Stop what you’re doing, Amazon sent Echo recordings of a couple to a complete stranger
without them knowing.
The stranger found 1700 recordings from an amazon alexa and He didn’t even have an
alexa.
Does anyone else wanna literally throw their home assistant at a wall right now?
What is happening good people of youtube, this is inform overload where we tell you
about the most interesting news stories we find on the internet.
I’m charlotte dobre and you guys are potatoes.
Tell me in the comments, do you guys have a digital home assistant?
Do you want one?
We actually have a google home in the office that I am low key afraid of, and this next
story will show you why.
A german man reqested data through europes’s GDPR privacy law.
Several months later He received records of his amazon searches and purchases, but interestingly,
he found 1700 recordings and transcripts from an amazon echo.
The problem was, he didn’t have an echo, or any digital assistant.
When he took a listen to some of the recordings, he realised that he was sent private recordings
belonging to a complete stranger.
Amazon sent him the entire recording log of this total stranger.
He contacted amazon, but not go response.
The files were deleted from the link amazon sent, but by that point, he had already downloaded
all the files to his computer.
After not receiving any response from amazon about the issue, The dude contacted the german
news outlet heise because he was concerned that the person who’s privacy had been breached
had no idea that it happened.
The outlet tracked down the guy speaking in the recordings, and the name of his girlfriend,
because guess what, their names were in the recordings.
That is right, this news outlet was able to EASILY find the person in the recordings through
this incident.
Dude is anyone else really scared right now.
This is the beginning of the amazon alexa revolution.
This is clear that home assistants like alexa are recording your questions.
You might ask a home assistant about the weather, to play a song, to set an alarm etcetera.
But in saying commands to a home assistant, you reveal a lot about yourself.
Like for example, you could ask alexa what your morning transit route is.
43 million people use amazon’s digital assistants.
All your interactions are recorded by the company that makes the digital home assistant.
Google and amazon like to reassure users that their privacy is protected, but its clear
that that might not always be the case.
Once the guy on the recordings was told about about this error by journalists, he was audibly
shocked on the phone.
The recordings included detailed info about his job, se of public transport, the name
of his girlfriend and some of his friends.
There were even recordings of him in the shower.
IN THE FRIGGIN SHOWER GUYS.
Its clear that amazon didn’t contact the man who’s recordings they sent when it happened,
even though they knew about it.
They only responded after the huge media stinkstorm caused by the magazine.
Then and only then did they apologise and said in a statement to reuters, ‘this unfortunate
case was the result of human error and an isolated single case.
We resolved the issue with the two customers involved and took measures to further optimize
our processes.
As a precautionary measure, we contacted the relevant authorities.
Amazon has been using the exact same response for all news outlets requesting for comment
on this issue.
What I wanna know is, if this really was human error, then how did that human not think to
contact the affected parties and tell them that their private recordings were sent to
a total stranger.
They did however give the affected person a free amazon prime membership and an echo
dot and spot.
Oh great, another home assistant, what a perfect way to reprimand this situation.
Anyways guys that is all I have for you on this, let me know your thoughts on this story
in the comments bur for now, im gonna do some comment replies.
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