Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

threatpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 424 posts

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

#301

Post by ryanmercer »

cc439 wrote: post #254
y04nn wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Encrypted or not, an audio stream should not be difficult to identify.

What if they convert speech to text like the American intel agencies do as proved by the Snowden and Vault 7 leaks?

That's possible but that's quite a bit of processing for actionable speech to text which means you have a chance of the device acting sluggish when you query it or you have to give the device way more processing power than it needs which increases cost and from my understanding with devices like Amazon's, they're already being sold relatively near cost because they are intended to get you to spend more money inside the Amazon ecosystem.

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

#302

Post by api »

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…

Mass privacy invasion is probably one of today's trends that our descendants will look back on and say "what were they thinking?" Another example for comparison would be 1950s-60s mass atmospheric nuclear testing.

Societies regularly undergo bouts of either really extreme political corruption or mass insanity (or sometimes both at once). All this mass surveillance is going to be a blast next time we have a Hitler, Pol Pot, or Stalin. We are already seeing this abroad but Americans still think it can't happen here.

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

#303

Post by jacquesm »

vonseel wrote: post #175
iforgotpassword wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely OT, but is the woman supposed to look that goofy/deformed? https://imgur.com/a/DFgvNMt

Clearly the illustrator determined her head should be placed on backwards.

It got snipped and sewed back on with dental floss.

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

#304

Post by A2017U1 »

saagarjha wrote: post #233
snazz wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point 2: Although you’re right about the application processor side of your phone, you cannot disable a significant amount of tracking functionality built into the baseband/modem. Your cell carrier or ISP can track you the same way that Google could on an Android device. On the other hand, iPhone basebands usually don’t have DMA, while other phone manufacturers allow the modem to access application processor RAM. The…

Cell carriers can track iPhones as well through triangulation, etc. There’s not much you can do to prevent this.

You can simply turn on airplane mode?

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

#305

Post by e1ven »

illumin8 wrote: post #294
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 consistently hear this from the same people that own iOS or Android phones. You do realize that the mic on any phone produced in the last few years is also "always listening," right?

I hate this argument.

A) It depends on if you enable it. B) Just because you're willing to accept something in one domain doesn't mean you are universally OK with it being applied everywhere. C) I trust Apple much more than I trust Amazon.

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

#306

Post by justtopost »

avip wrote: post #270
dlandis wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Getting a voice assistant was life-changing for me Can you expand on that? In what way?

The simple fact I can call people while my hands are on the wheel is a non-trivial improvement in my life.

Basic voice dialing has been a thing for at least 15 years. Its progressively gotten better, and alexa et al. are no leap forward. The old sytems, while perhaps flawed, at least did not send recordings of you anywhere.

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

#307

Post by enturn »

jacquesm wrote: post #290
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 is no reason Google maps should be an online service.

I'm fairly sure if you have the app on your phone you can download the map data and use it offline unless it changed (It's been a while since I've done it).

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

#308

Post by justtopost »

jacquesm wrote: post #300
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…

If someone has one of these in their house I will leave. Recording without permission of all participants is forbidden in many places anyway.

I do as well. I used to politely ask they unplug it, bit invariably there were more in other rooms. I just explain my concerns, and avoid those people if they cannot grasp or honor them. So far it seems a good strategy, as I have doged a few 'bullets' both security-wise and socially.

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

#309

Post by justtopost »

madrox wrote: post #132
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 only other kind of data I could imagine this kind of reaction to would be NEST cameras or similar. I'm pretty accepting of voice assistants now, but even I would be pretty put out by the thought of video of me in my jammies going to a stranger without my permission.

I was unxer the impression this was already somewhat the case. Don't many doorbell cameras offer onfettered access to law enforcement?

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

#310

Post by justtopost »

standerman wrote: post #21
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.

The unmonitored just act worse.
Post reply on HN