Time to eat crow - Amazon Alexa is listening to your personal conversations

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/11/tech...amp;utm_term=image&utm_medium=social

I seem to recall that many members here were ADAMANT that this wasn't happening...
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I know Google home isn't because I have sniffed the packets leaving mine and it only transmits when woken up other than the occasional check for firmware updates (it looks like).
 
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Simple logic would deduct that if it activates at the word Alexa...it would have to be listening for it continually for the trigger word or sound It is simply how voice recognition and speech translation algorithms work.

Now whether it transmits the data it is listening to or not that is the question.

Simple test would be have a conversation about a random item you might buy like tennis racquets around the Alexa device but don't address the device. Then go look at your Amazon suggestions. If it has tennis racquets in the list...its listening.
 
So it only listens when you wake it up. Maybe I'm missing something. Isn't that listening?

It amazes me how people willing accept grotesque privacy intrusion from the likes of Facebook and Google, yet they complain when law enforcement uses license plate scanners in their search for warrants and stolen cars.

Scott

PS My 30+ year career was in the heart of Silicon Valley. You have no idea of the things i used to work on, my last big project in particular. Most people have absolutely no idea how closely they are being tracked, and it's not the government doing it! It's done for money by the likes of Zuckerberg, etc.! Importantly, your personal data is not being looked at only when it's "passing through", it's being archived on massive servers for future use! What you asked Alexa will persist on some company's server for decades - and there will be ways to trace that back to YOU!
 
Google, Facebook, Microsoft and all other spend millions, upon millions of dollars on data centers and servers for what exactly? Of course they store all the information they gather. For now they mostly use some of that data for adds because there is no software, or if you prefer to call it AI, capable of going through all this data fast enough. But once they have the capability, they will be able to do all sorts of interesting things.

Also, looking at packets sent is not really telling you anything. These guys are smarter than this. The data can easily be stored and only transmitted during normal device activity.
 
Originally Posted by Wolf359
It's not listening in all the time. It listens after you say the trigger word or it thinks you said the trigger word. There's a difference.

It's the difference between knowing how technology works and not knowing.


I'm not sure you should be telling anyone how a particular technology works when you don't know it yourself.
 
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Originally Posted by loneryder
You don't think they can turn it on at anytime?????

Technically they could do that, and broadcast the sounds of you getting intimate with your wife in a giant conference room for all to hear!

The public has NO PRIVACY. And government is only a very small part of this violation compared to the likes of Facebook and Google. Facebook and Google are EVIL!

Scott
 
Originally Posted by Smokescreen
Simple logic would deduct that if it activates at the word Alexa...it would have to be listening for it continually for the trigger word or sound It is simply how voice recognition and speech translation algorithms work.

Now whether it transmits the data it is listening to or not that is the question.

Simple test would be have a conversation about a random item you might buy like tennis racquets around the Alexa device but don't address the device. Then go look at your Amazon suggestions. If it has tennis racquets in the list...its listening.


Brilliant!
 
It has to be listening to answer your questions. Not for me, no facebook, no twitter, the internet is already too much. Look at people's vocabulary, writing, and ability to focus 100 years ago compared to now. It was far better then. Look at the Gettysburg address and Declaration of Independence, look at the sophistication of writing compared to now.
 
That's nothing,

Last black Friday I picked up a 55" 4K Hisense @ Walmart and going through settings it had a "Turn off audio recording"


Once I saw that, BACK to Walmart it went
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Dave
 
Originally Posted by Smokescreen
Simple test would be have a conversation about a random item you might buy like tennis racquets around the Alexa device but don't address the device. Then go look at your Amazon suggestions. If it has tennis racquets in the list...its listening.


About two months ago I had this conversation with some co-workers and it did exactly that. The code word was "travel agent". I ended up with several travel agency adds on my Facebook wall about a day later.

I have no doubt these devices are listening to everything 24/7. Most recently, my wife and I were walking in to a restaurant near CVG (we live right under the flight path) and a 747 freighter was on approach, super low as would be expected as close as we were to the airport. We were both watching it and she said "Have we ever flown on a 747? I cant remember" and I said yes, back in the '90's a few times and told her when and where. She then said "I cant remember what the inside of a 747 even looks like" and she asked me about the seating and various other things.

About 10 minutes later, we had been seated and as we were looking over our menus, I had picked out what I wanted, and as usual she was taking forever to decide what to have for lunch. So I whipped out my phone while she decided, and I noticed I had a Facebook notification...I mumbled "You got to be kidding me, those creeps". My wife looked up and said 'What? Whats wrong?"

A "Recommended for You" article on, well take a wild guess... >>> "Take an Interactive Tour Inside a KLM 747! Click here"

Most of my Facebook feed is aviation and/or history related pages, and maybe this was a coincidence. I highly doubt it.

Yea I clicked it, I recognized the site and knew it wasnt some click bait virus farm. Its actually a pretty good site, and the 747 tour was neat as you could click all around, go upstairs, into the cockpit, etc. Yup, they got me.

I dont mind targeted adds, after all we get bombarded all day long, why get bombarded by stuff I have no interest in. On the other hand, I hate being listened to and electronically stalked and having my privacy invaded. I have no interest in one of these Alexa devices or anything similar, apparently I'm already stalked enough.
 
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