alexa spying on users

Hack Turns Amazon Echo Into Spying Device (But It's Complex) Now researchers from MWR InfoSecurity have demonstrated a hack, showing how …

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I asked Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant if they're spying on me — here's what they said Published Sun, May 13 2018 11:20 AM EDT Updated Wed, May 16 2018 4:05 PM EDT Todd Haselton @robotodd

It's hard to know exactly what words in the conversation led Alexa down this path, but it's safe to say the odds of this happening to other Echo owners are pretty low.I agree, Alexa sending out an unwanted audio message is bad.

Don't grant it access to your contact list. Let's call this incident what it was: a complete fluke. April 12, 2019, 2:21 PM UTC. At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customer’s contact list. Isn't that the biggest frustration to these things — when they hear, but fail to understand?If anything, this incident is a wake-up call for everyone, both on the consumer and technology sides. Now, it’s opening some of them up for users to take advantage of.If you’ve been on the fence about bringing Alexa into your home, these new privacy features might change your mind.

Not only did some of its new products, like the Echo Show, feature privacy-enhancing features like a camera shutter, the company explicitly mentioned its commitment to protecting users as part of a new strategy.Hopefully, these new options will empower users to control their privacy more efficiently and protect their families from unwanted eavesdropping. Unfortunately, this also applies to children using the kid-branded Echo Dot product. Amazon Employees Are Reportedly Spying On Your Family With Alexa.

The company provided Mashable with the following statement on what happened:"Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like "Alexa." and "[contact name], right?" Here are the top features you need to know about.For the first time, users will now have the ability to ask Alexa for a rationale behind her unusual behavior or responses. Let's call this incident what it was: a complete fluke.

It wasn't spying on them — it just misunderstood what it heard.

But did Alexa really f*ck up?

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Seattle TV station KIRO interviews a woman who says her Amazon Echo recorded private conversations and sent audio clips to someone on the family's contact list. If you're worried about accidentally triggering Alexa — maybe you often say words that sound similar to "Alexa" — you Amazon recently bestowed Alexa-enabled devices with the ability to make follow up requests without needing to repeat the wake word.These days, Echo devices can send audio messages to another person. 2,281,044. If privacy is the price we pay for more a convenient lifestyle, are most Americans willing to give it up that easily?Hopefully, the trends we’re seeing from Amazon show our attitudes lean in a slightly different direction.Robocalls interrupt us constantly and scam Americans out of millions of dollars every year. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Just like there've been and will likely be more accidents involving self-driving cars, there will probably be more screw ups AI becomes more weaved into our lives.Accidents are natural and inevitable when we're talking AI (remember how Google Photos screwed up and Unless Amazon releases the actual audio logs, there's no way to know for sure what words and phrases Alexa misinterpreted. Mashable, MashBash and Mashable House are among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis, LLC and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission.