6 ms·
Having a microphone/speaker in people's houses seems like a great way to collect a ton of data & guide their behavior.
by kevmo 4y ago
Having a microphone/speaker in people's houses seems like a great way to collect a ton of data & guide their behavior.
- lotsofpulp 4y agoIs it collecting that data when not spoken to?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Godel_unicode 4y agoNo.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 4y agoWhat behavior do they hope to collect that is not a huge privacy liability with the effort? They already know where millions of people spend their money (not say they will buy, but actually follow through).
- mabbo 4y agoNo security researcher has ever found proof that they are "always on" and recording everything people say. If they were, it would be front-page news and Amazon would have government investigations. The devices listen for their wake word before ever transmitting data to the cloud. (This is also because the sheer amount of bandwidth needed for always-on would be un-economical even for Amazon).
- mr_gibbins 4y agoThis is not strictly true. I examined a master's degree thesis last semester where the student proved conclusively that Alexa devices are periodically spamming bursts of data back to Amazon HQ even when not woken. Beyond a heartbeat, too - MBs of data, not KBs. No clear idea what that data is, though. There's at least a small chance it isn't benign.
- djbusby 4y agoSo, mitmproxy that traffic and see what it is?
- mr_gibbins 4y agoScope of his work didn't go that far, he looked at several devices and Alexa was notably chatty. He was measuring for abnormal data bursts from IoT home devices - included things like smart bulbs etc.
- ahepp 4y agoisn't the point of SSL that you can't do that (assuming the client is verifying certs, etc)?
- jefftk 4y agolink?
- mr_gibbins 4y agoUnpublished. It's still going through board approval. As/when it's put on my institution's open repository I'll post a link. Might be a few weeks though.
- registeredcorn 4y agoInterested to hear more, once it's through! :)
- rightbyte 4y agoBe sure to put as a submit :)
- rglullis 4y agoDo sample recordings, reduce bitrate (you can have good voice recording and playback at less than 3kb/sec) and upload only if the device detects something worthy of notification. Hell, don't even send the sound, just send a weekly report of events.
- fh973 4y agoAmazon is surely aware of the aftermath of Google's accidental Wireless network war-driving. While absence is hard to prove, an intentional or unintentional data collection beyond what is stated in their policies is highly unlikely.
- dehrmann 4y agoI also don't think any insiders at any of these companies have leaked that they passively listen to what people say.
- badpun 4y agoSmartphones and laptops are already that.