Amazon reveals private Alexa voice data files

#1

Post by atemerev » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 1:30 PM UTC

Amazon reveals private Alexa voice data files
heise.de

Re: Amazon reveals private Alexa voice data files

#2

Post by koksik202 » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 2:22 PM UTC

also good way to discover boyfriend of my wife

Re: Amazon reveals private Alexa voice data files

#3

Post by shshhdhs » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 2:54 PM UTC

Dupe. From the other day with 482 points, 403 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18727020

Re: Amazon reveals private Alexa voice data files

#4

Post by catacombs » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 2:59 PM UTC

koksik202 wrote: post #2

also good way to discover boyfriend of my wife

Go on...

Re: Amazon reveals private Alexa voice data files

#5

Post by b_tterc_p » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 3:02 PM UTC

Amazon also has people listen to your voice recordings so they can manually label the outcome for future training data.

Re: Amazon reveals private Alexa voice data files

#6

Post by mbrumlow » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 3:18 PM UTC

Anybody know how this compairs with Google's home product ?

I currently have both and need to make a decision on which route I am going to go.

Re: Amazon reveals private Alexa voice data files

#7

Post by heywire » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 4:00 PM UTC

Since it seems like quite a lot of people are surprised that Amazon stores these recordings...

PSA: you can go into the Alexa app and look at your Echo history and even listen to recordings of each interaction.

Re: Amazon reveals private Alexa voice data files

#8

Post by Someone1234 » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 4:03 PM UTC

Mods: The title should likely be changed back to the original ("Amazon reveals private Alexa voice data files").

The story here isn't that Echo stores recordings (they tell you they do, you can even listen to them) and it wasn't done "via GDPR" since that's a law, not a method of communication or platform.

Re: Amazon reveals private Alexa voice data files

#9

Post by mrmcd » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 4:25 PM UTC

mbrumlow wrote: post #6

Anybody know how this compairs with Google's home product ? I currently have both and need to make a decision on which route I am going to go.

Google Home stores everything after the hotword trigger until the light goes off (you stop speaking).

Each action has a card that explains what triggered it, what device, and what result was given, and you can listen to it. You can also turn recording storage off entirely, or delete by device or date ranges.

Honestly the only bad part is it's buried several layers down in the options and account activity, where most people don't go looking. If you do care though the privacy options and controls are pretty good.

Re: Amazon reveals private Alexa voice data files

#10

Post by jedberg » Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 5:21 PM UTC

mbrumlow wrote: post #6

Anybody know how this compairs with Google's home product ? I currently have both and need to make a decision on which route I am going to go.

As regards to recording and storage, they are identical. Both store everything you say after the keyword until it stops recording.

To make the choice which route to go, you need to figure out which one has more integrations that are useful to you. Try integrating your other stuff with both and see which works better. Also try asking both the same questions and see which gives a better answer.