3 ms·

Not the Parent commenter, but I can give some thoughts: - The phone is not designed to listen around the room explicitly, more near field, so it can't hear eve

• mikeash 9y ago
  Why are you so sure the baseband isn’t spying on you?
  • kop316 9y ago
    Frankly, I am not 100% sure it isn't, I am just reasonably sure. I think to do that is beyond the capability of the type of attacker I am worried about. Google/Amazon/Facebook/name your favorite commercial spying company won't exploit it, as they have their apps to do that sort of stuff. I don't think anyone else with that capability (i.e. name your favorite "spooky" government agency) is coming after me. Hence, reasonably sure.
• Johnny555 9y ago
  It may not be designed to "listen around the room explicitly", but my phone makes a decent speaker phone, so it still has that capability. And to be honest, I'd be less concerned with what my Echo hears in my livingroom compared with what my phone hears all day long. The Echo has pretty decent privacy settings (only listens when you say the "wake word", etc).
  • rconti 9y ago
    I don't disagree with phone vs stationary speaker in your house, but the "wake word" issue is precisely what the article deals with.
    • Johnny555 9y ago
      The article is talking about patents filed that may or may not ever end up in products, not current technology. But any wider use of audio processing to listen for keywords besides the wake word apply equally well to a cell phone. So again, the cell phone is at least as big a concern as an Echo, if not bigger since many people are rarely outside of arms-reach of their phone.