Consumerist reports that Amazon.com has updated Alexa, the software of its Amazon Echo listening devices, in the wake of a viral video in which someone asks the device "Do you work for the CIA?" and it goes silent and dark. The updated software says "No, I work for Amazon."
The submitter found a video on Youtube in which a Google Home device responds "I've got to admit, I'm not sure" in answer to the same question, as well as a video showing the updated Alexa software going silent when asked "Is Amazon connected to the CIA?".
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(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Monday March 13 2017, @04:10PM (2 children)
Yes, it works for amazon, not for you... But who has access?? That implicit question is not answered.
The question is not who you work for. The question is what can and will be done with the information. Maybe I'm just a paranoid old fart, but it simply makes me wonder where the fiber-hookup(s) is(are) located at the amazon empire.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @05:16PM
Tried this out on a friend's Alexa after seeing the video the other day and we discovered the correction. However, if you ask it "Does Amazon work for the CIA?" after it insists it works for Amazon it beeps and turns off with no response.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @05:45PM
Of course it cannot tell you. It surely would violate a gag order otherwise.
Anyway, it's likely the NSA that has access, not the CIA.