Woman says her Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
http://www.kiro7.com/news/local/woman-says-her-amazon-device-recorded-private-conversation-sent-it-out-to-random-contact/755507974

A Portland family contacted Amazon to investigate after they say a private conversation in their home was recorded by Amazon's Alexa -- the voice-controlled smart speaker -- and that the recorded audio was sent to the phone of a random person in Seattle, who was in the family’s contact list.

"My husband and I would joke and say I'd bet these devices are listening to what we're saying," said Danielle, who did not want us to use her last name.

Every room in her family home was wired with the Amazon devices to control her home's heat, lights and security system.

But Danielle said two weeks ago their love for Alexa changed with an alarming phone call. "The person on the other line said, 'unplug your Alexa devices right now,'" she said. "'You're being hacked.'"

That person was one of her husband's employees, calling from Seattle.

"We unplugged all of them and he proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house," she said. "At first, my husband was, like, 'no you didn't!' And the (recipient of the message) said 'You sat there talking about hardwood floors.' And we said, 'oh gosh, you really did hear us.'"

Danielle listened to the conversation when it was sent back to her, and she couldn't believe someone 176 miles away heard it too.

"I felt invaded," she said. "A total privacy invasion. Immediately I said, 'I'm never plugging that device in again, because I can't trust it.'"

Danielle says she unplugged all the devices, and she repeatedly called Amazon. She says an Alexa engineer investigated.

"They said 'our engineers went through your logs, and they saw exactly what you told us, they saw exactly what you said happened, and we're sorry.' He apologized like 15 times in a matter of 30 minutes and he said we really appreciate you bringing this to our attention, this is something we need to fix!"

But Danielle says the engineer did not provide specifics about why it happened, or if it's a widespread issue.

"He told us that the device just guessed what we were saying," she said. Danielle said the device did not audibly advise her it was preparing to send the recording, something it’s programmed to do.

When KIRO 7 asked Amazon questions, they sent this response:

“Amazon takes privacy very seriously. We investigated what happened and determined this was an extremely rare occurrence. We are taking steps to avoid this from happening in the future."​

Amazon offered to “de-provision” Danielle’s Alexa communications so she could keep using its Smart Home Features. But Danielle is hoping Amazon gives her a refund for her devices, which she said their representatives have been unwilling to do. She says she’s curious to find out if anyone else has experienced the same issue.

"A husband and wife in the privacy of their home have conversations that they're not expecting to be sent to someone (in) their address book," she said.

might be time to start turning you own lights and tv on doncha think?

Kinda makes me wonder if those spy movies that show the NSA listening in on your phone even when its shut off is purely fiction?
Is my smart TV spying on me also purely fiction?

What if Alexa is hard-coded to dial 'home' but all the servers were busy or there was an interruption in the contact and the program had a glitch that caused it to dial a contact from their address book instead.
Had that glitch not happened would Alexa continue to dial home to Amazon with surveillance as originally programed?

thankfully i will never need to know. heck i still have an analog tv to watch movies on

Radio Shack used to sell a scanner that was programmable. I had one for a long time. It was interesting to listen into police, and fire dept. communications. When cellphones became popular, that could be picked up also. That wasn't so interesting, until the weekends came, and the sex talk started to become more popular. That, was rather entertaining, very graphic, and pretty funny. XXX rated radio. Those people would have had a cow if they knew someone BESIDES them was eavesdropping on their dirty talk. I wouldn't have a cell for years, when I heard their conversations. That scanner gave out a long time ago, and I wasn't interested in getting another.

That technology, that you hold so dear, just might not be so private.

We already know they're recording everything said around them. There was a thing a couple years ago where the police or FBI were trying to get transcripts or recordings but amazon told them no. They don't need to record us at all. These things are creepy.
Bad enough we all carry mini ones in our phones. Watch when you activate voice type or voice search google, it tells you its recording you.

I think the biggest significance in this is that most people have no idea they are being monitored.
Chances are, despite our own delusions of grandeur, most people do not warrant any special consideration.
Applications like Amazon's Alexa could use collected info to target specific ads to you to sell more product but that data that exists in cyberspace is game for more insidious uses by any number of unknown entities that may or may not be targeting you specifically.

Anything from your neighborhood to your demographics could be being monitored for any reasons, even unfathomable ones.

The power elite use EVERY resource to protect their power and money and promote their agendas.

This is merely a wake-up call.

i made a thread about stuff like this over in the general discussion forum..
these devices are listening [and recording] everything that goes on around them.

in a few instances,the police have even gotten search warrants to access the things that these devices had heard,recorded,and stored.

and,when these devices 'store' information,it is not stored on the device itself....it is stored on a mainframe at a different location,just like the information that you think is stored on your phone is actually stored.
[if you dont believe me,just cancel the service on your phone,and try to access the things that you think are on your phone....it wont let you,cuz it isnt ON your phone,and you have to be able to communicate with the server in order to access it.]

i know that the providers say that 'they dont do that!',but,if they dont,then WHY did the police go to the trouble of getting saerch warrants to listen to the things that these devices are 'not' recording?

Maybe she purchased the Russian model by mistake... Comrade Alexa

Its all a bit 1984 George Orwell innit

Frankly I think it all BS... disconnect.. go outside.. and stop asking a computer to give you daily direction.

I.E.. get a life

JMO