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Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

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Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#461

Post by lopmotr »

modzu wrote: post #340
zymhan wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there is much of a difference. People took a while to understand butt-dialing, and not do it as much. It'll take a while for people to get used to voice assistants that trigger seemingly randomly.

when my phone is locked (which it always is in a pocket) it can't butt dial. whats the analogous behaviour for alexa? also remember these are shared devices in a home, not a personal device in your hand. could i shout into somebody's window, "hey alexa send my browsing history to bob@hotmail.com"!

They can still call the police while locked, which is something that happened to a friend with an old feature phone while were were in the process of illegally hiding/dumping an old car.

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#462

Post by notatoad »

modzu wrote: post #340
zymhan wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there is much of a difference. People took a while to understand butt-dialing, and not do it as much. It'll take a while for people to get used to voice assistants that trigger seemingly randomly.

when my phone is locked (which it always is in a pocket) it can't butt dial. whats the analogous behaviour for alexa? also remember these are shared devices in a home, not a personal device in your hand. could i shout into somebody's window, "hey alexa send my browsing history to bob@hotmail.com"!

The "lock" analogue on an Alexa device would be the mute button on the top of the unit.

https://www.safety.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/mute-butto...

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#464

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

dmix wrote: post #438
michael_j_ward wrote: post #54

I received one of these messages just a week ago. Alexa sent me a message of my friend and his girlfriend having a private conversation. I immediately texted him to ask if he intended to do that and he did not- so weird.

Do you have any proof of this online or can you provide more specific details? Not that I don't trust you but I don't trust anything I read on the internet without a minor amount of verification.

I'm sure another anecdote from a stranger won't be enough to convince you, but this also happened to a friend of mine just last week. A work contact of his received a voicemail from him which consisted of police sirens and muffled shouting. Of course he panicked thinking something bad had happened. Turns out my friend's Alexa had picked up a police show on the TV in the same room.

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#465

Post by [deleted] »

mtgx wrote: post #392
yason wrote: post #297

I am oversimplifying here but: * install device that is designed to listen to speech in the house * the device is connected to internet * the device is capable of contacting other internet peers/services/hosts * the device knows a bit about its owner's internet presence such as contacts * the device is equipped with simple conversational user interface based on fuzzy human speech-command detection These basically bou…

> "I felt invaded," she said. "A total privacy invasion. Immediately I said, 'I'm never plugging that device in again, because I can't trust it.'" Let this lady's reaction be a lesson to all of those who say "people don't care about privacy." She wired her home with Alexa devices, and yet when she found out how her privacy could practically be invaded through such devices, she seems like couldn't get rid of them fast…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#466

Post by lopmotr »

calcifer wrote: post #439
mtgx wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I felt invaded," she said. "A total privacy invasion. Immediately I said, 'I'm never plugging that device in again, because I can't trust it.'" Let this lady's reaction be a lesson to all of those who say "people don't care about privacy." She wired her home with Alexa devices, and yet when she found out how her privacy could practically be invaded through such devices, she seems like couldn't get rid of them fast…

> People care deeply about their privacy. No, they don't. Do you really think if, before she made this purchase, someone explained to her all the things that could theoratically go wrong with this device, she would have chosen not to buy it? She only cares now and acts like she doesn't share quite a bit of the blame because it actually affected her. I think it is highly likely she'll just switch to an Apple or Google…

You're ignoring risk. This is one failure out of millions(?) of customers. It's like someone being seriously injured in a bicycle crash and deciding not to cycle to work anymore. Or having their house burgled and moving out of the neighborhood. People get hurt when rare bad things happen to them and it scares them off.

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#467

Post by eric_h »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #275
carbocation wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might be cool to add thermal sensors to that, so the lights don't shut off because you're not moving enough.

That's the main problem with motion activated office lights tbf, especially when you're doing software development for example - not enough motion to keep them on.

My problem with the motion activated office lights (at least the ones at the wework my company is located) is that you can't turn them off. The button appears to turn the lights off and disable the motion sensor for some (short) period of time, then movement turns the lights back on again. Very annoying.

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#468

Post by ClassyJacket »

modzu wrote: post #349
edwhitesell wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most phone now have some kind of lock screen, which makes it pretty difficult to get to the butt dialing stage. Will speech command recognition get to that stage? The main reason I won't have any of those products in my house is because of that. I'd much rather have a confirmation of some kind before the system takes action. "...random talking..." Assistant "I am recording" Me: "Stop recording"

some kind of acoustic biometrics would be helpful here (ie respond only to account holder, or disable some actions for others) along with better heuristic recognition of directives thats not foolproof but much better than what we have now, and i think we are pretty close

"respond only to account holder, or disable some actions for others"

This is exactly how the Google Home works right now.

Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

#470

Post by edm0nd »

BonesJustice wrote: post #401
tj-teej wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you replace "fuzzy human speech-command detection" with "buttons which can accidentally be pressed" - how is this different from butt-dialing?

I can't pick up my coworker's phone and manually dial a number, because years of learning from our mistakes have led us to implement lock screens and such. I can, however, say "Hey Siri, call 867-5309." Or "Hey Siri, Facebook status: my anus is bleeding. SEND!" Because we are apparently incapable of applying past lessons to new technologies.

If the iPhone has a lock screen, Siri will not do any of those actions without it being unlocked first FYI.
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