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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

#471

Post by bootsz »

Every day I become more convinced that we've really let tech get a little too out of control, and could probably benefit from putting the brakes on a bit to get some very critical stuff under control first (e.g. security/privacy).

Don't get me wrong, technology is amazing and the cutting edge stuff going on today is super exciting... But it seems the capabilities of software now are far, far outpacing our abilities to ensure an adequate level of security and personal privacy. We've been blinded by flashy tech, too busy being amazed at everything all the time ("look at what AI can do!") and not stopping to consider the huge hidden price we're paying.

The reasons this has happened are kind of obvious... I just fear that it's going to take things getting to a point where we have a really major catastrophe on our hands for anyone to be willing to really do anything about it. A lot of people can and will get seriously hurt. I can imagine such an event resulting in a great "cooling" period in tech where advances are slowed while bigger investments are made into security, cryptography, solving the "identity problem", etc. But it would be nice if we could just have the foresight to fix things before it gets to that point...

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

#472

Post by mirimir »

robotrout wrote: post #320
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 do not want to set up this feature on my Alexa for precisely this reason and I am finding Amazon to be really aggressive about forcing me to enable this feature and harvest my contact information. The Alexa phone app is almost unusable for me, as it constantly goes into the telecom setup screen whenever I try to do something else in the app. I am forced to exit the app and come back into it, whenever this happens,…

Wait! So you're saying that Alexa actually includes the capability to record voice, and send recordings to contacts? I suppose that some would love that. But, as this demonstrates, it's prone to fail spectacularly.

You'd think that there'd be protection. Maybe a restricted set of contacts who could get such messages. And a confirmation step, such as "Do you want to send this recording to 'my mother'?" Or "... to '911'?"

Edit: Damn, didn't see Clubber's comment.

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

#473

Post by chaostheory »

awat wrote: post #279
chaostheory wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is Amazon. I guess things have changed for the worse on the customer service front though. This happened not too long ago (2-3 years) - probably around the time they posted a net profit In terms of the big picture, this was dumb PR wise and this story should have never happened. For less than a $1000, Amazon could have stopped the story if the PR dept were more in sync with customer service

I don’t disagree at all on the PR side. Spent sometime in the contact center tools space and my general experience is if a company allows it exempt higher level employees avoid engaging with customer service directly at pretty much all costs. Not saying it happened here but thats how you get $10/hour vendors making judgement calls on customer situations that are front page news.

Yes, I also used to work in that space, our software / platform was used by Fortune 500 companies.

My point still stands. This is Amazon and not random company X's customer service. There are very few companies like this that people can name (e.g. Nordstrom, Patagonia, ...) It this used to not happen at Amazon. Customer service used to be empowered to make customers happy, which was what made Amazon legendary. Things have changed. Customer service is now crippled like almost every other mediocre company. This is just one of the symptoms. Maybe Amazon feels that it has enough market share now, so it doesn't matter as much?

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

#474

Post by craftyguy »

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.

HN comments are full of unverifiable anecdotes like GP.

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

#475

Post by arcticbull »

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.

Hm. I can't "Hey Siri" someone else' phone, can I? It's certainly never worked for me.

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

#476

Post by murjinsee »

jwandborg wrote: post #440
modzu wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I agree, it would probably not even be close to foolproof. I believe any implementation of security through acoustic biometrics would be vulnerable to replay attacks. Systems to reproduce acoustics with high fidelity are commonplace - You might be using the output component of such a system right now if you're listening to music. You could make the Assistant remember the exact fingerprints of all previous activation…

Wouldn't modifying the sample slightly, like lowering pitch by a few cents or stretching parts, also make it seem original?

Audio is definitely too easy to spoof for it to be a security method IMO.

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

#477

Post by hutzlibu »

jstanley wrote: post #84
hutzlibu wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Controlling your devices with voice is nice and I can totally understand people wanting it .. it is just that you don't have real control over it. And about tapped .. well, I don't consider any conversation as private, when there is a Smartphone around.

> I don't consider any conversation as private, when there is a Smartphone around. Is there nothing you've ever said about anybody while in the vicinity of a smartphone that you wouldn't have said to their face?

Privacy ... not only to protect badmouthing

There also other things, like pillow talk etc.

And I simply don't want anyone else to take part in that, whether they are russian, chinese or NSA hackers, or the company by itself.

And I usually tell people in their face, what I think of them.

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

#478

Post by rhizome »

amzn_engineer1 wrote: post #66

What actually happened: Alexa misinterpreted some voice commands and activated a "call" skill. The people involved and local news got very excited and escalated this into a conspiracy story. Amazon takes customer privacy EXTREMELY seriously. There's no way a team would get the "ok" to build a skill that randomly records private conversations then sends them to a random contact. It also doesn't make any logical sense…

Alexa misinterpreted some voice commands

Oh is that all.

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

#479

Post by whoopdedo »

amzn_engineer1 wrote: post #66

What actually happened: Alexa misinterpreted some voice commands and activated a "call" skill. The people involved and local news got very excited and escalated this into a conspiracy story. Amazon takes customer privacy EXTREMELY seriously. There's no way a team would get the "ok" to build a skill that randomly records private conversations then sends them to a random contact. It also doesn't make any logical sense…

Actually, I can think of a very good use of the ability to trigger silent phone calls. In the case of home invasion or domestic violence. If Alexa detects what could be signs of distress it can dial an emergency number without alerting that it was triggered. Otherwise, trying to shout "Hey Alexa, dial nine one one" will alert or enrage the perpetrator.

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

#480

Post by BonesJustice »

edm0nd wrote: post #470
BonesJustice wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That was definitely not the case when I tried it a couple years ago. If they’ve since locked it down, then I’m glad to hear that.
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