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

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

 

What is ironic about this is, about 3 days ago I had a Georgia Tech Grad, computer Engineer as a customer. (really smart guy).  We talked about Alexa . He was very admit about not having active listing devices in his home or person. He even wont use the Facebook app on his phone, but rather goes to it thru chrome for that very reason. Cortana on windows, he said no way either. 

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/24/amazon-echo-recorded-conversation-sent-to-random-person-report.html

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

• A family in Portland says their Echo device recorded their conversation and sent it to a random person on their contact list.
• Amazon reportedly confirmed the incident and blamed it on Alexa misinterpreting background conversation as commands to send a message to a contact.
• The incident raises privacy concerns as voice-assistant devices like the Echo gain more popularity.

 

 

[Dashinka 24,765]

Heard about this.  I have also talked to a few tech savvy friends and they also are against using Alexa/Echo, or the Hey Siri applications.  My wife mentioned once about getting an Echo, and I asked her if she was still living in the Soviet Union, would she want a device that was always listening.  Needless to say, we passed on Alexa/Echo and disabled the Hey Siri application on our phones.

[bcking 3,157]

My wife has become even more convinced that facebook actively listens.

 

She was at a baseball game with a friend whose son has peanut allergies. They were talking about the son's allergies (only talking) and when she got home she had an ad/link on facebook about peanut allergies.

[Crazy Cat 42,198]

2 minutes ago, bcking said:

My wife has become even more convinced that facebook actively listens.

 

She was at a baseball game with a friend whose son has peanut allergies. They were talking about the son's allergies (only talking) and when she got home she had an ad/link on facebook about peanut allergies.

I don't doubt this at all.  Unfortunately, there is no real privacy any more.

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

1 hour ago, bcking said:

My wife has become even more convinced that facebook actively listens.

 

She was at a baseball game with a friend whose son has peanut allergies. They were talking about the son's allergies (only talking) and when she got home she had an ad/link on facebook about peanut allergies.

My tech smart friend said FB listens 

[cyclone27 710]

Echo is great. We have 3 - mostly use for music, weather and smart plugs (lights).

[Steeleballz 7,550]

 

   First thing I do when I am using a new device is disable or uninstall all the built in software/bloatware that contributes to all this information grabbing. Second, don't let social media and related apps auto start and force close them when your done. Don't let them sit there in the background running. Finally if an app needs access to files that it shouldn't, don't use it.  

 

   Amazon has been in the news way too much lately for the wrong reasons. Counterfeit products, selling data to law enforcement, spying on end users. I'm pretty much done with them, but if I have to use them it's through a browser on my PC, camera and microphone disabled.

[cyclone27 710]

tin foil hat club hey?

Edited May 25, 2018 by cyclone27

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

29 minutes ago, cyclone27 said:

tin foil hat club hey?

Hardly

[Steeleballz 7,550]

33 minutes ago, cyclone27 said:

tin foil hat club hey?

 

  No, just experience. I often fix android and PC issues for people. Amazing what people download, either inadvertently or because they don't know what they are downloading. Anything you download on your phone could have free access to your contacts, pictures, camera and microphone. Many people just hit the 'yes' button to allow all that. These apps are screened for malicious behavior, but you would be surprised how many slip through on IOS. Android is even worse. 

 

  With Amazon and Facebook in particular, I don't install any app that wants access to my camera and microphone when the owners of those companies have already admitted to storing and using that data for whatever purpose they decide they want to. It's just not a good practice. I want to see apps designed where you have to authorize or opt in to allow access to your personal information. Access to personal info should never be the default. Too many people don't realize they are agreeing to all this data mining with a single keystroke.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Steeleballz