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It was requesting my personal information from Amazon that made me decide to dump all my Alexa smart devices. We had bought one for my in-laws and the Echo had

It was requesting my personal information from Amazon that made me decide to dump all my Alexa smart devices. We had bought one for my in-laws and the Echo had picked up entire conversations between them even though the wake word had not been said. They were categorised under "Not intended for Alexa". My father in-law is at the end of his life, and I really hated the fact that deeply private and incredibly poignant conversations would probably be listened to by a human somewhere to better calibrate the device.

patrec 5y ago
Wow, that's bad. It seems obvious that something like Alexa would transmit some amount of data not intended for it and that would be listened to by someone for training purposes. And probably enough data that someone remotely privacy conscious would not voluntarily install some 24/7 listening device into their inner sanctum. But what on earth would posses Alexa to record entire conversations without either piping up ("sorry, I did not understand this request") or figuring out after a few seconds that this was probably a false alarm and turning itself off? How would this be remotely excusable? How long was the longest recording not really intended for Alexa?
- shever73 5y ago
  I've switched off all voice-activated devices in my home. I'm not sure how long the longest recording was...I'll go back over the data to have a look, but the one that really broke my heart was about 20 seconds during which my mother in-law was upset because my father in-law was not waking up.
  - patrec 5y ago
    I'm sorry that you went through this. I think even a really short recording (under 20s), of a distraught, close person at some critical junction would feel very unsettling to me especially with the knowledge that it shouldn't really exist, I shouldn't be able to listen to it, and it probably was listened to by some complete strangers as well as part of some routine megacorp work.

patrec 5y ago

Wow, that's bad. It seems obvious that something like Alexa would transmit some amount of data not intended for it and that would be listened to by someone for training purposes. And probably enough data that someone remotely privacy conscious would not voluntarily install some 24/7 listening device into their inner sanctum. But what on earth would posses Alexa to record entire conversations without either piping up ("sorry, I did not understand this request") or figuring out after a few seconds that this was probably a false alarm and turning itself off? How would this be remotely excusable? How long was the longest recording not really intended for Alexa?

shever73 5y ago
I've switched off all voice-activated devices in my home. I'm not sure how long the longest recording was...I'll go back over the data to have a look, but the one that really broke my heart was about 20 seconds during which my mother in-law was upset because my father in-law was not waking up.
- patrec 5y ago
  I'm sorry that you went through this. I think even a really short recording (under 20s), of a distraught, close person at some critical junction would feel very unsettling to me especially with the knowledge that it shouldn't really exist, I shouldn't be able to listen to it, and it probably was listened to by some complete strangers as well as part of some routine megacorp work.