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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

#91

Post by danso »

LinuxBender wrote: post #71
melling wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you’ll have to wait another decade or two. In the meantime, I’m “feeding” my devices every day. Hopefully voice-first becomes a solved problem, and you’ll get your device sooner.

What's funny about that is, I had voice recognition software in 1991 that could start up any application on my computer, reboot my computer, etc. Surely there must be a small device with the processing power of my old 386-DX40. I believe it was made by a company called Covox or something? There were several other companies that made similar software back then.

Could your device recognize multiple speakers, with varying accents and grammar style?

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

#92

Post by pmontra »

closetohome wrote: post #26

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.

The interesting fact is how much data they store with no apparent reason. They can perform speech to text on the fly and throw away the recording.

Machine learning? Do it with people paid to talk to Alexa.

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

#93

Post by danso »

ryanmercer wrote: post #57
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…

>I am baffled by how many people have no problems adding always listening and recording Google and Facebook devices to their living rooms. I am baffled by people that think anyone cares about their conversation about Jeff at work or what Monica and Ross just did on the 75th viewing of an episode of friends, or that they talk to their stuffed rabbit named Bun that they've had since about a week after they were born ab…

Using a reward card and taking FB quizzes are active decisions. Being surreptitiously recorded is not.

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

#94

Post by oulipo »

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 is exactly why we are building the first 100% on-device and private-by-design open-source Voice AI at https://snips.ai (and we have cloud-matching performances: https://medium.com/snips-ai/snips-brings-cloud-level-spoken-...)

Disclaimer: I'm a co-founder

We believe that people want more natural interaction and AI at home, but that it should never be at the cost of their privacy. You never know what a company, or hackers, could do with recordings from your home.

This is why we are creating AI which can work on a Raspberry Pi 3, and works in english, french, german, japanese, spanish, italian (more coming very soon)

Take a look at our blog if you want to build your own smart assistant: https://blog.snips.ai

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

#95

Post by [deleted] »

LinuxBender wrote: post #71
melling wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you’ll have to wait another decade or two. In the meantime, I’m “feeding” my devices every day. Hopefully voice-first becomes a solved problem, and you’ll get your device sooner.

What's funny about that is, I had voice recognition software in 1991 that could start up any application on my computer, reboot my computer, etc. Surely there must be a small device with the processing power of my old 386-DX40. I believe it was made by a company called Covox or something? There were several other companies that made similar software back then.

[deleted]

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

#96

Post by danso »

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.

What evidence or steps would be sufficient for you?

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

#97

Post by LinuxBender »

danso wrote: post #91
LinuxBender wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's funny about that is, I had voice recognition software in 1991 that could start up any application on my computer, reboot my computer, etc. Surely there must be a small device with the processing power of my old 386-DX40. I believe it was made by a company called Covox or something? There were several other companies that made similar software back then.

Could your device recognize multiple speakers, with varying accents and grammar style?

Yes. Not very well, but yes. Each person had to say a few sentences. This is fine for home use unless you run a halfway house.

Certainly not as well as the software we implemented to listen to phone calls in the background on wireless networks in the mid 90's. That was the wildfire project and was fun. We abandoned it, since our lobbyists were able to kick the hands-free laws down the road.

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

#98

Post by oulipo »

randyrand wrote: post #23

Is there a good non-internet connected device for turning on lights with your voice?

Yes! You can take a look at what we are building at https://snips.ai (disclaimer: I'm a co-founder) for exactly this reason

We believe that people can have both cloud-grade Voice AI (look at our accuracy at https://medium.com/snips-ai/snips-brings-cloud-level-spoken-...) which is privacy-aware

Everything runs 100% on-device and is private-by-design, and we are open-sourcing the platform over time

It works in english, french, german, japanese, italian, spanish (and a lot more languages coming soon!)

Take a look at our blog, and we'd be delighted to know what you build with our platform!

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

#99

Post by schwank »

thfuran wrote: post #32
melling wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you baffled? They’re great little devices. I have two Amazon echoes. Now that I can use my Apple Music, they are used constantly. Voice-first devices are long overdue.

>Voice-first devices are long overdue. Sure, that's not really anything that anyone disagrees with. It's the acceptance of data collection and exfiltration that is odd.

I would disagree. I despise voice interfaces and despite working for one of the major tech companies that build these devices and interfaces, I use exactly zero. I do trust my employer to do it correctly based on the processes I witness every single day, but I don't own any because I don't like voice interfaces. Remote control on my phone, sure. Clicking the button to change a song, sure. But no voice, thanks.

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

#100

Post by briandear »

LinuxBender wrote: post #52
stevecalifornia wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) It's always listening for a keyword, and then it starts recording. It's a voice interface for a computer. 2) Your phone is doing the same thing except for it follows you around everywhere you go and records your map location, what apps you use, who you are talking to and what your web searches are. Your phone isn't recording just what you say...its recording what you do and where you do it and when you do it. It's…

1) Nobody can prove that. It's always listening and you have to assume always recording and transmitting. 2) My phone is a $12 throw away that speaks voice and sms (text). 3) Loose lips sink ships.

And your SMS is logged as well as cell towers to which you connect. Is the “phone company” more secure than any other? If you really are someone in need of a tin foil hat, you should ditch the phone completely and communicate solely with dead drops and one-time pads.
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