SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the random-acts-of-predictable-randomness dept.
From a Business Insider Article
A couple in Portland, Oregon, say that speakers in their home powered by Amazon's Alexa smart voice assistant recorded a private conversation and sent the recording to a person in their contacts.
A woman named Danielle says she and her husband got a call two weeks ago from the contact, who told them to immediately unplug all their devices because he had heard their conversation in his home 176 miles away in Seattle, KIRO-TV first reported. She said he proved it by providing details about the conversation.
Amazon told the news station: "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."
[...] Here's what happened, according to Amazon:
"Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like 'Alexa.' Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a 'send message' request. 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."
If we're going to be unable to resist having devices in our private spaces which can record our private conversations, then Amazon needs to step up and seriously upgrade the security and privacy to the level we've come to expect from IoT devices.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday May 26 2018, @05:27AM (9 children)
I was in the ER a few months ago for Hyponatremia: low blood sodium
They didn't bill my insurance. They kept sending me bills but I already knew that Molina is slow to pay
When the collector rang me up at an all-you-can-eat sushi bar I pointed out that it was unlawful for him to call me at work then powered off my iPhone.
I prayed that night: "Sweet Jesus please forgive me for telling that righteous man I was at work."
I was at lunch that's between you me and The Baby Jesus.
When I got home I used the USPS website to change my address to an Oldtown Portland homeless day center.
I'm going to buy an Android phone soon. I'll keep my iPhone powered off when I'm not checking my voicemail.
Nobody I might later owe money to will ever know my Android's number.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @05:36AM (2 children)
Put this shit into your blog, please.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @05:44AM (1 child)
No, keep it off the internet. Pollution is a bad thing, especially when its author admits to a federal crime. It's like a 10 year old saying "I'm not sure how to use a credit card, I'm only 10" when he tries to buy porn.
Plus he fucks lying mothers. We may have articles about porn, but this one isn't. No need to bring fetishes into the conversation.
(Score: 4, Touché) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday May 26 2018, @06:09AM
Our customer service personnel will respond to your request in the order that it was received.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Saturday May 26 2018, @02:29PM (4 children)
A comma can make all the difference . . .
Let him who stole, steal no more, let him labor with his hands working for food . . .
Let him who stole, steal, no more let him labor with his hands working for food . . .
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 27 2018, @12:32AM (3 children)
“Pardon impossible, to be sent to Siberia."
"Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia."
Thus it was that a Tsarina of Russia (thought to be Maria Feodorovna (1847-1928), wife of Tsar Alexander III) managed to stay the execution of someone she believed innocent, by moving the comma that way.
(Score: 2) by Bobs on Sunday May 27 2018, @01:28AM (2 children)
In Putin's Russia, the Tsars were the good guys.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 27 2018, @02:53PM (1 child)
I helped uncle J/jack off his horse.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday May 28 2018, @01:56AM
Commas are probably more important here than capitalization.
If you are trying to help your uncle Jack, off a horse.
So always keep plenty of commas in stock. Especially when Amazon has them on sale.
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @05:35PM
Your statement could be interpreted as meaning "I was working ... on a Spring roll". Or, if you used your phone for any web searches that could be related to work, even tangentially, you could have been working at your remote office.
On a side note, sacrificing a California roll as an offering to the ghost of Steve Jobs never hurts.