're trusting everything you say & do to a company who says they're not going to share your data with others and that have the proper control in place to prevent other people from getting it.

Re: Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person

#24

Post by lykr0n »

Zelphyr wrote: post #15
accnumnplus1 wrote: post #12

This is just facebook all over again. Why can't people see trouble-tech? I never used facebook and won't ever use an alexa, nor whatever google's thing is.

I don’t know why this is getting downvoted. I feel the same way. Amazon and Google have yet to demonstrate to me that they value my privacy enough to take necessary steps to protect it. They, like Facebook, know most people foolishly don’t care enough to hold these companies feet to the fire on it. At the risk of stating the obvious; Facebook has more than demonstrated the opposite.

The only company I've seen take demonstrable action to protect their customer's privacy is Apple.

Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon have never given me a single reason to trust that they have my privacy concerns on their mind.

Re: Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person

#25

Post by whoisjuan »

bduerst wrote: post #9

Does this qualify as a GDPR violation?

Very unlikely. In fact, the error came from an actual GDPR Right of Access request. If they inform the affected person and take measures to prevent it from happening again, then they're in compliance of GDPR.

GDPR was created to prevent organizations from hiding data breaches, trading or transfering customer information, avoiding privacy compliance, etc.

This is making the news because is Amazon, but you will be surprised how many of these breaches happen in a daily basis in all types of organizations.

Re: Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person

#26

Post by closetohome »

I'm having trouble getting worked up about this one. Yeah a privacy breach happened, but it was only one person's data exposed, and only to one other person.

The only reason it made the news is because people are already paranoid about voice assistants.

Re: Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person

#27

Post by dlubarov »

tjoff wrote: post #14
sciurus wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of phones, aren't most people's smartphones already "an always on microphone in their homes"?

On the vast majority of devices it is not always on. It is not a nitpick. Accidentally recording or even intentionally recording is many orders of magnitude simpler when the device is supposed to always be listening. The fact that a single employee even could make the mistake mentioned in the articles is one example of why. Eventhough it also really does hint that the backend isn't up to par at amazon.

> On the vast majority of devices it is not always on.

Would you consider the device "listening" if a DSP is listening for a particular hotword, but no audio data is being uploaded?

I'm pretty sure that's what happens in either case, whether you're using Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant, and whether it's a "home" device or a phone with hotword detection. I used to work at Google on some related hardware projects.

If you're suspicious because the home devices seem much more accurate, that's because they have microphone arrays which can facilitate beamforming.

Re: Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person

#28

Post by isostatic »

rdtsc wrote: post #17

I am baffled by how many people have no problems adding always listening and recording Google and Facebook devices to their living rooms. Some are considered tech people who should know stuff like this could happen, but they just don't care or don't think it will happen to them. Somewhere there is an ex-Stasi officer who is thinking "I wish we were that good and had people fooled to voluntarily install listening devi…

"He thought of Alexa with its never-sleeping ear. They could spy upon you night and day, but if you kept your head you could still outwit them."

The irony is the ability for mass survelence (by unelected corporations) is far more than they had in 1984

Re: Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person

#29

Post by eclipxe »

rdtsc wrote: post #17

I am baffled by how many people have no problems adding always listening and recording Google and Facebook devices to their living rooms. Some are considered tech people who should know stuff like this could happen, but they just don't care or don't think it will happen to them. Somewhere there is an ex-Stasi officer who is thinking "I wish we were that good and had people fooled to voluntarily install listening devi…

Because it doesn't matter. Human error. Will be fixed.
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