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People have discovered how to at least gain access locally. https://github.com/echohacking/wiki/wiki https://github.com/echohacking/wiki/wiki https://www.reddi

People have discovered how to at least gain access locally. https://github.com/echohacking/wiki/wiki https://github.com/echohacking/wiki/wiki https://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/4inesj/rooting_the_amazon_echo_pdf/ https://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/4inesj/rooting_the_... Am I saying people shouldn't be skeptical? No. But I'm saying people are focusing on a subset of devices when they've had cordless phones, cell phones, and PCs in their homes for decades. I just get tired of the constant fear-mongering, if we have evidence of a problem, call out Amazon and have them fix it. The cops in this story are banking mostly on the fact that it was accidentally triggered and they have some kind of audio, that's legit. Yet this article was written as if Amazon might magically expose some recording capability.

politician 10y ago
PCs, cell phones, and cordless phones have all previously been tapped or hacked on behalf of law enforcement and other actors, so people generally know and understand what they're getting into there. These microphone devices are new. People, even HNers, mistakenly think that these devices are not listening until a magic word is uttered (full stop). Many people will not realize that the connection to the internet is bidirectional for data AND code (updates). That's really bad - it means that people don't understand the capabilities of the device they've brought into their homes. There is a problem here and the evidence is plain: (a) wide spread ignorance about how these things work, and (b) the hot mic combined with the network connection imply a capability, even if currently unexpressed. Device manufactures are not adequately informing the public of the possible side effects of these products. Therefore, I believe that LE should gain access to these devices with a warrant under the Third Party Doctrine, and that these warrants should be published on sites like HN so that people may become aware just as they are aware of taps on phones.
- calibration263 10y ago
  I think the previous posters point is that the risk incurred by an Amazon Echo is the exact same as any modern smartphone. That iPhones and Android devices have supported Ok Google and Hey Siri for a while now, are also already always listening, and already get OTA updates. Your claim that "these microphone devices are new" seems to imply you're excluding almost every smart phone we already have in our pocket, with the exact same network attached hot mic concerns.

politician 10y ago

PCs, cell phones, and cordless phones have all previously been tapped or hacked on behalf of law enforcement and other actors, so people generally know and understand what they're getting into there. These microphone devices are new. People, even HNers, mistakenly think that these devices are not listening until a magic word is uttered (full stop). Many people will not realize that the connection to the internet is bidirectional for data AND code (updates). That's really bad - it means that people don't understand the capabilities of the device they've brought into their homes. There is a problem here and the evidence is plain: (a) wide spread ignorance about how these things work, and (b) the hot mic combined with the network connection imply a capability, even if currently unexpressed. Device manufactures are not adequately informing the public of the possible side effects of these products. Therefore, I believe that LE should gain access to these devices with a warrant under the Third Party Doctrine, and that these warrants should be published on sites like HN so that people may become aware just as they are aware of taps on phones.

calibration263 10y ago
I think the previous posters point is that the risk incurred by an Amazon Echo is the exact same as any modern smartphone. That iPhones and Android devices have supported Ok Google and Hey Siri for a while now, are also already always listening, and already get OTA updates. Your claim that "these microphone devices are new" seems to imply you're excluding almost every smart phone we already have in our pocket, with the exact same network attached hot mic concerns.