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Honored Contributor
Posts: 19,658
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Be Careful What You Say Around Echo Devices

"Be careful of what you say around your Echo devices. 

 

A Portland woman was shocked to discover that Echo recorded and sent audio of a private conversation to one of their contacts without their knowledge, according to KIRO 7

 

The woman, who is only identified as Danielle, said her family had installed the popular voice-activated speakers throughout their home. 

 

It wasn't until a random contact called to let them know that he'd received a call from Alexa that they realized their device had mistakenly transmitted a private conversation.

 

The contact, who was one of her husband's work employees, told the woman to 'unplug your Alexa devices right now. You're being hacked', KIRO noted.

 

'We unplugged all of them and he proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house,' Danielle said. 

 

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

 

Thankfully, the recorded conversation was only about hardware floors, but the incident has still managed to spark fears of Alexa spying on its users.

 

Amazon confirmed the issue with the user in Portland and said it's working on a fix. 

 

The internet giant also stressed that it's an 'extremely rare occurrence' and said it takes 'privacy very seriously'. 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5769235/Privacy-fears-woman-says-Echo-device-recorded...






 

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.
Honored Contributor
Posts: 19,398
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Be Careful What You Say Around Echo Devices


@KingstonsMom wrote:

"Be careful of what you say around your Echo devices. 

 

A Portland woman was shocked to discover that Echo recorded and sent audio of a private conversation to one of their contacts without their knowledge, according to KIRO 7

 

The woman, who is only identified as Danielle, said her family had installed the popular voice-activated speakers throughout their home. 

 

It wasn't until a random contact called to let them know that he'd received a call from Alexa that they realized their device had mistakenly transmitted a private conversation.

 

The contact, who was one of her husband's work employees, told the woman to 'unplug your Alexa devices right now. You're being hacked', KIRO noted.

 

'We unplugged all of them and he proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house,' Danielle said. 

 

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

 

Thankfully, the recorded conversation was only about hardware floors, but the incident has still managed to spark fears of Alexa spying on its users.

 

Amazon confirmed the issue with the user in Portland and said it's working on a fix. 

 

The internet giant also stressed that it's an 'extremely rare occurrence' and said it takes 'privacy very seriously'. 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5769235/Privacy-fears-woman-says-Echo-device-recorded...






 


@. I heard about this on the news this morning-how scary. Luckily for her she was only talking about Hard Wood Floors......lol!

Honored Contributor
Posts: 16,011
Registered: ‎06-09-2014

Re: Be Careful What You Say Around Echo Devices

I have Google the competitor and in looking at my activity this morning it said two unrecognized commands for yesterday and the day before.  I haven't asked it a question since Monday.

 

Either my plants are getting chatty while I am at work or the television is probably activating it somehow when I have it on in some way.

 

Spooky!    This is why I have mine using a junk email and never my real stuff.  

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,739
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Be Careful What You Say Around Echo Devices

I don't have one, and I don't think I want one, either

Honored Contributor
Posts: 19,658
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Be Careful What You Say Around Echo Devices


@CANDLEQUEEN wrote:

@KingstonsMom wrote:

"Be careful of what you say around your Echo devices. 

 

A Portland woman was shocked to discover that Echo recorded and sent audio of a private conversation to one of their contacts without their knowledge, according to KIRO 7

 

The woman, who is only identified as Danielle, said her family had installed the popular voice-activated speakers throughout their home. 

 

It wasn't until a random contact called to let them know that he'd received a call from Alexa that they realized their device had mistakenly transmitted a private conversation.

 

The contact, who was one of her husband's work employees, told the woman to 'unplug your Alexa devices right now. You're being hacked', KIRO noted.

 

'We unplugged all of them and he proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house,' Danielle said. 

 

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

 

Thankfully, the recorded conversation was only about hardware floors, but the incident has still managed to spark fears of Alexa spying on its users.

 

Amazon confirmed the issue with the user in Portland and said it's working on a fix. 

 

The internet giant also stressed that it's an 'extremely rare occurrence' and said it takes 'privacy very seriously'. 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5769235/Privacy-fears-woman-says-Echo-device-recorded...






 


@. I heard about this on the news this morning-how scary. Luckily for her she was only talking about Hard Wood Floors......lol!


 

@CANDLEQUEEN

 

So true! If she had just been talking about "Hard Wood", that would have been embarrassing, LOL!

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.
Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,280
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Be Careful What You Say Around Echo Devices

A friend of mine has Alexa - I don't which one it is - they were watching television one night when she started to respond to a commercial about suicide prevention.

 

I don't want any of those devices you can talk to except for the telephone.  All the microphones are turned off on our computers and tablets.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,419
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Be Careful What You Say Around Echo Devices

Why would a family need devices in every room. 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 30,916
Registered: ‎05-10-2010

Re: Be Careful What You Say Around Echo Devices

I saw that, it made me laugh.  Good thing the conversation was only about hardwood floors.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,708
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Be Careful What You Say Around Echo Devices

Excerpt from: money.cnn.com/2018/05/24/technology/alexa-secret-recording/index.html

 

(emphasis added)

 

Amazon confirmed the error in a statement and explained the improbable series of events that took place for it to happen. It wasn't a hack or a bug with the device, but a case of Alexa's always-listening microphones mishearing a series of words and mistakenly sending a voice message.

 

"Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like 'Alexa.' Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a 'send message' request," Amazon said in a statement. "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."

 

The Echo only confirms a contact name if there are multiple people in an address book with the same or similar sounding names.

 

It's unknown if the couple had the volume turned all the way down on their device or if they just didn't hear Alexa's multiple spoken replies during the message process. The colored ring on Echo speakers also lights up when the device is active.

The eyes through which you see others may be the same as how they see you.
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,296
Registered: ‎09-18-2010

Re: Be Careful What You Say Around Echo Devices


@cherry wrote:

I don't have one, and I don't think I want one, either


Me either! Talk about a mess that could make.....