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Danielle, a resident of Portland, Oregon claimed that her Echo Dot device recorded a private conversation at her home with her husband and sent it to one of her husband’s employee’s. She said that the employee called and informed them about the message, saying that he heard them discuss hardwood floors. Upon receiving the news, the couple disconnected the machine and informed amazon promptly.
The Echo Dot is a smart speaker that uses Amazon’s Alexa “to play music, control smart home devices, make calls, send and receive messages, provide information … and more.” There’s a light ring on the top of the device that lights up when recording. When a user says the ‘wake word’, which is set to ‘Alexa’ by default, the device records the speech and sends to over the cloud of interpretation.
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Amazon explains, “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 customer’s contact list. Alexa then asked out loud, ‘[contact name], right?’ Alexa then interpreted background conversation as ‘right’.”
This seems highly unlikely and Danielle claims that she did not hear the machine asking for permission. Amazon further said, “As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely” and offered to refund the family for their 5 Echo Dots.
Just last month Amazon fixed a related issue that allowed developers to make Echo continue to listen to conversations once it was activated with the wake-word.
Doesn’t look like a good time for Amazon as it’s being reported that Google Home shipped more devices this quarter than Amazon. Though it is for sure that the sheer number of smart home integrations and Alexa skills is hard to compete with. But smart devices, like the Amazon Echo Dot, are certainly taking over in a technology-led world. Technology is indeed man’s reach exceeding his grasp.