Privacy advocates are sounding alarms about Amazon’s Alexa device. A few weeks ago, the commands users were giving to their “smart devices” were being monitored by humans all in the name of “product empowerment.” But there is even worse news for those who cherish their privacy.
Amazon Alexa’s always-on microphone that so many Americans have willingly invited into their homes gives employees at Amazon enough information that they can “easily” discover any user’s home address, according to a report by Gizmodo. Their report comes from unnamed Amazon employees who talked with Bloomberg News about the distressing and privacy-violating situation.
Bloomberg made it clear that there haven’t been any reports of Amazon employees or contractors actually abusing this power and tracking down users at home, however, they did say that this backend feature gives employees “unnecessarily broad access to customer data.”
Team members with access to Alexa users’ geographic coordinates can easily type them into third-party mapping software and find home residences, according to the employees, who signed nondisclosure agreements barring them from speaking publicly about the program. –Bloomberg News
Amazon is not denying employees have access to customer data and the company is attempting to downplay the implications. “Access to internal tools is highly controlled, and is only granted to a limited number of employees who require these tools to train and improve the service by processing an extremely small sample of interactions,” an Amazon spokesperson told Gizmodo by email. And Amazon failed to declare just how many a “limited number of employees” that could be, and several media outlets have speculated that it could be thousands.
“Our policies strictly prohibit employee access to or use of customer data for any other reason, and we have a zero tolerance policy for abuse of our systems.” the spokesperson continued. “We regularly audit employee access to internal tools and limit access whenever and wherever possible.” But it isn’t just a customer’s address Amazon employees can access easily. They can also get your phone number.
Bloomberg spoke to one Amazon employee who said that the company’s backend also displayed user phone numbers. That feature has allegedly been taken offline. Alexa consumers are largely unaware of the fact that they have no privacy from Amazon since purchasing an Alexa device.
It seems obvious to never bring an Amazon Alex device into your home if you’re someone who values privacy. However, it is unlikely customers knew or understood just how much of their privacy Amazon would be invading. While to the company has offered services that are often unmatched by other businesses, they could be in hot water should they navigate the privacy concerns in a similar manner as Facebook.
“IF YOU VALUE YOUR PRIVACY, NEVER BRING AN AMAZON ALEXA DEVICE INTO YOUR HOME”
ya think ! ? ! ?
The whole idea of a home assistant is gay.
Only a COMPLETE moron asswipe would ever have one of those or anything like it. If you know anyone who has one then you know they are a moronic asswipe. Do not associate with these knuckledragging idiots.
haha I called it when they first came out. People are idiots.
as a quadriplegic who only has partial use of one hand, this device allows me to turn on my lights, turn on my television, find out the time, find out the weather, see who is at the front door, unlock the front door, and generally have the ability to slightly function while my wife is at work. I guess I am just a lazy ass wipe. To give you an idea of what it is like, lay on your bed, duct tape your legs and left arm to your body, duct tape your right arm to your body above the elbow now duct tape your entire body to the bed. do you have a better way to do the things that I do with Alexa?
as a quadriplegic who only has partial use of one hand, this device allows me to turn on my lights, turn on my television, find out the time, find out the weather, see who is at the front door, unlock the front door, and generally have the ability to slightly function while my wife is at work. I guess I am just a lazy ass wipe. To give you an idea of what it is like, lay on your bed, duct tape your legs and left arm to your body, duct tape your right arm to your body above the elbow now duct tape your entire body to the bed. do you have a better way to do the things that I do with Alexa?
headed here: ht tps://ww w.youtube.com/watch?v=_xToQ4cIHkk
My college son got one for Christmas and I warned him if he turned it on in my house I would destroy it. He woke up to it in a sandwich bag in at least 1,000 pieces because he defied my demand….
But hey, it can shut off my lights so I don’t have to get off my fat lazy butt and flip a switch. It can tell me what time it is so I don’t have to take my cell phone from my ear and look at the screen, and it can play music if I am bored. Last it can sell me things until I am so far in debt on credit cards I lose my home. Who wouldn’t want all that? Next up, smart TV, smart Thermostat, Smart watch, and smart refrigerator. Don’t you understand how “Smart” I am? (sarc)
Need to make that a constitutional amendment.
These Acer Laptops Are First with Alexa Inside
AND SO ARE OTHERS LIKE DELL .
ht tps://www.laptopmag.com/articles/acer-laptops-amazon-alexa
True preppers don’t own or have any need for such a device..
The source code of this page has tracking cookies, which link to Amazon.
I would like to mention that a few days ago, approximately 10 days, I had no internet service on my computer……it would not even turn on except to a lighted dark blue screen. I had internet service to my television and PlayStation ,which all devices are on the same service as my computer. Checked all connections, all appeared good. My son did not even know what was wrong and said I would have to take my computer it in to see if it could be fixed. Mysteriously, approximately 12 to 15 hours later my computer seemed to have fixed itself. No problems since. ????????
No shit! to the title of article. That goes for the echo and any others. Security systems that are linked to companies. Bad idea. They listen.
What’s the point in commenting if my comments never show up at all…or 24hrs to 36hrs later?
To the lucky few that get to comment in almost real time i.e. Menzo…K2..good for y’all
The subjective screening of the screener…i.e. Mac is beyond me..
Giving up..going elsewhere!! Adios
Menzo, agreed. I don’t trust any of those devices. At one time I considered having a camera system installed in my home until I found out those could be hacked into so I dropped the idea. What’s in my home is no one’s damn business, period!
TDR I have a much better home security system than any company can provide. It is lethal instead of some disembodied voice telling the intruder to get out.
Menzo, AMEN to that one. My home security is also lethal and keeps what I have out of the hands of scumbags. Home assistant? I do everything around the house myself just fine. Don’t need no stinkin’ assistant.
Menzo, BTW, if there needs to be a voice, they can hear MY voice telling them to go away when I rack the slide on the 12-ga. at the same time. And my voice AIN’T disembodied. It’s as clear as clear can be.
I have many assistants. They go by the name of 1911, Sig, Glock, Mossberg, and even the judge. They are on the clock 24/7 and are always reliable and there is no monthly service fee attached to them.
Well, once they give you your national ID required for food and all other purchases, those assts of yours will become your only source for obtaining what you need to live on. Unless you’re coming along on the Rapture.
Know Christ, Know life.
NO Christ, NO life.
I remember a few years back a home security thing that set off a recording of a vicious dog ready to attack. I bet that would work good when yer not home. Wouldn’t be too hard to make one either. Add sounds of shotgun being racked and you shouting to get out or you will kill them.
Genius, LOL. As long as I can make those sounds myself I don’t need any gadget.
never leave your home, do you?
For the rest of us, wired security cameras and a few well placed Dakota alerts work well.
When the balloon goes up, the toe-poppers and related “gadgets” go online as well for the back 40
I have a voice activated security system with redundancy. 2 x 140 pound Rottweilers. And they ain’t sayin’ squat to anyone
TDR;
You don’t need a camera installed in your home…You just need to put that city in your rear view mirror and enjoy the rest of your life at your BOL..
Off topic, but the same thing: The state of Washington has begun a buy back of bump stocks. You go to the state patrol, given them the Bumpstock, your name, address, & other personal information & they send you a $150 check. Problem? All of the information you gave becomes PUBLIC. People who have complied are really pissed off about the outcome of this.
If you haven’t seen the movie with Tom Hanks about the global company he creates, the title is ‘The Circle’–watch it. THIS is what you will experience if someone doesn’t stop China and its efforts going on right now!!!
Wasn’t there a story not long ago that they want one in every bedroom?
Yes. I’ll just send them a close up of my dick to satisfy the perverted bastards.
next it will be video camera in every home to “assist” you…..i can hear their slogan now….”we don’t care about your virginity, ladies, we just want to see the box it came in”.
“.. The telescreen received and
transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made,
above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by
it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen
as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing
whether you were being watched at any given moment. How
often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on
any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable
that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate
they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You
had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in
the assumption that every sound you made was overheard,
and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized…”
-Orwell, 1984
Allowing FaceBook snoops.
Allowing snitch Siri and Alexa in your homes.
Carrying cell phone snitch devices and pretending it is a phone. Paying over a thousand dollars and a status symbol to spy on you. Idiots.
Allowing normalization of fags and drug culture TARGETED to your children in public schools. Pro fag Leftist commies teaching your children.
Watching NFL games, after players take a knee for National anthem.
Arresting Americans by FBI, for protecting the border.
You people will put up with anything.
Baa baa baa
BCOD, I’m the only one who decides what will be in my home and it WON’T be any cameras, alexas, or any of that shit. What I have in my home and what I do in my home is not someone else’s concern.
I have a couple of game cameras placed out of sight around the house. Also live cameras with night vision and a small monitor next to the bed next to the handheld night vision and .357 mag. and sks. 🙂
Youre pulling my leg. seriously going to shoot .357 mag one handed while trying to clear a house and trying to finangle a monocular night vision device with the other hand? Not to mention what single eye night vision devices do to your depth of field…
Well the cell phones have recorded everything you’ve said over the last 20 years. That’s why they have these mile long data storage facilities. Privacy has been gone for years.
This stuff spooks me so much that I whisper very quietly when near a wind up alarm clock. Seriously it’s getting to a ridiculous point when everything is watching, listening and recording.
I would like to know why I have been banned from commenting on your site?
Mean while just take a look at the number of trackers on this website. Privacy concerns my foot. Hypocrite…
No way in hell would I ever allow that creepy spy device into my home !
We got a letter in the mail yesterday addressed to County resident that said surveyors would be coming around door to door to take information on substance abuse, tobacco, alcohol use, etc. It said the interviewer may want to interview all members of the house. It had an example of the badges they will be wearing. Of course the information is for ‘data purposes’ only. I thought are you kidding me. Anyone that opens the door and gives any information to them is an idiot. The county that I live in has very few democrats or liberals…I’m not sure how well this is going to play out.
Amazon’s Alexa may be the greatest Trojan horse in history. Parents are carrying it right through the front door. It’s already functions like a Fascist censor indoctrinating their children. Now it is will track and video-record them and send the info to the highest bidders. American parents are truly the useful idiots of today.
Societal electronic domination is in effect the apple in the Biblical Garden Of Eden.
The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall. Winston turned a switch and the voice sank somewhat, though the words were still distinguishable. The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely. – 1984
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
Time for a repost from long ago and far away. Alexa, how do you spell shit for brains?
I got an Amazon Tap as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago. I like the Tap because is does NOT have the always on microphone. So it’s not spying on me 24/7. I use it to listen to Talk Radio or Conservative Podcasts, answer conversion questions for cooking when I forget, play music while I clean the house/garage or working on my car/tractor.
Amazon stopped making them because it didn’t have the always on microphone. They did make a “hands-free”….hint always on, update but you have to activate that feature which I don’t do.
“TAP”…As in “WIRETAP”…As in “TAPE”…The name tells you exactly what it is designed to do
This is illegal wiretapping pure and simple. Jeff Bezos and the rest of the Amazon employees and subcontractors involved in this crime should be charged, tried, and incarcerated. No exemptions for big corporations.
Most of the internet search engines keep a history of the websites that you visit. These histories can be used as evidence. They can also be deleted.
This is more of what I call “THE BIG DUH”.
Don’t use Alexa. Don’t use Amazon period.
Don’t use Facebook. I terminated mine years ago.
Don’t use Twitter.
We had a saying back in the 60s. Turn on. Tune in. Drop out.
For the new millennium. Turn off. Tune out. Drop into what’s real.