Amazon's Alexa and Echo have been recording conversations and sending them to random people according to people on Reddit and Twitter. Many reports have come back that Alexa devices have been creepily laughing too? What is going on Amazon?
Fears that smart devices have been recording people have been around the internet since their inception but it seems that these fears are an actual reality!
While manufacturers claim this never happens, it looked as if the paranoia was justified when an Amazon Echo sent a couple’s conversation to a friend without their knowledge. But according to the tech giant, this was the result of a series of misinterpretations by Alexa.
“Unplug your Alexa devices right now. You’re being hacked.” A portland couple that owns the Echo in question only found out what was happening when an employee of the husband rang him.
"We unplugged all of them and he proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house," said wife Danielle. "At first, my husband was, like, 'no you didn't!' And the (recipient of the message) 'You sat there talking about hardwood floors.'
After Amazon did an investigation into this they found that the situation was caused by Alexa mishearing words from the couple's conversation. The always-listening device was first activated after hearing a word that sounded like “Alexa.” It then interpreted part of the conversation as “send message,” at which point it asked, “to whom?” The AI thought it heard one of the names from the couple’s contact list. It asked for confirmation and heard “right” in the background conversation.
“It is an extremely rare occurrence, and as unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely.” - Amazon spokesperson.
Back in April, an Amazon patent was discovered that would allow Alexa to listen in on conversations to help identify owners’ tastes.
After all of this, the couple is seeking a refund and I don't blame them.
What do you think of all this? Do you own an Alexa or Echo and has anything weird happened?
I for one think it's creepy and would never let these devices into my home, smartphones and Facebook are bad enough in my opinion. What is your opinion on these or similar smart devices?
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