The spy you paid for – Amazon’s Alexa listens to everything you say

[KhalaiMakhlooq]

The spy you paid for – Amazon’s Alexa listens to everything you say

12 April 2019 | https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/la...ets-sexual-assault-data-whistleblower-romania

TECHNOPHOBES have been saying for ages that our cool new digital assistants are a privacy nightmare. They’re right.

Amazon’s Alexa isn’t just a handy device to play music on demand or set a timer to take the roast out of the oven. It's also a spy that you have welcomed into your home.

A shock report from Bloomberg News reveals that Amazon employees have been listening to, transcribing and even sharing conversations recorded by Alexa and Echo smart speakers.

A team of full-time Amazon staff and freelance contractors at offices around the world – from the US to India – are tasked with listening to the Alexa conversation to help fine-tune the system’s speech recognition.

A whistleblower reveals that the employees joke about the things Amazon customers say and in come cases will share the funniest conversations on an internal company chatroom.

In one case, it has been alleged, a sexual assault was recorded but not reported.

JOKES: Amazon employees reportedly shared the funniest conversations they heard (Pic: Amazon)

Workers have flagged up distressing conversations, and while Amazon say they have procedures in place to deal with them, two employees based in Amazon’s Romania data centre said that, after requesting guidance for such cases, they were told it wasn’t Amazon’s job to interfere.

Bank details and other personal information have also been recorded by the devices.

Lawyers have warned that Amazon could be in line for a fine of up to $9billion (£7billion) if the company has broken the EU’s rules around consumers’ privacy.

SECRETS: Alexa data centre staff hare said to have overheard sensitive information (Pic: Alamy)

Asked about the issue by Bloomberg, an Amazon spokesperson responded: “We take the security and privacy of our customers’ personal information seriously.

“We only annotate an extremely small sample of Alexa voice recordings in order [to] improve the customer experience.

“For example, this information helps us train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems, so Alexa can better understand your requests, and ensure the service works well for everyone.

“We have strict technical and operational safeguards, and have a zero tolerance policy for the abuse of our system.

Employees do not have direct access to information that can identify the person or account as part of this workflow.

“All information is treated with high confidentiality and we use multi-factor authentication to restrict access, service encryption and audits of our control environment to protect it.”

SECURITY: Users can turn the devices off, but often forget they're listening (Pic: Amazon)

POWERFUL: The information gathered could potentially be very useful (Pic: Alamy)

 

[KhalaiMakhlooq]

Amazon Staff Are Listening To Alexa Conversations -- Here's What To Do

12 April 2019 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2019/04/12/amazon-staff-are-listening-to-alexa-conversations-heres-what-to-do/

Amazon employs thousands of people around the world to listen to voice recordings captured in Echo users’ homes and offices. An Amazon Echo multimedia smart speaker, taken on November 28, 2016. (Photo by Joby Sessions/T3 Magazine via Getty Images) GETTY

Over 100 million Amazon Echos have been sold as of the start of 2019: That’s no small number. But some people might be looking to throw away their device after it emerged that Amazon employs thousands of people around the world to listen to voice recordings captured in Echo users’ homes and offices.

According to Bloomberg, the recordings are transcribed and annotated before being fed back into the software. The aim is to eliminate gaps in the voice assistant’s understanding of human speech so it can better respond to commands.

But here’s where it gets super-creepy.

After two workers thought they had picked up a sexual assault, they were told it wasn’t Amazon’s job to interfere.

So how are they listening to this private and sometimes shocking information? For a start, the reviewers are required to record the data whether the device has been activated on purpose or not. Meanwhile, if the reviewers hear any private details such as people’s names or bank details, they are told to simply mark it as “critical data” and move on to the next audio file.

What does Amazon say?

Amazon says the recordings aren’t widespread - and they are for a purpose. “We only annotate an extremely small number of interactions from a random set of customers in order to improve the customer experience,” a spokesperson tells me in an email.

Amazon uses this information to train its speech recognition and natural language understanding systems, so Alexa can better understand requests and ensure the service works well for everyone, the spokesperson says. “We have strict technical and operational safeguards, and have a zero tolerance policy for the abuse of our system. Employees do not have direct access to information that can identify the person or account as part of this workflow. While all information is treated with high confidentiality and we use multi-factor authentication to restrict access, service encryption, and audits of our control environment to protect it, customers can delete their voice recordings associated with their account at any time.”

So the workers don’t know who the information belongs to and as Amazon said, its purpose is to improve the way the Echo works. However, Amazon does not explicitly tell users that a human could be listening to sometimes private recordings of their day-to-day life.

Echo privacy compared with Google Home and Apple HomePod

Bloomberg saw a screenshot showing that recordings sent to the Alexa reviewers don’t include your full name and address. However, they are linked with an account number, as well as a device serial number and your first name.

But Amazon is not the only one using human helpers: Apple’s Siri uses them to see if the outcome matches the initial request. Apple does not store these with personally identifiable information.

Google also uses human reviewers but again the audio is not stored with information that could identify an individual.

What to do

Many security experts think smart speakers – including the Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod – are inherently insecure and you should not use them.

However, if you do continue to use your Echo – or similar device – there are a few things you can do to lock it down. First go to your device’s privacy settings and disable everything that might be collecting your data.

On the Echo, you have the option to disable voice recordings for the development of new features. However, even if you do opt out, it’s possible that recordings will be analyzed by hand over the regular course of the review process.

The Alexa Privacy Settings page is available via www.amazon.com/alexaprivacy or through the Alexa Privacy tab in Settings in the Alexa App.

You can also switch the device off and only use it when needed, or ensure it only responds to one person’s voice. At the same time, it’s possible to listen to the voice recordings associated with your account and delete all previous voice recordings in your settings.

You can also configure certain Echo devices to play a short audible tone any time audio is sent to the cloud.

Smart home devices add convenience to your life but they also come with significant security risks. If you are going to use them, make sure you lock them down as much as possible to keep your private data safe.

 

[khansaheeb]

No just Alexis, but your mobile phones, your laptops and PCs, your google home minis, Siri etc. George Orwell's 1984 is now reality.