Amazon Alexa Keeps Your Data With No Expiration Date, and Shares It Too (cnet.com) 67
If you have hangups about Amazon and privacy on its smart assistant, Alexa, you're not alone. Even after Amazon sent answers to a US senator who had questions about how the tech giant retains voice data and transcripts, the lawmaker remains concerned about Alexa's privacy practices. From a report: Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in May, demanding answers on Alexa and how long it kept voice recordings and transcripts, as well as what the data gets used for. The letter came after CNET's report that Amazon kept transcripts of interactions with Alexa, even after people deleted the voice recordings. The deadline for answers was June 30, and Amazon's vice president of public policy, Brian Huseman, sent a response on June 28. In the letter, Huseman tells Coons that Amazon keeps transcripts and voice recordings indefinitely, and only removes them if they're manually deleted by users. Huseman also noted that Amazon had an "ongoing effort to ensure those transcripts do not remain in any of Alexa's other storage systems." But there are still records from some conversations with Alexa that Amazon won't delete, even if people remove the audio, the letter revealed.
Yeah, okay, so? (Score:5, Insightful)
*Who is going to stop them?*
Re:Yeah, okay, so? (Score:5, Insightful)
The consumers have the wherewithal to stop them by not playing.
But that won't happen. The trajectory is recorded in the Facebook model.
"Yeah, I know everything is shit, but my friends love my selfies."
Scary than that.... (Score:1)
The consumers have the wherewithal to stop them by not playing.
But that won't happen. The trajectory is recorded in the Facebook model.
"Yeah, I know everything is shit, but my friends love my selfies."
It's rapidly becoming "You're not on social media? What's wrong with you!"
I was at an interview last month. They said to me, "We couldn't find a facebook or LinkedIN profile for you."
"That's right - there isn't any."
Glances all around. After a couple more questions, the interview ended. I got a thanks but "you aren't what we're looking for now." email.
It could be that not having a social media account (LinkedIN IS social media site: NOT a jobs site.. Computerjobs and Monster and Craigslist ARE jobs site
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Had that back in 2008, where companies would call me a "fossil" and roundfile my resume, because I didn't have a Facebook or Twitter account. I created dummy accounts just to make them happy. LinkedIn is definitely social media, and I keep a sanitized profile there with some inane postings about what's going on in the industry, as well as some pointers to my GitHub repository.
Some things change. Monster and Dice, one doesn't use anymore unless you want your phone ringing off the hook with "Kumar" looking
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Moot point. It's like asking people who live in Kansas or California or along the east and south coasts of the country where natural disasters are practically an annual event, "Why don't you just move?"
Or like saying, "The way to fix your Windows problem is to stop using Windows."
Pointless remark.
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I don't know why this was modded down. What you're describing is precisely what the future will be.
When I read about border guards and airports wanting to look at my social media accounts,I don't have any.
I'm retired and got rid of LinkedIn. It was a piece of shit, anyway. And you're right -- it is social media.
Hell, /. is social media.
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The consumers have the wherewithal to stop them by not playing.
Indeed. I have an Alexa in my kitchen. That is MY choice. When I say "Alexa, add milk to the shopping list", I am fully aware that Amazon stores it. Why? Because I can browse my history on their website. They are obviously retaining the information. The reasons are also obvious: marketing, and expanding the dataset for training their voice recognition software.
There is no evidence that they are recording any audio that is not prefaced with the keyword. So when I want to discuss international drug sm
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I don't give a F if Amazon knows I have insomnia (based on how often I ask the time at night). And I live alone, so barring talking in my sleep, there's not much else they can learn from me anyway.
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Here is some. [vanityfair.com]
Enjoy your smuggling and assasination plot conversations.
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I don't have any home assistants like that, OK?
Like you, I don't have a problem with what it doers because I'm aware.
My question to you, though, is: Doesn't Alexa have to listen to every word uttered?
My theoretical knowledge suggests that Alexa is listening to every syllable and asking itself, "Is that the wake word?"
If No, then idle, else, wake.
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It's just like smoking. People knew it was bad but did it anyway due to addiction and social pressures.
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Its poossible, Amazon after all, doesn't have a monopoly on these things.
So I'll show them by not buying or using an Alexa device.
I've got a Google Home instead...
Re: How does this compare to moz://a's data retent (Score:1)
Firefox staffers are too busy trying to outwoke each other to actually steal your data.
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It is a consumer issue so the European Union might step in (provided that they also do it in the EU). It has happend quite a few times before after all.
That said, the person, Margrethe Vestager, who has been starting all those courtcases (against Google and others) is likely getting promoted to vice president, so maybe nothing will happen.
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If the person starting these court cases is getting promoted, there's a reasonable chance her successor will see continuing to prosecute them as a path for promotion.
Consumerism can't address social needs (Score:2)
And who's going to stop /. posters from making unprovable claims about data retention and use when other stories come up about spying? These claims come up all the time and the followups show up where posters make claims beyond their knowledge based on either absolutely nothing or an appearance in a UI—if the user can't get to their recordings from over X days ago they assume those recordings were deleted.
In both cases, those who know better should engage in counterspeech to help inform everyone else.
But there are still records from some conversation (Score:2, Insightful)
Remember Some conversations could actually turn out to be 99.9999999999999% of conversations
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Other articles actually explain what conversations are retained: Those that contain prove that you ordered something or paid some service, like an Uber or a Lift, or an order from Amazon. It makes absolutely sense to retain those recordings.
Amazon's Master Plan is now obious (Score:2)
They are going to record enough of users' data and transcripts so they can produce android (haw, haw) robot replacements for the users. The AI in these robots will make them indistinguishable from the real users, who are kidnapped by Amazon delivery folks, when they stop by to bring you by something that you don't need, at a price you can't afford.
With half of the population replaced by Amabots, Jeff Bezos will easily win the election as President of the US.
Because the Prime Directive programmed into the
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You've basically described a great episode of the show Black Mirror, titled Be Right Back (except they people aren't kidnapped, they are dead).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
From the link:
As she mourns him, she discovers that technology now allows her to communicate with an artificial intelligence imitating Ash, and reluctantly decides to try it.
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I haven't gotten around to Season 2 of that yet, but plan to.
Black Mirror is pretty incredible, reminds me of the non-core X-Files episodes (Jose Chung FTW).
So? It's crap anyway (Score:2)
Here's what it's going to be sharing in my house:
The weather.
Encyclopedia lookups.
Bad jokes.
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Here's what it's going to be sharing in my house:
The weather.
Encyclopedia lookups.
Bad jokes.
And every other snippet of conversation that it can suck up. I have a hard time believing that they're not grabbing every syllable they can.
Having a "private" conversation with your wife/husband or making phone calls and conversations within earshot of an Amazon device? Maybe it's listening, maybe it's not...how would you really know?
I wouldn't bat an eyelash if we later find out that it's essentially "on" all the time and gobbling up everything it can hear. And I don't mean that it's "waiting" for a voice
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It would be suicidally stupid of them to do this. You can easily detect when the device is sending data, so it would be eventually caught out if they were doing this, and it would cause them huge issues in the long term.
Lol, oh sweet Summer child, you are adorable.
If caught they'd just say it was a "software bug" or "inadvertent behavior" or or "beta code" or a feature that "wasn't supposed to be activated", etc etc etc.
The 'huge issue' would be a fine of X millions of dollars (maybe), and it wouldn't even amount to a rounding error on Amazon's books. They spend more on paper clips than any fine that would be ordered (if one ever did get adjudicated, which is doubtful).
Really, after all the shit we've seen corporations pul
You get what you deserve (Score:5, Insightful)
There's no shortage of situations where the privacy of a user is compromised without their knowledge or consent. When you voluntarily install a device in your own house that pretty much exists to gather information about you and send it off to be monetized, though, I don't think you've got much in the way of grounds for a complaint.
How naive do you have to be to fail to understand this simple fact: a device tailor made to collect personal information about you and send it to the provider for monetization is almost certain to be just a bit more efficient than you thought.
OF COURSE (Score:5, Insightful)
"Amazon Alexa Keeps Your Data With No Expiration Date, and Shares It Too"
Of course they do, and anyone that thinks they didn't or wouldn't is naive at best and blindingly stupid at worst.
OF COURSE they'll keep, trade, and sell your data. That's what it's all about, kids.
No one is surprised (Score:3, Insightful)
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Sure... I have an Alexa (Score:2)
I have an Alexa and I've always run under the assumption that everything I said would be recorded and stored for all time... just like anything else that is done online- once you do it, it's recorded for ever.
Therefore all they have is me asking "what's the weather tomorrow, what are you wearing, and set a timer for 15 minutes". I don't ask anything that would be sensitive or personally identifying.
Re:Sure... I have an Alexa (Score:5, Interesting)
Your voice IS personally identifying. Your voice pattern is turned into a unique fingerprint, which is used to disentangle your voice from that of your housemaktes. But they can also use it to track you wherever there is an Alexa listening. It's part of a bigger picture: https://www.fastcompany.com/90... [fastcompany.com]
More importantly, these tiny snippets can be used to derive data about you using machine learning.
- Your voice reveals the state of your relationship (can't find the link now, but it was on Slashdot)
- Your voice reveals your emotional state. See:
https://www.rd.com/health/well... [rd.com]
- And much more...
Then there's the meta data. How often you use it, for example. If you use it late at night and early in the morning, Amazon knows your sleeping pattern. And that has a lot of implications for health insurers. This might interest you:
https://science.slashdot.org/s... [slashdot.org]
Then there's the upcoming shift to 'conversational voice interfaces', which is a eufemism for always listening and recording devices.
Using an Alexa is like smoking cigarettes. You are not only hurting the long term prospects of yourself, but also those of your family and friends. As we shift from an information society to a reputation society, the generated profiles will be increasingly used against your interests in subtle ways.
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Note that when it hears anything it lights up. At least mine do. Just speaking, not saying Alexa. The TV has activated it a couple of times without the name command, I'm not sure how that happened.
We have four of them, mostly for music (and then mostly for the all night Motzart the kids listen to).
I do go to a room without one when wanting to speak privately.
old news (Score:3)
I forget the number of articles the last few months that is saying the same thing. willing to bet the other home assistants are doing the same but they are not being mentioned. it is as if someone is out to get amazon trying to get market share for their own service.
anyone with any common sense will know alexa is collecting data. I use alexa, and I also use google home. I realized that my info is out there though I am old enough where it won't affect me that much :-) People just have to remember everything is collecting and storing data about you. I am waiting for the first candidate to be called out for some online search they done when in high school. It is bad enough people remember things that was done when young, stupid, and immature while using it against them.
Data has been collected from people for years. I still get junk mail with my full name and a middle initial. I don't have a middle name. It was because a small town cable company accidentally gave me one back in the early 80's. it does make it easier to sort real mail from junk :-) the point is, data collecting has been around for years. just out in the open more than in the past.
MyCroft (Score:2)
It's not "Your" Data (Score:2)
It's not YOUR data. It's AMAZON'S data about you. Big difference.
Don't let (Score:2)
When your done with the computer for the day, the ads should turn off with the computer.
Dont let the collection system stay on 24/7.
Re: Don't let (Score:2)
"Don't let the gestapo in your house."
FTFY
Gee (Score:2)
I bought a spying device and put it in my house and now I'm being spied on. I blame Brexit.