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PostPosted: 05/25/18 7:32 am • # 1 
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....people are buying devices like Amazon Echo/Alexa. Seriously? I absolutely LOVE Amazon's explanation, but I'm not believing it.

Amazon Echo secretly recorded a family's conversation and sent it to a random person on their contact list

The Echo device in your room could be secretly recording your conversation — and in some cases, could send it to a random person, according to a report from local Seattle TV network KIRO7.

That's what happened to a family in Portland, who had their conversation at home recorded and sent to a random person on their contact list.

The report said the family was alerted by a colleague in Seattle who had received the audio file. After confirming the audio file was indeed a recording of their private conversation, the family went on to unplug all of their Alexa-powered devices, the report said.

When contacted by the family, Amazon said it takes privacy "very seriously," but downplayed the incident as an "extremely rare occurrence."

In a statement to CNBC, Amazon blamed Alexa misinterpreting background conversation as a set of commands to send a message to a contact:

Quote:
Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like "Alexa." Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a "send message" request. At which point, Alexa said out loud "To whom?" At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customers contact list. Alexa then asked out loud, "[contact name], right?" Alexa then interpreted background conversation as "right". As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely.



https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/24/amazon- ... eport.html

One other thing. It may not be as rare as they are claiming. There may have been many times this happened, yet it went unreported or undetected by the receiver. Wherefore art thou, Big Brother? :w


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PostPosted: 05/25/18 8:07 am • # 2 
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I don't understand why some people are hell-bent on having the "latest" everything ... definitely including tech toys like Echo and Alexa ~ have we really become so lazy that we prefer to issue a voice command to a tech toy to "turn on lights" or remind us we need bread when we go grocery shopping? ~ I respect others' privacy and I expect my privacy to be respected as well, and I flat-out refuse to make it easier for the far too many scammers lying in wait to capture our private information ~

Sooz


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PostPosted: 05/25/18 4:52 pm • # 3 
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Would this technology send a string of obscenities to Trump?


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PostPosted: 05/26/18 7:39 am • # 4 
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It might, but he wouldn't see it unless it was a Tweet. :b


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PostPosted: 05/26/18 8:27 am • # 5 
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Joined: 04/05/09
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Location: Tampa, Florida
Uh-oh!
I'm one of those nuts with Amazon's Echo.
I use Alexa together with my Wink, which controls all my lights and my deadbolt at the front door.
All my lights, including outdoor floodlights are wifi-enabled LED bulbs.
With an app on my phone I can produce a light show even from Tennessee to screw with my Florida neighbors' brain.

From my experience what happened in the OP seems kind of impossible without clearly answering Alexa's questions.
I don't have Alexa set up to phone or buy anything. She plays my music, sets alarms, and turns my lights on and off when I tell her.

Yes, Alexa responds when someone on TV says her name. LOL


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