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>First thought that comes to mind is: If Amazon lets the police access the Echo it would prove they're constantly listening, even if the device is in "Mute" mod

by ryanlol 10y ago

>First thought that comes to mind is: If Amazon lets the police access the Echo it would prove they're constantly listening, even if the device is in "Mute" mode Yeah, but this is entirely ridiculous. It's trivial for anyone with access to the device to verify that it most likely doesn't do that.

gm-conspiracy 10y ago
I like your qualifier, "most likely". How would one determine if it is not buffering and compressing data client-side for later transmission during "firmware" updates? Additionally, who has setup an automated testing framework for such things after each firmware upgrade? How many firmware upgrades have there been for the Echo? Also, how do we know that your Echo and my Echo are running the same firmware, and will always run the same firmware version?
- ryanlol 10y ago
  >I like your qualifier, "most likely". Yeah, it gets harder when you need to be sure. >How would one determine if it is not buffering and compressing data client-side for later transmission during "firmware" updates? AFAIK you can root the device pretty easily, so you should be at least able to verify that the main OS of the device isn't doing this. >Also, how do we know that your Echo and my Echo are running the same firmware, and will always run the same firmware version? Boot them both from a read only SD card.
  - notsoeasy 10y ago
    > AFAIK you can root the device pretty easily, so you should be at least able to verify that the main OS of the device isn't doing this. And if it doesn't, you still don't know. So why even bother? Why not simply throw it and anyone peddling it out of the window? That's making sure rather than derping about.
    - ryanlol 10y ago
      Do you really have 0 microphones in your house? What about speakers, those are basically microphones too? If you have access to the main OS it's also relatively easy to verify that the secretly recorded audio data isn't being uploaded anywhere, unless these devices have some secret radio equipment in them.
danielrhodes 10y ago
Not if you're a conspiracy theorist and don't trust anybody -- then everybody always has a reason to listen in on your mundane conversations!
- icantdrive55 10y ago
  The data extracted from mundane conversations would be very valuable to many entities. Companies/entities would pay through the nose to know what people value, like, even argue about.

by ryanlol 10y ago

gm-conspiracy 10y ago

I like your qualifier, "most likely". How would one determine if it is not buffering and compressing data client-side for later transmission during "firmware" updates? Additionally, who has setup an automated testing framework for such things after each firmware upgrade? How many firmware upgrades have there been for the Echo? Also, how do we know that your Echo and my Echo are running the same firmware, and will always run the same firmware version?

ryanlol 10y ago
>I like your qualifier, "most likely". Yeah, it gets harder when you need to be sure. >How would one determine if it is not buffering and compressing data client-side for later transmission during "firmware" updates? AFAIK you can root the device pretty easily, so you should be at least able to verify that the main OS of the device isn't doing this. >Also, how do we know that your Echo and my Echo are running the same firmware, and will always run the same firmware version? Boot them both from a read only SD card.
- notsoeasy 10y ago
  > AFAIK you can root the device pretty easily, so you should be at least able to verify that the main OS of the device isn't doing this. And if it doesn't, you still don't know. So why even bother? Why not simply throw it and anyone peddling it out of the window? That's making sure rather than derping about.
  - ryanlol 10y ago
    Do you really have 0 microphones in your house? What about speakers, those are basically microphones too? If you have access to the main OS it's also relatively easy to verify that the secretly recorded audio data isn't being uploaded anywhere, unless these devices have some secret radio equipment in them.

danielrhodes 10y ago

Not if you're a conspiracy theorist and don't trust anybody -- then everybody always has a reason to listen in on your mundane conversations!

icantdrive55 10y ago
The data extracted from mundane conversations would be very valuable to many entities. Companies/entities would pay through the nose to know what people value, like, even argue about.