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An Amazon Echo Recorded a Family's Private Conversation and Sent It to Some Random Person
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And they won't refund the family who was violated! Nothing like standing up for your customers!
A family in Portland, Oregon contacted the company recently to ask it to investigate why the device had recorded private conversations in their home and sent the audio to a person in another state.
The family did as told, after the employee told them about receiving an audio file containing what seemed like a private conversation. At first the family did not believe the employee, but then the employee was able to relay details of the private conversation. “My husband and I would joke and say I’d be these devices are listening to what we’re saying,” a woman named Danielle, who didn’t want her last name used, told KIRO-TV in Portland. She explained that a couple of weeks ago one of her husband’s employees called them and told them “unplug your Alexa devices right now…you’re being hacked.”
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Amazon did not immediately respond to a Mother Jones request for comment. But Danielle told KIRO-TV that after repeatedly calling Amazon, an engineer “investigated” and confirmed that the device had sent messages to someone on her husband’s contact list. “He apologized like 15 times in a matter of 30 minutes,” she said, adding that “this is something we need to fix.” The engineer did not provide details as to what happened, but said that “the device just guessed what we were saying.”
The company told KIRO-TV in a statement that it takes privacy seriously and that what happened to Danielle “was an extremely rare occurrence.” The company offered to “de-provision” the device so the family could still use its Smart Home features, Danielle said, but she’d rather get a refund, “which [Amazon has] been unwilling to do,” she told the TV station.
The family did as told, after the employee told them about receiving an audio file containing what seemed like a private conversation. At first the family did not believe the employee, but then the employee was able to relay details of the private conversation. “My husband and I would joke and say I’d be these devices are listening to what we’re saying,” a woman named Danielle, who didn’t want her last name used, told KIRO-TV in Portland. She explained that a couple of weeks ago one of her husband’s employees called them and told them “unplug your Alexa devices right now…you’re being hacked.”
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Amazon did not immediately respond to a Mother Jones request for comment. But Danielle told KIRO-TV that after repeatedly calling Amazon, an engineer “investigated” and confirmed that the device had sent messages to someone on her husband’s contact list. “He apologized like 15 times in a matter of 30 minutes,” she said, adding that “this is something we need to fix.” The engineer did not provide details as to what happened, but said that “the device just guessed what we were saying.”
The company told KIRO-TV in a statement that it takes privacy seriously and that what happened to Danielle “was an extremely rare occurrence.” The company offered to “de-provision” the device so the family could still use its Smart Home features, Danielle said, but she’d rather get a refund, “which [Amazon has] been unwilling to do,” she told the TV station.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/05/an-amazon-echo-recorded-a-familys-private-conversation-and-sent-it-to-some-random-person/
I'm sure there are hacking docs on the web to crack into people's Echos, just like there are docs on how to evesdrop on someone's XBox or Home Security Cameras.
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