Alexa Accidental Activations
Alexa is spying and “accidentally” listening to your conversation more often than you think!
Northeastern University research and experiments on smart speakers show it accidentally activate as many as 19 times per day, recording as much as 43 seconds of audio each time.
Research was done on Google Home Mini (1st generation), Apple HomePod, Microsoft (Harman Kardon Invoke), and Amazon Echo Dots.
Voice activated assistants will wake up accidentally and start recording if they THINK you said a trigger word. Companies that make these devices hire contractors and employees to listen to small snippets of your recording.
The good news is these devices are not constantly recording, as yet! The bad news, all speakers are prone to the same “accidental” activations. Apple and Microsoft devices activated more often than the others.
These recordings are kept on servers and can be reviewed by human ears. Sounds creepy that your conversation is locked in a vault for a reason. The data is used to refine voice recognition software for Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Human listening to the recording are not told who is speaking, but they hear enough to connect the voice to a person.
I wonder how many people really know the consequences of voice activated assistant software!
Although it’s impossible to avoid device regulations, the burden of data privacy should not be on the consumer but on the manufacturers of the software.
You can ask to have your conversation deleted.
Please read the full article here:
Alexa-Amazon-Google-home-Siri-Apple-Microsoft-recording
Amazon Got Sued
Knock Knock who’s there?
Amazon got sued over the Ring Internet connected door bell hack.
John Baker Orange, a plaintiff, claims he installed a Ring device on his garage last July. Someone hacked the device and started talking to his children using its speaker.
In December, hackers hijacked the RING doorbell camera using the device’s speaker to verbally assault some families.
Some features of RING door bell include, a motion sensor, a microphone and speaker so visitors can communicate while waiting outside.
Amazon who owns RING, fired four employees for watching customers videos. RING Internet connected door bell contains a hidden code which shares customers data with third party marketers.
RING Internet door bell lets you watch live video of your front door through a phone app or website. RING says it takes privacy, security and personal information of customers seriously due to the sensitive nature of the type of data collected, which include live footage of your front door.
Amazon Ring gained a reputation as the webcam that spies on you and which has failed to protect your data.
Advocates may not really approve using this type of security product on your front door, despite reviews.
Please read the full article here:
Amazon Ring hacking lawsuit