AMAZON ALEXA-ECHO

AMAZON TO COMPLY WITH POLICE

Alleging Amazon's Alexa Is Spying On You Moves Forward | TheStreet. If You Care About Privacy, Throw Your Amazon Alexa Devices Into the Sea. Amazon hit with FTC complaint over Echo Dot Kids Edition privacy violations. Children’s data privacy advocates filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday morning, calling for the federal agency to investigate the “Kids Edition” of Amazon’s Echo Dot smart speaker. The 96-page complaint was co-authored by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), and co-signed by 17 other digital privacy and children’s rights organizations.

“Amazon markets Echo Dot Kids as a device to educate and entertain kids, but the real purpose is to amass a treasure trove of sensitive data that it refuses to relinquish even when directed to by parents,” CCFC’s executive director, Josh Golin, wrote in a statement. “The FTC must hold Amazon accountable for blatantly violating children’s privacy law and putting kids at risk.” Update: “FreeTime on Alexa and Echo Dot Kids Edition are compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA),” an Amazon spokesperson replied in a statement to Vox. Ninth Circuit Sends Alexa Surreptitious Recording Case to Arbitration-Tice v. Amazon - Technology & Marketing Law Blog. Lawsuits over voice-activated assistants (and other smart home devices) are interesting. Plaintiffs have been creative about who asserts the claims to navigate around the issue that often sinks class actions: arbitration.

This has resulted in claims brought by neighbors, spouses, and minors. This particular lawsuit is by a spouse (Hayley Tice). Tice acknowledged that she used Amazon (i.e., to make purchases), but her husband purchased the device. When she intentionally used Alexa“background recording” when someone else uses the device“surreptitious recording . . . without prompting and without permission from anyone in the household” Citing equitable estoppel principles under California law, the district court held that Tice was bound by the Alexa arbitration agreement, which applied to the first two types of recordings. Although enforced through civil remedies, Plaintiff’s surreptitious recording claim is criminal in nature—far outside the bounds of both the Alexa TOU and Amazon COU. [2204.10920] Your Echos are Heard: Tracking, Profiling, and Ad Targeting in t... Report shows that Amazon uses data from Alexa smart speakers to serve targeted ads.

A report released last week contends that Amazon uses voice data from its Echo devices to serve targeted ads on its own platforms and the web. The report, produced by researchers affiliated with the University of Washington, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and Northeastern University, said the ways Amazon does this is inconsistent with its privacy policies. Titled, “Your Echos are Heard: Tracking, Profiling, and Ad Targeting in the Amazon Smart Speaker Ecosystem,” the report concludes that Amazon and third parties (including advertising and tracking services) collect data from your interactions with Alexa through Echo smart speakers and share it with as many as 41 advertising partners.

That data is then used to “infer user interests” and “serve targeted ads on-platform (Echo devices) as well as off-platform (web).” It also concludes that this type of data is in hot demand, leading to “30X higher ad bids from advertisers.” The company also confirmed there are targeted ads on its smart speakers. Amazon may give developers your private Alexa transcripts. Amazon Admits Listening To Alexa Conversations: Why It Matters. Oh, the joys of the smart home. Where you can talk to an empty room to ask a question, deliver a command or make a request.

And within seconds a disembodied voice reveals today’s weather or that, yes, the heating has now been turned up or confirms that a kitchen timer has begun its countdown. We welcome microphones, and indeed cameras, into our homes because it gives us great convenience and adds new capabilities to our home lives. Capabilities that were previously absent unless we pressed buttons on our alarm clock, checked a fact in an encyclopedia or, well, looked out of the window to see what the weather is doing.

But this week, it was revealed that some of those things we say aren’t just listened to by computers but by real people. It sounds unnerving, doesn’t it? It’s even alleged that two workers heard what they thought might be a sexual assault. What do we know is true? I’ve contacted Amazon and a spokesperson replied with this statement: So, what does it all mean? Amazon Is Watching. When you think of Amazon, you might think of comparison shopping from your couch, buying exactly what you want, for less than you’d pay at the store.

You might think of a delivery person dropping a package at your door, right on time, and how if there’s anything amiss you can send it back for a full refund. You might think of asking Alexa to play a song or a TV show or turn on the lights, and the marvel of how it all just works (usually). You might think of a Prime members’ discount on avocados at Whole Foods, which Amazon acquired in 2017. Amazon’s reputation for serving its customers with low prices and ruthless efficiency might help to explain why, in survey after survey, the Seattle-based company ranks as America’s most valuable — nay, most loved — brand. “We’re all hoping they’re not making a panopticon,” says Lindsey Barrett, staff attorney at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Public Representation.

“Amazon is essentially selling fear.” But watchdogs outside Amazon have found a few. Aviva launches Alexa skill on Amazon’s Echo voice-controlled speaker - Life Insurance International. Aviva has become the first UK insurer to launch an Alexa Skill on Amazon’s Echo voice-activated device. The Amazon Echo is a hands-free speaker controlled by a person’s voice and Aviva launched the Alexa skill over a 12-week phase. Alexa is the voice activated service that powers Amazon's Echo, which enables customers to interact with devices in a more intuitive way using voice.

It plays music and provides information, such as news, sports scores and weather updates. Aviva is testing an insurance jargon buster skill on Alexa, giving users instant, voice-controlled access to a glossary of over 300 insurance terms and their definitions. For example: • Compulsory excess • Professional indemnity insurance • Annuity Kevin McQuillan, digital customer experience director at Aviva, said: “We are the first UK insurer to deliver a skill for Alexa.

Amazon accused of violating child privacy laws with Alexa recordings. Amazon Echo saves all your voice data, here's how to hear and delete it. Amazon’s Echo built upon the voice search capability of Android’s ‘Ok Google’ and Apple’s Siri and turned it into a device that is capable of doing everything from answering questions to turning on your on your air conditioner. However, like all beneficial technology, when the government gets involved, this useful household item is converted into a spying machine for the surveillance state. In a seemingly unprecedented case out of Bentonville, Arkansas, the latest example of how police can use your technology against you is coming to fruition. Investigators in Bentonville have filed search warrants with Amazon, requesting the recordings made on a man’s Echo device between November 21 and November 22, 2015. The recordings belong to James A. Bates, who was charged with murder after a man was strangled to death in a hot tub.

“It is believed that these records are retained by Amazon.com and that they are evidence related to the case under investigation,” police wrote in the search warrant. Hey, Alexa: Stop recording me - The Washington Post. Amazon's Alexa WILL listen to everything you say | Daily Mail Online. Amazon Alexa will soon record EVERYTHING you say rather than wait to hear its name first, new patent reveals Alexa currently waits to detect its wake word before recording audio clips Patent suggests it could constantly record audio waiting to hear the word Would take 30 second snippets and delete each one if no wake word detected Patent doesn't suggest it will be installed in future Alexa-enabled devices By Joe Pinkstone For Mailonline Published: 09:33 EDT, 28 May 2019 | Updated: 15:46 EDT, 30 May 2019 Alexa's poor reputation for privacy may soon worsen as a patent filed by the firm suggests the virtual assistant may start listening before its 'wake word' is said.

Under the plans Alexa will be able to detect when it is being given a command even if the wake word is said at the end of the sentence instead of at the front. The move raises concerns over user privacy as Alexa will, by default, always be listening to conversations on the off-chance its wakeword is spoken. Scroll down for video. Arstechnica. Time. Amazon admits Alexa is creepily laughing at people and is working on a fix. Over the past few days, users with Alexa-enabled devices have reported hearing strange, unprompted laughter. Amazon responded to the creepiness today in a statement to The Verge, saying, “We’re aware of this and working to fix it.” Later on in the day, Amazon said its planned fix will involve disabling the phrase, “Alexa, laugh,” and changing the command to “Alexa, can you laugh?”

The company says the latter phrase is “less likely to have false positives,” or in other words the Alexa software is likely to mistake common words and phrases that sound similar to the one that makes Alexa start laughing. “We are also changing Alexa’s response from simply laughter to ‘Sure, I can laugh,’ followed by laughter,” an Amazon spokesperson said. As noted in media reports and a trending Twitter moment, Alexa seemed to start laughing without being prompted to wake. Twitter user @CaptHandlebar was one of the first to report experiencing this back on February 22nd: Alexa is listening to what you say – and might share that with developers – Naked Security. Amazon is considering handing transcripts of everything Alexa hears over to third-party developers, according to sources close to the matter cited in a report from The Information. One developer who used to be a product head on Amazon’s Alexa team, Ahmed Bouzid, says that current access only gives developers “70% of what they need to know” to get better at doing customers’ bidding.

The Information reports that some teams already have access to full recording data, though it’s not clear which developers get added to that list and why. This would be the first time that full transcripts from Amazon’s voice assistant were shared with third-party developers. Amazon told CBS This Morning that it wouldn’t do this kind of thing without opt-in: We do not share customer-identifiable information to third-party skills [apps] without the customer’s consent. That’s not particularly reassuring. But it’s certainly possible that the voice assistant can be triggered by mistake. To delete specific recordings: Alexa told a child to do potentially lethal ‘challenge’ Amazon’s Alexa told a child to touch a penny to the exposed prongs of a phone charger plugged into the wall, according to one parent who posted screenshots of their Alexa activity history showing the interaction (via Bleeping Computer).

The device seemingly pulled the idea for the challenge from an article describing it as dangerous, citing news reports about an alleged challenge trending on TikTok. According to Kristin Livdahl’s screenshot, the Echo responded to “tell me a challenge to do” with “Here’s something I found on the web. According to ourcommunitynow.com: The challenge is simple: plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.” In a statement to the BBC, Amazon confirmed Alexa’s behavior, saying, “As soon as we became aware of this error, we took swift action to fix it.” Livdahl tweeted yesterday that asking for a challenge was no longer working. Amazon didn’t immediately reply to The Verge’s request for comment. Why Amazon Alexa told a 10-year-old to do a deadly challenge. Amazon’s Alexa recently recommended to a 10 year-old girl that she should put a coin against an electrified plug.

The voice assistant gave the response when the child asked for a ‘challenge’ from the Echo speaker. “Here’s something I found on the web”, Amazon replied, “The challenge is simple: plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.” The dangerous activity, known as "the penny challenge", began circulating on TikTok and other social media websites about a year ago, the BBC reported.

Why did Alexa make the suggestion? The smart speaker made the suggestion because Alexa uses information on the web to give responses to questions it does not know the answer to. In this instance, Alexa was using information it found on a site called Our Community Now, a Colorado organisation. The Independent has reached out to the website, and Amazon, for more information. What can be done about it? Amazon Does The Unthinkable And Sends Alexa Recordings To The Wrong Person. How a hacked Amazon Echo could secretly capture your most intimate moments | Ars Technica. Www.trustedreviews. Amazon’s Echo products have passed their “growth phase” with the company expecting only moderate increases in sales of the Alexa-powered smart speakers and displays. Internal documents spied by Bloomberg Businessweek show that large sections of the Echo owners do not use their devices on a weekly basis.

Meanwhile, the documents also reveal that Amazon has had years where upto 25% of new Alexa-powered devices were no longer active after just one week of use. That suggests these were either unwanted gifts, impulse buys, or the novelty of voice control has worn off very quickly indeed. The engagement stats will be concerning to Amazon, which has seen a massive and often deeply-incentivised growth of devices like the Echo speaker, Echo Dot, Echo Show and a number of other spin-offs. According to the documents only 56% of Echo Dot owners, the most affordable Echo speaker in the range, use their device on a weekly basis. Save a massive 52% on this Lenovo Smart Alarm Clock. Amazon-wants-to-record-doctorpatient-conversations-with-new-online-service-38746406. Amazon wants to record doctor-patient conversations to make transcripts less troublesome for medical staff, the company says.

The tech giant’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) subsidiary has just unveiled a voice transcription service called Amazon Transcribe Medical that is being marketed to doctors, first in the US but with other countries set to follow.The service works by recording physical conversations between a doctor and patient, analysing it and punctuating it using advanced ‘machine learning’. A transcript of the conversation is then made available.It is aimed at saving doctors time on paperwork in writing up appointments, especially as so many us relatively old fashioned dictation devices. Online Editors. Get lost, Alexa: most Britons shun digital assistants over spying fears. Alexa won’t tell you whether she’s connected to the CIA. Gizmodo. Amazon Sidewalk: What It Is, What It Does, How to Opt-Out.

Amazon Alexa partnership puts patient data 'at risk' A new partnership between the NHS and Amazon Alexa lacks a “concerning” amount of information around data protection, patient confidentiality and safety, it has been said. The partnership, announced today, allows users to ask for health advice from verified NHS sources using their Alexa device with NHSX confirming in a tweet that the health service is not “paying Amazon a penny”. While some within the NHS welcomed the news, others have raised concerns around patient safety and data protection. A lack of detail about how patient data will be used and stored makes the deal appear like a “crazy PR stunt”, according to Phil Booth, a co-ordinator at medConfidential. Personal and health data is heavily protected under GDPR in the UK, but Amazon Alexa doesn’t comply with the same laws, Booth said.

“We know that Alexa conversations are recorded and stored indefinitely unless the person specifically deletes them,” he added. Amazon Alexa partnership in brief.