Hey Siri, how many people are listening to me?
Does anyone listen when we talk to Alexa, Cortana, Siri and the Google Assistant? That's what tech companies don't want to reveal. The scandal is that they can actually afford it.
There are obviously people who spend nine hours a day doing nothing but eavesdropping on conversations with Alexa. On behalf of Amazon, they are to evaluate hundreds of shots of users every day, as the news agency Bloomberg reported in mid-April. Seven of these employees have spoken to Bloomberg despite their secrecy agreement. They are part of a team of thousands who work and listen professionally in the USA, Costa Rica, India and Romania. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-10/is-anyone-listening-to-you-on-alexa-a-global-team-reviews-audio
It is quite possible that this report triggers a tired shrug of the shoulders. After all, after dozens of privacy scandals on Facebook, huge password leaks and of course the NSA revelations, we are used to the fact that privacy on the Internet is complicated anyway. But if a tech company actually overhears and evaluates what we language assistants say with offices full of employees, it has another dimension.
Language assistants like Alexa, Siri, Cortana and the Google Assistant present themselves as trustworthy helpers in everyday life, who you can chat to spontaneously. Alexa lives in smart loudspeakers that users are supposed to distribute in their homes. Siri can be activated at lightning speed by pressing the home button. All assistants have funny sayings ready - chatting with them should simply be fun.
How Google, Apple and Microsoft avoid a simple question
Those who use the assistants out of habit will sooner or later also speak private or intimate things into the microphone. Maybe one day we'll ask Siri sobbing for love-sick tips, search for blueberry porn with the Google Assistant, or rummage through Amazon for advice on how to finally get clean. And then there's all the accidentally started recordings because someone said a word that sounds like "Alexa. Do we have to assume that somewhere in the world hundreds of supervisors are hanging on our lips and are busy taking notes?
The shortest answer to this question at the moment is: perhaps. VICE has asked press spokespersons from Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon a simple question: How many people listen to audio from users? Not a single company was willing to answer that question clearly.
The most accurate answer came from Google: "At Google, some employees can access some audio clips from the Assistant to train and improve the product. It remains to be seen whether the word "some" is just a handful of developers or office complexes full of eavesdroppers.
Read more (German) at:
https://www.vice.com/de/article/9kxwev/hey-siri-wie-viele-menschen-horen-mich-ab-alexa-cortana-google-assistant
👉 Read as well:
Amazon's Alexa Team Can Access Users' Home Addresses
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-24/amazon-s-alexa-reviewers-can-access-customers-home-addresses
📡 @NoGoolag
#siri #alexa #cortana #google #microsoft #amazon #DeleteAmazon #scandal #why
Does anyone listen when we talk to Alexa, Cortana, Siri and the Google Assistant? That's what tech companies don't want to reveal. The scandal is that they can actually afford it.
There are obviously people who spend nine hours a day doing nothing but eavesdropping on conversations with Alexa. On behalf of Amazon, they are to evaluate hundreds of shots of users every day, as the news agency Bloomberg reported in mid-April. Seven of these employees have spoken to Bloomberg despite their secrecy agreement. They are part of a team of thousands who work and listen professionally in the USA, Costa Rica, India and Romania. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-10/is-anyone-listening-to-you-on-alexa-a-global-team-reviews-audio
It is quite possible that this report triggers a tired shrug of the shoulders. After all, after dozens of privacy scandals on Facebook, huge password leaks and of course the NSA revelations, we are used to the fact that privacy on the Internet is complicated anyway. But if a tech company actually overhears and evaluates what we language assistants say with offices full of employees, it has another dimension.
Language assistants like Alexa, Siri, Cortana and the Google Assistant present themselves as trustworthy helpers in everyday life, who you can chat to spontaneously. Alexa lives in smart loudspeakers that users are supposed to distribute in their homes. Siri can be activated at lightning speed by pressing the home button. All assistants have funny sayings ready - chatting with them should simply be fun.
How Google, Apple and Microsoft avoid a simple question
Those who use the assistants out of habit will sooner or later also speak private or intimate things into the microphone. Maybe one day we'll ask Siri sobbing for love-sick tips, search for blueberry porn with the Google Assistant, or rummage through Amazon for advice on how to finally get clean. And then there's all the accidentally started recordings because someone said a word that sounds like "Alexa. Do we have to assume that somewhere in the world hundreds of supervisors are hanging on our lips and are busy taking notes?
The shortest answer to this question at the moment is: perhaps. VICE has asked press spokespersons from Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon a simple question: How many people listen to audio from users? Not a single company was willing to answer that question clearly.
The most accurate answer came from Google: "At Google, some employees can access some audio clips from the Assistant to train and improve the product. It remains to be seen whether the word "some" is just a handful of developers or office complexes full of eavesdroppers.
Read more (German) at:
https://www.vice.com/de/article/9kxwev/hey-siri-wie-viele-menschen-horen-mich-ab-alexa-cortana-google-assistant
👉 Read as well:
Amazon's Alexa Team Can Access Users' Home Addresses
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-24/amazon-s-alexa-reviewers-can-access-customers-home-addresses
📡 @NoGoolag
#siri #alexa #cortana #google #microsoft #amazon #DeleteAmazon #scandal #why
https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-alexa-transcripts-live-on-even-after-you-delete-voice-records
#amazon #alexa #why #voice #assistant
#amazon #alexa #why #voice #assistant
CNET
Amazon Alexa transcripts live on, even after you delete voice records
You can delete voice recordings so Amazon can't listen to your conversations with Alexa anymore, but text records are a different story.
Forwarded from BlackBox (Security) Archiv
Media is too big
VIEW IN TELEGRAM
Can’t Fight the Future, Suckers! #PropagandaWatch
Don’t want an Alexa in your home spying on everything you say? Well too bad, suckers! It’s the way of the future. Can’t argue with that, right?
Who would have ever guessed that the creepy spy gadget that’s listening to everything you do is listening to everything you do? Anyone with half a brain, that’s who.
❗️ Don’t buy this garbage, and don’t let your friends buy it, either.
📺 #Corbettreport #alexa #why #video #podcast
https://www.corbettreport.com/cant-fight-the-future-suckers-propagandawatch/
📺 Don’t Be An Idiot! Get Rid of Alexa!
https://www.corbettreport.com/dont-be-an-idiot-get-rid-of-alexa/
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_ES
Don’t want an Alexa in your home spying on everything you say? Well too bad, suckers! It’s the way of the future. Can’t argue with that, right?
Who would have ever guessed that the creepy spy gadget that’s listening to everything you do is listening to everything you do? Anyone with half a brain, that’s who.
❗️ Don’t buy this garbage, and don’t let your friends buy it, either.
📺 #Corbettreport #alexa #why #video #podcast
https://www.corbettreport.com/cant-fight-the-future-suckers-propagandawatch/
📺 Don’t Be An Idiot! Get Rid of Alexa!
https://www.corbettreport.com/dont-be-an-idiot-get-rid-of-alexa/
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_ES
Forwarded from BlackBox (Security) Archiv
Conservative government giving NHS data to Amazon for free, documents reveal
US company will be able to access all ‘healthcare information, including without limitation symptoms, causes, and definitions’
#NHS #data on the #health of the #population is being handed over to #Amazon at no charge under a controversial deal between the #USA giant and the #Department of Health and Social Care.
While individual patient data is not being given to the company, a copy of the December 2018 contract between Amazon and the #DHSC reveals the company will be able to profit from its access to a range of NHS information.
Health secretary Matt #Hancock hailed the deal with Amazon in July as a way to help give patients better medical advice using #technology such as #Alexa, which uses Amazon’s #algorithm to answer key question.
Campaigners from #Privacy International obtained a copy of the contract using freedom of information laws. The full contract reveals the deal goes far beyond medical advice for use by Alexa.
It states the company will be able to access all “healthcare information, including without limitation symptoms, causes, and definitions, and all related copyrightable content, data, information and other materials”, the DHSC has.
The contract allows Amazon to use this data in a number of ways – not just providing advice to UK users.
👉🏼 Read more:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/amazon-nhs-data-access-uk-government-contract-a9237901.html
#DeleteAmazon #UK #thinkabout
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv
US company will be able to access all ‘healthcare information, including without limitation symptoms, causes, and definitions’
#NHS #data on the #health of the #population is being handed over to #Amazon at no charge under a controversial deal between the #USA giant and the #Department of Health and Social Care.
While individual patient data is not being given to the company, a copy of the December 2018 contract between Amazon and the #DHSC reveals the company will be able to profit from its access to a range of NHS information.
Health secretary Matt #Hancock hailed the deal with Amazon in July as a way to help give patients better medical advice using #technology such as #Alexa, which uses Amazon’s #algorithm to answer key question.
Campaigners from #Privacy International obtained a copy of the contract using freedom of information laws. The full contract reveals the deal goes far beyond medical advice for use by Alexa.
It states the company will be able to access all “healthcare information, including without limitation symptoms, causes, and definitions, and all related copyrightable content, data, information and other materials”, the DHSC has.
The contract allows Amazon to use this data in a number of ways – not just providing advice to UK users.
👉🏼 Read more:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/amazon-nhs-data-access-uk-government-contract-a9237901.html
#DeleteAmazon #UK #thinkabout
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv
An Alexa Bug Could Have Exposed Your Voice History to Hackers
Amazon has patched the flaw, but its discovery underscores the importance of locking down your voice assistant interactions.
Smart-assistant devices have had their share of privacy missteps, but they're generally considered safe enough for most people. New research into vulnerabilities in Amazon's Alexa platform, though, highlights the importance of thinking about the personal data your smart assistant stores about you—and minimizing it as much as you can.
https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-alexa-bug-exposed-voice-history-hackers
#Amazon #Alexa
Amazon has patched the flaw, but its discovery underscores the importance of locking down your voice assistant interactions.
Smart-assistant devices have had their share of privacy missteps, but they're generally considered safe enough for most people. New research into vulnerabilities in Amazon's Alexa platform, though, highlights the importance of thinking about the personal data your smart assistant stores about you—and minimizing it as much as you can.
https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-alexa-bug-exposed-voice-history-hackers
#Amazon #Alexa
A quarter of the Alexa Top 10K websites are using browser fingerprinting scripts
Academics also discover many new previously unreported JavaScript APIs that are currently being used to fingerprint users
A browser fingerprinting script is a piece of JavaScript code that runs inside a web page and works by testing for the presence of certain browser features.
Today, browser fingerprinting is commonly used by online advertisers as a next-gen user tracking mechanism. Advertisers run different types of fingerprinting operations, create one or more "fingerprints" for each user, and then use them to track the user as he/she accesses other sites on the internet.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/a-quarter-of-the-alexa-top-10k-websites-are-using-browser-fingerprinting-scripts/
#Alexa #browser #fingerprinting #scripts #privacy
Academics also discover many new previously unreported JavaScript APIs that are currently being used to fingerprint users
A browser fingerprinting script is a piece of JavaScript code that runs inside a web page and works by testing for the presence of certain browser features.
Today, browser fingerprinting is commonly used by online advertisers as a next-gen user tracking mechanism. Advertisers run different types of fingerprinting operations, create one or more "fingerprints" for each user, and then use them to track the user as he/she accesses other sites on the internet.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/a-quarter-of-the-alexa-top-10k-websites-are-using-browser-fingerprinting-scripts/
#Alexa #browser #fingerprinting #scripts #privacy
Amazon Wants Alexa to Move Into Your Apartment Before You Do
Alexa for Residential will let your landlord make yet another change without asking.
On Thursday, Amazon announced a new program called Alexa for Residential that would make it cheaper for apartment complexes to integrate Alexa and Amazon devices into their rental units. This should come as no surprise, especially considering that the pandemic has allowed Amazon to grow even more entrenched in our daily lives.
Before you move in, a smart speaker will be installed that will need no set-up from you—it can even give you a tour before you move in and answer questions about the rental unit. According to The Verge, Amazon insists property managers won't access any tenant data and all voice recordings will be deleted daily, all in the name of offering "custom voice experiences that go beyond the walls of their apartments."
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj45kx/amazon-wants-alexa-to-move-into-your-apartment-before-you-do
#US #Amazon #Alexa #privacy
Alexa for Residential will let your landlord make yet another change without asking.
On Thursday, Amazon announced a new program called Alexa for Residential that would make it cheaper for apartment complexes to integrate Alexa and Amazon devices into their rental units. This should come as no surprise, especially considering that the pandemic has allowed Amazon to grow even more entrenched in our daily lives.
Before you move in, a smart speaker will be installed that will need no set-up from you—it can even give you a tour before you move in and answer questions about the rental unit. According to The Verge, Amazon insists property managers won't access any tenant data and all voice recordings will be deleted daily, all in the name of offering "custom voice experiences that go beyond the walls of their apartments."
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj45kx/amazon-wants-alexa-to-move-into-your-apartment-before-you-do
#US #Amazon #Alexa #privacy
Vice
Amazon Wants Alexa to Move Into Your Apartment Before You Do
Alexa for Residential will let your landlord make yet another change without asking.
Woman finds Amazon has thousands of recordings of her - all from home devices
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/woman-finds-amazon-thousands-recordings-25240984
#wiretap #amazon #alexa
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/woman-finds-amazon-thousands-recordings-25240984
#wiretap #amazon #alexa
mirror
Woman finds Amazon has thousands of recordings of her - all from home devices
The TikTok star found that Amazon had huge folders full of audio clips of her voice, a full list of contacts from her phone, her location, and said she is 'not totally comfortable'
#Alexa whistleblower demands #Amazon apology after being jailed and tortured
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/30/alexa-factory-whistleblower-i-was-tortured-and-jailed-now-amazon-should-apologise
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/30/alexa-factory-whistleblower-i-was-tortured-and-jailed-now-amazon-should-apologise
the Guardian
Alexa whistleblower demands Amazon apology after being jailed and tortured
Tang Mingfang is willing to risk reprisals to clear his name over Foxconn revelations – and to get backing from Jeff Bezos
#Amazon #Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/11/amazon-alexa-is-a-colossal-failure-on-pace-to-lose-10-billion-this-year/amp/
Amazon Makes History After Losing $1 Trillion In Market Value Amid Tech Stock Rout
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/amazon-makes-history-after-losing-1-trillion-market-value-amid-tech-stock-rout
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/11/amazon-alexa-is-a-colossal-failure-on-pace-to-lose-10-billion-this-year/amp/
Amazon Makes History After Losing $1 Trillion In Market Value Amid Tech Stock Rout
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/amazon-makes-history-after-losing-1-trillion-market-value-amid-tech-stock-rout
Ars Technica
Amazon Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year
Layoffs reportedly hit the Alexa team hard as the company's biggest money loser.
Some 30,000 #Amazon employees could spy on #Alexa users’ voice recordings: FTC
Amazon has paid $25 million to settle federal allegations that tens of thousands of its employees had access to Alexa users’ voice recordings picked up by the smart device’s speakers.
US regulators made the allegation in a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission that has resulted in the $25 million settlement, according to Bloomberg News.
The FTC claimed that 30,000 Amazon employees were able to listen to Alexa customers’ recordings between the period covering August 2018 and September 2019.
https://nypost.com/2023/06/01/some-30000-amazon-employees-could-spy-on-alexa-users-ftc/
#wiretap
Amazon has paid $25 million to settle federal allegations that tens of thousands of its employees had access to Alexa users’ voice recordings picked up by the smart device’s speakers.
US regulators made the allegation in a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission that has resulted in the $25 million settlement, according to Bloomberg News.
The FTC claimed that 30,000 Amazon employees were able to listen to Alexa customers’ recordings between the period covering August 2018 and September 2019.
https://nypost.com/2023/06/01/some-30000-amazon-employees-could-spy-on-alexa-users-ftc/
#wiretap
New York Post
Some 30,000 Amazon employees could spy on Alexa users’ voice recordings: FTC
Federal regulators made the allegation in a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission.