I don't see where Amazon would be at fault here. Remember back in the old days of T9 keyboard phones, remember that one time where you forgot to lock your keyboard when you put it into your pocket and it called a random person from your contact list? You didn't immediately call the press to say it was Nokias, Ericssons, Siemens' (or whatever your phone manufacturer is) fault you left your phone unlocked and it called a random person because of the hardware keys being pressed within your pocket.
Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
711–720 of 734 posts
Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
#712Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
It turns out that people react irrationally when rare bad things happen to them; that is, they over-react, generally...
Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
#713Earlier quoted context omitted.
Completely agree with you. I've seen this over and over and over with people I know. They always want something badly enough that they'll find any excuse to dismiss any downsides to it. "Amazon/Google/Apple/Facebook/X have very smart people who will not allow this to happen." "I have nothing to hide." "People who want to listen to our boring conversations are losers. Let them waste their time doing so." And the list…
"I have nothing to hide." Response: "Cool. What's your e-mail password?"
No, response: "Cool, why don't you send all the e-mails you've received this year to the police, then?"
Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
#714Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish more offices would install motion sensors facing keyboards from above, tune-focused for finger motion detection.
> I wish more offices would install motion sensors facing keyboards from above, tune-focused for finger motion detection. A new dystopian developer-productivity metric.
Erm, could you not also just install a keylogger?
Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
#715Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> There also other things, like pillow talk etc. Perfect example. Do you always ensure there are no smartphones within earshot?
Actually, yes.
But I am not in a formal relationship, so I can imagine this to be harder to arrange when you live together on a regular schedule.
But I would certainly try to do this in this situation as well.
It is not only privacy btw. it is also just nice to have both persons here in the now and not half distracted because the Smartphone just got new messages. Could be important... but usually never is important enough, to destroy the moment.
So when I go to sleep, alone or not, the mobile is off (without battery) or away. Unless there might be a emergency and I need to be avaiable, but those situations are rare.
Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
#716Voice is not for personal computing. It is best for social computing. This is a completely new metaphor for interactivity, and problems are to be expected.
This incident speaks more to Amazon's speech recognition rather than a weakness of voice. Am not an expert in the topic, but it certainly seems like Alexa tries to hear patterns rather than translating speech to text then text to commands. Google Home's recognition is much better.
Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
#717I 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 remember the first voice command stuff on google. Buddy of mine was trying it out and I couldn't help myself but shout: "NEW TEXT MESSAGE TO JENNY! FUCK YOU! SEND!" Fortunately the phone was too slow to take it all (even if it had Jenny would have found it amusing, she was a cube or two away). But yeah first thing I thought of was that if it's listening how easy is it for it to mistake intent or someone else or etc…
For years Ive been expecting to hear about some shock-jock in a big city saying "Hey Siri, find child porn" over the air during morning rush hour.
Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
#718Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember the first voice command stuff on google. Buddy of mine was trying it out and I couldn't help myself but shout: "NEW TEXT MESSAGE TO JENNY! FUCK YOU! SEND!" Fortunately the phone was too slow to take it all (even if it had Jenny would have found it amusing, she was a cube or two away). But yeah first thing I thought of was that if it's listening how easy is it for it to mistake intent or someone else or etc…
For years Ive been expecting to hear about some shock-jock in a big city saying "Hey Siri, find child porn" over the air during morning rush hour.
Burger King intentionally set off Google in a commerical. People were not amused.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/12/15259400/burger-king-goog...
Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
#719Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Hey Siri" has in fact been tied to the owner's voice since the iPhone 6s (2015): https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/11/apples-hey-siri-feature...
Progress! I stand corrected. Thank you.
Meanwhile, I have my Pixel lock on screen off (only because the fingerprint reader makes unlocking/turning on easy) with OK Google unlocking enabled.
The only problem here is that Google still doesn't recognise my voice half the time, perhaps because I'm never sure about how I should speak to an inanimate object.
Speaking of unlocking methods, face unlock appears to no longer be available as an option for me. I can't find it in settings anymore (smart unlock etc).
Re: Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
#720Earlier 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 analogous behaviour would be you being aware of Alexa's flaws and not triggering it accidentally.
While you may have never pocket dialled, plenty of people have. I've received more than a few accidental calls in the past.
I equate this to some phone users placing their devices hanging over the edge of tables - as if they don't care about them hitting the floor. Should phone makers toughen their phones and should Amazon improve Alexa anyway? Sure.