Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person • Hacker News Board

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

#211

Post by matwood » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 9:54 PM UTC

janoc wrote: post #112

ryanmercer wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

You know, if nobody cares about this, then why are people constantly up in arms whenever yet-another-Facebook-privacy-scandal surfaces? Why people object to have e.g. their financial or medical information disclosed? Yes, there are people who are "sheep" in the sense that they would do anything if there is some voucher or discount for it. But most people would also object to a camera in their bedroom or photos of the…

> then why are people constantly up in arms whenever yet-another-Facebook-privacy-scandal surfaces?

People are not up in arms. Some group of media and tech people are up in arms. Most do not care. Heck, most do not even hear about the latest scandal.

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

#212

Post by Kiro » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 9:55 PM UTC

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.

It's the best thing I've ever bought. Whatever bad thing can happen is still worth it. It's a trade-off I'm actively choosing.

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

#213

Post by matwood » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 9:57 PM UTC

isostatic wrote: post #30

randyrand wrote: post #23

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

Children

I was the TV "remote control" for many years growing up. If you ask my dad about the lights, he would say I had a bug when it came to turning them off.

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

#214

Post by Kiro » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 9:57 PM UTC

lisper wrote: post #207

madrox wrote: post #104

I've never seen a demographic breakdown of HN, but I'm 37 years old. I'm definitely not the oldest guy here, but I see history repeat itself regularly. I remember when people used location tracking as a reason to not own a cell phone. I'm talking about flip phones, mind you, not even iPhones with GPS receivers. I recall the bulk of complaints in that vein died down around the time Google Maps for phones came out. If…

There's a big difference: having a GPS in my phone means I never have to worry about buying or carrying a map with me ever again, at the cost of potentially revealing my location to someone who I'd rather not know it. Having a voice assistant means I don't have to spend a few seconds typing, at the cost of having everything I say potentially overheard by someone who I'd rather didn't hear it. By my quality metric, th…

You totally underestimate the utility. Getting a voice assistant was life-changing for me. GPS comes nowhere close.

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

#215

Post by imhelpingu » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 9:57 PM UTC

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.

That's one way of looking at it. There's little we could expect Amazon to do to prevent this given they already store the data.

On the other hand: There's little we could expected Amazon to do to prevent this given they already store the data.

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

#216

Post by whatshisface » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 10:00 PM UTC

closetohome wrote: post #198

rchaud wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in my 30s too, and I remember reading articles saying that DHS had hundreds of thousands of hours of wiretapped conversations they would never get to because they all needed to be manually reviewed. When the company selling a suspiciously cheap home speaker ('stocking stuffer') is the same company that boasts of having infinitely scalable computing ability and is the only cloud vendor that meets the Pentagon's p…

Just so I'm clear here, you're proposing a conspiracy theory where Amazon, the DHS, and The Pentagon are in collusion to collect and transcribe audio from Amazon Echos -- in such a way that none of the many people who have hacked and extensively reverse-engineered them would be able to tell? I can't find any holes in that theory.

The people who have "hacked and reverse engineered" the Echos don't have access to what happens on the server side. We are facing a situation of either trusting or not trusting, because verification isn't possible.

There should be a word for believing that someone is working for your interests even though you have no reason to, as a counterpart to "conspiracy theory" which implies that you believe that a group is working against your interests without having a good reason to. It's like people have a conspiracy theory where Amazon is conspiring in secret to help them.

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

#217

Post by lisper » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 10:01 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #214

lisper wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a big difference: having a GPS in my phone means I never have to worry about buying or carrying a map with me ever again, at the cost of potentially revealing my location to someone who I'd rather not know it. Having a voice assistant means I don't have to spend a few seconds typing, at the cost of having everything I say potentially overheard by someone who I'd rather didn't hear it. By my quality metric, th…

You totally underestimate the utility. Getting a voice assistant was life-changing for me. GPS comes nowhere close.

Yes, hence: YMMV. (Which, in case you don't know, is an acronym that stands for "Your Mileage May Vary", which in turn is an idiomatic expression meaning: a reasonable person could disagree.)

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

#218

Post by mcbutterbunz » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 10:01 PM UTC

closetohome wrote: post #198

rchaud wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in my 30s too, and I remember reading articles saying that DHS had hundreds of thousands of hours of wiretapped conversations they would never get to because they all needed to be manually reviewed. When the company selling a suspiciously cheap home speaker ('stocking stuffer') is the same company that boasts of having infinitely scalable computing ability and is the only cloud vendor that meets the Pentagon's p…

Just so I'm clear here, you're proposing a conspiracy theory where Amazon, the DHS, and The Pentagon are in collusion to collect and transcribe audio from Amazon Echos -- in such a way that none of the many people who have hacked and extensively reverse-engineered them would be able to tell? I can't find any holes in that theory.

I wouldn't argue that is the case here but I do remember a small non-descript room inside an AT&T building that the NSA had access to...

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

#219

Post by dlandis » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 10:04 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #214

lisper wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a big difference: having a GPS in my phone means I never have to worry about buying or carrying a map with me ever again, at the cost of potentially revealing my location to someone who I'd rather not know it. Having a voice assistant means I don't have to spend a few seconds typing, at the cost of having everything I say potentially overheard by someone who I'd rather didn't hear it. By my quality metric, th…

You totally underestimate the utility. Getting a voice assistant was life-changing for me. GPS comes nowhere close.

> Getting a voice assistant was life-changing for me

Can you expand on that? In what way?

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

#220

Post by sambroner » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 10:05 PM UTC

amai wrote: post #204

There is an alternative to the spying devices of Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft: https://snips.ai/technology/ "Our technology runs on-device, works offline and guarantees Privacy by Design"

Is it good?

I’m excited for the day when it is!