Woman says Alexa recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

[Dacien]

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.

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.

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/wom...tact/755507974

These things creep me out. Even if it's unintentional, all it takes is for one of these things to have a bug, and now one of your co-workers can hear all kinds of private details. And it's still not conclusive as far as I know that they don't use these devices to collect information.

If I were married and my wife wanted one I'd roll over, it's not that big of a deal, but I don't think I trust our corporate overlords enough to have these listening devices planted all around my house.

[Tomservo]

That's why mine is in my bathroom and I only turn it on when I shit.

[Deleted]

we went ape shit over listening deveces when the cia wanted em, for secrety now when big comp does it for profit it's not going to be that big of a case right?

[Deleted]

Thats what all of this stuff is designed to do. Harvest data too add to your shadow profile, to target you for ads or sell the data to whomever finds it useful. Take into account that Amazon is a military contracter as well.

I mean have we even seen Amazon’s Rekognition project?

Whenever there is a 'social credit' story from China you get the usual mmo-c mouthpieces calling it dystopian but all this domestic shit from companies like Amazon is just as fucking sinister. And yet do we even know where our data is going?

[Kelathos]

That's why mine is in my bathroom and I only turn it on when I shit.

Go ahead and speak quietly in another room. Say Alexa. You'll hear it respond.

[ohwell]

we went ape shit over listening deveces when the cia wanted em, for secrety now when big comp does it for profit it's not going to be that big of a case right?

It's like all of the "I don't want the government to be able to track me with health implants" and yet the same people carry a cell phone.

- - - Updated - - -

Thats what all of this stuff is designed to do. Harvest data too add to your shadow profile, to target you for ads or sell the data to whomever finds it useful. Take into account that Amazon is a military contracter as well.

I mean have we even seen Amazon’s Rekognition project?

Whenever there is a 'social credit' story from China you get the usual mmo-c mouthpieces calling it dystopian but all this domestic shit from companies like Amazon is just as fucking sinister. And yet do we even know where our data is going?

It's actually really weird in the past 2 days I got 6 different companies from Riot to Asics sending emails about privacy policies and transparency.

[cubby]

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/wom...tact/755507974

These things creep me out. Even if it's unintentional, all it takes is for one of these things to have a bug, and now one of your co-workers can hear all kinds of private details. And it's still not conclusive as far as I know that they don't use these devices to collect information.

If I were married and my wife wanted one I'd roll over, it's not that big of a deal, but I don't think I trust our corporate overlords enough to have these listening devices planted all around my house.

We're calmly embracing our coming doom.

[LiiLoSNK]

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.'"

Damn hackers are at it again. They hacked my phone to start listening when I say "Hey Google" too, so I unplugged my smart fridge.

[PACOX]

Yall are on an Amazon shit. Probably logged into a Google account. All your shit is being mined. Have a smartphone? Unless you know how to kill Google Assistant or Siri, guess whats listening?

[fiestatastic]

Interesting this is newsworthy. Something very similar happened to my best friend and his wife with Alexa, twice. They didn't think to report, they just turned it off.

[Piglord]

Meh, someone got caught screwing the nanny. If Alexa recorded even a fraction of the shit I said at home I's either be in prison, a psych ward, or emperor of the fucking planet.

[Sunseeker]

My wife and I were just talking about these devices, and useful as they are, we agreed that without the ability to disconnect from the "cloud" completely we'll never use one.

[Kapadons]

My brother is dead set against Alexa in his house just for this reason. Maybe he isn’t so crazy.

Pretty sure my phone is listening too. We were talking about tents with friends (about to go camping) and nearly every ad by google/amazon the next day was tents or camping related. Was creepy.

[Graeham]

I won't be purchasing one myself. With that said, I do own a mobile phone...and that seems to fulfill the same purpose and include the same risks as it often shows adverts for things I've talked about in front of it but haven't actually searched for. It's done it with some very specific, fairly niche products too.

So, sure - it's easy to blame people for bringing these products into their homes...but it's not like it's easy to get away from such invasions of privacy altogether. Most people can't afford to not have a mobile phone or similar electronic device in today's society.

My brother is dead set against Alexa in his house just for this reason. Maybe he isn’t so crazy.

Pretty sure my phone is listening too. We were talking about tents with friends (about to go camping) and nearly every ad by google/amazon the next day was tents or camping related. Was creepy.

Well, that makes me feel less paranoid.

For me, it was a specific cake from a specific store. Mere hours later I saw an advert for that same product. I'd have brushed it off as a bizarre coincidence but it's happened multiple times.

[Mistame]

So it's basically like having a best friend as a woman?

[Najnaj]

This is the sort of story that will get picked up by a lot of news outlets if they find it even somewhat well documented. If you have not heard anything within a few days...

[Kasierith]

This is why every evening before I go to work I tell my Alexa that if she betrays me I'm putting a huge magnet on her. Also I do not link my phone to my alexa and use a second amazon account so that the alexa has no access to billing info.

[Shadowferal]

People love to decry big brother the NSA, the government listening in on their most private lives, yet they all willingly go online and hand over the most intimate details of those lives - to big data.
Raymond Reddington

[Mister Cheese]

It's why if my family buys one I will be throwing it into the pool.

[Eveningforest]

As long as Alexa keeps confusing humidity/dew point with temperature, she is on silent.
I live in Chicago and the California geeks have no idea....