Amazon Echo recorded a couple's conversation, then sent audio to someone they know
Amazon Echo recorded a couple’s conversation, then sent audio to someone they know
Los Angeles Times
HAMZA SHABAN
Apparently, one of the Amazon.com Inc. Alexa-powered Echo devices in their home had silently sent recordings to the caller, without the couple’s permission. The caller, who happened to be an employee of the husband, was in the couple’s contact list.
“My husband and I would joke and say, ‘I’d bet these devices are listening to what we’re saying,'” a woman who identified herself only by her first name, Danielle, told KIRO 7, a local news station covering Seattle and western Washington state.
“We unplugged all of them and [the caller] proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house,” she said. “At first, my husband was, like, ‘No you didn’t!’ And the [recipient of the message] said, ‘You sat there talking about hardwood floors.’ And we said, ‘Oh, gosh, you really did hear us.'”
Danielle said she felt invaded after listening back to her own conversations, silently captured by an eavesdropping machine. “I’m never plugging that device in again,” she said. “I can’t trust it.”
Amazon said in a statement Thursday afternoon that the Echo woke up when it heard a word that sounded like “Alexa.”
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-amazon-echo-alexa-20180524-story.html